The patch of green, when it suddenly appears between the dull desert mountains, is so intense it’s almost painful to the eyes. The valley reveals itself, as though by a conjuring trick, with its poplar trees, neat patches of farm land, and most important of all, the gushing great mountain-fed river Tambo.
As I set out across the fields a network of irrigation channels appears, small Andean birds flit between the trees, and a group of women in straw hats comes into view, working in the middle of a watery rice paddy.
