Centerpiece

Pressure is on to save ‘flagship’ Andean bird

Peru

A cow-horn trumpet sounds, the band strikes up an Andean melody and a black-and-white bull bursts through the gate, plunging around the dusty bullring of this town in Peru’s southern highlands. Lashed to its back, a huge Andean condor struggles to balance aboard the bucking beast. A green-clad bullfighter waves his cape and the bull pauses, torn between charging at the billowing cloth and trying to rid itself of the annoyance on its back. “Bull with condor,” an announcer calls out. As the condor flaps wildly, he adds, “Watch it dance!” Spectators on the hillside overlooking the bullring cheer and wave flags. Whether Peru’s “yawar fiesta”—the term means “festival of blood” in a mix of Quechua and Spanish—should be... [Log in to read more]

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