To seal our reconciliation, they put us to bed on a couple of straw mattresses and brought us a couple of young women. “Here are two ponies you can ride all night,” we were told. It was a curious image that etched itself into my memory. In front of us were the two women, both barefoot and wearing several layers of skirts. The cold seemed not to bother them. They had the bright-red cheeks of people who live at great altitude. Both had the bowler hats that Quechua women affect and were holding them up in the air. They stood that way for a long time, perfectly still, as though made from a
...more
