Vicuna grazing in the high-altitude peat bogs of the Andes.
The Andes near the Atacama desert are truly serious desert, you can go for miles and not see a single plant. But they have little wetland valleys where the rivers flow slowly for a little while and form peat bogs (or peatlands, marshes, or bogs), and it's there that the wildlife gathers to graze and drink. This is the small bog outside the village of Machuca, north of San Pedro de Atacama, where we saw thousands of birds and dozens of vicuna in a small area.
Machuca Atacama. June 2019.
Vicuna grazing in the high-altitude peat bogs of the Andes.
The Andes near the Atacama desert are truly serious desert, you can go for miles and not see a single plant. But they have little wetland valleys where the rivers flow slowly for a little while and form peat bogs (or peatlands, marshes, or bogs), and it's there that the wildlife gathers to graze and drink. This is the small bog outside the village of Machuca, north of San Pedro de Atacama, where we saw thousands of birds and dozens of vicuna in a small area.
Machuca Atacama. June 2019.