Salpo, Peru

Adjusting to life in San Antonio de Cumbaza

It's been about 2 weeks since I've been in San Antonio and the locals like to say I'm getting accustomed to the way of life here. It's very quiet and slow, but I haven't actually been bored yet.   

The days follow more of a routine here than I think I've ever had. We get up around 7am to make some fresh juice (usually  squeezed orange juice, papaya, bananas and lime juice) and oatmeal with dried fruits and nuts. So far the mornings have been spent general chores, laundry in the river, getting water for the house from the river, bathing in the river, cleaning and organizing or reading or talking to anyone that drops by. Around 1130 we start making lunch, almost always rice with either lentils or beans and some kind of veggies. There's always lots of food and a good variety. The afternoons so far have usually been spent doing something with the younger kids. All the kids go to school for half days, if they even go.

There's a group of 4 boys that generally stop by after lunch. Of them, two don't go to school at all, they are 6 and 9 years old. I started to teach them how to write the alphabet, hopefully they will want to continue and start reading. Otherwise they just draw or play music here. Around 3 we usually play soccer or volleyball with them and any other kids who are around. Then around 530 it's into the river and home before its dark by 630. We usually don't bing flashlights with us in the afternoon and there no lights on a section of the walk home. When the moon was full it was no problem, but now it's so impossible to see without the light. We come home, make a small dinner, usually grilled bananas and something. Grilled bananas with peanuts and cheese (somewhat like feta cheese, but not quiet) is actually very delicious. Then we watch a moire and are usually asleep by 1030. Obviously every day is not exactly like this, but that seems to be the general pattern so far. 

About an hour walk from here there is a really nice waterfall. You can jump from different levels into the deep pool at the base. The water is slightly cool and safe to drink. We went on a Sunday when there were lots of tourists. To get to the falls we had to cross the river 5 times. It is a nice walk. We brought some cheese and crackers and tried a bit of the local made wine. There are a lot of grapes produced in the area, but the wine is quiet different than other wines. It's not bad, just a different taste. We had cold semisweet red wine one evening that was actually very good. 

Most of the people here work on their chacras, their agricultural fields. One day we went up to see them, it's quite the hike up a mountain to get to some of them. They don't use any types of machines. Every time they bring anything down, the carry it. It's amazing what people can take down. There are so many different fruits that I've never heard of before, all good so far. We went to Caeyo's chacra and watched him climb a tree without any branches in his bare feet and hands. He's 54 year old. It was pretty amazing to watch. The 30 year old America that was with us tried to climb and couldn't even get off the ground. 

We are clearing a section of jungle beside the house to make a garden. There's an older man named Nelson who was teaching me which plants are beneficial for a garden and which are not. He's so full of knowledge that I'd never figure out otherwise. I'm not sure when we will actually plant anything else, but the clearing was started. 

This week is the 81st anniversary of the village. They have a week long celebration an there's at least on event each day. On Saturday night they had a competition for the queen of the area. It started 3 hours late and lasted 3 hours. It was pretty long and boring... Sunday they had a soccer tournament with 4 teams. The second game was really good and the finals will be sometime later this week. Last night we went the school where each grade performed a traditional dance. They were all really well done. 

A few photos

The day we have out the clothing:

Some of the kids, Luis and Valaria in the kitchen/living room:

Walking to another neighbourhood to do a yoga lesson witht some kids:

The waterfall that's about an hour walk from the village:

Crossing the river to get to the waterfall, we had to do it 4 times:

Some of the bananas we have, there are more! There's 7 types that grow here and all have distinct tastes:

The view of the hose from the front:

Playing volleyball:

Lovely view when we play or watch soccer:

Some of the kids trying to catch a fish with some sticks:

The boys playing us some tunes:

Playing at the point where we go swimming:

Off to the jungle

After I left Cusco I thought I was going to spend one, maybe two, days in Huanchaco but it turned into a week and two days. It was a lot longer than I was hoping to stay there, but it was nice to see some friends and relax on the beach. Huanchaco is getting much nicer now that it's spring. Apparently August is the worst month there for weather. Everyday Luis had a new reason we had to wait another day to leave. Once we finally got our bus tickets, I was very excited to leave. We took the cheapest bus we could find, which was quiet nice still. It stopped a lot along the way, but it was nice because we could get out an walk around and one point we had a full hot menu (menu here means a set price for soup and your choice of segundo). We got the seats on the second floor at the front with a panoramic view. 

We hit the mountains around the time the sun was setting and it was probably the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. As we were near the top of the mountainsides, there was just enough of a light fog or haze everywhere, that the entire valley and mountains in the background turned a dusty pink color that eventually went red. Being on the edge looking down over the mountains and valley that were all different shades of pinks and reds in the sunset was spectacular. No, I didn't manage to get any pictures of it :( It was interesting to see the progression of desert to mountains and the wake up in the rainforest. By the time we arrived around 7am, it had been 21 hours since we left Trujillo. The bus was full of interesting things, the guy behind us had a rooster on his lap the whole way, you could hear guinea pigs squeaking and in the luggage space of the bus was a giant thing of fish wrapped in plastic. 

Luis has a friend in Miami who visits Peru quiet often. She had been collecting clothing from her friends for Luis to give out to the people in the village. Because of that we had a lot of stuff to bring with us. We could barely lift one of the giant bags. When we arrived in Tarapoto we somehow shoved all of our stuff in the back of a mototaxi (tuk-tuk). Lots of string to keep it on the back! We dropped off oh stuff at the cars to go to San Antonio and headed for breakfast in the market and to buy some supplies for the week. 

San Antonio de Cumbaza is the name of the town I'm in. It's about 15 km from Tarapoto, or about half an hour up a bumpy dirt road. Cumbaza is the river that goes through the village. The area is made up of three villages right beside each other. There are mountains around the area covered in luscious green forests. It's not a rainforest like the Amazon because it doesn't have the canopies and same biodiversity and giant trees but it is still really tropical and full of variety. The village we are in is the smallest of the three and technically the poorest, but it does have the river directly beside it unlike the others. There is a total of 4 streets in the village with a few off shoots like the one to our house on the far end of the town on the way up to the agriculture fields up the mountain. 

So far we've just been organizing the house since its been empty for some time. Saturday we played soccer with the kids in the next town over, which is a 5 minute walk. Of course I managed to make a fool of myself and people still talk about the horse. I somehow thought, upon a quick glance, that the horse on the edge of the field where I was with the ball was someone on our team and I ended up passing the ball to it, then before I realized it was a horse I ran into it by accident. Everyone thought it was pretty funny. Sunday we gave out almost all of the clothes we had brought with us. There was more clothes than people, so the rest well give out some other time or people will come get it whenever they want. Everyday we go to the river as our shower. You wear either your clothes or bathing suit and we've generally been going with a group of kids, first swim for a while then soap and swim some more. It's a very different way of bathing, but it works. I went at 7am one morning it was really tranquil and the water was great in the sunshine. 

Last bit of Cusco

The last week in Cusco was fairly regular. More work and walking and seeing friends. I had a day off Monday and went with a fried to Andahuaylillas. The main plaza had a lot of really old, large and flowery trees that were reall pretty. The climate there is slightly warmer than the surrounding area so they can grow slightly more tropical fruits. Thursday I was going to borrow my friend Camilo's bike and bike around before work for a while, but he was out at the time I went by. He lives in San Blas so I decided to just keep walking up and see where it went. Turns out the Temple of the Moon (Laqo) is above San Blas. The big rock on the left is the temple.

Since I did not have much time to get back down before work, I didn't have time to explore the area or actually go to the temple. The next day I left in the morning and went with a Camilo to walk around more. There was a trail that seemed to go somewhere behind the temple that we started walking on. It had signs so we figured it was okay to walk. We walked quite a long time and got slightly lost. But it was so nice to spend some time alone with Camilo, normally there's a bunch of other people, well, at least his brother William. There wasn't a single tourist after we left the area of the temple. It seemed odd that the tourists don't wander from the main attraction, but it was nice for us. I arrived at work a half an hour late, but they didn't care. 

On Saturdays there is a giant second hand market that is in the street for many blocks. It's notorious for getting your stuff stolen at. Apparently they will throw confetti in the air so you get distracted and look up and that's when they grab stuff in your pockets. I didn't take my phone with me. They sell absolutely everything, even used beer bottles. I don't know how people make any money. There are some good items and good deals though. Every Sunday there is some form of parade in the main plaza. I never know what it's for...

More Cusco

Its not the best picture, but thats the field we play soccer on... some people have some good scrapes from falling on the concrete. We play every Thursday. I didnt really play last week because my lungs werent up for it. Im pretty much better now, so Ill try again tonight. (The apostraphe button doesnt work on this machine..)

Ive mainly been working or just walking around the city with friends everyday, so not much to report. Here are a bunch of pictures from it.

Yesterday I had most of the day off, so I decided to walk up, and up, and up... I went up to the Cristo Blanco (White Christ) which looks over the city. I ended up walking around up there a bit more and ended up at Saqsaywaman, some old ruins just above the city. Apparently you need a tourist ticket to go, so they stopped me and asked what I was doing there without a ticket. So back down I went. The route I took on the way up involved a lot of stairs.

The main Plaza de Armas where the church is.

A woman was weaving some textiles when I walked by. It was very intricate and then she tried to get me to pay her to take a picture of her with her llama. No gracias...

Part of Saqsaywaman, so many tourist buses...

This is in the market San Pedro (pictures not in focus, but oh well). This is the jugos (juice) section of the market. Every lady sells the same thing next to each other and they wave and yell at you to come to them. The juice is always amazing and fresh and cheap and large. You usually get at least 2 glasses full, even three depending on how much they make, for about 4 soles (about $1.25).

This is the entrance pathway down to the hostel rooms we stay in. The area has a bunch of local houses as well.

The band Amaru Pumac Kuntur. They are an Andean fusion band from Cusco that is very popular in the area. They are some of the finalists on Perus Got Talent. They are really fun to watch and have a lot of different instruments they switch during the songs. The second picture is them playing in our bar for the opening night. They are going to play here every Saturday night, and they also practice here during the day sometimes. The fire has something to do with a pachamama ritual they do at the beginning of each performance.

All of my coworkers on the night of Perus world cup qualifying match (they lost...) from left to right: Ismael, Jacob, Mathias, William, Camilo, Martin and Manon.

Sunday BBQ! William and Martin cooking some yummy stuff