It was about 1999 when I purchased my first digital camera, a Kodak DC265, and in the process of uploading a few thousand pictures ( I am going through a couple of boxes with years of back-up CDs and DVDs) to our IMac during the last couple of weeks I came across this group of pictures I took with that camera at a visit to Machu Picchu in Febr 2001.
Perhaps you might enjoy looking at Orchids growing along the slopes of Machu Picchu and a visit to the famous Pueblo Garden at the foot of Machu Picchu.
This here was on the way to the Sun gate and that huge Epidendrum was just spectacular. Cyrtochilums, lots of Epidendrums grew along the slopes and also colorful Elleanthus. Unfortunately that day the fog never lifted completely.
Klaus and I also spent some time at the Pueblo Garden, away from the group we traveled with. It was raining at this point and I took most pictures using an umbrella, but I remember the sun coming out at the end of the walk and as I looked up there was this gorgeous Trichopilia fragrans flowering high up in a tree and it was absolutely breathtaking with the sun filtering through the canopy. If I remember correctly, it was a Dr. Isiais Rolando who collected the local orchids and grew them in this wonderful habitat around the Hotel.
The gorgeous trio of Masdevallias is veitchiana.
Name: Carol Santa Ana, ca Sunset zone 22, USDA zone 10 A.
Oh thank you for the tour! I'm so glad you had a new camera to play with, and a traveling companion with the same interests! I get to see it without traveling.
Jim, it would have been great to have this tour done with a guide! Just now, years later looking at this, I am still in awe at the way these Orchids grow! Btw it was chilly, I remember the temps in the fifties F at our visit. No wonder I don't do too well with Pleurothallids.
And only a glimpse it was! I have a couple more Peru picture books..... In those years I still took pictures with my regular print camera AND shot other "stuff" for easier sharing with the digital.
Btw regarding cameras in those days, this Kodak camera had a whopping 1.6 Megapixel resolution. And it needed tons of batteries!
I think I learned a lot by walking through this garden and see the surrounding slopes and could not only see how these plants grow, but I got a bit of a feel for the climate. Nowadays when I see these type of Masdevallias in nurseries, my mind sees and feels this habitat.
Name: Elaine Sarasota, Fl The one constant in life is change
I'm on the 'bucket list' team on this one. Would love to see Machu Picchu but I probably wouldn't make it past the first few clumps of wild orchids on the way.
Elaine
"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." –Winston Churchill
Elaine, that happened to us at Iguazu! This was 1992 and we had never seen Orchids growing like this in the wild. On our first walk we never really saw the Water Falls, we just saw the Orchids covering every branch in sight. We took a walk on our own later in the day just to do the Falls justice.
Now that is a water fall! I saw from the Paraguayan side as we drove over from Asuncion. Absolutely fantastic but I never noticed an orchid. Different times.
Jim
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