The Adventures of Natividad and Toledo

Natividad has five children, including two sons who also like exploring in the mountains. His sons are called Melkiades (Melkie for short):

and Salsedo (Salsie for short):

Two of Nati's daughters (Reina and Lucinda) work in the family fields. Here they keep cows and sheep, and make excellent cheese.

As well as his own children, Nati and his wife Claudia also brought up six other orphan children whose own mother and father had died. Claudia and Nati now have 18 grandchildren to keep them busy as well. Here is one of them:

When he was young, Nati first worked as a farmer. However, when he was about 35 years old, people from other countries began to come to explore the mountains. Nati helped them, first by carrying loads of equipment as a porter, and later as a mountain guide.

Toledo has been Nati's companion in the mountains for many years.

At the end of a long day, Nati takes off Toledo's saddle. The horse's back is hot and sweaty from the hard work. Then Toledo likes to roll in the grass, to scratch his back and rub off the salt.

Toledo especially likes to eat ichu grass, that grows only in the high mountains. It tastes very good to horses, but it makes people all itchy, so Nati takes care not to touch it.

When he is with Nati, Toledo is usually very calm and obedient. But when they have stopped to camp for the night in the mountains, Toledo sometimes likes to go exploring by himself.

Then next morning when Nati wakes up, Toledo is nowhere to be found. Nati has to spend a long time searching for him, often muttering bad words to himself in Spanish.

Natividad is a kind man, and helps many people in the mountains. Here the way of life is very simple. The fastest form of transport is the horse, which only some people can afford.

The people still live in very small houses built of rocks. Roofs are made from the twisted wood of the quenal tree and reeds from the lakeside bundled into thatch.

The people eat the many different kinds of potatoes that can be grown high in the mountains. They look after their small herds of sheep and alpacas.

Alpacas look like sheep with long necks, but are actually related to camels (like llamas).