Last weekend, we decided to go on a day trip to the Lomas de Lachay, a huge national park about 2 hours North of Lima, by way of the Panamericana. It is a fantastic ecosystem, completely dependent on the fog that rolls in from the Pacific. The humidity condenses at the top of the hills/mountains, and gathers in natural pools at the bottom, irrigating a sea of low bushes, creepers and meadow flowers. On a sunny day, there is a strong scent of rapeseed, probably emanating from the similar-looking plant that sticks out between the lower white and blue flowers. An elderly man told me it looked like
tobacco, but I wouldn't know.
These are screens to collect water for a tank for the park wardens.
As we climbed to the top of the first ridge and made our way along it on a gravel footpath, the hawk-eagles hovered overhead, on the look-out for small rodents, maybe a chincilla...
The Lomas were once a real forest, with lots of sturdy trees to bind the humidity, however, as in many places, massive logging has decimated them, so that now there are but a few scattered over the hillsides. One meandering valley has managed to keep a larger bunch of trees, and the guides of the park like to think of it as "Harry Potteresque". On a day when the sun does its utmost to burn my fair skin, it is a bit difficult to see the likeness, but if you imagine one of the days where the fog is so thick you can hardly see your feet, walking into one of the blackened trunks with scrawny, seemingly leafless branches might be a pretty ghostly experience.
The rocks that protrude among the greenery look like they've been in conctact with a lot more water than can be seen in the park these days, but I've yet to find out why.
