Peru as It Is, Volume 1 (of 2): A Residence in Lima, and Other Parts of the Peruvian Republic, Comprising an Account of the Social and Physical Features of That CountrySmith, Archibald
History
Peru as It Is, Volume 1 (of 2): A Residence in Lima, and Other Parts of the Peruvian Republic, Comprising an Account of the Social and Physical Features of That Country
Smith, Archibald
Peru -- Description and travel
Account of another route between Pasco and Lima, by Junin,
Huaypacha, Pucara, Tucto.—Mines of Antacona, Casapalca,
Pomacancha, San Mateo, San Juan de Matucana, Surco, Cocachacra,
Santa Ana, and lastly, Chaclacayo.—Enumeration of a series
of rocks, as they appear in succession from the pass of the
Cordillera to the entrance into the Vale of Rimac.
The most frequented route between Lima and Pasco is that which we have
described in the foregoing chapter; but, before we offer any particular
account of Cerro Pasco, we may hastily run over the road which is
sometimes taken from this place to the capital during the heavy falls of
the periodical rains in the inland mountains, when several of the rivers
on the road by Canta are deep and dangerous rapids. This route across a
pass of the Cordillera at Tucto, near Yauli, is occasionally preferred,
as being shorter than the post-road by Tarma.
The traveller, who starts at an early hour from Cerro Pasco, passes
by the villages of Old Pasco and Carhuamayo, and arrives in good time
at the village of Junin, or Reyes. The ride is mostly by the lake of
Chinchaycocha, and on pampa or nearly level ground. From Junin, he,
on his second day’s journey, which is only counted as seven leagues,
traverses the spacious plain of the same name, so justly memorable in
the annals of South American independence, till he reaches that swampy
ground, and crosses the very defile, where, in the year 1824, the
Patriots were charged by the Spanish cavalry; and now, leaving this
field of glory behind, he crosses to Huaypacha along a hilly pastoral
district, with scarcely any regular footpath,—a circumstance which often
renders a guide necessary. The silver ore of Huaypacha is too poor in
the present day to allow its mines to be worked with spirit. Here the
principal metalliferous works are on the mine estate of Olevegoya and
the well-informed Don Miguel Otero; where also a considerable portion of
alcaser, or green barley, is raised as fodder for the cattle employed
at the works. The entrance into Huaypacha is highly picturesque, from
the striking configuration of the limestone rocks in which the silver is
deposited, and which overhang and everywhere surround this neat mining
village.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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