Mountains of red onions.

This is a powdered Maca.  In the market near Tarma, there was a big bowlful powdered Maca there and the seller said to me, with gesture, to taste some so I did.  It reminded me of rice bran.   

This is dried Maca (Lepidium meyenii).  It is in the Brassicaceae and related to turnips and radishes.  This vegitable is grown in the high Andes, and a town called Junin (more than 4000m, 13123f in elevation) in Junin is famous for Maca.  

We have to go back to Lima on the 1st of September and it is already the 30th of August today.  So I decided to go to see orchids in their natural habitats now, not thinking about painting any more. 

Sual suggested we should go to either Huanuco (1910m, 6244f) or Oxapampa (1800m, 5906f) or Paucartambo (2500m, 8202f).   Last night I decided to go to Paucartambo as it seems not so close to jungle and to have least insects.  However, my husband has started to have diarrhea this morning, we had to change our plan.  

I went back to Huasahuasi for the fifth and the last time with Saul and Cesár, the driver.  We dropped in the local big market on the way. 

This is a snake skin.  How will they use it and what for?

However, there were only a group of five tiny flowers there.

We found a very big Epidendrum sp. on the slope to the valley as well.  It was as tall as Saul.  

Also there were some pink-flowered Epidendrum funkii there.  This species were growing like roadside pavement.  If it was the peak of the flowering season, it would be marvellous like a very nice pink carpet.  This time we only saw several flowers. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericinsf/144879653/in/set-72057594121987342/

There were various different orchids on a big rock there.  They were some orange-flowered Epidendrum secundum.  You can see orange-florwered and pink-flowered Epidendrum secundum everywhere but the white-flowered one is quite rare.  Luckily we saw the one two days later.

I continued to draw the orchids in the morning.  After lunch, I went to Huasahuasi again with Saul.

First of all, we found a big plant of Oncidium aureum which I drew the previous day. 

Oncidium bicolor used to be called cacca-cacca in Quechua, the official language of Inca, however, nowadays this Oncidium aureum is called cacca-cacca.   The travellers would chew these bulbs for easing their thirst instead of descending to the bottome of the valley for water. 

I wanted to go to mountains to see more orchids there, but I thought I should draw orchids and should get more information so that I would be able to paint them back in England. I asked Saul to bring some orchids from the nursery in Palca and spent whole day in a hotel room to draw them.

This is one of them, Oncidium aureum.  (Cyrtochilum aureum (Lindl.) Senghas 1997)