One of my favourite aspects of the Peruvian capital of Lima is the abundance of parks dotted around the city. I’m a big fan of green spaces to sit and chill out in while wandering around, and Lima has heaps of them! Including a beautiful one along the clifftops overlooking the ocean that stretches for kilometres.

However, Parque El Olivar de San Isidro is my favourite park in Lima for several reasons, and four of them are in this photo – tortugas!

The park contains numerous ponds, most of which have a resident population of turtles. Now I could tell you that this park also has adorably fluffy squirrels, or thousands of centuries-old olive trees (after which the park is named), or a wide range of bird species – but let’s be honest, you’re here for the turtles.

All of the articles online about this park seem obsessed with the colonial history of the olive trees – when they arrived (1560), how many survived the journey across the Atlantic (three), and what happened to the trees after Peruvian independence (a bunch got cut down but some survived).

But none of these articles address the real questions. When did the turtles arrive? How many turtles are there? Do the turtles get along with the squirrels, or do they see them as some kind of land-based threat to their autonomy?

So many questions, not enough answers…

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Turtles of Parque El Olivar, Lima, Peru