Vicunas, viscachas, and condors, oh my! — Lisa's (& Steve's) Travels

As we crossed the high plains and the high pass at 4800 m (15,800 ft) we were in a national reserve where the vicunas are protected. These are the smaller cousins of alpacas and llamas that are domesticated.

The only llama that was up close (sorry, not a very good picture)

The books say the vicunas will hold still for shearing ("with help"), and their wool is the softest and most expensive. "Baby alpaca" is the first shearing of an alpaca and the softest. Alpaca is also a common meat here. To me, it tastes like fairly tough steak. Llamas are used only as pack animals.

As we were driving back from the trek, our guide was telling us that we might see the equivalent of a rabbit in Peru, but it has a long tail. After we looked it up once we were back, a viscacha is actually a relative of a chinchilla.

They were hopping all over the rocks but were very difficult to see, given their coloration.

The condors did not disappoint. When we were about to leave, after seeing 4 or 5, the last one circled several times before soaring right over our heads!

Steve has been a dear, lugging the telephoto lens all over Peru, but it sure paid off that day!

He wanted me to add his video that he shot with his phone (you can hear my camera clicking away on the audio):