Cusco, Peru

  Yesterday morning, I left Heathrow and as the plane flew towards Miami, it flew directly over my home on Scilly. At Miami, I got a plane to Lima, Peru and after 23 hours of flying, finally I arrived at my destination, Cusco. It was 07.00 and I dropped my bags off at my digs and then made my way up a hill where I could see the only trees in the area. It was steep climbing and Cusco is already 3400ft above sea level. So the higher I went, then the breathing was coming a little harder. What I couldn't help but notice, was how many stray dogs roamed the streets. They almost outnumbered the folks! I also noticed the building work or the lack of it. Safety issues were thrown out of the window and scaffolding was all wooden.

There were some cracking dogs around

I think they deserted this plot when they realized that they were building on a cliff face!

After all my effort, I discovered that the trees were on the other side of the ravine and decided to make my way back to my digs. It wasn't long till I was out in the burning sun again. This time I made my way up to one of the main tourist attractions, Saksaywaman. Another steep hill to climb and on my ways I came across Cusco Football, with Spanish pop music coming out of their cars at full volume. at the same time they were shouting and cheering. I spoke to a few of them, including the manager, and asked if they were short of a player? Unfortunately they weren't, but later on, I got a kick around with some of the locals. I had been steadily climbing for firthteen minutes, when out of the blue, some mad man started commentating on the football match that had begun, further down in the vally. It was so loud that you could hear him on the moon! He was commentating in the Brazilian style and when Cusco scored, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!

Cusco Football team working themselves up before they start to play

Like the dogs, some of the alpacas were free to do what they wanted. Here we see one in the church grounds with a wedding taking place behind

  I made it Sacsaywaman and had only seen maybe two species of bird on my way up! Graham Gorden told me that there are no birds to see in the city of Cusco. He was right. However, to avoid the crowds that were gathering to go to the ruins of Sacsaywaman, I went around the back  of the buildings where they were so no one could see me. Here I made my way through the bushes and got some new species including, Blue and Yellow Tanager and Rufus-rumped Foliage Cleaner until I came out into the wide open off Sacsaywaman. It was a big area and on the short turf there was a amazing Andean Flicker!. While I taking pics, there was an old man waving a stick behind me and shouting in Spanish. 'Everything ok?' He didn't understand and replied 'Si' In fact it didn't matter what I said he always replied with si. He was beckoning me to follow him back towards the building. 'Am I in trouble or something?' 'Si' Was that a yes or a no? At the main building a lady with good english asked me if I had a ticket? I had no idea that you had to pay for something so big as Sacsaywaman. She believed me and told me that I could on there if I paid. I had seen it and taken pics already and later I discovered later that it was 70 soles! That's over 20 pounds! So I found myself making my way down the dangerous road that I had just come up.

Male Andean Flicker What an amazing bird!

2 male American Kestrel were seen on the way down

Small numbers of Hooded Siskin were in the area including this female

Golden-billed Saltater

Black-throated Flowerpiercer

Eared Dove

Rufus-collard Sparrow are all over the shop

Peru is a very unsafe country to drive

On the same road, taking a alpaca for a walk

small plaza in town

Michael Davis Pratt (born March 10, 1957) known professionally as Jim White, is a Southern American singer-songwriter and guitarist. White's music can be loosely described as alternative country, but veers off in different, sometimes experimental directions with occasional nods to Tom Waits and the literary narratives of Flannery O'Connor, Cormac McCarthy, and Harry Crews.