A TAMBO. 



95 



commencement of the rainy season, (about the first of October,) and 

 the lightning frequently falls on a hill about four miles to the eastward 

 of the town, where the inhabitants say there is much loadstone. The 

 plain is about thirteen thousand feet above the level of the sea. It has 

 a gentle slope downwards from west to east. I found the difference in 

 elevation (by temperature of boiling water) between the villages of Junin 

 and Ninaccaca (the latter about twenty miles to the west of the former) 

 to be four hundred and forty-five feet. 



The road onward from Junin runs not far from the banks of the lake. 

 On the left we had the grand snow-covered domes and pinnacles of the 

 Western Cordillera sleeping in the sunlight, while clouds and storm 

 enveloped the Eastern. About 2 p. m., a breeze from the northward 

 brought some of the storm down upon us. It snowed fast ; the flakes 

 were small and round, like hail, but soft and white. The thermometer, 

 which was 54 at the commencement of the storm, fell, during its 

 continuance of ten minutes, to 46. We found an overcoat very com- 

 fortable. 



About fifteen miles from Junin we passed the village of Carhuamayo. 

 Here I saw the only really pretty face I have met with in the Sierra, 

 and bought a glass of pisco from it. The road between Junin and Car- 

 huamayo is a broad and elevated one, built of stones and earth by the 

 Spaniards. Without this the plain would be impassable in the rainy 

 season. Six miles further we stopped at the tambo of Ninaccaca. 



July 4. — The village of Ninaccaca, of two or three hundred inhabit- 

 ants, lies off to the right of the road, on which the tambo is situated, 

 about half a mile. I would have gone there, but I was desirous of 

 sleeping in a tambo, for the purpose of testing the accounts of other 

 travellers who complain so bitterly of them. We were fortunate 

 enough to have the tambo to ourselves, there being no other travellers ; 

 and I had quite as comfortable a time as in the alcalde's house at Pal- 

 camayo, or in that of the governor of Junin. My bed is generally 

 made on the baggage in the middle of the floor; while Ijurra takes to 

 the mud standing bed-places which are to be found in every house. 

 Last night I woke up, and finding him very uneasy, I asked " if he had 

 fleas up there." He replied, with the utmost sang-froid, and as if he 

 were discussing some abstract philosophical question with which he had 

 no personal concern whatever, that " this country was too cold for fleas, 

 but that his bed-place was full of lice." It made my blood run cold; 

 but long before I got out of the mouth of the Amazon I was effectually 

 cured of fastidiousness upon this or any similar subject. 



W^e were somewhat annoyed by the attentions of the master of the 



