Chinchillas chillin

I had a wonderful time traipsing around the ruins of Machu Picchu; exploring tiny corners, stooping to avoid hitting my head on low hanging doorways, and marveling at the ability of humans to build a city on top of a mountain without modern machinery. As I was winding my way up and down and back and forth through the ruins I noticed a small tourist group looking up and snapping away.

Of course I walked over and looked up to see what they saw. At that point in time, there was a single chinchilla sunning itself on top of an entryway. I thought that was pretty cool, snapped a photo of my own and carried on. I passed by the same spot again and the solo chinchilla had been joined by two others; calmly checking out all the tourists snaking through the maze of corridors from their higher vantage point. I kept thinking that they'd dart back into their cosy nook at any second, but I must have stood there for at least five minutes, and they barely moved a muscle.

Piggies in Peru

I have a fondness for pigs, well, more for piglets. I found this family outside a touristy market stop at the start of a bus journey through the Sacred Valley in Peru. The piglets were quite docile, and happy to follow their hairy mother around, sniffing around for tasty morsels in the grass. What can’t be seen in this photo is one of the piglets, who had the same colouring as its mother, but with spots instead of stripes like the others. 

They didn't seem at all bothered by the bus loads of people pulling up, focusing much more on finding something tasty to munch on. How I wish I could scoop up the little one on the right and take it home with me!

Cluck and Whistle

This is one of my favourite travel tails. I was at the famed Machu Pichhu in Peru and had hiked up to the Sun Gate which has a magnificent view over the ruined city. It was a long walk up there, and after taking in the view for some time, I started my descent. I was about half way down when something jumped out of the bushes on my left and raced across the track in front of me. Something red, something with a fluffy tail and a long nose. At first I thought it was a fox. Then I thought perhaps I shouldn't stand around in case it jumped out and bit me, as a course of rabies treatment wasn't an attractive prospect.

Then I heard a sound - a sort of clucking then whistling. I imitated it, feeling pretty sure that foxes don't cluck and whistle. I waited. And waited some more. And then...a little head poked out between two stems of bamboo. It was the most precious little face, with a long nose and big eyes that were looking right at me. In a split second, it jumped out just as the first one had and ran across the track. I got a better look at its body - red and brown on the face and body, with the same colours in a stripey, bushy tail, about the size of a normal to small house cat. I settled down on a nearby rock to wait for more, and I was rewarded for my patience. There must have been another five who came out nervously, stopped to look me over, then jumped the trail.

Eventually, I continued down the track - going down almost as hard as going up - and when I reached the bottom and looked out over the city again, I spotted a lonely tour guide. I showed him the photo and asked him what it was. He said the name in Spanish too quickly for me to catch, but said it was a native raccoon-type animal. He also said that I was very lucky to see one, and couldn't believe it when I said I'd seen seven. After much internet searching, it turned out that it was actually a type of coati (though I'm sure that's not what the guide had called it), a creature I would meet again in Argentina for another memorable travel tail. For a long time I thought it was something completely different, but the power of Google has proven it so.

Those minutes that I spent perched on a rock waiting for more critters to appear, were some of the happiest I had in Peru.