Peruvian sketches
The distances we covered in Peru meant that there wasn’t that much time for drawing, but I managed a few little doodles here and there. It seemed only right to portray a cactus – that iconic and uniquely American creation. Here’s a little one growing in the garden outside our hotel room in Chivay: At [...]
In praise of Peruvian mammals
Our trip to Peru earlier this month was punctuated with sightings of all kinds of wildlife: birds, insects, lizards; and although we saw no big predatory land mammals, such as jaguars, we glimpsed many other fascinating mammals. I suppose when most people think of South American mammals they think of the iconic domesticated camelids: the [...]
Nazca lines, grand designs
On a high desert plateau in the west of Peru are a spectacular series of massive geoglyphs known as the Nazca lines. The dry and windless climate has preserved the geoglyphs in superb condition. They were made sometime between 400 and 650 AD by the long-gone Nazca people, possibly as part of a water cult. [...]
Mankell’s Wallander
I read a lot. Mostly books about things. Mostly things like natural history. I hardly ever read fiction. So it comes as a surprise to me to find myself engrossed in a crime fiction series by Swedish writer Henning Mankell featuring detective Kurt Wallander of the Ystad police. I first stumbled across Wallander in the [...]
