Masdevallia sp.

Saul and I took a taxi from our hotel in Tarma to the nursery in Palca.  S/10 (about £1.70) for about 10 km distance.

To my surprise, there was a pig on the wooden table in the nursery.  They were in the middle of slaughter.  Its head was already cut off and put on the other place.  Although I had lots of orchids which I wanted to draw/paint and also I was under pressure to do it, I couldn’t feel easy to do so when a pig which had just been slaughtered was in front of me.

“Have they started to chop firewood?” I wondered and put my head up.  It wasn’t a firewood but a head of the pig.

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On the way back to the hotel, we took a taxi called Colectivo.  As long as space is available the taxi driver takes more passengers who have signalled and takes them to the nearest possible place.  For the drivers, this will increase their income and for the passengers, this will help reduce the cost (the more passengers share the taxi, the less the fee becomes) as well as their waiting time. 

When Saul and I were at the backseat of a taxi, the taxi stopped for two girls who had raised their hands.   Oh, one of them may share the backseat with us, I thought, however, to my surprise the two girls came into a passenger’s seat. 

In this way, the taxi fee from Palca to Tarma became one third of the fee from Tarma to Palca, s/3.

On the third day in Peru, we saw Masdevallia uniflora in its natural habitat in Huasahuasi, which was the very flower I wanted to see in Peru most, and the following day we went back to see the flower in order to draw it, however, I couldn’t record every tiny detail of it for me to paint botanically.   

Therefore I gave up going out in the wild to look for other orchids, and forced myself to concentrate on drawing at the nursery in Palca.  The orchids I was interested in were Masdevallia uniflora, Oncidium bicolor, Oncidium aureum.  Also Phragmipedium caudatum, which we hadn’t seen in the wild yet.

This photograph is Masdevallia uniflora.　At the fiestas which are held in November in Huasahuasi, Masdevallia uniflora will be displayed everywhere, Saul said.

In the slope opposite of the road was the pink flowers of Bletia catenulata, beautifully bloomed against the blue sky. 

Lycaste　macrophylla.

This was at this shop like just an ordinary plant.   

We left the nursery at last after observing various interesting fruits trees.  The aim for this day was to go back to the place where we had seen Masdevallia uniflora on the previous day and to draw it.  After that we would go back to Tarma.

At one of the roadside fruit shop we bought some fruits for lunch.  A crate with oranges was s/8.  About £1.35.  It was too much so we bought a half of the box.  

It was winter in Peru, so the price of the fruits were more expensive I was told.  

A butterfly on the coffee tree.

Coffee beans.  I wonder when these beans become red.

This is called Annona.  (Annona cherimola).  Very similar one we see in the supermarket here, the custard apple, is a different species, called Annona reticulata. 

This belongs to Annonaceae, and the genus Annona has 100-150 species.

We tried this fruit on the way back from San Ramón at the roadside shop.  It was creamy and very sweet and nice.

When you open it in half, it is like this.  A little similar to a pomegranate (Punica granatum).  Red juice around seeds is used for makeup.