This is Masdevallia eumelia, which was named after Manolo’s Mother, Eumelia. 

The newly discovered orchids are named after the person who had found it, or the person whom he/she loves, or the person whom he/she respects and so on.  I saw the orchids which were named after Manolo, or his brother, or his Mother, or his Father, or their surname, or Saul, the guide.

Saul said to me, “We might find new species, really”, and I dreamt of new species, Masdevallia mayumii.  Unfortunately we didn’t find one.

Epidendrum sp.　　

I was surprised to know this was an Epidendrum, with these plump leaves.

I saw a hummingbird in this cloud forest, too. 

I noticed something which moved so swiftly similar to cicadas.  Eventually I recognised it as a hummingbird and thought, Ooh!!!  I pressed the shutter of the camera and then took one step forward.  When I tried to see it through the finder again, there was nothing but tree branches.  It had disappeared leaving only the buzz.

Can you see it around the middle of this photograph?

The cloud forests are like these.  There is a small corner in the Princess of Wales Conservatory at Kew which reproduces a cloud forest, but I could not get the image of it.  I now understand what the cloud forests are, by experiencing it in Peru.  

Nearby was this Fuchsia sp.  Among the genus Fuchsia, a few are from New Zealand and Tahiti, but almost all are from the South America.  I heard that they are probably from Peruvian Andes.

Soon after it, Cesar, the driver found this orchid.

Nice, green flowers.

We got off the car, had a small lunch with fruits, started walking in the fog.  This is Bormarea sp. 

After enjoying the Market near Tarma, we visited Huasahuasi again and the last time. This time the taxi fare was s/70. Roughly around £12.

While we were heading to the destination, an old (?) indian woman walking ahead raised her hand. She seemed to raise her hand as she heard the car coming. If she was lucky, the car would be a collectivo, so that she could save her energy and time.

We were only two of us, Saul and I, with Cesár driving a car. We decided to pick her up. She came into the backseat, next to me. At first she looked at me from curiosity. When I notice it and looked at her, she hurriedly looked ahead. This repeated several times and in the end she seemed to lose interest and only looked ahead.

This road was steeper than the road to the village, and she was in the car for quite a while. It means that she was walking up the steep road, with intention to walk up that long distance. I was amazed to see the woman’s physical and mental strength as well as their hard life.

After she left, we, too, stopped. It was a beautiful day in Tarma, however, here, 3000 metres (9843f) in the cloud forest, it was fogged in.  These pretty white flowers were there.

This is the market near Tarma.  Of course this is just a part of it.  Tarma is a town in 3070m (10072f) in elevation, and is surrounded by even higher mountains.

In the big sacks in this photograph are red onions, but we saw lots of green, 1 metre long vegitables in similar sacks everywhere.  Near the nursary in Palca, some women were washing the same vegitables in the river.  It looked so popular there, but I couldn’t even guess what they were.  I asked Saul.  “Alfalfa (Medicago sativa)” was his answer.  The alfalfa we sometimes put its sprouts in the salad.  Can you guess what this is for?

Cuy, guinea pigs, are an important source of protein in Peru, especially in the Andes highlands and this long alfalfa is to feed cuys.

And lots of different potatoes.  I was surprised to see so many different coloured potatoes which were very beautiful.  I haven’t seen these potatoes in England, however, there seems lots of different potatoes now available in Japan, such as “Star of Inca”, “Inca Red”, “Inca Purple” and “Awakening of Inca”. 

By the way the national language in Peru is Spanish.  Potatoes in Spanish is “patata” in Spain, but in Peru, it is “papa”.