Lampa, twenty-four kilometres away, is known in Peru as the Pink City, and it gives you a place to orient this high, windswept stretch of the altiplano north of Lake Titicaca. The Inca road passed through this country as part of the Qhapaq Ñan, tying Cusco to the Collao plateau, and the segment from Q'omer Moqo, a name that means something like green hillock in Quechua, to Nicasio crosses plains of tall grass, small farms and broad skies.
The land here is quieter than around the lake. Sheep, alpacas and cattle graze on thin soils, adobe houses sit behind low stone walls, and potatoes, quinoa and barley grow in small plots in the short wet season. Clouds build over the distant ranges in the afternoon, thunder rumbles and, on some days, a rainbow arches over the plain. The sky is huge. At this altitude, around 3,900 metres, a sunburn is easy to get and so is a cold.
Lampa itself is worth a pause. Its main square is surrounded by pale stone buildings and holds a large church whose interior is full of colonial paintings, with an unusual replica of Michelangelo's Pietà and, below, catacombs. The area also has deep roots in pre-Inca history. Not far to the north, the site of Pukara was the centre of a civilisation that flourished over two thousand years ago, and little ceramic bulls from the nearby village, the toritos de Pucará, still sit on rooftops across the Andes for luck.
Roads are paved on the main routes and gravel on side tracks, with potholes, livestock and dust. Speed bumps in villages can be sudden. Local drivers in shared taxis and trucks are quick, so keep right and stay alert. Fuel is available in Lampa, a town of nearly five thousand, but supplies are small, and Juliaca, the big regional hub, has plenty.
Weather in the dry season, May to September, is clear, cold and bright; between December and March, rain turns gravel roads to mud and fills the rivers.