cone of
Mt. Sarasara, now relatively close at hand, its lower slopes separated
from us by another canyon. Snow lay in the gulches and ravines near
the top of the mountain. Our road ran near the towns of Pararca
and Colcabamba, the latter much like Colta, a straggling village of
thatched huts surrounded by hundreds of terraces. The vegetation on
the valley slopes indicated occasional rains. Near Pararca we passed
fields of barley and wheat growing on old stone-faced terraces. On
every hand were signs of a fairly large population engaged in
agriculture, utilizing fields which had been carefully prepared
for them by their ancestors. They were not using all, however. We
noticed hundreds of terraces that did not appear to have been under
cultivation recently. They may have been lying fallow temporarily.

Our arrieros avoided the little towns, and selected a camp site on the
roadside near the Finca Rodadero. After all, when one has a comfortable
tent, good food, and skillful arrieros it is far pleasanter to spend
the night in the clean, open country, even at an elevation of 12,000
or 13,000 feet, than to be surrounded by the smells and noises of an
Indian town.

The next morning we went through some wheat fields, past the town
of Puyusca, another large Indian village of thatched adobe houses
placed high on the shoulder of a rocky hill so as to leave the
best arable land available for agriculture. It is in a shallow,
well-watered valley, full of springs. The appearance of the country
had changed entirely since we left Cotahuasi. The desert and its
steep-walled canyons seemed to be far behind us. Here was a region of
gently sloping hills, covered with terraces, where the cereals of the
temperate zone appeared to be easily grown. Finally, leaving the grain
fields, we climbed up to a shallow depression in the low range at the
head of the valley and found ourselves on the rim of a great upland
basin more than twenty miles across. In the center of the basin was
a large, oval lake. Its borders were pink. The water in most of the
lake was dark blue, but near the shore the water was pink, a light
salmon-pink. What could give it such a curious color? Nothing but
flamingoes, countless thousands of flamingoes--Parinacochas at last!

CHAPTER IV

Flamingo Lake

The Parinacochas Basin is at an elevation of between 11,500 and
12,000 feet above sea level. It is about 150 miles northwest of
Arequipa and 170 miles southwest of Cuzco,