Monthly Archives: November 2006
Trip to Peru, the 4th day No.5
Trip to Peru, the 4th day No.4
There were lots of orchids in flower at the nursery.
Trip to Peru, the 4th day No.3
This is the DEET.
Trip to Peru, the 4th day No.2
I understood that we would not go to Oxapampa (1800m, 5906f) if we would return to Tarma now, as Oxapampa is 3-4 hours’ drive away from San Ramón. I decided to visit the nursery in San Ramón on our way back to Tarma.
When we got off the car, we immediately noticed the warmer temperature and humidity. Saul suggested I should use the insect repellent, so I immediately took a DEET from my pocket and used it. The DEET was developped by the United States Army during the World War II. DEET 100% will melt plastics. It seems very dangerous chemical. The one I used was DEET 50%, but while I was using, my hands became slimy. I must have touched some plastics.
This photograph is one with a butterfly in the nursery.
Trip to Peru, the 4th day No.1
I must have felt something wrong, so that I slept with my clothes on, like when I used to do so in the mountains.
I jumped up in the early morning when I noticed I was bitten by insects in my back. I was bitten 15 times! “I can’t stand this!” I decided to escape back to Tarma in 3070m.
Trip to Peru, the 3rd day No.7
San Ramón is a town at the entrance into jungle. Leaflets for sightseeing seemed more in here than in Tarma, though I hadn’t sightseen even Tarma yet.
San Ramón is a smaller town than Tarma. But still you can see lots of signs of “INTERNET”, which is amazing. I used the internet for about 15 minutes and paid less than half s/1. S/1 is about 16.7 pence. So I paid less than 8 pence for 15 minutes internet connection.
We left our luggage in a hotel room and went out. Surprisingly we saw Manolo there. He gave a lecture at a nearby university and was going back to Lima by the long-distance night bus on the night. We went to a Chinese restaurant together and enjoyed chatting there. It cost around £10.00 for 4 of us.
Trip to Peru, the 3rd day No.6
After this, we drove back the same way to the fork into A20A, where we took a left turn to San Ramón. This road is a major one however, we occasionally found a big stone on the road. We crossed a brand-new bridge. We heard that the original bridge was washed away by the heavy downpour in a rainy season.
The direct distance from Tarma to San Ramón is about 10 kilometres. Tarma is about 3070m (10072f) in elevation and San Ramón is about 800m (2625f). It means we drove down more than 2000m (6562f). The green of the trees became more and more greener and the atmosphere became more and more like jungle. We saw more and more roadside shops which sold fruits.
Trip to Peru, the 3rd day No.5
We went further up and there we found (Saul found!) Masdevallia uniflora! It was the flower which I wanted to see most. I had been told that there were flowers in the nursery in Palca but they were not sure if I could see the flowers in their natural habitats, so I was extremely pleased.
It was windy there, so the flowers were continuously moving and I could not take a nice photograph, which is a pity. (At the centre of this photograph was the flower. Can you see it?)
Masdevallia uniflora is the species that Spanish botanists, Ruiz and Pavón found here in Huasahuasi for the first time 200 years ago. This fact made me more pleased and thrilled.
Trip to Peru, the 3rd day No.4
The centre of Huasahuasi has a small plaza and there is a modern bank there. We went into one of the shops there and bought some fruits, drinks and so forth for lunch. No shops has electric light so dark inside.
It was raining. We drove further up after this plaza. The road is very dusty when it dries, and it gets very muddy and slippery when it wets.
Saul stopped the car. We got out of the car and climbed a little bit of this slope. We saw several different species of Masdevallias. Some with flower buds but no flower there.