Our tour began in the ancient Inca capital of Cusco, one of the highest altitude cities in the world, at 3200m. We began with a day trip to the nearby Huacarpay lakes - an area of marshland set amongst otherwise very arid grasslands. Butterfly diversity at such a high altitude was expected to be very low, but we saw several interesting species including the tiny Nabokov's Lycid Nabokovia cuzquenha, Gulf Fritillary Agraulis vanillae, and several skippers including the Cusco Grizzled Skipper Pyrgus bocchoris cuzcona.

The following morning we had a pre-dawn departure by minibus, for our epic 280 km journey across the Andes. For several hours we climbed the tortuous zigzag route up the western slopes, amidst a barren rocky landscape, with precipitous drops at the side of the fragile single track road. Eventually we emerged onto the high altitude puna grasslands - a silent and serene area bathed in warm sunshine. Here, above the clouds at an altitude of over 4000m it was hardly surprising that butterflies were very scarce, but in fields close to a small village we found dozens of Andean Clouded Yellows Colias dimera, and several Peruvian Puna Skippers Hylephila peruana.

In the early afternoon we began our descent from the puna, and by mid afternoon we entered Manu Biosphere Reserve at Les Truces, at which point the scenery changed dramatically, with stunted cloudforest stretching across the peaks to the horizon. Within a few minutes we had our first really exciting find - a group of 4 Ornate Juneas Junea doraete, one of the prettiest Satyrines in the neotropics. Equally exciting was a huge skipper Metardaris cosinga, marked in black and yellow, and with a furry red abdomen.

As our descent continued we made many roadside stops - unfortunately these were usually of fairly short duration as we had to arrive at our accommodation before dusk. Amongst species seen along the roadside were the Andean Painted Lady Vanessa altissima, the pretty Pierines Hesperocharis nereina and H. marchallii, and numerous high altitude Satyrines including the strange metallic silver Punargentus lamna, plus Lymanopoda translucida, Druphila venerata, and the stunning tailed Striped Falcon Corades ulema.

After a night at Wayqecha, a frosty morning soon gave way to warm sunshine and clear views across the stunning Andean panorama of cloudforest covered mountains. More roadside stops produced further high altitude Satyrines including the beautiful white-banded Oressinoma typhla, and Nymphalids including Hypanartia kefersteini and Orophila diotima. We also saw our first Heliconiines of the trip Heliconius erato - a species which produces many different geographical colour forms, the local form being chocolate brown with cream spots on the forewings and radiating red lines on the hindwings.