South American Travels (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE OROYA HINTERLAND I ONCE met a lady who told me that she had been "all through Asia." After a minute catechism of her, I found out that the extent of her travels in that continent amounted only to the railroad trip from Beirut to Damascus, most of which was done after nightfall. Now, the average traveler to Peru visits Lima only, and, after a sojourn in that city for anywheres from a few days to a week, he returns to his native land and tells to his admiring friends about the wonders he saw in Peru. To visit Lima without a trip to Cerro de Pasco, or at any rate to Oroya, is like being at Gardner, Montana, without making a visit to the Yellowstone. Many people make the former journey, especially the mining man, and the commercial traveler, but the tourist, frightened by exaggerated tales of soroche, prefers the life of ease and luxury always to be had at Lima. One of these individuals who preferred not to run any risk of soroche was none other than Mr. Haggin, president of the Cerro de Pasco Company, who, although it would seem to be his duty to visit the mining properties of the company of which he was president, preferred not to endure the imaginary hardship, and remained in Lima, while his colleague, Mr. C. V. Drew, made the ascent. The excuse given out for Mr. Hagginnot making the ascent was that he had just passed through a severe sickness. Now unless the sickness is pulmonary, rare mountain air ought to be beneficial. There is absolutely no hardship in making the ascent to the Hill, as Cerro de Pasco is styled by the Anglo-Saxon residents. One enters a parlor car at Lima at 6.30 A.m., and thirteen hours later is at the terminus of the line, after having passed through some of the most remarkable scenery in existence. I have read many books of Andean tr...