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Published: September 21st 2006
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Rope
Left to right: 2 ply twine, 3 ply string, 2 ply rope. I can without a doubt say this was the highlight of my stay in Peru. A few months previously I had met a small and friendly man called Roy in Arequipa. He owned a hostel in the bottom of the Colca Canyon which was aptly named Roy’s Hostal. When asked about Maguey he without a hesitation told me that if I did come and stay at his hostel, then yes he would indeed show me how to make Rope out of the Plant Maguey. This interested me quite a lot especially after my string-making endeavour in the jungle. Maguey is a plant that is abundant in Peru and all over South America. When nylon was invented it was disaster for Maguey plantations in Mexico. I mentioned in one of my previous entries about a book I read called “The Bridge of San Luis Rey” written by Thornton Wilder. Based on the great Inca bridge that used to span the great Apurimac river to the East of Cusco. The bridge was made completely out of Maguey rope and had to be replaced ever year or two years. Likewise bridges in the Colca were made out of Maguey, as it was the strongest
and most available material to hand. People in the Colca still make the rope for use with horses. When I first visited I was quite taken with a small imp of a man sitting with his feet dangling in the water of a small brook white quickly winding rope together. So here I was, less than six months later with my knife in hand and my eyes firmly on the thinning path that was running parallel to the Colca river. The path we were taking was the route to Roy’s old house up the canyon and we were on a combined recognisance mission where, as well as the Maguey we also had to find and collect Roy’s mules that were roaming around the steep slopes. He told me that his father used to be a prosperous Cochineal farmer in the 70’s. Then Cochineal was $100 a kg now it’s $12 a kg. Cochineal is a small insect that lives on the Tuna Cactus and is used by the chemical, textile and cosmetics industries. When you pop it open it is a deep red colour and when mixed with other oxides can produce over 20 different shades of yellow, red, brown
and green. Back then it was only grown in the deep valleys and men from the village were paid by the farmers to guard the precious crop with guns. Roy said it was not uncommon to hear gunfire in the morning, mainly just as a warning to the Cochineal poachers. Just as I was beginning to think we were on a fools errand on this ridiculously thin path (with a severe drop down to my right side and nothing to hold on the left) Roy showed me a cross that was planted on the spot his father fell off the cliff while walking home one day. I didn’t go the last few hundred meters to the old house, the path here being less than 50cm wide and cut into a solid cliff. Roy got the Mules and on they way back we pulled the brown dead bits off the bottom of a Maguey Plant.
Back at the hostel we let the Maguey strands soak in water overnight and then the next day cut the fatter end off the strips and parted the fibres. Rope is actually a lot easier to make than I thought. You twist the strands the same
way and they coil together. It was quite good fun. I made three bits, One three ply piece of string, a two ply bit of twine and a rope about the thickness of my index finger which was two ply.
We also went fishing which was interesting. I didn’t catch any but luckily Roy’s friend did so I was still able to have a fat trout for dinner. It was a cool technique where you have to put a bit of the net into your mouth and gather the rest up over your arm. You then fling it out into the water and it should land in a perfect circle. I managed to make in land in a circle twice, the rest of the time it was an messed up oval and a few times it got stuck at the bottom of the river. From here I hiked for four more days.
Roy’s hostal, San juan de Chucchu, three hours from Cabanaconde into the Canyon. 5 soles a night.
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