Millenary Andean Caravans

For more than 4,000 years, llama caravans have traveled over an extensive network of roads throughout the Andes. Ancient cultures such as the Tiwanacu, Wari, and the Inca, benefit with the use of llama caravans. Caravans made of thousands of llamas carrying goods to and from the main cities, maintained a trade relationship between long distance communities as far as the Amazon basin and the Pacific shore.

The Incas improved and extended the network of roads, the Qapaq Ñan, throughout the Andean Range and the western coast of South America. The Qapaq Ñan connected the four regions of the Inca Empire, called by them Tahuantinsuyo (the four quarters of the world), a territory that is currently shared by six countries in the region: Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, and Peru.

Nowadays, a few caravans of llamas still journey over the Andean Mountains, such as the Salt Caravan that carry the mineral from the Cotahuasi Valley, in Arequipa, to the region of Apurimac. This is a fourteen-day round trip, where about 20 llamas travel up to 20 Km a day carrying about 22 kilograms of cargo each. Travel agencies, in some parts of the country, offer tourist llama caravans for the trekkers as well.

A great way to reach the archaeological site of Chavin de Huantar, in the region of Ancash, is by joining a Llama Pack Trek, a caravan of llamas that crosses the Huascaran National Park on an Inca road. This is a moderate trek that takes travelers through beautiful landscapes over the highest tropical mountain range in the world.

http://mapaspects.org/projects/llama-caravan-2007/llama-caravan-2007-project-overview
http://www.llamapaedia.com/origin/domestic.html