180 MODES OP TEAVELLING IN PEIW. Chap. XI. 



CHAPTEB XL 



JOUKNEY FKOM PUNO TO CEUCEKO, THE CAPITAL OF 

 CAKAVAYA. 



On April 7tli we left Puno on the road to the chinchona 

 forests of Caravaya. There are three modes of travelling in 

 Peru : one by purchasing all the required mules and employ- 

 ing servants ; the second, by hiring an arriero, or muleteer, 

 who supplies the mules at so much for the journey ; and the 

 third, by using the wretched animals which are provided at 

 the post-houses, and changing them at each stage, but this 

 can only be done on the main roads. The latter way, though 

 the least comfortable, is by far the most economical, and I 

 therefore determined to adoj^t it, yet I should probably have 

 hesitated had I known the trouble it would entail. I bought 

 a fine mule for a hundred dollars, with the gentle paso llano, 

 the easiest pace imaginable, for myself, and sent to the post- 

 house at Puno for beasts for Mr. Weir, the gardener who 

 accompanied me, and for the baggage. Four vicious- looking 

 brutes accordingly made their appearance, and we started ; 

 but no sooner had we reached the plain at the top of the zig- 

 zag path leading out of Puno to the north, than they all 

 ran away in different directions, kicking violently. After 

 hours of this kind of annoyance I at last got one of the 

 brutes into a corner of a stone-fenced field, but, just as I 

 was about to catch him, he gave a kick, jumped over the 

 wall, and went oft' again. It ended in our having to drag 

 the mules by their lassos until our arms were nearly torn 

 out of the sockets ; and thus we ignommiously entered the 



