Orchids, Birds And Bears In The Andes

The ancient Inca ruins of Machu Picchu are big business for the country of Peru. Tens of thousands of tourists visit each year. That’s an important reason why the Peruvian government sued Yale University to return artifacts that were taken from the site nearly 100 years ago. WNPR reporter Diane Orson has been covering the new tentative agreement to return the artifacts. She and producer Catie Talarski recently visited Peru.

In the second of their 2-part series, we meet a company that profits from Machu Picchu tourism, and uses the money for conservation and biological research. 

We’re high in the Machu Picchu cloud forest in a private nature preserve. The Andes Mountains offer a secure habitat for rare and endangered birds and mammals, and are home to a huge array of trees and colorful flowers. 

Biologist Carmen Soto leads us along stone pathways to see the world’s largest diversity of native orchid species in their natural environment.  

"Please look at this. This an orchid. "She describes the surprising and confusing origin of the word. "Orchids mean testicle. The base part of this plant look like a pair of the testicle. And people think aphrodisiac. But its not aphrodisiac."

Soto calls orchids the most “evolved” of all plants. Orchids in the wild vary wildly in size and shape. So we use a magnifying glass to discover tiny flowers hidden along the sides of rocks or under leaves on trees. 

Soto stops in front of a striking orange and purple flower called masdevallia veitchiana. "We are a looking a special orchid from Machu Picchu. It's only possible to find in Machu Picchu. The flower look like a tear."  The orchid’s name in Quechua (the native language of the indigenous Andean people) is Waqanki, which means “you will cry”. 

There’s a legend attached to this flower: A young Incan princess fell in love with a warrior.  Her father forbade the relationship because the girl was destined to marry the sun god. When the young princess learned of her father’s decision, she ran crying through the Andes and was turned into a Waqanki flower. Each time the warrior found the beautiful orchid, his tears would also fall as he remembered his lost love.   

This nature sanctuary is owned by Inkaterra -  a world leader in sustainable tourism.  The company has been using profits from its luxury hotel operations to fund biological research and conservation projects since 1975. 

Inkaterra founder Jose Koechlin says he’s devoted to preserving and enhancing that which is authentic and unique to Peru. "Peru is a very high bio-diversity country. Diversity in the sense that we have 84 of the 104 life zones, and 28 of the 33 climates."

There are more than 2,000 species of trees and more than 400 orchid species in Inkaterra’s nature preserve. Their biologists have discovered new orchid species that have been named for Koechlin and Soto.

The organization also hosts scientific conferences including one coming up this February. Again, Jose Koechlin.  

"It will be a first scientific symposium in Peru about native orchids. So most of the big scientists are coming to learn or to continue learning because many of them have already been there in Machu Picchu."

Back on the trail we pass banana peels hanging off trees.  People have put them there to attract the more than 370 kinds of butterflies in the Inkaterra preserve. Then, Soto spots a bird.  "We are going to see... This a Saffron-Crown Tanager. He is beautiful. Look at that. The face is the color yellow and the crown is the color orange."

A few steps away, Soto unlocks a large gate. Inside is a Rescue Center for the critically endangered and only native bear species in South America, the Spectacled Bear.   Paddington Bear, the children’s book character who came from “darkest Peru” must have been a Spectacled Bear.  Inkaterra and the Peruvian National Institute of Natural Resources are recovering bears that have been negatively affected by human impact and are working to reintroduce them to their natural habitat. 

Inkaterra is the first carbon neutral organization in Peru. Its supported by the World Bank, the United Nations and has been recognized by the National Geographic Society and Conservation International. 

For WNPR, I'm Diane Orson.