Between Yauli and Pachachaca the way is difficult, and without an accurate knowledge of the route, the traveller is likely to lose his way, and may even incur the danger of sinking in the marshes which spread along the bank of the river. From Pachachaca a broad and gentle sloping valley conducts to La Oroya, a distance of about three leagues. In the range of mountains forming the southern boundary of this valley, the river winds its way through deep ravines. About half a league from Pachachaca there is a ford where the road divides; one division passing over the steep mountains of Yanaclara to Jauja, and the other running into the wild valleys of Huayhuay. Midway between Pachachaca and La Oroya there is a small, miserable Indian village called Saco, which is seldom visited by travellers, as it is difficult to procure in it the commonest necessaries of food. In this place there is a natural bridge across the river, which has worked out a bed for itself beneath the rocks. At several points along the course of this river I observed similar bridges of rock, but this one only is passable for horses.
La Oroya lies on the left bank of the river of that name, and communicates with the right bank by means of a large hanging bridge (Puente de Soga). These bridges are composed of four ropes (sogas) made of twisted cow-hide, and about the thickness of a man's arm. The four ropes are connected together by thinner ones of the same material, fastened over them transversely. The whole is covered with branches, straw, and roots of the Agave tree. On either side, a rope rather more than two feet above the bridge serves as a balustrade. The sogas are fastened on each bank of the river by piles, or riveted into the rock. During the long continuous rains these bridges become loose and require to be tightened; but they are always lower in the middle than at the ends, and when passengers are crossing them they swing like hammocks. It requires some practice, and a very steady head, to go over the soga bridges unaccompanied by a Puentero.[64] However strongly made, they are not durable; for the changeableness of the weather quickly rots the ropes, which are made of untanned leather. They frequently require repairing, and travellers have sometimes no alternative but to wait for several days until a bridge is passable, or to make a circuit of 20 or 30 leagues. The Puente de Soga of Oroya is fifty yards long, and one and a half broad. It is one of the largest in Peru; but the bridge across the Apurimac, in the province of Ayacucho, is nearly twice as long, and it is carried over a much deeper gulf.
Another curious kind of bridge is that called the Huaro. It consists of a thick rope extending over a river or across a rocky chasm. To this rope are affixed a roller, and a strong piece of wood formed like a yoke, and by means of two smaller ropes, this yoke is drawn along the thick rope which forms the bridge. The passenger who has to cross the Huaro is tied to the yoke, and grasps it firmly with both hands. His feet, which are crossed one over the other, rest on the thick rope, and the head is held as erectly as possible. All these preliminaries being completed, an Indian, stationed on the opposite side of the river or chasm, draws the passenger across the Huaro. This is altogether the most disagreeable and dangerous mode of conveyance that can possibly be conceived. If the rope breaks, an accident of no unfrequent occurrence, the hapless traveller has no chance of escaping with life, for being fastened, he can make no effort to save himself. Horses and mules are driven by the Indians into the river, and are made to swim across it, in doing which they frequently perish, especially when being exhausted by a long journey, they have not strength to contend against the force of the current.
The village of Oroya, about a quarter of a mile from the bridge, is built on a declivity, and according to Maclean's calculation is 12,010 feet above the level of the sea. It contains fifty-one miserable huts, which are the habitations of about two hundred Indians. From Oroya several roads branch off into the different mountain districts. The most frequented is that over the level height of Cachi-Cachi to Jauja. Along this road there are extensive tracts of ground covered with calcareous petrifactions. Another road leading to Tarma passes by the ancient Inca fortress Huichay. A third, and much frequented road is that by way of Huaypacha, and from thence to Junin and Cerro de Pasco.
FOOTNOTES:
[52] All these calculations are by English feet.
[53] Jardine and Selby's Annals of Natural History.
[54] Nivelacion barometrica desde el Callao hasta Pasco, por el camino de Obrajillo, y desde el mismo lugar hasta la capital por via de Tarma, hecha y calculada por Mariano Eduardo Rivero y Usturitz in Memorial de Ciencias naturales, &c.
[55] Darwin's Journal, p. 350
[56] The Spaniards term this plant Uña de gato (Cat's-claw), the stalk being furnished with hooked thorns resembling claws.