Lovely moments

In order to give some balance to my previous post on some Huancayan idiosyncracies, I thought it would be nice to mention what makes this place (and my life here) so lovely:

1. The park outside of my house is the main gathering place for all sorts of parties, parades, festivals, weddings, funerals - you name it. I often unexpectedly run into people practicing dances, bands tuning up, and huge groups of people gearing up to head down to the centre of the city with a statue of the Virgin Mary, men dressed in monkey costumes, etc.

2. Now that the rainy season is gone, the skies are clear in the afternoon, allowing me to take in one incredible sunset after another. To the west, the sky turns many shades of colours, which streak through big fluffy clouds hanging over the western slopes of the Andes, while to the east the slopes become deep red - similar to the sands of Cavendish Beach, but much darker.

3. When it was raining, I would often come home after a small shower and look up to multiple rainbows arc-ing over my house. At one point I saw four separate arcs!

4. In general, the skies here are breathtakingly beautiful.

5. We're in the height of harvest season now, and the market stands are overflowing with potatoes, corn, veggies, everything! What's more, many of the people that we work with have been gifting us from their harvests, and my kitchen is overflowing too! Yesterday I came home with pears, spinach, and oregano and found 30 kilos of potatoes waiting for me to share with my co-workers.

6. Any excuse for a party or small celebration is seized upon here. This week a co-worker and I went out and purchased (from the CIP budget) gifts for all the mothers working in our office and this morning the office cooks prepared a breakfast for everyone where the gifts were given out and everyone said something nice to all the moms. Happy Mothers Day to you mom!

7. Although Huancayo itself is dirty, busy, crowded, noisy, etc., 15 minutes in any direction takes me out to some beautiful scenery - every day is amazing.

8. Overall, the greatest aspect of my work here has been my coworkers and the people who have made my stay here so amazing and such a beautiful experience. Thank you!

Labour Day Long Weekend

In Peru (as in many other countries), Labour day is celebrated on May 1st, and my team got a four-day weekend to celebrate. I decided to take advantage of the time off to head north to Trujillo and Huanchaco - a colonial city and fishing town, respectively. The drive north from Lima was beautiful, with huge sand dunes and cliffs lining the Pacific Ocean

The first day I spent in Trujillo and on a tour to the archaeological sites of the "Temple of the Moon", "Temple of the Rainbow", and "Chan Chan". The Temple of the Moon is a temple built by the Moche culture over 600 years, ending around 600 AD. The walls of the temple were covered in sand, which preserved the adobe sculputure and paintings of the main god Ai-Apaec and other images.

Excavations and restorations only began on the site in 1991, so there is a still a great deal of work being done. Each archaeologist apparently works on an area ~20cm squared each day,

so that it looks like this:

Chan Chan was built by the Chimu culture around 1300 AD and is over 28km squared - the largest adobe city in the world. Unfortunately, much of the site was destroyed by the Spaniards and subsequent grave robberies, and there is only one temple open to the public - but it's a beautiful temple with carved walls that were once painted:

The next day I strolled along the beach in Huanchaco, where boats have been prohibited and the fishers still use the traditional reed boats that have been used for over 2000 years.

But the best part of the trip was who I shared it with....Gabby came down from Mancora and we had a great time catching up, strolling along the beach and munching on seafood by the sea!

Oliver comes to town!

For the past two weeks I was so so lucky to have Oliver with me to share my life in Peru - it was great! A quick synopsis of our visit together:

I picked Oli up in Lima, where we hung out in the "park of love", which was built as a counterforce to all the monuments to war. The benches are all covered with snippets of love poems and names of well-known literary and real-life couples

We then spent a week in Huancayo, where I worked and he checked out the local sites, such as the Parque de la Identidad (below). We made a bunch of yummy Mexican food one day and took it to share with my co-workers. Delicious!

We wanted to go to Cusco and Machu Picchu and thought it would be a great idea to take a bus from Huancayo all the way there. Although it looks like a short trip as the crow flies, the route goes over the andes on curvy, unpaved roads and we were really glad for the beautiful scenery and not-so-frequent breaks on our....32 hour trip (!):

We stopped off in Ayacucho for a day, where we visited the capital of the Wari empire (a pre-inca culture). Although the site is 16 square km, only a very small area has been excavated, but we were able to see what was likely a ceremonial centre:

Ayacucho is a really beautiful city, but not highly touristed (it was the centre of the Shining Path movement in the 1980s, but is safe now). And then we were off to Cusco and Machu Picchu!

We lived the full-blown tourist life in Cusco, buying wool hats and llama sweaters and eating over-priced food -we loved it:

We'll have to wait until July for our next adventures together - I know they'll be wonderful.

Mi casa y vida

For those of you who are wondering what my life is like in Huancayo, here's an idea: (Careful! it's so exciting that you might want to hang on to your seats!)

My house and street:

The two rooms in my house - thanks for doing the dishes Oli!

The views from my roof/backdoor/laundry area

Our focus groups are based on understanding the relationship between vegetable production and social and environmental factors. Here I am asking about the source and quality of the agricultural inputs used in one of the communities:

One of the perks of my job is that it includes things like being invited to eat freshly harvested corn and potatoes with fresh cheese!

There you have it!

Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail!

I just got back from an amazing week in southern Peru hiking the Inca trail with Gabby on our way to Machu Picchu. The whole trip was not entirely what we expected, partially because we both ended up getting sick right before we left, and partially because it was far more stunning than we ever could have imagined! We decided to go the very touristy route and take the 4-day Inca Trail hike from Ollantaytambo (outside of Cusco) to Machu Picchu. 500 people (200 tourists and 300 porters and guides) a day start off on the 43-km hike and although at times it feels like you're in the middle of a log-jam, for the most part the trail is scenic and peaceful and a offers a wonderful possibility to view - and meander through - andean scenery. If you look closely, you'll see a little line of people trekking along the bottom

The trail itself is manageable, although not an easy hike in the woods. We climbed over four mountains, and at our highest point crossed a 4,200 metre pass before descending to sleep at 3,600 metres (it got to -2 that night)

First you go up...and then hike right back down

It was so fun to go with Gabbs, and I'm sure we were helpful at entertaining our fellow tour group members with our incessant giggles, snotty faces, card playing and photo ops at every turn. I miss you already Gabbs!

A few reasons why I am infinitely cooler than Gabby, as exemplified in these photos:
1. Rain pants from 1987
2. Tilley hat
3. Florescent orange water bottle holder
4. Bright purple poncho strapped to my back
5. Thumbs up.
You'll note that Gabby looks like she could be modelling for a Peruvian alpaca wool outdoor adventure company - who looks that good after hiking up 4,200 metres?

Anyways, after passing through some beautiful Incan archaeological sites and agricultural terraces,

we arrived at our final destination - Machu Picchu!

It was really cloudy and foggy when we got there, so you'll have to trust that we really are standing in front of the famous Machu Picchu postcard scene. For those of you who aren't so sure, I'm adding another photo of after the sun burned off some of the mist and you can actually see the mountains in the background

Machu Picchu itself is definitely over-touristed (apparently 1,500 people go a day, although UNESCO has declared 500 to be the maximum sustainable number), but it's easy to see why it is such a sought-after site. It is strikingly beautiful, and quite big, and surrounded on all sides by imposing green mountains. It was more than amazing to arrive there after four days of hiking through the andes, and so inspiring to have a place be so much more than I had imagined.

How to prepare a pachamanca in 8 easy steps

1. Head to your local carniceria (butcher) and pick up 12 kilos of meat. Ask the butcher to cut it up for baking in an oven of rocks, mud, bricks, and grass. Meanwhile, the pachamanca host is likely harvesting potatoes, lima beans, and corn, and butchering a few guinea pigs

Butcher, and Rolando (our host) with some of his corn

2. Hop on a bus to the outskirts of the city, get dropped off a 10 minute walk from where you're really supposed to go, and trek along dirt roads until you arrive at the selected place (my friend Rolando's house)

The annex of Sanos Grande

3.Heat up the oven for the pachamanca (means: dirt oven in Quechua) with eucalyptus wood in the courtyard

Men the world over discuss at what heat to cook meat

4. Make some humitas/tamales from scratch by: shucking corn, removing all kernels by hand, manually grinding it up and making a dough with the corn flour, oil, butter, lard, sugar, cinnamon, and raisins. Wrap up the results in fresh corn husks , making sure to spill dough all over yourself and others in the process

Gabby and I were the humita queens

Even the little ones can lend a hand

5. Once the oven is piping hot, work with as many people as possible to remove the top rocks and pile up the food inside in the following order: potatoes on the hot coals; corn husks; marinated meat (including a pot of guinea pig); humitas interspersed with hot rocks; lima beans in their pod. Cover up the whole mess with cut grass, waxed paper, and finally, a plastic tarp

6. Wait for about 1 hour with your belly rumbling and your mouth watering

7. Again, with as many people as possible, remove the tarp and wax paper and (with your bare hands!) pull everything out of the oven and into its respective dishes

8. Eat! Think about how it's more food than you would eat in the course of a normal day, and enjoy every minute. It's delicious!