106 Travels and Adventures 



even that they will scarcely admit of wheeled vehicles 

 passing along them, so that every kind of conveyance, 

 such as cabs, omnibuses, waggons, etc., is entirely 

 unknown in this mountain retreat. The houses are 

 principally one storey high, and the long streets, in 

 which the whole of the houses seem to have been 

 made from the same model, give the place an 

 appearance of dull sameness perfectly unbearable to 

 a European. But once inside the door of one of the 

 best of these houses everything is changed. The 

 apartments are built to open into a square or garden, 

 generally cooled by a splashing fountain, and planted 

 with innumerable sweet-smelling flowering shrubs and 

 gorgeous orchids. The largest hall or reception-room 

 takes up the whole of the square adjoining the street, 

 so that on the one side the windows overlook the 

 traffic and passers-by, while on the other side large 

 folding-doors open to a wealth of floral beauty. 

 These saloons are often most gorgeously furnished ■ 

 the richest gilding, the choicest pictures, carpets from 

 Persia and draperies from India, with an extravagance 

 in silver and bric-a-brac almost impossible to believe 

 could ever be found on the tops of the Andes. Two 

 sides of the square are taken up by the bedrooms, 

 which also open into this floral promenade, the 

 remaining side of the square being reserved for the 

 dining-room ; and on account of the perpetual mildness 



