Walls in the Andes of Peru

Leaving Cuzco, we drove through the Andes on a dirt road blasted out of the side of the mountains; cliffs towered above us on one side and dropped away vertically on the other. The views were spectacular.  The dust from the road boiled up behind the van and enveloped us when we walked the road and were passed by buses and cars.

The View from the Road

  Small villages with mud brick/adobe houses, punctuated the way.  The overall impression was brown—mud colored—dust colored. The houses weren't painted.

Photo: Jane Bridges

The only color comes from ads for various political parties and politicians stenciled on splashes of whitewash on the sides of houses. They often used a recognizable image which probably appeared on the ballot.

This was my favorite - the Alpaca with the snow-covered peak.
It reoccurred throughout this part of the Andes.

There are always exceptions that are exceptional. 

Condor and Jaguar

This art was on the wall of  two houses that were clustered together at a bend in the road almost at the crest of the road. It was striking for the design and for the painted wall and the contrasting doors.

Giant River Otter - Manu Biosphere Reserve

Giant River Otter

When I was ten, I read An Otter's Story by Emil Liers.  The story follows an otter through his adventures in the streams and lakes of Michigan. From then on, I was fascinated by otters. They are marvelously sleek, playful animals that love the water, and I always thought it would be good to come back as one in my next life. Given that their habitats are under threat almost everywhere, I might have to reconsider. In the meantime, I take every chance I get to see them.

One of the attractions, amongst many, at the Manu Wildlife Center in the Manu Biosphere Reserve in the Amazonian basin of Peru, is the chance to see otters.  The Madre de Dios river meanders through the jungle, flooding and then retreating during dry times, creating oxbow lakes. These fertile bodies of water are home to Giant River Otters. 


We birded through the rain forest to a small dock on the edge of a quiet lake; the boatmen poled us from one end to the other.

Wattled Jacana (note the feet)

Hoatzin

 It was hot, humid, and the insect repellent slid off with the sweat, but there were plenty of birds.  

Finally, our sharp-eyed boatmen spotted the head of an otter cruising through the still water. A young male.  

It's always difficult not to whoop with excitement - but that isn't allowed - no loud noises, so I just snapped as many pictures as possible.  With long sinuous bodies and webbed feet, they dive and undulate through the water effortlessly. He seemed curious and after diving would sometimes come up and make sure we were still where he thought we were. 


He didn't get out of the water, so all we saw was his head and his back.  Otter lovers take what they can get in the wild.

Eyeing us with impressive canines displayed

Cool!

Cards Redux—Peru-Ayahuasca

Orlando Córdova Rumiche and his Art

Scene: Rio Amazonas, Iquitos, Peru (Egret and Macaw)

Miraflores, Lima, Peru, September 2010 

Strolling through the Miraflores district of Lima (a brief stop on our way to the Amazon), we spied a garden festival in a small pocket park. Lovely orchids, exotic flower and fruit arrangements, topiaried bushes—all kinds of plants for sale and on display. Not much you can do with plants while on vacation, so we meandered until we passed a booth whose clear plastic walls were lined with colorful, gaudy paintings of huge morpho butterflies, magenta orchids, lilies, red and yellow heliconia flowers, as well as fanciful jungle nymphs. Bright,  acrylic paint at it’s boldest—Big...and nothing I would take home. We would have just kept walking, but smaller splashes of color caught my collector's eye. The table was covered with hand-painted greeting cards.  Size makes a difference when it comes to packing, and these little pieces of original art were of birds and scenes of life on the Amazon—highly romanticized, but sincere. After shuffling through the cards, I picked some with river scenes and birds – macaws, parrots, toucans. These latter escape “cute” by a hair. I don’t buy cute, and art is not sweet. The scenes have to have verisimilitude.

Orlando Córdova Rumiche's Creed and his Art

Most of the time when I buy these cards, I don’t know who the artist is, and usually the sellers can’t identify them either—even when signed. They don't tend to have explanatory info on the back. So all I know is that the artist thought enough of the little piece to sign it. In this instance however, the artist, Orlando Córdova Rumiche, provided a handout explaining the art. I didn’t look at it until I got home.  Working my way through his photocopy, I found that he paints under the influence of Ayahuasca or as he calls it the “Bebida Voraz de la Alucinación” (the voracious drink of hallucination)—so really a psychedelic artist, part of a long tradition of imbibers.  What I chalked up to style turned out to be art through a haze of psychotropic drugs. No wonder they are bright, gaudy, exaggerated, and romantic. 

Wikipedia:  “Ayahuasca (ayawaska pronounced [ajaˈwaska] in the Quechua language) is any of various psychoactive infusions or decoctions prepared from the Banisteriopsis spp. vine, usually mixed with the leaves of dimethyltryptamine-containing species of shrubs from the Psychotria genus."

And from an Ayahuasca site: 

“Ayahuasca has a rich legacy of associated traditions, myths, therapies, rituals and aesthetics, spanning from the primordial roots of the indigenous tribes of South America, to diverse syncretic spiritual movements emerging across the planet.”

http://www.ayahuasca.com/ 

It just makes them all the more interesting, and I still wouldn’t want one of the big ones.

Moonlit Scene on the River

Macaw and toucan

Macaws 

Sunset

Macaw and Parrot

2 Parrots

Idyllic River Life

I'm not sure what species these birds are but they are easily recognizable as macaws, parrots, and toucan.  The macaws are probably Scarlet Macaws - oh well remember Ayahuasca. We saw all of these birds in the Manu Biosphere Reserve, Peru.  Each of the little paintings is about 3"x 5" and are good reminders of the place.