Peru May 17, 2019

Andean Isolation

by Christoph von Ruexleben

Comunidad de Pampamarca, Peru

4,806.76 miles from San Francisco

Have you ever felt alone?

Solitude has been called the most “companionable companion”. But it can also be it can also be pins and needles on the mind, scratching and stabbing at your soul.

What if you had to be alone?

The only option presented to some of the purest souls that roam this world is to suffer to improve the lives of those they care about. In Peru, this happens with great regularity and little pity. We met such a man, a good soul, who suffered under the vise-grip of isolation every day such that his wife and 6 children – ranging from 3 to 16 years old – could live a better life.

Esteban lives a few kilometers outside of a one road town called Comunidad de Pampamarca. Set along the 30A, a two-lane, paved thoroughfare, the town consists of humble, partially-built homes with roofs made from sheet metal. Rocks and tires have been placed on top of the thin metal sheets,



the weight of which provides enough downward force that the ever-present wind can’t deprive the homes of their shelter. There are quite clearly few inhabitants, and the altitude is a towering 13,900 feet. Pampamarca is windswept and bitterly cold on a summer day. In the winter, it’s a place of fierce, stinging air. A place of barren, lifeless pampa. The exception is the ubiquitous vicuña, that trot through the high alpine grass with remarkable grace, appearing unaffected by conditions that would humble even the toughest mountain goer. Locals here make their living from domesticating and farming llamas. Their unique, camelid strength provides value as a beast of burden, a tradition carried on from Incan times, and their fiber and tough meat are used for textiles and food. Beyond its inherent harshness, Pampamarca has proven an especially inhospitable place for Esteban. His family of seven lives 250 miles away – in Huamanga – an 8-hour journey and several thousand

📌 Andean Isolation (Perú)
🏢 Road Dialogues
📍 Perú