High, Higher, Highest

Photos:
*Bottle on the right capped at summit of Ticlio Pass, Normal (empty) bottle at left. No wonder it was hard to breathe!
*Rob at the summit
*In the high country east of the Andes summit
*Vegetation increasing as we head toward the Amazon
*The "selva" (jungle) with it's incredible vegetation.
*Behind our hotel in La Merced.
*Our hotel: Presidente de la Selva.
*Llamas and sheep (2 photos).
*Cerro de Pasco

This week we boldly went where no man has gone before. Okay, maybe not quite that, but certainly higher than we had ever gone before. Our assignment took us to La Merced in Junin province and Yanacancha, Cerro de Pasco, Pasco province. To get there we ascended the Andes by the Central Highway, which actually passes near our apartment on the way to the Andes.

As we climbed higher and higher, the air got thinner and thinner. When we reached the summit of Ticlio Pass at 15,807 feet above sea level (three miles high.  Well, 2.99375 miles to be precise) it was evident that we were "not in Kansas anymore" as Dorothy would put it. I capped an empty water bottle at the summit so when we returned home I could see how much less air there actually was at that "low point" through the Andes Mountains on the highway.

As we travelled this highway in the eastern high country, Rob noticed a beautiful clear stream with lots of trout farms using it as a water source. He asked our driver if any of the trout ever escaped and if they might be found in the river. He was told that fishing was quite good in the river. Might be worth braving the lack of oxygen again to see if any of them like artificial flies--at least Rob thinks so. There is another senior missionary who is an avid fly fisherman so maybe we can do an "exchange" on P-day some time and he can be Rob's companion for the day.

The farther east we travelled the greater the vegetation coverage since there is more moisture that arrives from the Atlantic Ocean via the Amazon Jungle. It was interesting to see the changes that came with both altitude and distance toward the Atlantic.

La Merced is firmly in the "selva" and is a lot like Hawaii. A very pretty place, though it is usually warmer than the Hawaiian Islands. Much of the orange production of Peru comes from the areas around La Merced. Avocados, pineapples and numerous other fruits grown in the region could be seen in the fruit stands that lined the highway.

After finishing our assignment in La Merced, we continued our journey to Cerro de Pasco for another assignment to evaluate a school project. Cerro de Pasco sits at 14,380 feet above sea level, one of the largest cities of its size at such a high elevation. The highway found us passing through the Pampas de Junin (the plains of Junin) where we saw numerous flocks of llamas and sheep mixed together.

We saw mostly potatoes and grains being raised here with lots of pastureland grazed by flocks of llamas and sheep. From a distance they look very much alike while grazing, but when the heads are up and the long necks tower above the sheep, the camelid nature of the llamas is readily visible and they are easily distinguishable.

Cerro de Pasco is a mining town. There is a large open pit mine on the edge of town that has been swallowing the town for years a little bit at a time. I think the lake in the center of town is the pit of a former mine. Wonderful people here, and yes, the air is thin. It was very noticeable while climbing stairs or ascending a roadway.  We got hailed on during a brief storm when we were in one schoolyard. This is definitely not Lima.