Peru Guide
The south coast
Pampa Galeras Vicuña Reserve
The Vicuña, a llama-like animal with very fine wool, have lived for centuries in the Pampa Galeras Vicuña Reserve, which is now maintained as their natural habitat and contains more than five thousand of the creatures. Well signposted at Km 89 of the Nasca to Cusco road, 90km inland from Nasca, the reserve is easily reached by hopping off one of the many daily Nasca to Cusco buses (Tour Huari runs to Puquio at around 4pm; ask the driver to tell you where to get off). The reserve has a shelter, but it's a very basic concrete shack with no beds, and you need written permission from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fauna in Lima; it's best to take an organized tour with a Nasca tour company. However, you can camp here without a permit. You can also take a taxi or arrange for a car and driver through one of the tour companies in Nasca (around $50 for the day for two).
The vicuña themselves are not easy to spot. When you do notice a herd, you'll see it move as if it were a single organism. They flock together and move swiftly in a tight wave, bounding gracefully across the hills. The males are strictly territorial, protecting their patches of scrubby grass by day, then returning to the rockier heights as darkness falls.