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”.

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?