At daybreak on a freezing cold day high in the Andes, dozens of Peruvian peasants clamber up a mountainside to carry out a centuries-old tradition: shearing vicunas. For one week, every year, the peasants of Totoroma, a village 50 kilometres to the southwest of Lake Titicaca, join forces for the "chaccu", the round-up and shearing festival. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES