Tag Archives: fauna

North America, USA, Yellowstone

Where the deer and the antelope play?

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Yellowstone BisonWhen I set out on vacation, I don’t normally have a list of animals I want to see. I’ve seen several Yellowstone animals–deer, mountain sheep, bears, elk, coyotes, eagles etc, just from traveling and living in BC, so it wasn’t as if we’re coming from somewhere where these animals don’t exist. The one thing I was most excited to see in Yellowstone was definitely Buffalo, perhaps even more than Old Faithful! Second on the list – Antelope. And, of course, we’d take a Grizzly or two just for good measure! Who wouldn’t?

Chipmunk

Approximately 200 visitors a year are gored by buffalo. That’s one every two days. There are ample warnings to “Stay Safe! Stay Away!” And, Elk will charge people, and damage vehicles. Google it up, you’ll find video for sure.

 The Yellowstone Association near the North Entrance to the park has an electronic map that tracks where animals have been recently sited. While there, we asked the staff for some tips, best viewing locations etc, and luckily we did see a lot of animals. However, not one single bear, and not one single antelope. At least the buffalo were everywhere. I like them as much as I like Llamas.

On the drive from Yellowstone through to Cody we saw thousands of Pronghorn Antelope. They were just roaming around farmer’s fields. The irony is that the second time we visited the Yellowstone Association we asked if there were recent Pronghorn sitings, and if they were mapped. Apparently the Pronghorn are spotted so frequently through out the park that they aren’t even tracked. There is even a one way dirt road that is basically where your guaranteed to see them–nope, not even one. And, we were out at all times of day, all over the park.

ps: I love my new camera. The zoom is awesome, but the digital zoom makes for some fuzzy photos. Most turned out ok, and I had been forewarned that I wouldn’t like the digital zoom results.

Peru, South America

Islas Ballestas: The Poor Man’s Galapagos

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Islas Ballestas Pelican

Islas Ballestas is a nature reserve about a 3.5 hour bus ride from Lima. We had to be at the bus terminal in Lima for 3:30am for a 4:15am departure, which meant we left our hotel at 3am to get there on time. Ugh, getting up early sucks, but it was worth it. (I did an earlier post about part of the bus trip.) One thing I forgot was that before boarding bags are searched, and video footage is taken of each passenger’s face. We initially thought the video was for security reasons. When we got home someone told us it was to identify remains of passengers if the bus is smashed beyond recognition in an accident. That’s always reassuring!

We arrived safely at a bus station in Paracas. The bus station was more like a glorified grass hut, but with plumbing. Check out the security device on the toilet tank.

Bus Station Paracas Peru
Bus Station Paracas Peru
Our guide Luis met us on a tiny dock, we loaded up the boat and were out on the Ocean. We saw (and smelled) a bazillion birds. There were cormorants, gulls, pelicans, blue-footed boobies, and Humboldt Penguins! I heart PENGUINS! We also saw sea lions eating sardines right out of fishermen’s nets. The fishermen were none too happy, but the sea lions were living it up. Luis had never seen a sea lion “con pesca en bocca” in all the years he’s been a marine biologist, so he was super stoked about that.

Blue Footed Booby Islas Ballestas Peru
Humboldt Penguins Islas Ballestas Peru
Seals Islas Ballestas Peru
Cormorants Islas Ballestas Peru
Humboldt Penguins Islas Ballestas Peru
Seals Islas Ballestas Peru
Seals Islas Ballestas
Paracas CandellabraOn the way to the island, we passed the Paracas Candelabra. The huge geoglyph is hundreds and hundreds of years old. No one knows why it is there, or who put it there. (Pirates, Aliens, Sailors, are all theories.) Word is that the candelabra points to the Nazca Lines, but that doesn’t hold out if you google it. The geoglyph is several feet deep of dust. It hasn’t disappeared due to erosion because it is sheltered from the wind, and it never rains in the area. People are not permitted near the candelabra as the foot prints/tracks would remain imprinted on the crust.

The weather of the Paracas area creates also an anomaly for the Ballestas island. Due to the lack of wind/rain, and the island birds’ ability to produce so much guano an industry has been created. The guano is collected every 3 years to be used for fertilizer. It is illegal to set foot on the islands without special guano collecting permits. Not that that’s something I was interested in! Let’s just say you’re lucky there isn’t smell-o-vision to go along with the photos!

ps: I included a few of Jon’s photos. His zoom was better able to capture the birds.

 

Peru, South America

Machu Picchu

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Machu Picchu PeruMachu Picchu was easily the best place we visited on the entire trip. We spent 10 hours just walking around the site and taking photos and chatting with other people there. Photos just don’t do it justice. I could fill your brain with history of the site, but you could google it yourself. We poached some info from the guided tours, and learned quite a bit of stuff. Here’s your few facts:

Machu Picchu Entrance signHiram Bingham III discovered the site in 1911. The switchback highway that you have to take to get to the site (if you don’t do the Inca Trail) is called the Hiram Bingham highway. You can only wonder what state Machu Picchu was like when he arrived almost 100 years ago.

I bet Llamas weren’t at the entrance to greet his expedition team!

There is a carved rock sundial in Machu Picchu–the Intihuatana. The Quechua name translates as “hitching post of the sun.” If you measure the angles of the Intihuatana they are 13 degrees. FYI: Machu Picchu is 13 degrees from the equator.

Intihuatana

The sundial measures solstices and equinoxes accurately. Not that atypical of a sundial, but it proves that the Incans had intricate knowledge of the solar system. The dial is also aligned perfectly north, and a magnetic compass when held to the stone will go all wacky as the rock is magnetized. Intihuatana is one of the only sun dials still existing from Incan times. Spanish conquistadors destroyed all symbols of Incan religion. Luckily they didn’t find Machu Picchu.

The site is extremely organized; it would have been an efficient little city. The people would have been completely self-contained with agricultural terraces growing enough food to feed the population of Machu Picchu. Buildings are believed to be homes, storage sites, prison cells, baths, and communal areas. All of them are built without mortar, and the stones are made to fit together perfectly. ps: Jon tells me that people were imprisoned for laziness.

The Temple of the Condor (left photo) is supposed to look like a condor in flight. The natural rock in the background looks like wings, and the rock in the foreground is carved to look like the head of a condor. Word is that the Incans used this site for sacrifices. Another interesting rock formation (right photo) was pointed out by some dude we ran into a few times. The rock was carved to look like the mountain range behind it.

Spiny WhorltailObviously we saw plenty of Llamas as we wandered, but that wasn’t all. There were little song birds flying everywhere, and so so so many little lizards! (Really, Spiny Whorltail Iguanas if you’d like to get technical and nerdy. Gotta love google!) One of the people we were talking to showed us a photo of a tarantula she’d just taken. We didn’t see any. She was super relieved that it was a tarantula she’d seen and not a lizard. Bizarre!

Everyone at the site seemed to really appreciate the experience. Usually there is at least one jackass story from every site we visit, but here, everyone was just well, normal if you will. People were really nice too, even suggesting to take photos for each other. Seriously, we must have taken 50 photos of other people and been offered just as many times.

Machu Picchu Peru7We ran into Becky and Ryan, a couple we’d me at the hostel. We also ran into everyone we’d met on the train. Craig, Michael and Michael were still going–that’s them in the photo walking on the stairs. We ran into Andy and Angela for lunch. The three, Andy, Angela and Chad, had hiked to the site in the morning to watch the sunrise. All in all, one of the best days of the trip–an absolutely gorgeous setting, great weather, awesome people.

What more could you ask for?
~j

Peru, South America

Cruz del Condor

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Cruz del CondorLet me start this little entry by saying I absolutely LOVE the show Departures. Almost every country featured on the show makes us want to book plane tickets to the destination. Luckily, we had been planning to go to Peru for a while before we saw the Peru episode. I find it funny that when Scott and Justin went to Cruz del Condor there weren’t any birds to be seen. And, I also find it interesting that they left because it was too touristy for them. Because of that I imagined there would be way more people there.  After all, Colca Canyon is one of a few places to see Andean Condors in flight.

Cruz del Condor wasn’t too over populated, but there were several people who were incapable of following simple “do not cross” signs which was hugely annoying and disrespectful. We are standing there on the precipice of the second deepest canyon in the world, why on earth would you cross boundary lines? You know that if you plummet towards the bottom you’re not going to be alright, not to mention that the nearest “hospital” capable of dealing with life threatening injuries was probably hours and hours away in Lima. Dummies!

Still, Cruz del Condor was an excellent afternoon and opportunity to take some pictures of the gigantic birds. I took a lot of photos! Unfortunately, my camera doesn’t zoom as well as I would like it too, so I’m adding some of Jon’s shots to mine for this entry. Note to self…get a new camera before the next adventure!

Peru, South America

Know what I like? Llamas!

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On the second day in Arequipa we were picked up at our hotel for the Colca Canyon and Cruz del Condor tour. Because everything was arranged by the Casa de Avila, we didn’t really know what to expect. Our guide David (Dabeed) spoke both Spanish and English which was handy because we had about half and half for the people on the tour. There were people from Chile, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, USA, and us from Canada. We met a super nice couple from St. Louis – Jill and Jason. David was actually pretty awesome. He knew a lot of information about the people, culture and areas we drove through. I learned more than I expected.

Llama Crossing Sign
For the first day of the tour we drove from Arequipa to Chivay. We stopped several times at handy craft sites set up at strategic points along the route. (Pretty much every where you go there is someone trying to sell something.) We drove through the Salinas y Aguada Blancas National Reserve.

map-arequipa-to-cruz-del-condorThe reserve is home to thousands of Llamas, Alpacas and Vicuñas. Seeing the little camelids in fields on the side of the highway was sweet. I did feel like a total tourist taking photos of them–kind of like people taking photos of Big Horn Sheep on the highway in Banff or Jasper.   FYI:  The novelty wears off if you frequently see the animals on the morning commute.  In total tourist style, I took the photos!

The highest point along the route was Patapampa Pass at 4910m above sea level. (That’s over 16,000ft above sea level for you non-metrics.) We stopped for Coca tea and candies pre-trip. Neither of us had the tea, but both of us ate the candies. I don’t really know how they work, but they help with the altitude. The most we felt was a little short of breath and tight chests. I’m sure the Diamox helped negate any other symptoms we might have had. One poor lady on the tour was barfing from the altitude.  She was not doing well.

Mirador de Los Andes
Translation: Viewpoint of the Andes stretch of the volcanic mountain range in the Central Andes

It was pretty amazing to see all sorts of stone piles, similar to Inukshuk, all along the road. I asked David  for an explanation.  He explained that the  Apachetas are built as an offering to Gods. The people believe that high points are sacred, and try to emulate that with the stones. First they dig a little hole and bury something of importance, maybe their own hair, and then they build the Apacheta on top of the offering. There were literally thousands of Apachetas along the way.

Our stop over for the night was in Chivay, which is this dusty little dust bowl of a town. The Colca Inn was amazingly cute accommodation, especially since we didn’t even select it ourselves. We went out for dinner as a group with everyone from the tour. There was traditional music and dancing. It was all fun and games until we had to participate in the dancing. One dance around the restaurant and I felt as though I’d run a marathon. Score one for altitude that night.