In 1806 I visited Caxatambo, the capital of a district, _partido_, bearing the same name. My route was by the _quebrada_, ravine of Barranca, which contains two large sugar plantations and several large farms. I rested the first night at Cochas, a small village, and was most hospitably treated by Don Manuel Requena, a man who had amassed considerable property by purchasing cattle in the interior and driving it down on the coast to fatten on lucern, for the Lima market. The following morning I began to wind up the ravine, which, after traversing the bridge of cords already described, becomes much narrower, sometimes so much so, that the passes are dangerous; a gallery is cut in the rock at one of them a hundred and seventy yards long, but so narrow, that it would be impracticable for two mules to pass each other; nor is it possible to make room in the emergency of meeting a traveller. On one side the mountain is either perpendicular, or it hangs over the heads of those who pass, threatening to fall and crush them; while on the other hand, about four hundred feet below the path, the river foams and roars as it descends towards the coast, having another lofty mountain on the opposite side. What man could travel on a road like this, and not shudder to hear the name of an earthquake mentioned; particularly when he looks on the broken and rugged rocks, and supposes that one of those dreadful convulsions of the earth may have opened the road on which he treads, and that such another shock would bury him in the ruins! Our mode of travelling would have been regarded in England as a curiosity; a friend and myself were mounted on two mules, with huge deep saddles covered with red woolly rugs, large wooden box stirrups, broad girths, and straps attached to the saddles both behind and before; these straps passed round the breasts and hams of the mules to prevent the saddles from slipping as we rode up and down the _cuestas_, some of which are exceedingly steep. I had two mules laden with my luggage; on the one was placed my mattress and bedding, put into a large leather case, called an _almaufres_; on the other were two _petacas_, or square trunks, made of untanned bullocks' hides, and curiously wrought with thongs of the same material. My comrade had two mules also laden in a similar manner; for, when travelling in any part of South America that I visited, it is almost always necessary to take a bed, because no inns or houses of accommodation are found on the roads, or even in the towns or cities. Our peon or muleteer generally followed the mules, while we proceeded on before; but on approaching a village or hamlet, the peon alighted, and tied the mules together, fastening the halter of one to the tail of another, to prevent them from straggling.