36 The Andes and the Amazon. 



rived at a miserable hut in the heart of the mountains, tired 

 and hungry, after traveling all day without any other com- 

 panion than the arriero, to receive a warm-hearted wel- 

 come, the best, perhaps the only chair or hainmock offered 

 to me, the fattest chicken in the yard killed on my account, 

 and more than once they have compelled me by force to 

 take the only good bed, because I must be tired, and should 

 have a good night's rest. A man may travel from one end 

 of the Andes to the other, depending altogether on the 

 good people he meets." 



At Bodegas travelers take to mules or horses for the 

 mountains, hiring one set for Guaranda and another at 

 that village for Quito ; muleteers seldom allow their ani- 

 mals to pass from one altitude to the other. These arrie- 

 ros, or muleteers, form a very important class in Ecuador. 

 Their little caravans are the only baggage and express 

 trains in the republic ; there is not a single regularly estab- 

 lished public conveyance in the land. The arrieros and 

 their servants (peons) are Indians or half-breeds. They 

 wear a straw or felt hat, a poncho striped like an Arab's 

 blanket, and cotton breeches ending at the knees. For 

 food they carry a bag of parched corn, another bag of 

 roasted barley-meal (mashka), and a few red peppers. 

 The beasts are thin, decrepit jades, which threaten to give 

 out the first day ; yet they must carry you halfway up the 

 Andes. The distance to the capital is nearly two hundred 

 miles. The time required is usually eight or nine days ; 

 but officials often travel it in four. 



We left Bodegas at noon. It was impossible to start 

 the muleteer a moment earlier, though he had promised to 

 be ready at seven. Patience is a necessary qualification in 

 a South American traveler. In our company were a Jesuit 

 priest, with three attendants, going to Riobamba, and a 

 young Quito merchant, with his mother — the mother of 



