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Published: February 27th 2009
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Grenadias Grenadias Grenadias!
There was a huge harvest that day and we spent hours picking and packing them. Well, I´ve let a few weeks go by for the waters to settle here in Peru. I feel like I´ve been running around everywhere and now I can relax for a bit. Currently I´m staying in an apartment in Lircay, a town in the middle of the Andes. There´s sort of a connection for me here but we´ll dive into that later.
Now outside of it being a long day, entry into Lima was not so difficult. The only thing that worried me that day was the fact that I had a one way ticket to Peru. It wasn´t so much a "Boy, that was a commitment!" or "How will I get back?" sort of worry. It was more like "I should be worried because it´s illegal to enter the country without a return flight or onward travel." - neither of which I possesed. But like with many things, if you keep your head down you´ll make it through ok. "Offical" items in latin american countries aren´t always so official.
Marching to the bus terminal in Lima, I was open to to what may come. Without a plan or a designated goal for the trip I´d like take up
Jugo de Caña
When the Germans came to the area they almost instantly created a source of alcohol. Weapon of choice- caña or sugar cane. Here we have just the regular juice form. And in a little previously used water bottle of mine contains the alcoholic version that rivals the flamability of gasoline. any opportunity that hit me. I had one lead before coming to Peru and that was Huancayo - a twelve hour bus ride through the Andes which hugged every sharp curve like it was its last. Keep in mind this is the exact road that was blocked a week later for days by a massive rock slide.
In Huancayo I got hooked up with a loose orginzation that knew of an ecolodge I could work on. Fantastic, I said. I´d love to work on an ecolodge in the cloud forests of Peru. And so having absolutely no idea what an ecolodge was I huffed it up to Oxapampa. What makes this area rather particular is that it was originally found by Germans 130 years ago. To this day there exist German decendents (albiet much more in Pozusa) and many of the indigenous locals are familiar with some German as well. Even met one woman of Inca decent named Ulga. My accomodation for my first night would be with a family living in Oxapampa and the next day I would leave for the forest. The family was very welcoming to me. It was great to spend some time to see
Ecolodge
All the wood comes from the trees right there. There is a compost bathroom and no power lines to the house. Very low impact living. how they live.
Well the next day I called the boss of the ecolodge and he told me there was just too much rain to work right now. Maybe later on this week. Fine. So I spent a couple more days with the family. I helped pick passion fruit on their farm and fix up some other fields they had. The next few days were followed by similar work. Help out at the farm and or follow some activity with a family member. Among other things, they grew lots of pasion fruit. The farm itself clings to the side of a steep 1000 ft high hill. Now I have to say that from the top of their farm is one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. There´s this narrow valley hugged by giant hills on either side. In the middle snakes this river that swings from side to side to the edges of the valley. And in the very middle lies a little town with a little church that can be seen from miles away. Clouds clash into the sumits and while straws of sunlight cut through, spotlighting its favorite parts of the vally. No matter
Snake in the Grass
Walking to Conception from Huancayo. Vegitation surpises can come from anywhere- especially from south of the ecuador. how hard the work was one could always pick thier head up and see some sort of beautiful.
Rain hit the cloud forest hard and work was delayed indefinitly. However, I did join a convoy to the ecolodge as to bring last minute supplies before the crew went home. The convoy consited of four things - me, a cook, 7 gallons of gasoline, and a two hour uphill hike in the rain. As comfortable as that sounds, the walk was in fact quite pleasant. When we arrived I met the remaining two members of the crew who were all friendly. The ecolodge was sort of let down for me. It was basically just a cabin in the woods that was more or less enviromentally friendly. I suppose it fits the definition of an ecolodge but I was expecting something more profound. Isn´t that just how it is? Well, the upshot of the whole event was experiencing the hospitality of a peruvian family for a good week.
Now, the fates have drawn me to a place called Lircay. It´s a very pleasant place and very laid back. Hopefully I can spend some time here. Originally I came here on
another lead for a project. Having, again, no idea what the project was about I set on the long journey from Huancayo to Lircay. The first destination along the way was Huancavalica. Being a professional at this whole traveling gig, I set on my way to find the collective autos there. Three fruitless hours of searching later, I took a taxi to the auto stand. There a man led me to the back of a terminal, through an empty garage, into a backdoor depot where a very beat up Pinto was eagerly awaiting me along with three supspicious looking characters ready to go. After a moment of calculation I went with my gut and sailed off to find a bus. After asking 5 seperate people where the station was and given 5 seperate directions, I found my bus station after a total of 3.5 hours of involuntary exercise. I bought my ticket at the terminal and waited in the waiting room for my bus to depart at twelve o´clock. Well, twelve came and went and I didn´t see my bus ever come in. Before I can ask what happened, some old man spoke up-
"Are you taking the bus
Pedro y Analia
Me and the little boss who is in charge of the whole project on the ground here. She was pushing around a group of 20 peruvian men for an entire day. Not so easy, escpecially living in a machismo world. at twelve?"
"Yes"
"Well, you missed it."
"What do you mean? I never saw the bus."
"Of course not. The bus doesn´t come here"
"You mean that the bus doesn´t come to the bus terminal?"
"No. You have to go the other side of town."
"Oh yeah, ok. That makes a sense".
Nicely enough he went to show me where the bus would be. And obviously enough, he got lost and didn´t know where it was as much as I did. Out of sympathy of the fates, we arrived and I managed to catch my bus leaving half an hour late.
Arriving in Huancavalica (remember that´s just the halfway mark) I had to find a collective taxi to Lircay. Finding a small enough car, seven of us crammed in to every nook of the vehicle ready for the 3 hour journey. As soon as the car ignited, buckets of rain came sloshing down and prevented our departure for a solid hour. Oh, but don´t worry. This flight had entertainment. I had the pleasant experience of sitting next to a heavily intoxicated fellow who just had the most present desire to inquire the gringo. He really hit all the polite "get-to-know-yous". What do I drink? Do you have money? How many Peruvian girls have you slept with? You know. Just a real sweet character. Well, after heading off to spite the weather I traded off one curious drunk for one curious drunk passed out on my arm for 3 hours.
Needless to say Lircay was a breath of not so dense fresh air. Since my two days of being here I´ve made friends with many Peruvians, eaten some great peruvian-chinese fusions, and worked on a potato farm while stuffing my cheeks full of coca leaves (which, I may remind you, is as similar to cocain as potatos are to vodka). All in all it´s been a good start to the adventure and I´m looking forward to what ever I don´t see coming next.
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Lauren
non-member comment
Great Start
Hey Pete! It is great to hear from you and about your adventures. It's good that you are writing everything down... it will be perfect for your memoirs. Glad you are well. Looking forward to hearing about your next adventure. Enjoy the coca!