Rambling & Roaming: October 2013

I am always interested in how different countries treat their pets and animals.

I think Peru does pretty well.

Arequipa, Peru Local Posing for Tourists

OK — no dog here, but I thought to include this on this post. The locals dress up and pose for photographs, this lade wanted S/ 2 for this picture. Many of them in Arequipa have baby goats with them, as she does. The animals seem well cared for.

Arequipa, Peru Chicken Art

What the heck — throw this in. This was taken at Monasterio Santa Catalina in Arequipa.

Monasterio Santa Catalina

This bird visited me during my lunch at the monastery. I included it as other than pigeons I rarely saw any birds — or any other wild birds or anything.

Grazing Llama in the Andes

I took this when the tour bus stopped going over a pass in the Andes. There are wild (and ranched) llamas, alpacas, and (only wild) vicuña up here.

Andes Condor

OK — one of the few wild animals I saw in Peru, the condors. Pretty cool.

Posing with Alpaca

Cusco, Peru Dogs

This motley group of three dogs seemed to be the norm in Cusco, Peru. They seemed to be treated OK, mostly left to themselves outside — and seemed to know to stay out of the streets.

They were a bit shaggy and some had sores and such — but I have seen much worse elsewhere. They seemed to be well fed and content.

Cusco, Peru Pet Dog

Tourists Posing with Llama

I like this shot. One has to pay (as we should, this is the local's job) for the front shot — but the 'but shot' nobody cares...

Tourist Posing with Llama, Cusco

Guinea Pig Condo, Pisac, Peru

I guess this is more of an 'animals of Peru' rather than a dogs of Peru — so here (again) is the guinea pig condo.

Pisac, Peru

Pigs, Pisac Peru

I think I posted these guys already, they were grazing in the ruins of Pisac.

Frogs in Central Market, Cusco, Peru

Hairless Dog, Cusco, Peru

There were a number of these hairless dogs in Cusco.

Llama in Machu Picchu

Tarted up Pet in Agua Calientes Peru

As I have said — the dogs are pretty much pets here. At first I was surprised to see dogs in dresses — but I got used to it. I saw one dog in Agua Calientes walk by wearing a plaid shirt and denim suspenders.

Being stuck in the good ole' USA mostly — when I do manage to break out I like to see how the people in other countries live. A big part of everyone's life in today's world is the car, or transportation anyway.

I noticed all the cars, bikes and whatnot as I visited Peru — and here are some of the pictures I managed to get:

Car in Arequipa

Most of the cars in Peru were small Japanese and Korean.

Toyota Yaris

My friend in USA has this exact car, so it seemed a bit surreal to see the exact one down in Peru, as a taxi even. Most of the cars were taxis or shuttle buses in Arequipa, private cars were somewhat rare.

What the Heck is This Car?

This model car was everywhere. I could see no brand on them, I asked and I think I remember being told it was a Kia — but not sure. This model car was also the one most likely to be decorated. Most cars had a lot of decorations on the dash — but these often had LED lights, stickers and whatnot.

Peru Tour Buses

As I have mentioned elsewhere — tour buses everywhere. Mostly the Mercedes Sprinter — but also bigger ones, and smaller ones.

Tour Buses in the Andes

My Tour Bus

My bus stopped in the Andes for a photo op. We were on our way from Arequipa to Chivay.

Peruvian Bicycle

This is a bicycle. You won't see too many bike pictures here are there were not too many bikes. Even more rare was bike riding for pleasure. I would guess over the entire time I was in Peru I might have only seen maybe 20 pleasure bike riders.

Peru Vehicle

These were somewhat common in the less populated towns and in the countryside.

The Ever Present Tour Bus

This tour bus is parked in the town square in a small town near Chivay.

VW Vehicle

I am always interested to see different cars that are made by the same manufactures that sell in the USA. This is a Volkswagen, but I don't believe they are sold in the USA.

VW and Toyota Trucks

I don't see either of these models in the good ol' USA.

Arequipa Newspaper Car Ad

Here is a Chevrolet Orlando advertised for sale in Arequipa, Peru. It's a Chevy — but we don't get these in the USA do we?

Arequipa Taxi Car

LAN Air Arequipa, Peru

There are really no freeways or what we call Interstates in Southern Peru. Only the big cities have a road network — after that you are mostly out of luck. There used to be trains linking Arequipa and Cusco — but fell out of favor. Now one really must fly between big cities.

Cusco Motorcycle Police

All the Peruvian motorcycle police that I have seen all drive bikes like these.

Tour Bus Tight Squeeze

The streets can be narrow — and a tour bus can be big — but that doesn't stop anybody, they squeeze into these narrow streets.

Cusco Motorcycles

I like motorcycles — so I always kept an eye out for them. Almost all the bikes here are smaller displacement bikes, and all seemed utilitarian — just for transportation, not pleasure riding.

Toyota Truck in Peru

Volkswagen Bus in Cusco

Volkswagen Bus in Peru

VW Beetle in Peru

There were less VWs in Peru than I expected. I know that Mexico and Brazil was making Beetles and Busses until recently — I expected to see more of them on the road.