This is a chicken in the nursery in Palca, which wears a pair of shoes.

Although I had severe headache, I couldn’t have a rest.  Roberto took us to the orchid nursery in Palca near Tarma.  There were nearly all orchids which I wanted to see and paint in Peru.  What I needed to do now was to find those orchids in the wild.

In the taxi on the way back to the hotel, I even felt very sick as well as headache.  Immediately after we arrived back to the hotel, I went to bed and slept without supper again, thinking “I can’t do anything with this severe headache.  I should escape from this pain.  I should go to San Ramón (800m 2625f) and stay there tomorrow….”
  

We left our luggage in a hotel room and went into the restaurant next door with Saul the guide and Roberto the driver. Although I hadn’t had supper and breakfast and this lunch would be the first meal since we arrived in Peru, I didn’t have appetite with severe headache. I ordered a chicken soup. It had lots of meat and noodle so I couldn’t eat much.

I ordered coca tea for the first time here. It is said to be good for the altitude sickness. There were a few coca leaves in a mug cup. It somehow reminded me of Japanese tea so I liked it.

Our hotel faced on this plaza.  It was on the right hand side of this postcard.  The view from the first floor window of this hotel was very nice and we did watch the festivals held in this square from here.  The room charge for a double room was s/52 (sols), which was about £8.60.  About 1700yen. 

People in this hotel seemed honest and also they changed bed linen everyday with clean, starchy ones.  Moreover…

Although we moved to another town for one night, because we stayed here for 6 nights after that, we had a discount from s/52 per night to s/45 per night.

(Tarma, from a postcard)

My headache was getting worse and worse since we had passed Ticlio, 4818m and when we eventually arrived in Tarma, I had very severe pain.  It was the altitude sickness.  When I went to both Mt Oku-Hodaka-dake (3190m 10466f) and Mt Kita-dake (3192m 10472f) in Japan, I was fine.  I wondered why it was.  Maybe it was because I climbed step by step and gained the height by myself.  Then why didn’t I have headache when I went to the mountains in Switzerland? 

I didn’t know the reason, however, this headache was so severe.  It seemed a right decision not to have breakfast now. 

We drove A20 north-east towards Tarma.  The mountains got closer to closer.  These mountains are not the mountains you can see even in Japan.  Much higher.  Mt Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan is 3776 metres (12388 feet).  These mountains along A20 in Peru are more than 4000 meters (13123 feet) – 5000 metres (16404 feet) in elevation. 

Not surprising when you find out that the highest mountain in Peru, Huascarán is 6768 metres (22205 feet) in elevation, which is nearly 3000 metres (9843 feet) higher than our Mt Fuji.  En passant, the highest mountain in the UK is Ben Nevis in Scotland which is 1345 metres (4413 feet) high.  The highest mountain in Wales is Mt Snowdon, 1085 metres (3560 feet) and the highest in England is Scafell Pike, 978 metres (3209 feet).

Among these high mountains occasionally cross the railways, though we hadn’t seen any train then.

“Please stop the car at Ticlio pass.  I would like to experience the thin air there in 4818 metres (15807 feet) in elevation.”

As soon as we arrived there, I got off the car.  Indeed you would notice the thinness of the air immediately.  You would feel very weak.  I wanted to take photographs there, but what I could only do was just to press the shutter, with my body leaning against the car.  Nothing else.  I got in the car immediately after that, as if I was escaping from something bad. 

Maybe with some psychological effect, I started to feel sick, although I had been completely fine until I got off the car at 4818 metres.    

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By the way, the railway occasionally crossed with the road is from Lima to La Oroya (3750m, 12303f) and there it is divided into two sections.  One line goes south-east to Huancayo (3271m, 10732f).  Another line goes north.  This railway is said to be the one which runs in the highest place in the world.  Construction started in the late 1800s and took 40 years to complete.  The main purpose of this line is to transport copper and zinc from mines in the Andes and also fruits of the earth and it runs once a day or so.   
 

Lima is about 154 metres (505 feet) in elevation, whereas today’s destination, Tarma is 3070 metres (10072 feet) in elevation.  It will take about 4 hours by car.  We need to pass the area around 4818 metres (15807 feet) in elevation.

Manolo’s mother, Eumelia suggested we shouldn’t have breakfast.  What?  We didn’t have supper last night and now, we should not have breakfast? 

We departed at 8 am.  We dropped in at one of PeruFlora’s nurseries in Lima and continued to travel to Tarma.

Lima is a city on the sea, however, the mountains are very close as well.  Moreover, the mountains which surround the city are not like the hill-like mountains in England but really proper mountains.  However, those mountains are like sand mountains which children would make using a bucket full of soil and sand and stones.  On there cacti grow.  They are also sand colour with a dust.

This photograph is of Saul, who guided us for next 10 days.  Without his nice smile and help, we would not have enjoyed this trip this much.