Day Seven

The currency of Peru is the Nuevo Sol. Upon these coins are icons showing the three areas of Peru: the coast, the mountains and the jungle.

Lima (where we are staying until tomorrow) is situated on the coast, but we wanted to have a taste of what some of the other regions are like. My dad has been in the Amazon for a couple of days, with one of the cameras, but the rest of us wanted to explore a little of what he would see there.

The Parque de las Leyendas is Lima's zoo. I really do not like zoos. I hate seeing the huge animals stuck in cages which are absolutely tiny in comparison to how they would live in the wild. For this reason I avoided staying long at the enclosures for the lions and other big cats. These animals are also African after all, and I'm in Latin America!

The rest of the zoo, however, was great. Peruvian Llamas strolled about, being allowed huge fields in which to roam. I'm hoping that we'll see more of these animals as we move to Cusco next week.. and hopefully alive rather than on a plate.

The birds of prey, however, are something that I could live without encountering again, although from past experience in Brazil, I'm not sure if this will be realistic. According to the A Rocha website, Peru is home to a staggering 1,800 species of birds, 19% of the worlds species.

As we have journeyed around the small area of Peru that we have been exposed to, we have seen many different species of plant. My mum recognises lots of them as pot plants that she keeps indoors at home, which thrive in the natural environment here. Cacti and palm trees are everywhere.