Spending time with some goats

I started to explore other areas of Lima with Camilo the week before I left for Huancavelica, apparently there is a good sized Chinatown here. The chinese food here is basically the same as it is at home. Central Lima has a lot of nice architecture from when after Spaniards invaded, with a lot of very grand and detailed buildings. Plaza San Martin and the main Plaza dÁrmas are huge and almost European, definitely a nice spot to check out. Camilo convinced me to go see a movie in the theatre which ended up being a bollywood movie that was fairly entertaining in a ridiculous way, but any time they spoke whichever Indian language, there were Spanish subtitles. Anytime you take a bus out of Lima it takes at least an hour to get to the outskirts of the city - it´s a ginormous city compared to anything in Canada. Lima can be a nice city and I´m sure anyone could find anything they wanted there.

Most people at the hostel only seem to stay for a day or two, so there have been a few different groups that went through. The first couple days everyone was speaking English. Monday night had a few different Brazilians arrive, who weren´t travelling together. So I quickly learned that I can understand a fair bit of Portuguese when I try to listen. Tuesday morning breakfast was again all in Portuguese, and me responding in Spanish. Wednesday morning had a bunch of French people arrive and some of the Brazilians also spoke French, and the other Brazilians had left. So everyone switched over to French. I´m really glad I can understand these languages or I would be pretty lost! Someone also spoke Italian to me the other day and I seemed to understand what they were saying. Up until that point I was not able to practice my Spanish very much!

I met Camilo when I was working at Let's Go Banana's in Cusco in September. We have been keeping in touch a lot and he invited me to go with him to visit his grandmother in a small village in the mountains. I thought it would be a great opportunity to see some more of Peru from in a non-touristy way and spend some time with him. We had become very close over the last few months. We took an overnight bus out to Huanta, Peru, about 10 hours east of Lima. From Huanta we had to take a small combi (minibus/van) another hour or so to a small village, then walk about 15 to 20 minutes to an even smaller village to get to Camilo´s grandmother´s place. The village really was tiny and during the day it's like a ghost town because everyone is out working in their chacras (fields). I don't think they ever get any tourists, everyone called me gringa (white person) and spoke to me in Quecha and seemed surprised that I didn't understand them.

Camilo's grandmother is 81 years old, but you would never guess it. Sure her face is really worn and old looking, but I've seen the woman wield a machete, she's strong and tough. Everyday she gets up around 5am and goes to check on her various chacras or talk to the neighbours, then breakfast and lunch are made and eaten (yes one right after the other). She would always yell at us to get out of bed if we were not awake by 6am, she thought we were just being lazy, but we thought it was better to cuddle than get up and do things. Once everything is consumed and cleaned, she gets her goats ready to take them out to pasture about 2 km from her house. The chacras she takes them to are covered in forests of thorns and cacti. Around 5pm she brings the goats back, makes herself and the other animals dinner (cats, dogs, guinea pigs, chickens). By 8pm it's bedtime. We basically helped her with her day. Camilo mostly cooked everything and then we would help her bring the goats to pasture and return to get them in the afternoon. One day we chopped down some dead trees using the machete and a hand-saw. We had to carry te wood back using mantas (the colourful cloths you tie around your shoulders with the contents folded on your back). It was my attempt a being a Peruvian, and it's surprisingly easy/comfortable to use them.

Camilo - the Peruvian version of a lumberjack

The moutains and the scenery there were amazing. Most of the scneey looks like something that might have inspired Dr.Suess. One tree eapecially looks like it with is curvy branches and bendy growth. In the bus station before we left Camilo's mom warned me that it would be very cold and rainy when we arrived and I should prepare myself for it. Turns out the rainy season on the specific moutain we were on doesn't exsist this year. It was constantly hot and sunny for us. You could see every other mountain in sight would have rain clouds streaming down heavy rains but our mountain would be cloud free and super sunny. This happened multiple days in a row. I should have taken a picture of all around to demonstrate. It was funny and strange, but I didn't mind not having the rain. It did rain a few times during the night, but that didn't affect us.