Andesu shônen Pepero no bôken

Pepero, a 10 year-old boy of a small Andean town, decides to go after his father's steps, who had been missing for some years after he went in search of the mythical city of El Dorado to help the people of the town who had fallen in poverty. Pepero later has a sighting of a golden condor and then finds two weary travelers: an elder named Titicaca, and an amnesiac girl named Kana. Both of them seem to have clues to find the way to El Dorado. Even though his mother doesn't approve, Pepero, Kana and Titicaca begin a long and perilous voyage towards the legendary City of Gold.

At their first stop at the next village, they find a teenager named Azteco. He has to find food and support to his mother and little brothers, so sometimes he has to steal things from others. After convincing from not doing it again, Azteco joins the travelers hoping to find a better future for his family.

On their 3rd. day of journey, Pepero and his friends have an encounter with Chuchu, a little boy who works as an acrobat at a small circus. He had joined the circus in the hope of finding his long lost sister (due to the fact that his mother had died some years ago). After realizing he had been exploited, Chuchu disses his work at the circus and joins the adventure to find El Dorado with his new friends.

After a rough journey through a dry land and a sandstorm, the group of explorers reach a group of abandoned ruins (most likely Tiwanaku). The next day they find a huge lake (possibly Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world). Since it is too wide to be surrounded by foot, they take a couple of traditional boats to cross it. But new and menacing dangers await for them up there.

Shortly before reaching the city of Cuzco, Kana is bitten on the leg by a poisonous snake while trying to rescue her squirrel friend Chyra (which in reality is a chinchilla, a rodent that lives in the high altitudes of the Andes). Pepero and Azteco rush to Cuzco to find some help. They hear about an old man who knows where to find a rare flower that can cure snake bites. The old man tells them that the flower grows under the snows on the top of a high mountain near the city. Time is running out while Kana fades away and plays her quena (Andean flute) in hopes to guide Pepero and Azteco where she is lying, hidden under the thick mist.

As they reach an old hanging bridge over a cannon, Pepero and Azteco begin to argue about how to lead the expedition to El Dorado. As a result, Azteco abandons the group. Chuchu follows him telling the others he'll try to convince Azteco to return with them. As they wait over the bridge, another traveler warns them that Azteco and Chuchu are in imminent danger because they decided to travel through the river on a small wooden raft and there are strong river rapids ahead. Kana and Pepero must go to the rescue after them.

This episode shows us all the great perils that Pepero and his friends must confront as they pass through the Oriental Mountains on their way to El Dorado: hailstorms, fragile hanging bridges over deep cannons, snowstorms and avalanches. They are relieved after spotting a condor (thinking at first it was the Golden Condor) and finding a safer passage between the mountains.

Pepero's group passes a dusty and windy cannon when Chuchu spots a group of eagles trying to catch a small cougar cub. Chuchu helps the cub and takes it with him to cure its wound. Little do they know that the little cougar's mom is looking after her cub. Will the puma thank the strangers who helped her son, or will she attack them as any other prey?

Pepero and his friends reach a town that was abandoned due to the fiery eruptions of a nearby volcano (which seems to be El Misti). They also rescue an old man who tried to give the volcano a sacrifice of corn to calm its fury and was about to be burned by a sudden eruption. Later, while lying in his bed, Titicaca asks the old man why he intended to give that volcano a sacrifice. He answers them that inside the crater of the volcano there is an old temple that contains hidden clues about how to find El Dorado. After hearing Kana playing a melody with her quena (flute), the old man recognizes it as one melody played by a person who had been on El Dorado. When he is told that Kana has lost her memory, the old man (who seems to be a shaman) replies that he can prepare a beverage that can help her view her past like in a hypnotic trance, but warns that it might be a dangerous and traumatic experience for her. Advice given, Kana still accepts to submit to the powers of the mysterious beverage. After taking the drink, Kana lies down as she starts screaming like if someone is capturing her. Shadowy images of dark hooded men that grab her and tie her up before throwing her into a water whirlpool appear on her mind. She later finds herself lying down near a river shore waking up and staring at a gigantic stone statue. Kana awakens from her trance crying and in tears. While she rests, Pepero and Azteco get into a fight because Azteco complained that Kana's visions didn't helped much to find their way to El Dorado. Kana is awakened by the fight and sees all the trouble she has caused. The next day she wakes up very early, leaving everyone behind and starts climbing the volcano alone to find the temple. She finds it, but right after recognizing a group of small monoliths the volcano erupts again making the temple to crumble over her. Pepero, Chuchu and Azteco get right on time to rescue her from the rubble and the increasing lava flow. When they finally reach a safe place, Kana shows them the small monolith she had rescued from the temple, telling them that she had seen one of those in her dreams and quick flashbacks of when she had lived in El Dorado. Could that mean that they are getting closer to the fabulous city?

The group lead by Pepero arrive to a fertile valley between the Andes (possibly Arequipa) where they find a group of horse herders who are having trouble trying to capture a white stallion and his mare. The owner of the land offers them food and shelter in exchange for capturing the horse. With an ingenious tactic, Pepero finally jumps onto the horse's back, tames him and delivers him to the herders. As the group leaves, the landowner tries to ride the white horse. But it just goes wild and runs towards the trail that Pepero and his friends had followed. When the group get near a river, they spot the white horse's mare being attacked by an alligator. Pepero tries to help her and gets into the river on a fragile log raft. He manages to free the mare from the jaws of the alligator, but then the reptile turns on Pepero. The white horse gets in time to rescue Pepero and kills the alligator. Even though Pepero's effort, the mare dies because of her wounds. After being buried, the white horse becomes friends with Pepero, who names him Jupiter. Jupiter will follow them all the rest of the way to El Dorado and even beyond, but keeping his distance and appearing every time he is needed or called.

As Pepero and his friends begin their journey through the Western Mountains, Kana and Chuchu get separated from the group after a flash flood surprises them. They spend the night inside a cave under a mountain that is shaped like a wolf. In the morning they are awakened by a horrible howl. A priest and a group of people reach to the outside of the cave and throw inside it gold offerings. The priest then discovers Kana and Chuchu inside the cave. He orders to capture them and then are sent to the nearby town were they will be punished for desecrating the sacred mountain. Pepero (with the help of Jupiter) and the rest start looking for them, getting in time to save them when they are about to be hit with a whip by the priest. Pepero then forces the priest to reveal to everyone the secret behind the howling of the mountain.

The group of explorers lead by Pepero have an encounter with an old 'quena' (traditional Andean flute) player. He identifies Kana's melody as the one played by people who had reached El Dorado and returned. The old man tells them that he once tried to search for El Dorado himself, so he could be worthy enough to marry the woman he loved. During his exploration, he fell from a high cliff leaving him handicapped from one of his legs. Since then he traveled through the land playing his 'quena' while his chinchilla pet danced to the sound of it to make a living. He also liked to play his 'quena' in front of the tomb of the beloved woman he could never marry. He later saves the town from an impending danger caused by a strong tornado.

Pepero and his friends need to get through a labyrinth of caves so they can find a faster way to get to Ayacucho, since climbing the surrounding mountains is too hard and dangerous. Three men offer to help them giving them a bat so it can guide them through the caves. But it is all a trap, since those men used to fool people to get lost on the caves and later steal their belongings. The group separates inside the cave finding their way out, but Titicaca returns to the town and forces the leader of the three men to show them the correct way. When they are finally reunited inside the caves, the leader of the gang pulls a hidden trigger causing the explosion of a bunch of dynamite cartridges. He later dies after trying to escape due to another trap set by Titicaca. The ceiling of the cave collapses creating a wall of stones that separates Titicaca from the rest of Pepero's group. Titicaca tells them that they must move forward in their search for El Dorado and leave him behind, since it will take him too long to rejoin them, and designates Pepero as the guide of the journey. With tears in their eyes, Pepero and his friends carry on with their voyage and end up on the other side of the mountain, with the broad valley of Ayacucho just in front of them, below their feet.

As the group make their way through the valley of Ayacucho, they meet with a gang of thieves known as the Black Eagle Gang. Pepero notices that they are carrying away a little girl, probably kidnapped. Pepero calls his horse Jupiter and goes after them. When he is face to face with the leader of the gang, he spots a white horn (just like his) hanging from his neck. The other person he had known to wear that is his long lost father. The other thieves force Pepero and Jupiter to fall from a cliff directly into the river. Pepero is saved by Jupiter, who delivers him to his friends. When they reach the city of Ayacucho, the mayor thinks Pepero is the son of the leader of the thieves. He orders that they must be jailed. In that moment, someone tells the mayor that his daughter has been kidnapped by the members of the Black Eagle Gang. Pepero offers the mayor that if he is released from jail he can help get back his daughter. Having no other choice, the mayor let them go. With an ingenious plan, Pepero manages to recover the mayor's daughter. In a duel face to face, Pepero defeats the leader of the Black Eagle Gang. When asked about how he obtained that horn, he confesses that a man named Carlos had once saved his life while he was about to die of thirst in the desert. Carlos is effectively the name of Pepero's dad, so it gives him hope that probably he is still alive. The group departs and continue their way in search of El Dorado.

Pepero, Kana, Azteco and Chuchu are traveling from Ayacucho to Huancayo, when their donkey starts feeling sick. Then they encounter two merchants who are riding their horses. The merchants are armed with rifles and to demonstrate their fire power, they shoot on a group of monkeys that are on a group of trees. They wound one of them. Kana helps the wounded monkey, and they seem to be thankful for the favor. Pepero decides to look for a cure, which is a plant that grows high under the snows of Mt. Citac. Pepero calls Jupiter to get faster to his destiny. They reach the top of the mountain under a heavy snowstorm and with the help of the Golden Condor. Chyra, his chinchilla pet, digs under the snow and finds the plant. As they return to where the rest of the group is, a group of ferocious wolves spot Pepero and Jupiter. They begin to chase him. Pepero encounters the two merchants again and warns them about the wolves. They make fun at him, but shortly after Pepero departs, the wolves attack the merchants and kill them. As Pepero meets again with the group, he gives the plant to their donkey to eat them. Since the wolves are near, the boys build a bonfire and try to repel them with the burning logs. Since they're to numerous and the donkey is feeling better, they decide to ride away from them. Pepero and Kana ride on Jupiter, while Azteco and Chuchu ride on the donkey. As they escape, the donkey, weakened by the disease, stumbles and falls, dropping Azteco and Chuchu. As the wolves are about to attack them, a load of heavy stones fall on the wolves killing many of them. Pepero and the rest notice that the monkey that Kana had helped before and his group were the ones who rescued them this time.