CHAPTER VII.
Itinerary—Tingo Maria—Vampires—Blow-guns—Canoe navigation—Shooting monkeys—Tocache—Sion—Salt hills of Pilluana.
The following table gives the distance between Lima and the head of canoe navigation on the Huallaga river:
| From Lima to Chaclacayo | 18 miles |
| " " to Santa Ana | 10 " |
| " " to Surco | 18 " |
| " " to San Mateo | 18 " |
| " " to Acchahuarcu | 13 " |
| " " to Morococha | 12 " |
| " " to Oroya | 17 " |
| " " to Tarma | 16 " |
| " " to Palcamayo | 15 " |
| " " to Junin | 18 " |
| " " to Carhuamayo | 15 " |
| " " to Cerro Pasco | 20 " |
| " " to Caxamarquilla | 15 " |
| " " to San Rafael | 15 " |
| " " to Ambo | 20 " |
| " " to Huanuco | 15 " |
| " " to Acomayo | 14 " |
| " " to Chinchao | 16 " |
| " " to Chihuangala | 20 " |
| " " to La Cueva | 20 " |
| " " to Tingo Maria | 10 " |
| 335 " |
This distance of three hundred and thirty-five miles may be shortened twenty-eight by going direct from Lima to Cerro Pasco. (We passed round by Tarma.) The traveller will find that the distance is divided in the table into days' journeys nearly. Thus it will cost him, with loaded mules, twenty-one days to reach the head of canoe navigation on the Huallaga by this route, and nineteen by the other. The last thirty miles between Chihuangala and Tingo Maria are travelled on foot, though there would be no difficulty in opening a mule-road.
Any number of mules may be had in Lima at a hire of about seventy-five cents a day. I paid more; but this was to be expected, for I bargained with the muleteers that they were to stop where I pleased, and as long as I pleased. The feed of a mule will average twelve and a half cents per day. The load is two hundred and sixty pounds.
It would be difficult to persuade a muleteer to take a traveller all the distance. They do not like to leave their own beat, and the traveller has to change his mules, on an average, every hundred miles.
The passage of the Cordillera at the season of the year when we crossed is neither very tedious nor laborious. In fact, we enjoyed much the magnificent scenery; we were pleased with the manners and habits of a primitive people; and we met hospitality and kindness everywhere. In the season of the rains, however, the passage must be both difficult and dangerous.
August 2.—Tingo Maria is a prettily-situated village, of forty-eight able bodied men, and an entire population of one hundred and eighty-eight. This includes those who are settled at Juana del Rio and the houses within a mile or two.
The pueblo is situated in a plain on the left bank of the river, which is about six miles in length, and three miles in its broadest part, where the mountains back of it recede in a semi-circle from the river. The height above the level of the sea is two thousand two hundred and sixty feet. The productions of the plain are sugar-cane, rice, cotton, tobacco, indigo, maize, sweet potatoes, yuccas, sachapapa, or potato of the woods, (the large, mealy, purple-streaked tuberous root of a vine, in taste like a yam, and very good food.) The woods are stocked with game—such as pumas, or American tigers; deer; peccary, or wild hog; ronsoco, or river hog; monkeys, &c. For birds—are several varieties of "curassow," a large bird, something like a turkey, but with, generally, a red bill, a crest, and shining blue-black plumage; a delicate "pava del monte" or wild turkey; a great variety of parrots; with large, black, wild ducks, and cormorants. There are also rattlesnakes and vipers. But even with all these, I would advise no traveller to trust to his gun for support. The woods are so thick and tangled with undergrowth that no one but an Indian can penetrate them, and no eyes but those of an Indian could see the game. Even he only hunts from necessity, and will rarely venture into the thick forest alone, for fear of the tiger or the viper. There are also good and delicate fish in the river, but in no great abundance.