Pablo Poncho lived high in the mountains of Peru with his sister, Maria, his mama and his papa. His grandmother, known as "abuela", also lived with the family.  Pablo's real name was Pablo Flores Quispe, but everyone called him Pablo Poncho because he was never seen without his brightly coloured poncho.  Pablo's mama had knitted his poncho for his birthday and she had used white alpaca wool, which she had then dyed in all the colours of the rainbow.

If you ever climb up into the mountains of Peru, you will need to wear something warm. When you are so high above sea level, the air becomes very thin.  This means that in the daytime the sun is warm, but at night the air turns icy cold. If you leave any food or water outside the house it gets frozen solid at night. Pablo was always amazed that wet fluid water could change to hard ice when it was frozen. Before he went to bed at night, Pablo liked to fill a bowl with water and leave it in the yard, just outside the door to his family's stone house. When he went out the next morning, he would turn the bowl upside down to check that the water had turned into ice. Pablo loved to break the ice with a stick and hold the pieces up to the sun so that they glinted and sparkled like diamonds.

Pablo's family looked after a herd of alpacas. An alpaca is a gentle animal, a bit larger than a sheep, with a long neck, soft fleece and dark brown eyes.  Pablo's papa made sure the alpacas had enough to eat, looked after them if they were ill, and cut their soft fleecy wool when it grew too long.  The alpacas didn't mind having their fleeces trimmed.  They felt much lighter, and could run faster, and their wool soon grew long again, just like the straight hair on Pablo's head. Pablo's mama and his abuela made the alpaca fleece into woollen thread. Then they knitted ponchos and jumpers and cardigans from the wool to sell at the market.  Pablo was very busy when he was not at school.  He helped his mama and abuela to wind the wool into balls; he went out gathering twigs and dry grass to burn in the stove, and he helped his papa to look after the alpacas.  Pablo's best friend was an alpaca, who was called Inti. He was a special alspaca because he had been very small and weak when he was a baby, and Pablo had looked after him and fed him extra milk from a bottle.  Pablo had chosen the name Inti, becuase it was the word for sun in the old Quechua language, and Pablo thought that Inti was a cheerful sunny name, which suited the little alpaca. Inti had lived in the yard outside the family's house while he was growing stronger, and Pablo had played with him every day.  When Inti had got old enough and strong enough to join the other alpacas, Pablo had felt sad.  But Inti had not forgotten Pablo, and came to look for him every morning at the entrance to the yard.  

One of Pablo's favourite jobs was to collect firewook from the mountains.  He loved to explore the mountains with Inti. Inti was made for climbing. His legs were strong and he could run up the slopes looking for sweet grass to eat. When Pablo tried to copy him, he would get out of breath, and shout “Inti, wait for me!” Inti would stop and eat some grass while Pablo clambered up the slope to reach him.

Sometimes they would climb so high that they would reach the snow. They loved to play in the snow. Pablo would always make a snow ball and he would try to run back down the mountain with the snowball in his hand to show his mama, his papa, and his baby sister Maria. Maria was just one year old, and had never been up the mountain to touch the snow.  Pablo knew that she would love it, but by the time he arrived home the snow had always melted and all he had to show his family was a wet hand!

Pablo wished that he had been born with four strong legs like Inti, so that he could bound and leap around the mountains, instead of stumbling slowly on his two spindly legs. If he had legs like Inti, then he would be able to race down the mountain to bring a snowball back for his baby sister.

One day, Pablo’s mama asked him to go and find some sticks to build a fire and she fastened a bag on Inti’s back so that he could carry the sticks. Pablo and Inti set off up the mountain together.