Andes Expedition

You wake up with the sun warming your tent. Relieved to feel the temperature rising after a long, cold night, you get out of your sleeping bag and begin to prepare for the day. First things first: you build a fire. As soon as the fire is strong, you put on water for tea and oatmeal. You and your teammates gather around the fire to keep warm while you eat and plan for the day.

Today you'll learn more about the people who live on Nevado Huascarán. To better understand the life and death of the Incan mummy your team is searching for, you must first understand the relationship between the mountain and the people who live there.

Thinking about a village you passed through on your way from Huaraz to Huascarán National Park, you start to wonder what it's like to live in a mountainous part of the world. You recall that the homes in this village were made of stones stacked tightly one atop another, like a stone wall. The roofs were covered in a long, brown, strawlike material, probably some type of grass. On the front side of many homes, corn was drying in bunches. Corn cobs with many different-colored kernals were tied together with a rope, hanging from long sticks. What do you think the corn is used for after it is dry?

Traditional circular house. Photo: Florencia Zapata

Local woman spinning wool. Photo: Florencia Zapata

Then you arrived in the town of Yungay, where the streets were crowded with brightly clad people and carts overflowing with sugarcane stalks and bananas. The sun was beating down so you bought some glacier ice to quench your thirst. Many people were wearing felt hats to protect themselves from the sun's rays. Women were selling these hats alongside knitted, woven, woolspun, and pottery items. They spoke Quechua, the traditional Incan language, which wasn't surprising because many of the mountain people are descendents of the Incas.

The marketplace. Photo: Jake Kosek

From Yungay you could identify where many of these products came from-the cultivated fields and the settlements on the slopes of Nevado Huascarán.

Now, as you climb from 3,000 feet (900 meters) to 6,000 feet (1,800 meters), you get to see them up close. Here, tropical plants, such as bananas, maize (or corn), and coffee are growing right next to the glaciers! Sugarcane, too.

Burros. Photo: Alton Byers

You must be approaching a settlement area because you start to see more and more women walking along rough tracks in the dirt with burros loaded down with goods. Since you don't speak Quechua, you ask Walter to find out where they are going. They are headed to a small hill town below where they will sell their products in the Sunday market. It is here where they will trade or barter for the things they cannot grow or produce enough of on their own.

Houses in the Andes. Photo: Alton Byers

Sure enough, you climb a little higher and come across a thatched mountain village, facing the sun. All of the settlements in the Andes are on this side of the mountain, taking advantage of the sun as a heat source. This is called solar heating. The huts in this village, where many herdsmen live, are simple structures, framed with poles and covered by wild grasses. Many of the poles have meat and other supplies hanging from them. Several dogs greet you as you approach the village.

Dairy cows and sheep are grazing beyond the huts. The dogs quickly lose interest in you and return to their post, protecting the livestock from being attacked by foxes or pumas (a relative of the lion). This is an important job because mountain people rely on the sheep for wool and the cows for fresh milk that is turned into butter, cheese, or cream and sold.

Men shearing wool from an alpaca. Photo: Florencia Zapata

One of the herdsmen, dressed in wool, introduces himself and invites you into his hut for a midday meal. He offers you milk, vegetables, meat, and cheese-all products from the surrounding land. Although this seems like a hearty meal, he explains that malnutrition is a big problem in mountain areas. In fact, many mountain children die from it. Food is scarce because only a few crops can be grown in the thin and rocky mountain soil. On top of that, much of the land has been damaged by overgrazing. He and his family eat what they grow or raise. The rest is brought to town to sell or trade.

During lunch, you think about the food you eat in your home back in the United States. Do you live in an agricultural area? What food is grown on the agricultural land surrounding your home? How do these foods compare to the food you have seen growing on Huascarán? You realize that what the herdsman is doing is similar to gardening. What does the word "gardening" mean to you? Do members of your family or community supplement their diets with food they have grown? What type of food plants do you or they grow?