21 Dec

Days adrift. Click here to see our best and worst experiences so far.

5262

Number of flights. Click here to go to the itinerary page.

35

Bus, train and taxi rides. Click here to see all posts relating to transport. (56 posts)

185

Miles walked. Click here to see all posts relating to walking and trekking. (43 posts)

581

Countries visited. Click here to see what we think of them. (14 posts)

15

Number of species spotted. Click here to go to our wildlife page.

1157

Photos taken. Click here to go to the photo gallery. (105 posts)

13288

Rainy days. Click here to find posts relating to the weather. (50 posts)

63

Number of times scammed. Click here to read all about it! (2 posts)

1

Otters spotted. Click here to go to our website about otters: amblonyx.com

45

...two travellers in search of the world's wildlife

HOME> Peru> Peruvian wildlife

26 June 2011

Peruvian wildlife

We didn’t particularly expect to see much wildlife on our tour of Peru, since our travels were mainly organised into tours and the focus was Inca ruins and towns. But our Colca Canyon excursion at the end was an exception, and we managed to find a few things on the way besides.

The first place in Peru where we found a little wilderness was the cloud forest mountains around Machu Picchu

Here we spotted some nifty birds like this Black-backed Grosbeak

$Without a proper bird book it wasn\'t easy to identify all of them - this chap looks a little put out that we didn\'t know his name$

We wandered through the Jardins de Mandor to see what else we could find

Interesting cloud forest foliage overhead

And we were gifted with this view of a very skittish Agouti

Up at Machu Picchu itself there were hummingbirds at the edge of the ruins

There were hummingbirds here too - this is called a Sparkling Violetear

Overhead we watched a Black-chested Buzzard-eagle soar

As we watched them, they flew closer and closer to where we stood

$As before, we haven\'t found a book yet to help us identify which ones we\'ve spotted$

The only other wildlife at Machu Picchu were small lizards scuttling on the walls

Our final stop in Peru was the Colca Canyon, a kilometer deep in parts, and the place to see condors

On the way to the canyon we drove through a Vicuna reserve and saw plenty of these wild relatives of the Llama and Alpaca

$We also saw the cuddly Viscacha - it\'s not a rabbit, if you look in the shadow you can just see its long curly tail$

The Colca Canyon is an arid place, and cacti were some of the main plants found

Very close indeed

How this little bird (a Dark-winged Castanero) can stand there without spiking his feet is a mystery to me

And doves - maybe not quite as exotic as hummingbirds - this is the Black-winged Ground-dove

But of course what we were really scanning the skies for was the huge Andean Condor

Almost too close! No cropping involved, promise. Wow. And now you can see how handsome they are!

$Our tour around Peru wasn\'t really about wildlife, but we managed to find enough to keep us happy anyway$

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