The great alpaca adventure

This morning I - quite by accident - visited one of Cajabamba's biggest tourist attractions: Laguna Quengococha. The lake is enormous, even now at the end of the dry season, and situated at around 3800 meters (12,500 feet) above sea level amidst mountains on all sides.

What is interesting about this lake being a "main tourist attraction" is that it lies at the end of an hour-and-a-half-long car ride along a miserably bumpy dirt road. Horseback or on foot might be more pleasant ways of arriving at Quengococha, but it'd be a pretty long day excursion - the community economic development volunteer part of me couldn't help but think about opportunities for improvement here. However, the journey is totally worth the effort, as even the entrance road offers nonstop views of mountains and farmlands.

When I left my house this morning, I did not know I'd be checking Quengococha off my secret tourist to-do list. Rather, my socio Carlos had invited me to accompany him to visit a community whose alpacas were sick and in need of some advice. He told me it was at high altitude, and that it'd be pretty, so I thought, why not? I hadn't seen any alpacas in Cajabamba yet, and I figured it'd be a fun excursion.  

It turned out that the precise location of these ailing alpacas was not exactly certain. Along the drive up, we stopped at three different farmhouses to ask if the owners knew where to find "the alpacas of Micma." Then we hit the lake, the road ended, and we got out to start the real adventure. Based on the directions of a passing horseman, we followed a trail along the lake's edge, hiking on in hunt of the elusive alpacas.

While we ran into all sorts of farm animals along the way, the coolest were the high-altitude pigs - they have fur! This fuzzy fellow was obviously way too busy having lunch to greet us.

For over an hour, we continued onward in our search, putting the lake far in the valley behind us.

Eventually, we side-tracked from the trail when we found this pampa, encircled by hills on all sides.

This seemingly oddly-placed flat area was in fact part of the same water system as the lake, but during the dry season the water reduces to flowing through small channels like this one:

We jumped across channel after channel as we crossed the pampa, and had to skirt around some areas where the ground was still totally saturated with water. But, on the far side of the plain, we at last spotted the alpacas! I was slightly amazed that we actually found them, but I guess I should have a little more faith in campo directions :)

Used to a life of freedom and grazing where they wish, the herd promptly started to move out when we three humans intruded on their party. None of them looked too sickly to me, but I think we all know how much of an expert I am when it comes to alpacas. The morning proved to be a wonderful adventure - one of those times that reminds me why I joined Peace Corps and why a volunteer's "work" can be just plain awesome.