Sheep Clean up in the Andes

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SHEEP CLEAN UP

We left the Andean village of Tanta behind and started the return back to Lima. The road begins to climb again to the next high pass before the road down to the coast and Huarochiri.
At 100 yards from the road, we saw a lot of people, which is not usual if we have in mind that in the Andes people live in vast areas, so we got approached, asked for permission to stay and shoot cameras, and then and spend some time with them observing the bath of their sheep.
The truth is that people do some job in a communitarian way for many things, help with kettles, land, houses, and water, so they join one day to do some of these things and that day only they were cleaning up their flock doing each one a different job, pushing the animals thru a corridor and throwing them to the water to finally, all wet, being gathered into a fence.
I think that if I were a sheep, I absolutely would resist jumping into the water, the idea of being wet at 4,600 mt of altitude must be not an amazing idea, even for a sheep.

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Written and photographed by Jaime Quiroz Tirado

sheeps bath
sheeps bath
TANTA COMUNIDAD 0056
TANTA COMUNIDAD 0059

Dejamos atrás Tanta, y empezamos a regresar hacia Lima. El camino vuelve a subir al siguiente abra, antes que inicie el descenso hacia la costa rumbo a Huarochirí.
A unos 100 metros de la pista había gente, cosa rara si pensamos que en los Andes la población es dispersa, así que nos acercamos con curiosidad y luego de pedir permiso pasamos un rato observando como hacen el baño de sus ovejas.
Y es que cada cierto tiempo se reune la comunidad para trabajos comunales, uno de ellos es bañar al ganado, así que mucha gente, cada quien con una función distinta, empujan al ganado por un camino y los lanzan al agua de donde salen mojados y limpios.
Lo cierto es que si fuese una oveja, también me resistiría al baño, eso de meterte al agua en medio de la nada a 4600mt de altitud debe ser bien frío.
Buen viaje!