Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ANCIENT INDIAN
FOUNTAIN
In a settlement in
the Peruvian Andes.
Torrentialrainsbegantopourdown,andthemountaintrailsweresoonconvertedintorush-
ing streams that carried earth and loose stones with them, and often we had to wait until the
downpour ceased before we could proceed.
The guide pointed towards a mountainside that towered up into the sky like a wall, and it
seemed to me that he tried to make me understand that we would have to climb up there, but
as this looked like an impossibility to me I thought I must be misunderstanding him. Much
to my surprise our path led straight towards this formidable mountainside, and presently we
started up a neck-breaking path which had been partly hewn and partly worn out of the rocky
wall.ItwassosteepandslipperythatatfirstIconsidereditaphysicalimpossibilityforhorses
to climb up there, and when we finally came to the top I saw that another similar obstacle was
ahead of us. A traveller soon gets used to such disappointments in the Andes, for often, after
having reached what one thought would be the end of a long and weary climb, one sees an-
