After yesterdays excitement with the UFO, today was back down to earth. However, we still had a good time and started the day heading in the opposite direction to yesterday but still following the train line and river to the east. It's a spectacle walk with stunning scenery as both the line and river calve through the towering mountains bordered by forest. We were told that there was a waterfall well worth seeing over a mile out of town. We couldn't find the waterfall but continued for another 6-7 miles taking in the beauty of the area. Like the other folks also taking a stroll along the track, we stopped off to have a bite at the many of the B&Bs along our ways. When we got to the next town, Quillabamba, we thought we would catch the train back to Aguas Calientes. Surely a ten minute ride wouldn't be that much? Peru Rail, the only company running from this town were charging 31 Dollars!! You can stick that up where the sun don't shine! As we left to return to walk back following the track, the guy who was ripping us and others off in the kiosk handed us out a leaflet. 'Do not walk along the railway line!' You know what you can do with that as well! We made our ways back on the railway line to join the many locals and visitors who were also following the track back to Machu Picchu.
Some of the birds of note that we uncounted included 3 Bar-winged Wren, Canada Warblers, Tropical Purala and 2 White-barred Piculet and many others that I'm yet to identify. As I left my 'Birds of Peru' at home, I'll have to wait until I can ID the ones that I don't know in the images below.
Following the river and rail line
Red-headed Tanager
Slate-throated Redstart
Dull-coloured Grassquit
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Miltred Parakeet
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Sylphina Angel Butterfly
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White-capped Dipper
Torrent Tyrannulet
Black Phoebe
This cracking Turquoise-browed Motmot showed superbly
As we approached town and after spending sometime searching in the forests along the track, Anna got to see the bird she wanted to see 'Cock of the Rock' While we were observing it, more Peruvians joined us and were delighted in seeing their national bird. Above this dull male, Anna spotted a female and both birds flew across the river to the otherside.
The very expensive Peru Rail bringing in freight for the town, Aguas Calientes just below Machu Picchu
On one of the bridges in town, the fence is covered with 100's of locks.
The River Urubamba running through the town.
The B&W images of Machu Picchu I took when I visited here two years ago.
Miranda Lee Richards grew up in San Francisco, the daughter of comic book artists Ted and Teresa Richards. She attended San Francisco's School of the Arts, and then took up modeling after graduation. She moved to Paris to continue her modeling career, and hated it, moving back to San Francisco. She met Kirk Hammett of Metallica through a friend, and he gave her guitar lessons and taught her to play Mazzy Star songs. She recorded some demos in her basement which reached the ears of Anton Newcombe of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, whom she joined briefly.[2] After leaving them, she moved to Los Angeles, living in a tent out of a friend's backyard,[citation needed] while she met the many musicians who would contribute to her debut.
She has also worked with Joe Firstman, and reportedly will appear on several tracks on an upcoming Tricky release. Miranda has also recently performed with Good Listeners and the Jesus and Mary Chain.
Any ideas!? I Observed this UFO over looking Machu Picchu for 40 minutes on the 4th March!!
Within an hour of Anna and I arriving into Cusco, Peru on the 3rd from Brazil, we made the 90 minute drive to Ollantaytanbo, the town before Machu Picchu, in one of the community taxes! There are no roads to the Inca ruins and it's by foot or a very expensive train ride. This is my second time here and if you ever visit, do not go on the train! It cost somethin like £150 each with Peru Rail and we did it in less than half that price! Because they don't want you to know, you will not find this advice on Peru Tourist Information. From Cusco you get on a community taxi. You have to wait until it fills up with people, mainly locals, before you can go. We waited for 15 minutes and sat in the front and it cost us 10 sols each!! That's £2.50!! The taxi drops you off at Ollantaytanbo and from there you catch the train. There are three companies and we took the cheapest, Inca Rail at £67 for a two hour ride to Machu Picchu. As it was almost dark when we arrived in the small town of Ollantaytanbo, we decided to have a look around til after 21,00 and then hoped on the train to the Aguas Calientes. The town just below Machu Picchu where we had booked into stay
Waiting in Cusco for more people to arrive so we can make the 90 minute drive to Ollantaytanbo for 10 sols! That's £2.50!!
A lady selling hats in Ollantaytanbo
White-bellied Hummingbird
Female Green-tailed Trainbearer
Sparkling Violetear
All the images of the hummingbirds above, I took two years ago when I stayed overnight in this small town. Because I didn't have internet at the time I didn't get to put them on my blog until now.
It was predicted rain for the next week but at 05.30 it was sunny and Anna payed her £26 return and got on the packed bus to Machu Picchu. The bus leaves the town every ten minutes and then you pay another £57 to see the ruins! I stayed in Aguas Calientes, as I walked the 8000 ft mountain and back again, two years ago when working in the Manu region of the Peruvian Amazon. Instead I walked west along the railway track that follows the Urubamba River. I had only got ten minutes out of the town when I spotted a white object high in the blue sky above the mountains. I couldn't judge how high it was at first and thought it was a carry bag floating in the breeze until I realized that it was not moving at all! It was just still and this is how it was for over 30 minutes! I quickly fired off some shots with my 600 mm lens and looking at the shots on the back screen, I could see that I was looking at a UFO!! Now this doesn't mean that it was somethin out of this world, it was an object that I could not put a name to. As it was hanging in the air up above the mountains and WNW over looking Machu Picchu, I thought that many people visiting the site, would be also thinking what could this be? It was a white/greyesh colour with at times, brighter white outline but not goin all the way around the object. It's shape was almost round and as I took more and more pics, you could see inside that it was changing formation. Locals were passing by and I pointed out the strange object and they were all interested but not as interested as a couple from the UK were when they first saw it.
They arrived just before it started moving. When I say moving, I mean very slowly in a SWS direction. As it did so, this is when it got really exciting! It stated to change shape, to almost square. Somethin was poking out from the bottom now and then, but this was short lived. After moving for a few minutes, somethin bazaar started to happen. As well as changing it's formation from within and out, it gave the impression that it was in a 'fuzzy' mode! There was not really a shape no more but like it was blurred when looking at the shots through the back screen of the camera. But it was clearly not blurred and it kept on giving this 'fuzzy' impression returning to a kind of shape again and then back to fuzzy mode within seconds of each other. This was repeated over and over again for maybe five minutes before it disappeared over the mountain. I raced down the track and relocated it a few minutes later and it was still going back and forth from the fuzzy mode. Then that was it!!
So what was it? I sent the pics off to some friends and they suggested weather balloon. However, I ruled this out when I looked at these balloons on line, But this lead me to Anomalies! This kind of means a person or a thing that is different from what is usual. Anomalies can also mean advanced life from another planet! What ever it was, it knew what it was doin as it hung in the air for a good 30 minutes. Then when it started to move, it continued to change shape but also give this fuzzy mode on and off and there was no heat haze either. Just as it disappeared, the clouds turned black and it started to rain and I got soaked to the bone!
This is one of the first shots I took of the UFO
Note how it's changing shape from oval to round and also changing formation inside. This is only two minutes of observing it. Also a bright white edging to the upper half of the UFO.
The mountains it's above are somethin like 6000-7000 ft high, but I could not guess how high the UFO was but it did seem lower than the pic seems to show.
it's really starting to change now!
Almost square. This is over 30 minutes of observing it and somehin is appearing from the bottom and it's very slowly starting to drift SWS
More prominent in this pic
After a few minutes the thing poking from the bottom disappears as it continues to move and change shape
Then this happens!
It goes into fuzzy mode
Only to loose it and return to it's ever changing shape
And seconds later it returned to fuzzy. this continued for the next 3 minutes, changing on and off within seconds before it disappeared over the mountain. In total I took well over 200 images in 40 minutes of observing it.
I relocated it and this was the last shot I took! This is no weather balloon. Has anyone got any idea that what it might be?
I spoke to a lot of the locals who observed the UFO with me and was invited by a guy to his house next to the track. I was introduced to his wife, mother, father, brother, mother and brother-in-law, his friend, his friends friend, his pet goldfish! He told me that tomorrow is the opening day of his restaurant and all his family were there to help. He had a lot of land that backed onto the forest. Here he showed me around. He didn't speak much English but I easily worked out that he observed three Speckled Bear two days ago to where I was almost standing!! A mother and two cubs!!. As we walked along he pointed out all the animals 'Duck! Duck! Duck!' From ducking so much, I found myself almost crawling on the floor. Every step we took he would point and say duck! They were everywhere until he spotted a turkey 'Turkey!' and then we hit the chickens. We went into a large shed and as I expected there were over 100 guinea pigs ready to be eaten! We had a kick around on the court and I didn't find that easy tripping over ducks, chickens, elephants and a single turkey! Then I moved off before another storm came in. When I returned to the hotel, Anna was buzzing after seeing Machu Picchu but not as much as I was after seeing my first UFO!!
Within hours of updating my blog and putting two pics of the UFO on my FB, one of my mates got back to me with this footage of a UFO over Machu Picchu sometime last year! It's only a short video but as you will see, it looks very much like the object I observed!
A pair of Torrent Duck, this is the male, were along the river and during the rest of our stay I observed them outside the window from the hotel
Fasciated Tiger Bittern
While traveling around I've been listing to this band 'My Baby' My Baby is a Dutch - New Zealand band, founded in Amsterdam. Their music is a mix ofblues,countryandfunk.My Baby was formed in 2012 from several members of the Amsterdam soul bandThe Souldiers.The members are Joost van Dijck, his sister Cato van Dijck and Daniel 'Dafreez' Johnston. the band was discovered by funk bassist Larry Graham ( Sly and the Family Stone , Graham Central Station , Prince ).
The first Magnificent frigatebird we saw, were a low flying flock of 50 birds over the main city and they were 'magnificent'! After this they were, with Black Vulture, all over the shop in Rio de Janerio.
We left Barcalona two weeks ago and headed off towards Brazil for 11 days for the big carnival at Rio de Janerio as Anna was taking part in it! Not much birding done as we stayed all the time in the city but had a lot of fun feeding the monkeys.
Christ The Redeemer from Rio Art Centter
Looking from Sugarloaf Mountain
Anna feeding bananna to Tufted-eared Marmoset
And feeding apple to Robust Capuchin Monkey
Atlantic Forest Lizard
Black Vulture
Here are some photos I took of the Rio de Janerio Carnival parading along the Sambadroma
