June
17th,
2018
Cold
first thing with frost once again, sunny and maybe a little warmer
than of late. Cloud buit up in the afternoon but quickly dissipated
once darkness fell leaving the sky with a mass of stars.
With
my feet rather sore after the walk back to Ollantaytambo from Aguas
Calientes, I know that I haven't got it in me to get up Abra Malaga,
the next large valley north of Ollantaytambo. There are supposedly
bird species there that I will not get anywhere else but I am
extremely tired. Abra Malaga has deep snow but that only means that
the birds will be lower down, or so I am told. Instead, after
breakfast with a wonderful family of four from near Tahoe,
California, USA, I head for my usual favourite valley that heads east
from the village. My intention is to try and find similar habitat to
that that I would enjoy at Abra.
Through
the village with the early morning sunshine melting away a thin layer
of frost, I go along the dirt road as I did yesterday and see
practically the same birds as yesterday. It is noticeable though that
there are far fewer of them than when it was raining here last week.
Reaching the conservation sanctuary of Choquechaca, I pay the ten
Soles and continue up the road. It twists and turns and goes higher
and higher but I cannot see over a high ridge to discern what the
habitat is. I can see that a valley branching off towards Abra Malaga
has polylepsis and I am hoping that that is what I find once I reach
the top of the road.
No
polylepsis, instead there is a set of ruins that crest a rise. As
interesting as these are when I explore them, I feel disappointed as
it was the special habitat that I wanted to find and hence get some
different birds for the Green Birding year list. It has taken all
morning to get up here and it would take another few hours to reach
the valley that I saw before. I just don't have the time to do so. I
start the long walk back to the village.
Along
the road I find one of the small shrines to someone unnamed. Within
the chamber there are pieces of human skull and a lower jaw but
nothing more. How strange.
Back
at the hostel the Californians are there with their two amazing
children playing soccer on the lawn. What can an ageing ex-soccer
player do other than join in and after an hour or so of laughter and
fun, Mum joins in as well. This wonderful family ask me whether I
would like to join them for dinner at a beautiful organic restaurant,
Chuncho, in the village square. Hence the rest of the evening is
spent in their fabulous company eaing superb food. Well, superb that
is except for the guinea pig morsel that I don't enjoy!
Green
Year list : 274 birds
average new birds to list per day : 3.57
birds
altitude
: 9,321 feet
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