For as many llamas & alpacas as we have seen – thousands… I only have a few dorky photos.

We have seen them grazing free with shepherds, in fields with stone fences, and we have fed them. They are rather loveable and cute. And, yes, love their wool! Below are llamas grazing at Machu Picchu. A free range alpaca. A vicuña – thin necked – light brown beauty. And me feeding alpacas and making new friends!

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We are enjoying some downtime in Paracas.

It is a Pacific Ocean based town with Tourism the top draw followed by fishing & a port.

A quick boat ride out of Paracas gives you a good view of the area.

The Candelabra in the sand – permanent- here for centuries.

Birds galore. Beautiful rock formations and Humboldt penguins.

These photos do not do justice to these beasts- crazy big & colorful!

We decided to take a few days of R&R and chose Paracas. ….what an interesting place!

We are in one of the driest deserts on earth–no kidding! I have seen a lot of deserts – all around the world – and this one really is – Just Sand….crazy. Seriously – just sand!

And, on one side of our hotel is the desert national preserve- with all colors of sand and the other side is Pacific Ocean.

We cannot and do not want to swim i this ocean. And even if we got careless – the Jellies – jellyfish here are everywhere. They are gorgeous colors. Red. Yellow. Orange. White.

The size of these creatures is CRAZY. They range from 1-2 feet in diameter. Their tentacles are the size of my forearms – and about 5 -6 feet long.

And, the warning is that while the stings won’t kill you – it will probably paralyze you! Yikes – thought the snakes were scary.

I did go on about ride today & saw amazing birds, sea lions and Humboldt penguins! So cute!

And whiles don’t swim in the ocean – flamingoes & storks do – so cute!

Yes! There are three distinct Peruvian animals with similar features.

Llamas – Incan beasts of burden. Tallest. Biggest. Noses like a camel. Not loved for their wool.

Alpacas – all about the wool! Baby alpaca –sooo soft. Only the first alpaca shearing. Did I say soft?😁. Two kinds one is ‘regular’ other is long haired & referred to as a Rastafarian! Scraggly & cute.

Vicuña- rare. Thin. Protected species. Wool is a caramel color. And rumor has it that a sweater in Peru costs $3000 and in USA would fetch $6000. Yikes! 😳 We saw a number of these adorable animals grazing in nature preserves near Arequipa.

These animals are really cute & we do not tire of them. ….even as we see them on every tourist item!

In Peru we have seen an abundance of varied styles of traditional dress. It is most apparent in some of the hat styles of women.

Traditional dress – skirts, hats& jackets were very prevalent in Cusco, Machu Picchu& Sacred Valley. It was also seen in Arequipa. Not in Lima& Paracas.

And the traditional styles are not just worn for ‘show’. Sometimes – yes. Often no.

The traditional skirts are worn over leggings. And we have seen women working in fields & herding animals with the skirts, jackets & hats.

…I have limited WiFi now & will add photos later!

This time while in Arequipa we took advantage of extra time to check out a few art galleries, cathedrals and a huge UNESCO site that is a cloistered convent that is active today. The convent

Covers a huge city block & is quite amazing