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Everywhere in Peru there are guys trying to get you to pay them to have your picture taken with an extremely disgruntled looking decorated llamma or alpaca or some sort. Needless to say I would pay no-one for such a thing, but instead took a picture of these ones out of a bus window
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Vicunas are like an overstressed Llama crossed with a lemming. They are very rare mainly because they are incredibly stupid - hence the need for signs to warn people not to run them over on the roads.
Note that one of the silly creatures is strolling across to the road behind the sign.
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Alas the silly beast stood just out of line of the Vicuna crossing sign, otherwise this would have been a fantastic photo. Nonetheless you get some idea of how doomed these things are by the look on the things face
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The Colca Valley is massively farmed (by the standards of Peru this is a lush and fertile valley!). Most of the terraces were built in Pre-Inca times (up to 2000 years ago) and they are still in use today
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Arable land is in such short supply in Peru that people farm essentially everywhere, including on near vertical cliffs. I have no idea how the farmer gets down to the terraces near the bottom of this canyon.
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The Colca Canyon is almost the deepest in the world (there is another canyon nearby that is a few hundred metres deeper).
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The colca canyon is mainly famous as the best place to see condors. Photos dont do them justice at all, they are the size of a man, but with wings and huge claws.
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A family of condors flying in formation
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At the Condor Cruz, the condors litterally fly within metres of the people watching them. No doubt waiting for someone to fall of the edge (condors, while being more than big enough to eat you, are actually just scavengers)
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A preinca village in the colca valley - when the spaniards arrived they forced everyone to move into villages in the valley (easier to enslave them and make them worship the correct gods and such that way), but originally all Peruvian peoples seemed to prefer the high ground.
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