Heading to Machu Picchu

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Sue and I are about to begin our travel adventure to Peru. We leave Puyo tonight (Friday) on an overnight bus to Guayaquil (the largest city in Ecuador). From there we are going to attempt to find a place to watch the OSU-Michigan game.

Susan´s brother Tom and his wife Hannah fly in later that night. The next day we head to Lima, Peru and from there to Cusco and the Inca Trail. We will spend 4 days hiking to Machu Picchu. I am very excited to see Tom and Hannah and excited to actually be taking a real vacation from Peace Corps and Ecuador. We will spend Thanksgiving on the Trail probably eating rice and beans instead of turkey, pumpkin pie, stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc. etc. But, that is ok with me.

This week has been a rather easy week. I had anticipated a week of running around tying up loose ends, but none of that has been necessary. On Monday I went with our Ag guy, Juan Carlos, to Vencedores to help them with the construction of their cobertizo (covered area to make organic fertilizer). Essentially, Juan Carlos and I spent the morning hauling rock and sand from the road, over a footbridge, down a trail, across a river (that we had to rock hop to get over), into the woods, and finally to the site they chose to build. We filled up rice sacks with gravel and sand, each weighing about 75-100lbs. We made 8 trips in all, each taking about 10 minutes. It was a hot day and we sweated through our clothes.

While we were slaving away, the women in the community were clearing the area with their machetes and a couple of the men were cutting tress to make the boards for the building. The rest of the men disappeared when they heard that there was work to be done - typical.

The women treated us to refreshing bowls of chicha (the fermented yuca drink) that really doesn´t taste all that great. At least this time it was not masticated, as is the tradition. I drank three bowls over the course of the morning and it proceeded to give me a headache. When you sweat a bunch, then replace fluids with fermented yucca drink it really isn´t the best. Chicha is not Gatorade.

By mid-day Juan Carlos and I left. We had hauled half of the necessary gravel and sand and told the people that they could do the rest, as it was their cobertizo, not ours.

Tuesday, we headed to San Pedro to do basically the same work there. It was a rainy crappy morning and the people were having nothing to do with work so they hid away in their homes. The President of the community then proceeded to tell a little fib, trying to cover up for his community. He said that they changed the day of the minga (community work party) to Thursday. Juan Carlos said, ¨Really, when were you planning on telling us?¨ So, we left and went back to Puyo.

However, before we left, I did play with the school kids. They were so enthralled by me that all the boys wanted to be named Jeremy. So now in San Pedro we have Jeremy 1 - Jeremy 14.

Wednesday was a much relaxed day in the office. I caught up on emails and worked a little bit revising a few documents for various projects that I have been putting off for a few weeks.

Thursday, Casey and I headed out to the communities to give a couple of presentations. She did one with the High School students on Sex. Ed. and I did one on Human Impacts on the Environment. We both really enjoyed the morning and the students were really attentive. The teachers practically begged us to come back to give more presentations - so we agreed that we would.

After that, we stopped by FRATES. Things out there are a complete mess. Antonio, who was in-charge out there, decided to up and leave. He took a few thousand dollars with him as well. Umberto, who is the owner and lives in the States has been scrambling to make sense of everything and to ensure that the place is taken care of. I agreed to help him as much as possible. So, I stopped out to chat with the workers there: Guillermo, Segundo and Marcelo. I explained that I was not their boss, just helping out and we sat down to develop a work plan and a way to monitor their work out there.

We came to an agreement that we would just maintain the facility until Umberto comes again. I only have 4 months more so, really my job is to just make the transition away from Antonio to be smooth. I think the three guys can handle things without Antonio and without other supervision. However, Umberto will need to find a replacement for Antonio eventually, someone who can implement the community outreach projects and tourism projects with the surrounding communities.

Casey and I returned to Puyo and I spent the afternoon thinking about my trip to Peru and playing around on the computer until I had the opportunity to SKYPE with my parents and my brother Greg (his family too).

Today, I am in the office really not doing much of anything. I can´t really start anything because I will be away on various trip for the next few week. So, I am getting my desk and files in order in case anyone in the office needs something of mine.

The next update will be post-Peru. Until then - Go Bucks!!!

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Comments

[Chris]

The makers mark seems to have wiped away whatever sickness hit me yesterday, so count on me being there to ensure the Bucks nail down the fifth in a row! I had only been married a couple months the last time OSU lost to UM. Think about that.