The next morning we were furnished fresh horses by our kind hosts, and accompanied by five or six of them, climbed out of the beautiful valley of Chincheros up to the heights of Bombon overlooking the river Pampas. Here in 1824, the patriot forces under General Sucre, marching along this road to Lima, encountered the Royalists under La Serna, trying to cut off their retreat. The advance guard of each army met on the 20th of November on the heights of Bombon. The Royalists were driven down into the valley and across the river Pampas.
After reaching the level of the river, our path followed the Pampas, down stream, in a northerly direction, for some distance among groves of mimosa trees and cacti. This is a famous place for mosquitoes, and there is said to be a great deal of malaria in the vicinity. The altitude is slightly over six thousand feet.
My interest in the Pampas valley was considerably increased by finding the trees and cacti covered with white land shells, some of them reminding me of those tree shells that I had gathered as a boy in the beautiful valleys of the Island of Oahu. I filled my pockets, and later spent the evening cleaning the shells, much to the amusement of my hosts. My labor was amply rewarded by finding, after reaching home, that among the shells were three new species which Dr. Dall, the Curator of the Division of Mollusks in the United States National Museum, has named and described.[7]
The bridge over the Pampas has long attracted the notice of travellers. The approach to it is at the foot of perpendicular cliffs. The surrounding scenery although not so imposing as that of the Apurimac is nevertheless magnificent. The bridge is about 150 feet long, and at the time of my visit, February, 1909, was 50 feet above the river. There are two pictures of the old bridge in Mr. Squier’s book, and although wire rope has replaced the old cables that the Incas made from maguey fibre, it is still the most unwelcome feature of the road from the point of view of the mules.
One of our mules simply would not cross the bridge. No amount of pushing and pulling, beating and shouting, would make him budge an inch. Finally he was blindfolded and a rope tied to each front leg. His hind legs were tied securely together, to prevent him from kicking, and by alternately pulling the ropes attached to his front feet, he was forced in a most ignominious manner to come onto the bridge and go a third of the way across. Then the ropes were loosened and the blind taken off.
We expected to see him turn and bolt for the nearest side but he was too frightened to do anything of the sort, and became at once most docile, and finished the trip in peace.