Tropical cloud forest

[Ron-NY]

I had a great opportunity this past fall of hiking in a cloud forest region of Peru. We stayed in a town that was in a valley at over 6400 feet elevation and used this as home base for hiking. It was great seeing many orchids in their natural environment. Other flora and fauna was cool as well. It did take a bit of adjusting to the elevation, hiking and breathing at the same time. All our hikes were at elevations higher than 6400 feet and I would guess less than 9000 feet. Here are a few pics...
Clouds hanging on the mountains
There were quite a few Pleuros to be seen

This Epi was spotted along the road one day growing in full sun

There were a large number of Maxillaria

this Stellis was well bloomed

One really nice thing about cloud forests is the number of waterfalls

and the butterflies were fantastic

[Piper]

Awesome photos, Ron! That must have been an amazing experience - thanks for sharing it! That butterfly is spectacular, too!

McJulie

[Mehera]

What a treat to see your pictures Ron! A fabulous opportunity for you. It looks like wall to wall vegetation; I'm glad you were able to spot some orchids in all that. I live at 9000' in the Rockies, but nothing like that around here. We are arid, although you will find lush vegetation in the riparian areas along the streams.

Did you see wildlife (other than the butterflies)? Snakes and such?

[Ron-NY]

It is amazing how thick the vegetation is in undisturbed areas. One hike was done on a piece of private property. The owner machetted a trail for us as we went. So it was a slow hike but the # of orchids was amazing. Every branch was covered with moss and orchids and it was difficult to not crush orchids underfoot that were growing in the detris. Unfortunately, it was raining that day and I left my camera in the car so it wouldn't get wrecked. There were some neat Lycaste in bloom.

The western slopes of the Andes is very arid.

I didn't see any snakes but did see some wonderful birds, cool insects. I did get to see two llamas when we were driving over the Andes.

[ATester]

Dude...I swear I just saw heaven in your photos...one of these days...Roraima...one of these days

[Ron-NY]

Roraima..you can't get much more remote in Brasil than that. There are so many cool placed to visit and explore. Rain Forests and Cloud Forests are my 2 favorite environments. It is like hiking through the greenhouses at the botanical gardens.

[clintdawley]

...one day for me as well, but I'll have to stock up on DEET as I'm scared to death of jungle bugs..

[smartie2000]

....beautiful photo's of paradise!

[Ron-NY]

...one day for me as well, but I'll have to stock up on DEET as I'm scared to death of jungle bugs..

I brought 100% DEET with me and never had to use it. Only one bit in the week I was there. Now low land jungle is a different story...long pants and sleeves and DEET showers.

[Tmai]

Awesome photos, Ron. What a wonderful trip that must have been. Last fall here would have been spring there? The Stellis is so cool! I've never seen one. Is the butterfly a glasswing? Not up on my butterfly stuff; what a beautiful insect. And how incredible to get the posing photo! Thanks for sharing. More pics please!