Llamas at Machu Picchu~

Being an animal lover, I enjoyed the llamas running free at Machu Picchu. They are the oldest and longest inhabitants of Machu Picchu. They are not intimidated by human visitors and although they don't want to be touched, they will let you up close to take pictures.

When I was taking this picture, the llama was on a level about to my shoulders and I was on the lower part. The llama was grazing and I was shooting pictures. I was moving around and he/she was just nonchalanting grazing. There were some steps and I moved in front of the steps to get a little closer. He/she decided to come down to my level and I was in front of the steps, blocking the way. She paused, looked at me, looked at the steps, turned to the wall, and jumped down. She (he) landed, buckled her legs a bit, and hopped up and strode off continuing to graze.

Two days before we visited Machu Picchu, there was a baby llama born! Although this isn't a great picture, you can see him on his still wobbly little legs. That's his mother in the lower right hand corner. Needless to say, he doesn't ressemble his mother.
The area that mother and baby were in was more of an enclosed pen and people weren't allowed up close.

I love the expressiveness of the llama in this picture. The taller one displayed the typical aloof attitude of most of the llamas. The one in front looked at me as though to say, "Whatchu lookin' at?"

Here you can see llamas grazing on the agricultural terraces.

Here we are leaving Machu Picchu and you can see Grant telling the llama good-bye. The llama did not want to appear interested in Grant.

I

Chivay-Colca Valley

Chivay was our home base in the Colca Valley. It is the largest town of the valley, about 5,000 people. From basic appearances, life here has not changed much over the years.

When our bus arrived in Chivay, it was time for lunch. We all went to a nice little restaurant and could order either from the menu or have the buffet. It was a pretty good deal and included many dishes that were typical of the region. We had the opportunity to taste alpaca, guinea pig, cebiche, etc., if we wanted. There were many wonderful dishes, not all so exotic. This picture shows the inside of the restaurant. I didn't notice that the roof was thatched until we heard the wind pick up outside and then all of a sudden, "whoosh---" the roof picked up and slammed down and dust fell everywhere. The workers in the restaurant were running around trying to quickly cover the food and the tables.

This little boy was outside the courtyard of the restaurant with his llama.

This is a scene just off the square in Chivay. See the tables set up along the wall of the building. People were cooking right there on the street and you could get a bowl of food and sit at one of the tables and eat. I never did, but Grant ate breakfast at one of these portable restaurants the morning we were in Nasca. He said he had no idea what he ate. Luckily he didn't get sick!

A typical scene at the market. This is in Chivay. The large bags contain all sorts of grains and nuts.

This woman is cooking anticucho(barbecued beef heart) and papas(potatoes). It, too, is a popular Peruvian dish that you can find people preparing on the street everywhere. I was leary of trying the "street" version, because Grant had had a bad experience with it in Lima, but I had it in a restaurant and it was good.

This picture was taken around 6 pm on a Monday evening and the downtown area was hopping. People were everywhere --eating, laughing, talking, visiting, hanging out. I thought how different that would be from back home. On a week night. most of us go home from work and have supper in our own home with our family and then spend the evening watching t.v. It would be my guess that many of the inhabitants of Chivay did not have televisions and perhaps not even electricity.