pulled together, and tied. This formed a 
corral around the mid-sections of the 
bunched llamas; a second rope was then 
wrapped around the herd at the knee 
level. While one of us remained on the 
outside, circling the corral to prevent 
escapes, the others climbed inside the 
ropes and, using shorter pack ropes, 
linked small groups of adjoining animals 
by binding their necks together. When 
all the llamas were bound into clusters 
of four to six, we could remove the 
outside restraint ropes and begin the 
loading. Scurrying back and forth be- 
tween the stacked cargo and the waiting 
llamas, each drover tied his loads onto 
the backs of the pack animals with a 
slipknot. When a cluster had been 
loaded, the rope binding their necks was 
released and they were allowed to graze. 
Lastly, the camp utensils were loaded on 
the burros, the llamas united, and the 
caravan set off for the day. The whole 
procedure usually took us one hour. 
Unloading was done in the same man- 
ner until the llamas became habituated. 
Then it could be accomplished without 
ropes, simply by forming the animals 
into a mass and darting in and jerking 
the slipknots loose with one hand while 
lifting the cargoes off with the other. 
This technique enabled us to unload in 
less than twenty minutes. Once un- 
loaded, the scattered packs and tie ropes 
had to be gathered and arranged. Each 
drover on a caravan not only recognizes 
his own animals but can also identify his 
own cargo bags and ropes. Each man 
usually tends to his own tasks before 
helping a fellow drover with his. 
Before being stacked, bags were in- 
spected for holes, tears were sewn, the 
straw that protected the blocks was re- 
distributed, and frayed ropes were re- 
placed. We then stacked the cargo in 
piles to form a windbreak, and laid out 
bedding on the sheltered side. This 
done, one person was sent for water, 
while another prepared a crude fire- 
place. Only then would we take a rest 
break, eating a snack of flour mixed 
with water and sugar. Immediately 
afterward, everyone spread out to 
gather sagebrush or dried dung for the 
fire. 
Once the sun went down, the winter 
chill came rapidly upon us. Huddled 
around the cook’s fire, we would eagerly 
await our first meal since breakfast. For 
both meals we had lahua , a stew made 
of flour, lard, water, salt, fresh and 
freeze-dried potatoes, and an occasional 
slice of carrot or onion. A piece of dried 
meat bone would be added to the pot for 
stock. Gregorio and Sergio took turns 
cooking. The diet was monotonous, but 
hunger made us lap up the last drop. 
Supper over, the voluble Sergio would 
discourse in Aymara until chill or fa- 
tigue drove everyone to bed. Once we 
had left the plateau and entered the 
eastern Andean mountains through a 
series of passes, the extreme cold pre- 
vented a sound sleep. Intermittently 
dozing and conversing, we would pass 
the night. Everyone slept fully clothed, 
wearing two pairs of pants and a jacket. 
On our route we sometimes followed 
roads passable by truck and bordered by 
homesteads and fields. At other times 
we took shortcuts over wind-swept 
knolls along trails made by years of 
human and animal passage. Yet even in 
the coldest, most barren regions, there 
were signs of human habitation. We 
observed circular huts of straw or rock 
used by isolated herders, tiny potato 
patches tended by aged men, and 
women carrying infants on their backs 
in a blanket tied over the shoulder. 
As we wound through trails cut 
through rock crevices so narrow the 
packs would scrape on either side, we 
noticed droplets of blood spattered on 
the rocks. The blood was from llamas 
whose feet had been cut on the jagged 
surfaces. At night we would tackle the 
animals with the worst wounds and treat 
them. With me holding the animal on its 
side, Hilario would urinate into a can 
and pour the urine into the cuts as 
disinfectant. Gregorio would then use a 
knife to pry out chunks of gravel from 
the moistened wound. Once they were 
cleaned out, he would squeeze daubs of 
llama lard into the open cuts. Both men 
would then work together to slip each 
claw of the cloven hoof through slits in a 
four-inch square of llama hide. Thongs 
were then run through holes punched on 
each comer and the “sandal” was bound 
to the animal’s foot. 
On May 31 we began to enter the 
valley that was our destination, although 
the transition was not a clear one. In- 
stead, there was a series of canyons that 
we had to drop into and then climb out 
of. Morning might find us in a warm, 
narrow river canyon where peach trees 
grew, while in the afternoon, we would 
be a thousand feet above it on a grassy, 
wind-swept knoll where only flocks of 
sheep and llamas grazed. Both men and 
animals being weary, it was with great 
relief that we reached the temperate 
valley floor on June 5. Now it was fleas, 
not the cold, that plagued us at night. 
We camped on the banks of the Mos- 
cari River, which we followed down- 
stream toward our destination. On June 
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69 
