My Trip to Peru

July 26- August 13, 2008

I have traveled to several South American Countries but there was one more place that was high on my list - Peru including Machu Picchu and this July I had the opportunity to go. Nancy Hay found the perfect trip as organized by Field Guides so I decided to go also. It was a great trip with lots of wonderful scenes and birds. The following is written from my notes - which on some exhausting days were very minimal. I’m sure I have left some experiences out but this will give the highlights of the trip.

Saturday 7/26 Nancy and I left Menlo Park at 4 AM - fortunately her husband Walt graciously drove us to the airport. Not surprisingly our flight was delayed about an hour but eventually we arrive in Miami where we caught the next flight to Lima. While there we met two of our travel companions, David and Judy who were coming from North Carolina. Also while waiting in SF we saw Ted Cheeseman and his wife and daughter - we have traveled with him before. They were on their way to lead a trip in the Galapagos. Both legs of our trip were about 5 hours, no food on the SF to Miami leg but we did get a pretty good dinner on the Miami to Lima leg. We arrived in Lima and went through customs pretty quickly and then walked across the street to our hotel. We had a note from our leader to welcome us telling us to meet at 6:30 for breakfast. We had a good night’s sleep and were ready the next morning for our trip.

Sunday 7/27/08 At breakfast we met another member of our group, Kay Goodhue plus our leader Rose Ann Rowlett. We liked Rose Ann from the start and she turned out to be one of the best leaders I have ever traveled with on a trip. She was very knowledgeable about the birds and so very patient. She was very thoughtful - always made sure we had plenty of water and snacks and did her very best to make sure each participant saw as many of the birds as possible. Shortly after breakfast we went back to the airport where we paid a departure tax of $6.05 (RoseAnn had dimes for us!) and then we flew to Cuzco. Cuzco is about 11,000 feet above sea level so we had to take it very slowly. I had decided to take the medicine for altitude so I didn’t have too much trouble but I did take it slow. We met our bus driver and his assistant, Guillermo and Guido. They were wonderful and so helpful. Also we met the other two members of our group, Nancy and Ron,, both botany teachers from Toronto. They had come to Cuzco the day before. We drove out of Cuzco, along the Urabamba river and to Huacarpay Lake and did a lot of birding. We also birded around Urpicancha and the town of Humbarto - an area with pre-inca terraces and ruins at Pisaq. The area was mostly agricultural with lots of terraces on the hills planted with potatoes and some other crops. There were several small villages and towns mostly with small houses built with mud bricks. Everything was pretty much brown; the fields, the towns, the houses. It wasn’t a rich area but not crushing poverty either. We did see women washing clothes in the river but most areas seemed to have electricity. Old buildings were next to new and there was a lot of building going on - many places were being built on the second or third level while people were living on the bottom level. Many of the villages were very small and built at the bottom of the hills, the hillsides were terraced for planting - some terraced for many centuries. Our bus drivers served us an excellent lunch - two sandwiches, fruit, cookies, chocolate, and plenty of water. All of our field lunches were very good and plentiful - we certainly had plenty of fuel to keep us going! We went back to Cuzco for our evening dinner at 7:00. We had to park some distance from the hotel and transfer to smaller vehicles since our bus would not fit through the narrow streets to the hotel. Cuzco is built on hills - more so than even San Francisco. Lots of homes have no street access, only a flight of stairs up the hill - too steep even for sidewalks. We stayed in a nice hotel - it was actually a Best Western hotel. We walked a few blocks through the town square to a nice restaurant. It was a buffet with lots of good choices, we enjoyed a good dinner and then walked back stopping at a few of the open shops. I bought a few post cards and mailed a couple home. Good thing I did that as that was the last time I had to buy post cards and the only time to mail any. I wrote the rest of them from the airport on the way home and mailed them from Menlo Park when I got home! Post cards are really a nuisance to mail on these kind of trips!.

Monday 7/28/08 We left at 6 AM after a good buffet breakfast. It is nice to have a good choice of breakfast food, especially since I don’t eat eggs which are commonly served. We had cereal, plenty of fruit, breads, and yogurt. Their yogurt is so good - not the kind I find often in the States. There were three other groups in this hotel going on various excursions. Cuzco is the starting point for many kinds of adventure travel in Peru. Cuzco is a good sized town with lots of store fronts with many kinds of shopping areas. The central town square is attractive and well kept. Locals as well as tourists were walking and sitting around the area. Many women both here and in the Andes still dress in the “traditional” dress - colorful full skirt with lots of petticoats underneath, usually with simple blouses and then a colorful blanket across their shoulders for carrying things and babies. In the rural areas the women were often barefoot. In Cuzco several woman were very nicely dressed and made a living by posing for photos - often with a llama. We headed east from Cuzco traveling up and then down the eastern slope of the Andes. We went as high as 13000 feet and continued all day to our Lodge, Cock of the Rock which is at 4600 feet. We only drove some 50-100 miles but it took us all day. There is a lot of agriculture in this area, especially potatoes. We drove through the town of Paucartambo, the potato capital of the world, lots of people sitting in the road waiting to sell their sacks of potatoes. First the road was mostly one lane, right next to the mountain on one side with a steep drop down the mountain on the other side so driving was slow. I believe the road was called the Cosnipata Highway. There were many stops and backups when other trucks were met. Then we stopped several times for birding experiences. As we drove along Rose Ann would often have the driver stop and she would look and listen. If she heard something - especially a flock of birds, we would get out and bird along the road, made for some “interesting” experiences along the way. We were along various stretches of this road several times over the next two weeks so we got to know the road pretty well. There were more buses, vans, and trucks than cars. For the people who lived somewhere along this road there were trucks that functioned as buses. They had high sides with benches inside and they were filled with families going back and forth - a pretty hard and dirty way to travel on this road. We were fortunate to have such a good bus driver because there were some pretty tight spots. But he managed to find a wide spot in the road for our lunch spot, table, chairs, and all. We do eat well. We were sometimes in the Buffer Zone for the Manu National Park. This area does not allow any new land to be sold but land already privately owned can be built on and occupied - so there were a variety of buildings and some groups of homes. We were also in the National Park on some areas of this road. By 7:00 PM we arrived at Cock of The Rock - our home for five nights. It turned out to be a lovely place but since we had no electricity it was pretty hard to see our surroundings. We had three candles in our cabin - one by each bed and one for the bathroom so unpacking was not easy. The path to the dinning building was lit by kerosene lanterns so we made our way to dinner and had a good dinner of beef stew. There were two other groups staying at this lodge.

Tuesday 7/29/08 After a good nights sleep (early to bed with no electricity to read by!) we were up at 4:30 for a 5 AM breakfast. (Birders don’t want to waste any daylight hours!) I was pleased that they already knew I didn’t eat eggs and I had a good breakfast of cereal, fruit, yogurt, ham and cheese. We then spent four hours birding back up the road we had come down the night before. The bus would drive us a way until Rose Ann found a good spot - we would get out and the bus would go on up the hill and we would walk along the road seeing and hearing lots of great birds as well as a troop of Brown Capuchin Monkeys. We had a mid morning snack of fruit, nuts, cookies everyday - they took good care of us. Then the bus took us back to the lodge for lunch and a rest during the heat of the day. Several of us used this time to unpack, shower and shampoo hair in the daylight. We all had plenty of hot water because each cabin had a “heat on demand” water heater that was powered by propane - very efficient. We left about 2:30 driving back up the hill further where we could see a Potoo at a known spot. Since we had to wait until dark for them we brought a picnic dinner and enjoyed eating dinner while waiting for the potoo. We also saw a screech owl fly overhead. Then back to our cabin for sleeping!

Wednesday 7/30/08 The days seem to run together as they were all pretty much the same - but every day we saw new birds. Today we went down the road. Since we were at a lower elevation there was heavier vegetation with different birds and it was hotter and humid. There was one small developed “farm” with a home made with all kinds of scrap wood. An old lady came out to see what we were doing and went around to shake all of our hands. She was dress in traditional dress with a full colorful skirt but bare legs and feet. She probably was not as old as she looked - she obviously had a hard life. There were a few banana trees plus some other fruit growing on the property. Then we went back to the lodge for lunch. After a rest we went up the hill and followed a few flocks with so many different kinds of birds, especially tanagers that I just lost count of the birds I did see. We also spent a lot of time looking for Antbirds - and other related types. These are birds that Rose Ann calls with a recorder and they answer. But they are very secretive and stay well hidden. They will walk back and forth on the ground through the dark vegetation and since they are dark I seldom see them. Many people only see them with eyes - not binoculars. So I was most surprised to see a gnateater very well. I was sitting in the area and just watching with my binoculars when one walked into my view. I sure was surprised! I didn’t see all the Ant “things” (Antbirds, Antwrens, Antthrush, Antpittas, etc.) that the group saw but I did see a lot - about 19 in Peru and I had only seen 22 in all my other trips before. At dusk we went to see the Cock-of-the-Rock. They are large - chicken sized birds and the male put on a display to attract females - usually in the evening and early morning. Nothing much happened tonight so we headed back to dinner and our early to bed routine. We did fine without electricity but it sure is nicer to have electric lights. We had to gather up extra candles in the evening when we went over our bird list for the day. Each evening the eight of us went through the bird list and checked off all birds we saw for the day. I found it helpful as I often could not read my field notes when I wrote down the name of the birds - or often I wrote the wrong name - like yellow breasted instead of orange breasted and stuff like that.

Thursday 7/31/08 This morning we had breakfast at 4:30 so that we could get to the Cock-of-the-Rock lek by 5:00 - before sunrise. We were rewarded with one of the best displays one could hope for - lasted for over an hour. Eventually there were 3 females with maybe a dozen males vying for attention. I can’t begin to do justice in trying to describe the display. The males are about 12 inches long and bright orange/red. They dance, bow, jump while making loud noises, kind of like chuckles and loud grunts. Whenever a female moved or came into view the intensity would speed up. There was a vine that was rather like a swing from one tree to the other and often a female would sit on the middle swinging back and forth. Despite all the hard work not one male was chosen by any of the three females so the males went off alone. It was really an amazing scene to witness. After this we drove back up the mountain to 8900 feet where one of the tunnels on the road was. The tunnel was blasted in the rock along the road and is just exactly wide enough for our bus. If you put your hand out you could touch the sides - I tell you our driver was excellent. We ate lunch up here and continued seeing an amazing assortment of temporate forest birds. On this trip we didn’t cover a lot of the area of Peru but we did cover a wide variety of habitats - from the high Andes to the Amazon basin. On the way back to the lodge for dinner we stopped at dusk to watch and wait for the lyre-tailed nightjar to arrive and display. This was something that I will never forget - the male has very long tail streamers - maybe 25 inches long so just flying overhead with that long tail is impressive. But then they move those streamers around in a dance - something like you would see if a ballet dancer had long ribbons and was dancing with them in a ballet. It was absolutely beautiful and lasted about 20 minutes. Then we headed back to our lodge for our candle light dinner.

Friday 8/1/08 The past days are sort of a jumble in my notes - I didn’t write much, not even my bird list because we were out before dawn each day and didn’t get back until dark. So we would shower after dinner and be in bed and asleep by 9:00 without going over my bird list or writing notes. I may have actually seen more birds than I eventually wrote down but I forgot some and got confused over others. But today I had time to catch up on my notes. Unfortunately it was because our leader Rose Ann and another member of our group Nancy D. both got sick. We went out in the morning going down the highway but by the time we got to the squatter “town” of Chontachaca it was clear we needed to go back so they could both go to bed and rest. We had done some birding along the way and walked down one trail. This “town” is built in the buffer zone of the Manu National Park and is being cleared and growing. They do have electricity and they can built because the property was privately owned before the National Park. The houses are pretty much hit or miss - built with scraps of whatever could be found - not much planning and pretty basic living arrangements. It is a long walk up and down the hill for water. (This river is one of the tributaries to the River Madre de Dios which in turn turns into the Amazon River.) It is a pretty hard life and not a good one - I just can’t imagine what kind of life they have. They can clear the forest and plant for a few years but the soil is so poor that it doesn’t support agriculture for long and then more forest has to be cleared. It isn’t a good place. Anyway we went back to our lodge - ate our picnic lunch on our deck with our own hummingbirds nearby. We went to the dining area and watched the hummingbirds at the feeders along with the monkeys climbing on the roof and hoping to come in. Then both Nancy and I went back to our cabin and spent time catching up on bird lists, notes, laundry and so forth. I was tempted to skip my journal but then I thought that some day I would be sorry to not have written notes of this trip and I also know that several people enjoy reading about my trips. I also briefly thought about skipping a bird list - did I really care how many birds I saw. But I came to my senses and used this time to write in the book as many of the birds that I could remember seeing or that I had written down in my field notes. So we had a quite and restful afternoon - some went birding but I didn’t do much, it was pleasant. We had another good dinner (the six of us not sick) and went to bed early once again.

Saturday 8/2/08 We left today at 6 AM with Rose Ann and Nancy D feeling better. We never figured out what they had - it didn’t seem to be food poisoning because none of the rest of us got it and it was never clear whether it was a virus or bacteria because one took Cipro and one didn’t and both got well about the same time. Further more nine days later both Ron and I got sick with exactly the same symptoms. So who knows! We were headed for the Amazon Basin so we were going down hill to eventually about 1000 feet elevation. The weather was getting warmer and more humid. We took a long time to get to the river as we did lots of birding along the way including lots of Antbird birding. We drove through one large town, Pilcorata which had a town square, wide main street with businesses on each side and a big variety of buildings, including a large one that might have been a school. It all looked very dusty and dingy and depressed but the people seemed busy and “happy”. We continued on to the town, Atalaya which is on the River Madre de Dios. This is where we said good bye to our bus driver and his assistant and we boarded to boat that would take us to our lodge. The town was obviously involved with tourism as they were ready to help us unload and they had a few shops to attract tourists. But it was pretty much of a helter skelter type of town again with a variety of buildings and levels of material goods. There are several lodges along this river including the Manu Wildlife Center and since the closing of the “airport” there, river boats are the only way to go any place. This river eventually turns into the Amazon River which flows into the Atlantic ocean. Our bags and ourselves were loaded into a comfortable river boat and we had a 20 minute fast ride to our lodge. We were met there by some of the staff who loaded our bags into wheelbarrows while we walked 10 minutes to our lodge. This lodge used to be a tea plantation (coca tea). Around 1984 the owners were encourage to make this a tourist destination for birding and they have been very successful. There are two buildings with rooms for guests. The bathrooms are in another building and shared - there is a cement walkway from the rooms to the bathrooms. But we did have electricity which I think I would choose if I had to choose between electricity and private bathrooms. We never really had a problem waiting to use one of the five bathrooms and they were kept very clean. They were tile which kept the critters out of the room and someone mopped them down several times a day. We all had quick showers and then met on the outside porch to go over our bird list for the day. We were served Pisco Sours which were very good. I had pisco sours in Chile and there is a claim that they are different in the two countries but I could not tell the difference. The brandy originated in the town of Pisco in Peru. After this we went to the dining building and had a very good dinner. It is hot and humid but I actually like it!

Sunday 8/3/08 We stayed five nights at the Amazonia Lodge and the days sort of blend together in my mind. Each day we got up before dawn and went out birding, came back for lunch and a rest and then birded until dark. We waked over a lot of the 315 hectares (about 800 acres) of the lodge property and every day we added new birds to our list. While we were them we met two Brits who were traveling the world to better the record for the most birds seen in a year. The record for a year was something like 3660 species and they were close to 3000 when they left Peru - a few days before we did. They have a web site and it is fun to follow their adventures: TheBiggestTwitch.com. What an endeavor!. We started this morning birding at 6 AM and spent 6 hours walking around only covering about 2 miles. We do a lot of standing around waiting for birds to show up. I had brought my stool with me and found it a great help. Standing is the thing that is most painful for me and sitting relieves the pain immediately. Good thing as I was not able to get the cortisone shot I usually get before a birding trip. I was glad I was able to do this trip without it! We walked out to a place off the property that was still a coca plantation. We all took photos of the coca trees- they were small - maybe 4 feet tall. These leaves are picked to make coca tea which we have drunk several times. Coca tea is supposed to help the body handle the high altitude better. Also the natives have for centuries chewed coca leaves. Coca is the plant that is used to make cocaine - which is of course illegal. The leaves have to be ground to powder and then mixed with other chemicals before it can be sold on the market. All of that takes a lot of equipment which must be well hidden in the jungle. I don’t know if Peru has a problem with cocaine in their jungles like Columbia does. We came back to the lodge and took a shower before lunch - and before sitting on our beds - to make sure we got all the chiggers off of us. We had a good lunch and then a two hour rest during the heat of the day. After a short nap I sat on the porch for a while writing my notes and enjoyed the surroundings while the rest went out birding. It was lovely to be quiet and alone with the birds and the jungle. The plantation has bananas and pineapple growing on it and lots of flowing trees for the birds. They do feed the birds, both sugar water for the hummingbirds and bananas and rice for the tanagers so we had good close looks a many species. The group came back early because of the rain which suddenly exploded into one of the loudest, heaviest thunder and lightning storms I’ve experienced. It was almost scary as the building shook as though it was in an earthquake. And then - not surprisingly - our electricity went out so once again we were in the dark. By that time we were sitting in our room on our beds because with the lightning so close it wasn’t safe outside so we just sat there and listened to the storm. They used to use a propane generator for electricity which they only had on for a few hours a day. But the owner had set up a system in the river to generate power which could be on 24 hours. Except during heavy rain storms which would overfill the dam and shut the system down. Eventually they brought candles for us - amazing how much light one candle can bring when it was as dark as it was. They eventually lit kerosene lamps in the bath rooms - we had hot water for showers and a good meatloaf dinner by candle light so we had a pleasant evening and went to bed early once again.

Monday 8/4/08 We were up early at 4:30 and went out looking for owls, potoos, and whatever at 5 while it was still dark. I tried one more time but I just do not enjoy birding in the dark - I just don’t see well enough and I feel so insecure walking on uneven ground when I can’t see. I’m not doing night birding anymore. Electricity is still out so we had breakfast by candlelight. They have gas stoves so they were able to give us hot water and cook eggs. Once again I was accommodated with cheese and yogurt since I don’t eat eggs. I thought that was really nice because it doesn’t always happen on birding trips. We birded from the porch while it continued raining. As the rain let up a bit the birds became more active so we birded a bit more around the lodge and then went out on the trails for a while. I came back at 11 and washed out my boots and had a cup of tea. Also worked on drying out my bird book which I had dropped in a mud puddle. My book looks well used by now. It matches several of my other water logged books from around the world. Around 1:30 we went out and did some heavy duty forest birding - had to make up for lost time. We spent more time calling out deep, shy forest birds than I have ever done and I saw a lot of Ant “things”. We only walked one mile in the 4 hours we were out birding. I worked on my bird list while the rest of the group went out owling.

Tuesday 8/5/08 This morning we headed up the hill to the canopy tower. I knew we would have a climb up to the tower and climb we did. It was only about half a mile but it was a 24 percent grade and was very hard coming back down. Good thing I had my walking stick - I was glad I made it without mishap. But it took over an hour to do the climb down. But it was fun being up in the 80 foot tower - even though once we were up there we still had to look up higher to see some good birds in the tree that was still above us. But we were treated to a troop of Wooly monkeys who came quite close to us to get the fruit from a tree right next to the tower. One was a mother with a small baby hanging on to her as she jump from limb to limb to get to the fruit tree and then hung upside down while picking the fruit. They knew we were there and kept an eye on us while they enjoyed eating the fruit. It was one of those very special experiences. After lunch and a rest we spent the afternoon birding in the bamboo forest calling out lots of forest birds - different birds in the bamboo. We also got some good looks at the pre historic looking hoatzins - they seem so clumsy that it is amazing they have survived so well. It brought back happy memories of when I first saw them on a trip to Venezuela oh so long ago!

Wednesday 8/6/08 Usual 5:30 AM breakfast. I think last night was the night I had to go outside to use the bathroom and looked up to see the sky - my goodness but it was so full of stars - almost a solid mass. Such a difference from the sky in the city with all the competing city lights. It was worth seeing the sky to have to go out at night. This morning we went back to the bamboo forest and saw still more and different species including more Ant “things” Some people in our group have such amazing eyes - I can’t believe what they can find. Went back and had showers and then a good lunch of chicken soup with noodles. We have had a lot of really good soups on this trip - especially potato based soups. Feeling the need for some alone time I took the afternoon off and sat on the porch and caught up on my bird list and notes and even wrote a couple of post cards which I’ll mail when I get home! I also enjoyed reading a book Nancy Hay had brought on Peruvian Wildlife. This is a wonderful lodge, well run, quietly efficient and all needs addressed. The bathrooms are kept spotless all day long and the meals are very nicely served. The place is run with a respect for the wild life and everyone is quiet and slow so there are lots of sightings - mammals as well as birds. The rooms are comfortable and the staff is very accommodating. I’ve enjoyed my stay here.

Thursday 8/7/08 We left the lodge at 5:30 this morning and birded our way to the river and the boat which arrived at 6:00. Our bus driver and helper met us at the town when we arrived and we loaded up and got on our way. It was interesting to see the town in action - people going about their businesses and lots of slow moving activity. Just a totally different life than I can even imagine. We headed back on the same “highway” birding along the way. We saw new species again and were treated to a wonderful performance by a Golden-collared Toucanet. He gave his vocal performance (it is hard to call his grunts and growls a song but I guess it is). While vocalizing, his tail and beak go up and down in a fun and comical dance. He went on and on and it was such fun to watch him. Birding gives us so many special treats - never dull. Along the way a lady was driving a herd of cattle on the road and while she was walking she was knitting something pink - I wonder how they keep things clean - it is so dusty all the time. We arrived at our lodge - Paradise Lodge before dark. This lodge is near Cock of the Rock lodge and we are staying here because Cock of the Rock lodge was full and we would have had to share bathrooms. Here at Paradise Lodge we had private bathrooms and we had electricity from about 6 to 9. It was a cute place with nice rooms with a wonderful view of the river. The birds were not too great because the feeders were all empty. But we had a good dinner and a nice shower and a good night’s sleep.

Friday 8/8/08 We left early this morning headed for Cuzco. (Had to get up in the dark because there was no electricity in the morning.) It would take 6-7 hours straight driving to get to Cuzco but of course we took 12 hours because we birded along the way. We did see a new Volkswagen Car down in the ravine so once again we were grateful for our safe driver. I did hear later that the driver of the Volkswagen was safely rescued. So we continued on to Cuzco - getting colder as we climbed higher. The towns were small, brown, and dusty. We arrived at Cuzco and transferred to our hotel - the same one as before. After checking in our rooms we had a dinner together and said “good bye” to Kay who will leave tomorrow as she is not going to Machu Picchu with us. We had a nice dinner and then retired to our penthouse suit. We were on the 4th floor so we climbed up very slowly because of the 11,000 foot elevation. We had a lovely nighttime view of the city of Cuzco - you can see lights all the way up the side of the mountains. We tried photos but to no avail.

Saturday 8/9/08 We had breakfast at 4:30 and left in a van to drive to Ollantaytambo to catch the train to Machu Picchu which is north west of Cuzco. Although the train does leave from Cuzco it is supposedly faster to drive and pick it up at Ollantaytambo and avoid all the switchbacks on the train trip. Actually the way this van driver drove on this road I think we would have been happy to get up an hour earlier and taken the train. We just buckled our seat belts and prayed for safe arrival. We made it and just in time to load up on the train. It was a surprise to see a fairly modern train station and a very nice and clean train. We had reserved seats on the first car near the front of the car. So we had good views of the scenery and took turns sitting by the window. The train was very comfortable, even including a rest room that was cleaner and bigger than those on the airplanes. We were served coffee and pastry and a sandwich as we went along. They also sold souvenirs including a book that several of us bought. The scenery was beautiful - we were along the Urubamba River which was spectacular. We finally were able to see Torrent Ducks and Dippers which we had been looking for. I forget how long the train trip was - but we arrived at the end station in the town of Aguas Calientes well before noon. We were met by a porter from the Hotel Pueblo who took our luggage (we had left most of it back in Cuzco). We walked about a block to the hotel reception area. It was too early to check in so we left our bags and went birding around the grounds. It was a beautiful spot with very well tended gardens. The hummingbirds and the tanagers were spectacular. The grounds are along the river and the town is on the other side of the river. This hotel must be doing very well because they are adding more buildings to it. We birded for a couple of hours and then went to the dinning room and had an excellent lunch with wonderful view of the forest and mountains. We are lower elevation than Cuzco so we all are in good shape. The food was high class as was the service. Finally we were able to be checked in although it was a little later than the promised 1:00. (They later delivered cookies with a note of apology to our rooms!) We got settled into our lovely rooms, had a brief nap, went birding and then on to a delicious dinner. It was Rose Ann’s birthday so we had a birthday cake for dessert. We were in bed by 9:00 and happy to go to sleep early.

Sunday 8/10/08 Unfortunately I woke up early morning sick. Nancy was briefly sick but recovered quickly. I didn’t but there was no choice - today was Machu Picchu day and I wasn’t going to miss it. At breakfast I found out Ron was also sick. We both seemed to have the same thing Nancy D and Rose Ann had earlier in the trip so who knows what was wrong with us. We crossed the river after breakfast and got in line for the bus to Machu Picchu. Unfortunately because it was Sunday the line was long as it was a holiday weekend. But we made it to park just in time to be hit with a major rain storm! We sat under umbrellas and waited for the storm to let up. While waiting we were able to see the Inca Wren - one of the specialty birds of the area. Eventually the rain stopped and we entered Machu Picchu. What an experience that was - the photos of the place do not prepare you for the site you see. The size and the layout is awe inspiring. When we first arrived there was some fog lying over some of the stone work which lent a mystical aura about the place. The sun eventually came out in full and we could see the whole area. They still do not know what the purpose of the area was but it is fascinating to imagine the building of this place some 500-600 years ago. It was only in use for a short period of time - maybe a hundred years. The stone work is amazing - everything fits so tightly together. We walked around for a while with a guide who told us about a lot of the special places. Many places are set up to take advantage of the sun and the moon at special times of the year like the equinox. Eventually Ron and I took our stools and just sat for a couple of hours while the rest of the group climbed up higher places to see from different perspectives and to do more birding. But sitting still and just absorbing the atmosphere was special in itself - we both had no energy to do anything but sit and this was a good place to do that. We did have to move once - we were sitting at a beautiful spot with a view of the mountains and of the buildings, but we were at the edge of a straight down drop. In the U.S. that area would be off limits or have heavy iron bars to keep people from the edge but not here. We finally had to leave because it was just too stomach churning to watch people, especially little kids get near the edge and look down and over! when the group came back we went to the hotel that was at the entrance to Machu Picchu and had lunch. I had some soup and crackers and tea and felt a little better but had no energy. We took the bus half way down and stopped to go to a museum that showed the discovery and development of the area. It was very interesting but eventually I just sat and fell asleep while the rest went into the museum gardens and birded. Then we caught a bus back to the hotel where I went to bed and just laid and dosed for 4 hours. I had soup and crackers for dinner and then went back to bed and slept soundly all night.

Monday 8/11/08 After a good night’s sleep I felt much better in the morning - not a ball of fire but at least I could eat some breakfast. Fortunately I was only sick enough to miss some birding but I was able to rest and recover quickly - same for Ron. I didn’t go birding with the group and neither did Ron and Nancy. We went into the town around 11:00 and did some souvenir shopping. There was a large area of stall after stall of native work, the usual things. I didn’t shop a lot, just got a few things for my grandchildren so they can remember that I went to Peru. I felt a lot better and enjoyed the shopping. Now that I am home I wish I had bought more but what I would have done with it I don’t know. Interesting that there were no post cards there but that is all right - I didn’t really have time to write any - I’ll just share my journal with my friends. I walked around the hotel a bit before meeting the rest of the group for lunch. This Hotel Pueblo is a lovely place - built on the side of the mountain it is spread out so much you don’t feel overwhelmed by the number of people staying here. There are lots of stairs and hills to climb up and down and you could get lost looking for your room. The staff is very attentive and very friendly. It is a pleasant place to walk around. I read some of the book I bought about Machu Picchu. Now that my brain is functioning better I am even more in awe of that whole place. Their engineering skills were just amazing. If they had started building a hundred years earlier they might have been so advanced that the Spanish would not have been able to conquer them and the history of Peru and South America might have been totally different. We all met for lunch at 1:00 and had a nice lunch and then got on the train for the trip back to Cuzco. The train was set up differently for the trip back - it was like a dinner car with a table with 2 people on each side. They served us a meal - I can’t remember what it was but none of us was very hungry and I can’t remember if I ate much of it. We were also treated to a fashion show as well as some kind of a “clown” show and of course they did try to sell some items. We had some wonderful views of the river and the mountains on the way back. We got out one station short of Cuzco to avoid the last of the switchbacks and had a calm van ride back to our hotel. Not every one had dinner - Nancy and I had some soup and bread and then went back to our room to pack up for going home.

Tuesday 8/12/08 We had some time this morning so after breakfast we walked around the town of Cuzco - at least the main square part. There were a lot of shops and we went in some and also went into the main cathedral. It seems like a pleasant part of town. Then we flew to Lima where we had a room in the hotel. We ate lunch there - rested and packed in our room, then had a small dinner and eventually walked across to the airport where we flew out around 11 PM. We flew about 5 hours to Miami and then 5 more hours to San Francisco where Walt met us and took us home. It was a great trip and I really enjoyed it. I’m glad I was able to make it as I have a feeling my heavy duty travels are going to come to an end soon. Peru was the last of the major countries in South America where I wanted to go. Oh I would still like to go to other countries but I’ve done the ones at the top of my list. I really enjoy birding in the Amazon basin area and I also love walking in the Andes. What wonderful memories I will always carry in my mind.

I saw 303 species of birds in Peru (the group saw 457 species of birds and 10 mammal species.) 120 of those birds were new species for me. I have 130 new South American birds for a total of 957 in South America, 2491 World Species.

written by Penelope Bowen from notes and memories -8/31/08 - corrections welcome!