Winging It in the Andes of Peru

And come they do. There is much to please the eye at ground level. Rare Andean flowers abound in the mountain soil: gigantic puya raimondii rise from volcanic rock, their flowering stalks as tall as 30 feet. The waters of the Llanganuco Lakes sparkle a bright turquoise in the distance. At the Rataquenera Scenic Lookout, hikers are rewarded with a panoramic view of Huaraz and its yellow-flowered hills.

True veterans of Andean travel head for Huaraz, where from the comforts of the Swiss-run Hotel Andino or the Hotel El Tumi they can hike to the gorgeously colored canyon of Pucaventura. The more adventurous will attempt five- to seven-day treks into the icy reaches of Mount Huandoy or Alpamayo.

For all the physical beauty that this region offers, however, its residents have known their share of hardship. The geologic activity that created the mountains continues to haunt these ranges. In 1941, Lake Palcacocha broke its shores and flooded the northern half of Huaraz, killing 5,000 people. In 1962, the town of Ranrahirca was obliterated by an avalanche that tumbled from Huascaran. On May 31, 1970, an earthquake registering 7.9 on the Richter scale shook Huaraz, Carhuaz and Yungay to rubble.

Yungay suffered a double catastrophe when, even as its walls were crumbling, an ice-bound lake cracked open and spilled down, bringing a deluge of ice and rock that buried the city in a matter of minutes. The roofs of houses still bristle from the earth, as do the crowns of giant palms that once lined the main square. Dead now, those blackened branches make somber markers for the 70,000 people who were entombed alive in this region.

But the lure of the mountains is strong, and Andeans have long succumbed to it. The first evidence of "el hombre Andino" can be found in the Guitarrero cave, whose wall etchings and primitive implements date to 10,000 B.C. Here, too, is Chavin de Huantar, "umbilical of the world" -- a striking architectural ruin of a civilization that thrived from 800 to 200 B.C. and whose powerful religion continues to have a grip on the proud and resilient local people.

In the Archaeological Museum of Ancash in Huaraz, visitors can walk through a garden strewn with lita, stone sculptures of pumas and jaguars and human forms, carved during the Recuay empire, which thrived from 200 to 700 A.D. Throughout history, Andeans have worked this restless rock. Little wonder they continue to think of themselves as people who live at the center of things, poised at the vortex of a kinetic world.

As we flew over that gash of green between the jagged cordilleras, shivering in the sub-zero temperatures of our tiny craft, I couldn't help but note that our eyes were not necessarily drawn to the ancient ruins or the man-made structures that dimpled the valley beneath us. They were on the fuchsia lakes, the rock formations, the windswept dunes, and the way the Andes seemed to ride the blue haze that hung like a scrim on the far horizon. We were seeing the land not as human beings, but as great-winged birds. And beneath us, the spirit of the earth was awakening.

Marie Arana is editor of Book World and author of a memoir, "American Chica." Her novel, "Cellophane," set in the Peruvian Amazon, was published in June.