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Published: June 22nd 2010
Milking a donkey!
A donkey being milked at the AgroFirst off, thanks to everyone who commented on our last blog entry! The comments were so fun to read and showed us that everyone likes that we´re writing this blog. Two addendums from the last entry that I forgot to write about. For one, when the ram head-butted my leg and I ran into the van he continued to attack the van two or three times because he was still so angry. Second, when we were travelling in the Colca canyon area we only saw women working. They were working with the animals, carrying the bundles, working the fields and selling the souvenirs. So I was wondering where all of the men were. We finally found out, apparently the men in that culture are lazy. The women do all of the work from tending the fields, to working with the animals, to cooking dinner and raising the children. Can you believe that? What a hard life to have in general and with only one sex doing the work, it must be even harder!
Now onto the updates for Arica. We took a bus to Tacna, Peru from Arequipa. Though we almost missed the bus because we thought it was at
Mummies
These mummies are older than the ones in Egypt! 7:30 and it was at 7am instead. We realized at like 6:30 and ran out of the hostel in such a rush, we barely had time to brush our teeth. The bus was very nice, it was pretty much empty and they treated us like it was an airline. There was an attendant that provided us with food and services if we needed them. One thing that was really weird though is that you can´t poop on the bus, the bathroom is only for urine. So if you have to go you have to tell the attendant and the bus has to stop somewhere for you to go. I would be so embarrassed!
When we arrived in Tacna the original plan was to take a train across the border of Chile to Arica but it was a 4 hour wait so we decided to take a collectivo instead. Now, I was under the impression that a collectivo would be a van of some sort to take us to Arica but instead it was a sedan where they fit 5 people plus the driver. 2 people in the front and 3 in the back. I´m well aware of how dangerous
Old Lady
A lady that lives alone in the town with only 6 students. Her husband lives in Arica because he has heart problems. She was so lonely. those middle seats are and Jose and I got stuck in the front so I made the driver find he seatbelt in the front so I could wear it. I doubt anyone before me had worn it. It was a 2 hour drive and wasn´t too bad. However as we approached the Chilean border Jose realized that we still had Coca leaves from our trip to the Colca canyon and while Coca leaves are perfectly legal in Peru they´re certainly not in Chile (cocaine!!) so we freaked. We tore our bags apart looking for the leaves at the border of Chile and threw them out. Little did we know the border of Chile is nothing like the border of the USA. They didn´t check our bags or have dogs to sniff them. They wouldn´t have had any idea if we had brought them across.
Once we arrived in Arica we had to take out money to grab a cab to the hostel. The exchanged rate here is crazy, it´s 530 pesos to one US dollar so you can imagine the amount of money we took out! We started with 50,000 pesos! We felt like big spenders! Arica is at sea level and the climate isn´t too bad here so it was really nice to finally be able to breathe clearly and not freeze completely (it is still chilly at night!).
The next day and a half we spent wandering around Arica. The hostel had a big barbeque the first night and we were the only lame guests to not attend because we were so tired. We passed out at 9pm despite the fact that there was a party going on right outside of our door. Arica is a cute little city. In order to get there we take a collectivo which is like a public car. They have a certain route, you get in and along the way they pick up other people that also want to go to the same place so you´re in there with people you don´t know. It´s very inexpensive though, 450 pesos per person which is less than a dollar.
On Friday we were picked up for our tour. Our guide got there in what I like to call the Banana Mobile. It was this hugeee bright yellow van that was absolutely filthy! He promised us that this wasn´t the vehicle we´d be taking though. We met with the owner of the tour and he asked us if we´d like to change the tour a bit and stay at the park ranger´s cabin at a salt lake for a night. He told us the sunrise was absolutely beautiful and you could see many animals. The only problem is that the ranger´s cabin was at 4200 meters or 12,600 feet which is reallllly high. We told them we´ll let them know since we´re coming from sea level and it may be too high for us to handle. They were impressed that we are Americans and wanted to do this tour. They said they´ve only ever had 2 other American groups on their tours. They always have Europeans because apparently Americans don´t like this type of tourism.
First we went to El Agro. Which is a marketplace where you can find fresh fruits, vegetables and meats (already killed and cut, no live animals being slaughtered!) It was awesome walking around, so many colors and people. It´s a huge place! We tried pepino which tastes kind of like a cantaloupe though it looks nothing like a melon as well as huge olives (gross, or so I thought) and guava. Then we saw a donkey and we were laughing about what it was doing there. Our guide told us to just wait and a woman with a baby came up and the guy with the donkey started milking it! Apparently they believe donkey milk is good for babies here! Jose and I laughed so hard watching a donkey being milked! Then we heard an announcement that there was a fire and they were asking for everyone to bring their fire extinguishers. A few minutes later the announcement said that the fire extinguishers weren´t working and we needed to get out right away! We hurried to our Banana Mobile and the damn thing wouldn´t open! We were getting a bit nervous since we were in the Agro parking lot and our ghetto ride wasn´t working but finally the tour guide got it open. We went across the street to watch the fire and it got huge! We were convinced that the Agro would be completely burnt up! The fire department showed up but like all third world countries they had a little hose and no fire hydrant in the area! Then the riot squad showed up and helped since they have high pressured water trucks. The fire got huge! We heard things exploding inside. We drove away at that point but heard a few days later that only a few stores were damaged and the Agro would be open again on Monday. What a huge surprise! When you see pictures of the fire you´ll understand why we thought the whole thing was done for.
We went to an archeological museum where we saw mummies and artifacts from the people that first inhabited the Arica area. The bodies were preserved very well because of the salt from the sea and because of the dry climate where the bodies were kept. (This is the driest desert in the world!). The people practiced quite strange techniques of preserving the bodies. They removed all of the flesh, organs and muscles from the body and took apart the bones. Then they reassembled the bodies using sticks for structure. So now they had a skeleton of their loved one. Next they coated them in mud and manganese to give them a black appearance. And then, they kept them close because you wouldn´t want to have to say goodbye to you loved one forever! Gross!! Imagine your dead family members all in the next room. We learned a lot about the culture of this area. How they started so innocent and became so war like once small groups turned into villages fighting with each other. The exhibits were very interesting and a good start to our trip. These people were around before the Incan empire. Once the Incans came the local people were forced to work for them and their pottery and goods lost quality because they were forced to produce them so quickly. It was pretty cool to see the difference between when they could spend time on their art and when they were forced to make it.
Next we went to EcoTruly which is a little vegetarian village where the people are some form of Hindu. They live off the land and do everything ecofriendly. The meal we had was fantastic and for once I didn´t have to worry about being a vegetarian! The woman in charge of the village showed us around, there are 17 people that live there and they accept tourists to show them their way of life. In the village, unmarried men and women have to sleep in separate cabins. People that are married can sleep in the same bed but they only believe in sex for procreation purposes. They use dry toilets which means no wasted water and their waste is used as compost on farms. They have 3 dogs and a cat there and one of the dogs is a vegetarian. The other animals steal meat from other farms. It was a neat place but not somewhere I´d like to live! I´d miss my luxuries in life, like a real bed and food from a grocery store!
We switched to a normal van at this point and began our drive wayyy high up in altitude. We stopped at a chandelier cactus and carefully took pictures. Then we got to experience a magnetic field. The tour guide stopped the car and we continued to move up a hill due to the magnetic forces around us. It was pretty cool. Next we visited this tiny little town where a friend of his was a teacher. There are 6 kids in the school from grades K-5. She has a really tough job. She was telling us that they teach about mental health because the parents of these children just think that they should get a little bit of education and then go and work the fields. They don´t think that it is necessary for their children to want to be anything. They also hit their kids a lot and never say that they love them so the poor kids feel useless and unloved. So this teacher has the job of trying to improve that. Over working in this town for 30 years she has taken 12 kids into her family and sent them to Arica to attend high school and college. The kids stay with her family there and she pays their way. Now those children are helping other kids that were in their positions. This woman has one tough job!
We headed to the town we were going to stay in Putre, which is at 10,500 feet. It was coldddd there! We had the best hotel room we´ve had so far though. And hot water with pressure at all times! It was heaven. The covers for the bed were ridiculous. There was a sheet then 4 thick wool blankets and then a comforter. I actually woke myself up at night rolling over because the covers were so thick. There was also a space heater for the cold. We went to dinner that night and Jose had alpaca chop suey and I had an omelette. They were both very good. Jose´s a big fan of alpaca. Our tour guide had a warm shot of some kind of liquor and was shocked that we didn´t want any. I wish I could have! It was so cold!! That night we were tired and went to sleep after dinner. Though I woke up multiple times during the night because it was soooooo dry in the room. My throat and tongue were on fire. I missed the humidity of Miami!
I still have 2 more days of the tour and a day in Arica to write about but we´ve already been on the internet for an hour and a half so I´ll write about them tomorrow. Feel free to comment again! We love comments!!
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Caitlyn
non-member comment
Yay! Another update! I actually laughed out loud about the coco leaves/cocaine and I could just picture you guys ripping through your luggage looking for them and panicking. Haha. I think it's really cool that you get to eat a lot of different kinds of food-- and there was a vegetarian place-- yay! I'm glad you are all enjoying it so much-- I can't wait to see pictures! You must be dying to get to the warm places! :) Caitlyn