The Laughing Mummies of the Puna

Puna winds cut the skin on face and hands, bringing thunder, lightning and snow daily for months.

Travellers frozen on the Puna are found undecayed, faces contorted into a horrid appearance of laughter.

The dry Puna wind mummifies a dead mule within days, leaving not even the entrails decomposed.

Cats cannot survive above 13,000 feet in the Andes, dying in convulsions within days of arriving.