EC-Rider Travels

This is a very nice hotel set in the most stunning gardens within the cloud Forrest overlooking the river and the railway line. It was originally a tea and coffee plantation and the staff seem to take extraordinary pride in their hotel. They offer a number of excursions and I did the bird walk first thing in the morning. There are 200 different species of bird at Inkaterra (1800 in the country, beaten only by Colombia) and we saw a pretty good selection including the Peruvian National Bird, the Cock of the Rock (great name!) which is apparently a rare occurrence.

They put out bananas for the fruit eating birds and sugared water for the many different varieties of hummingbird which live there. A Hummingbird’s heart beats over 1200 times a minute!

I did a second ‘nature walk’ later in the morning with Wilfred which was also fascinating. We saw a few additional birds and then visited their orchid garden of which they have 372 varieties. Sadly it is not the time to see them in bloom, we need to return in Nov- March in the rainy season. We also saw a beautiful Owl butterfly – huge with extraordinary owl like markings and a stunning glass winged butterfly. Wilfred also showed us the Dragon Blood Tree which when cut, oozes red sap, looking like blood. This is used to cure gastritis and if you rub the red sap it turns to cream which is supposed to repair scaring.

Inketerra also run a project rescuing spectacled bears – like Paddington – from zoos and circuses. Sadly they are between bears at the moment. Spectacled Bears are on the critical list with less than 1400 in South America. They are endangered for a number of reasons; hunting (the Shamans used to use the meat for medicine, the taking of land and use of insecticides and also the fact that the female can postpone her pregnancy!

We headed back to Cusco on the train after lunch (it took four hours to go 68 miles!) and were treated to a bit of traditional dancing and a fashion-show! Our last couple of nights are in another Casa Andina in the centre of the historic part of the town.