Today I packed all my gear to leave for Chachapoyas tomorrow. I'm once again in the feeling of leaving my new found world behind and going out to find something new. When I look back over the month it seems strange. The month seems to have passed so quickly, but as I go over all that I've experienced, it seems like I surely must have been here for so much longer. Today is the reunion for Casa Hogar, the place that I've been based at, and tonight is yet another fiesta to celebrate. I've been invited to spend one last night with them, I glad that I get to end on a great note. I warn you that this is once again going to be a long drawn out post. I have so much to tell, but I'll do my best to condense it down to just the best bits, whilst keeping it slightly interesting.
Week three began with the realization that for half of this trip, I won't be doing what I came here to do. As I realized this, I thought back to one of the conversations I had with Meibel and Padre Diego (two of the main people who run Casa Hogar.) It was all in Spanish and I remember them telling me that that there would be a fiesta coming up in which I wouldn't be able to teach the current schedule that I had. I clearly understood this point at the time, but the thing I miss understood was that fact that it was to last for eleven days. They asked me if there was any other way I would like to help out or change my schedule during my stay, but with my understanding at the time I just replied saying, "naa not really, I would just like to teach English, play some sports and do a wee bit of music with them, I'm more than happy to stick to this schedule" (thinking that my schedule would only be interrupted for one day.) They both looked at each other slightly puzzled, as that meant that for half of my stay I wouldn't really be helping out at all. Its funny how as each situation unfolds, my mind seems to accurately recall the conversations I had relating to them. It has happened to me many times and I have ended up learning a lot of Spanish through reminiscing.
With this realization I was forced to reassess how I was going to spend my time here. It turned out that the previous week I met a group of Americans who had come here to do some volunteer work for a couple of weeks also. They were a group of families who had started their on non profit organization together and every year they come here to do various projects. A couple of them were teaching English and helping out in the local schools. After telling them that I have quite a surplus of spare time they offered for me to come and join them in the primary school teaching them how to play dodge ball and a few other traditional American PE games. It turned out to be great fun; however they assigned me as being "the person who has to explain the rules in Spanish." I've become confident in holding an English class speaking nearly all Spanish now, but I hadn't really learnt any vocabulary for teaching Physical Education, so it ended up being more of a demonstration than an explanation.
The following days of the week involved exhibitions during to day, and parties of some sort during the night. During the days the exhibitions involved horse displays, and the Thursday was the big climax. At four in the morning after a church service, they paraded the Virgin statue around the square before returning it back into the church. This was quite a big deal for the locals and the occasion only ever happens once a year. Unfortunately I didn't see it because I wasn't that keen to get out of bed that early, that didn't stop be from being woken up though. At four on the dot it seemed every second person was letting off fire crackers, and it wasn't long before the local brass band started booming around the streets of Leymebamba. I guess they had to make sure that even the deep sleepers here didn't miss this rare opportunity. They also had a parade in the afternoon. I managed to catch this one and found it very interesting to see everyone dressed in their traditional festive outfits.
Everyone seems to have their own rooster here also. But these roosters are not like those back at home. Instead of the nice seven o'clock wake up call, these ones seem to have a dysfunctional body clock. At any hour of the day, morning, or night, any one of these damn things has the potential to go off, and when one goes off it becomes a chain reaction. The streets of Leymebamba become a symphony of squawking roosters, most of the time they time it to happen just when your about to fall asleep. Most of them don't have a nice squawk either. The majority of them either sound like they have laryngitis, or that they haven’t been able to take a shit for seven days. This can last from anywhere between five minutes to forty five minutes. I was never able really develop a tolerance to it, but I've now accepted that I asked for the full experience of living in a small Peruvian community, and this is just a part of that experience.
As I came to the end of the week, I decided that it was time I got out and see some of the many tourist attractions around this area. I made the decision to go back to Chachapoyas for the weekend and do some of the touristy stuff. After sleeping through the 5am bus on Friday morning I found another that left at 2.30pm, so by 5 I had arrived in Chachapoyas. I never really had a plan when I arrived, figuring that I could just make up my weekend as I go. When I initially arrived in Chachappyas I had made a few friends whom helped me get started on my project, one of which owns a cafe, so I made that my first stop, looking forward to a decent coffee for once. While discussing travel ideas, I met a group of travelers in the cafe who were also doing some of the sites over the weekend, two of which were Kiwis. Within about half an hour of arriving I'd found myself a group of mates and my itinerary for Saturday was made. As I said goodbye, I realized that I didn't know which tour company they were going with, or what time they were leaving. The morning was going to be yet another one of those "just go with the flow" moments.
While having breakfast the following morning, I found that all the tours left from that plaza at either 8 or 8.30am. This made things a lot easier for me. I was determined to find the group because they'd made a cheap deal due the numbers in the group. While walking back to my hostel after breakfast, I noticed a van outside one of the buildings. I'd run so short on time that I thought, "oh well, I'll just have to pay a wee bit more and go by myself." After making an enquiry to the man outside, he gestured for me to come in. As I walked through the door, there they were, all the guys that I'd met from last night, waiting on the last couple of people to arrive. It turned out to be yet another example of how things just seem to work out in the end.
The weather looked to be pretty fine as we drove off out of Chachapoyas. I never really even considered rain as a possibility, as ever since I've been here has been nice hot sun. However as we got closer to the village, the clouds got darker. The rain was holding off but it was starting to look like I mite be getting wet for the first time in Peru. We all arrived at a small town where the walk began from. After paying for a a guide we were on our way. It wasn't long before the rain had well settled in. It made it nearly impossible to take decent photos, but I still did my best. I managed to stay reasonably dry on the way there, but as I approached the waterfall to get a better view it was as if someone was constantly throwing a bucket of water on me, leaving me with nice wet jeans for the two and a half hour return journey. By the end of the trip I had become good mates with the crew of people. That night they invited me to join them at a restaurant, where I was to have my first opportunity of trying Cui (Guinea Pig.)
The name of the place was "El Paraiso." As I walked in it felt more like an outdoor function center than a restaurant. It was basically just a massive concrete courtyard with a huge stage and a few plastic tables & chairs set up for our group. When I got close to the stage I noticed musicians getting their gear set up. I immediately became excited at the prospect of once again seeing some live Latin music. I was especially happy to see that this band had a real horn section. Hearing synth horns is worse than fingernails on a chalk board, and I seem to hear it everywhere here! The menu was very basic, if you didn't want Cui then there wasn't really many other options, but I was eager to give this ago so I wasn't to worried about the limited choice. I went for the "half cui for 15 soles" option.
When the food arrived the first mental hurdle I had to get over was the presentation of it. It was in this position as if they'd cooked it alive. The body was placed straight in the middle of the plate with a couple of bits of potato scattered around it, and the head was detached, but they did their best to place it in a realistic position. There were no nice neat fillets; instead I had to bite through the tough crunchy skin before I actually got a taste of what the meat was like. As soon as I bit into the skin, it immediately reminded me of pork crackling, the majority of the Cui experience ended up being chewing through crunchy skin. When I finally got through to some meat it actually tasted quite nice (I'm resisting the urge here to say it tasted like chicken.) It was actually in fact quite different from chicken. It was a lot greasier than other meats and it had a very unique flavor. At the end of the meal I came to the conclusion that I would probably eat it again, the only thing making me reluctant being the price.
The following day I decided that I would make the journey to Kuelup. This is considered to be one of the most spectacular ruins sites in Peru, beaten only by Machu Picchu. I ended up taking this journey on my own. As I organized it with the tour guide in my hostel, I decided that I'd see what it was like with a Spanish speaking guide, I was interested to see how far my Spanish comprehension had come. This time as we headed towards the site there were now clouds to be seen anywhere. It was quite a journey through the mountains. Unlike Gocta, the access to this site was easy with just a 20 minute walk required. After winding up and around the hill from the car park, the ruins revealed itself as an intriguing structure built from cream colored bricks. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen. All that was visible from the outside was a gigantic wall, leaving me curious as to what it may be holding inside.
As we gathered around the information board, the guide did his first explanation on the history and the layout of the site. It was at this point that I realized a Spanish guide was in fact out of my depth. The only other guy that wasn't a native Spanish speaker was a Canadian guy which I naturally gravitated towards. After every explanation from the guide we'd look at each other and say, "hmmmm yeah well I think he said...... I duno.. well I kinda got the bit about the round houses.... umm didn't he mention something about Incas as well?" Towards the end of the tour I decided that I'd spark up a conversation with one of the Spanish speakers. One of the girls was from Spain so I asked which area she was from and what she was doing in Peru. The conversation went quite well, and then as the Canadian guy asked her a question in English, I quickly realized that she spoke perfect English as well. "You speak English?" I said to her surprised. "Yeah... but I didn’t want to translate everything for you." I guess it was fair enough, but I felt like a bit of an idiot as I remembered she was standing next to me many of the times as I thought out loud, trying to translate some of the guides explanations.
After a very long day, spending many hours in mini vans, I was finally back in Leymebamba for start of my final week. The fiesta was now over so I was going to have my first and only full week of teaching to the kids, but the guides were still busy so that part of the schedule was pretty much wiped. I enjoyed the few opportunities that I got, but I never really felt like I was able to get fully involved and engaged with the kids. When I look back now I can't believe how completely different the experience was from any idea I had that it mite be. As I got close to the end of my stay there was still one more thing that I wanted to do here before leaving. Several people had highly recomended a three day trek near by called "Laguna de Los Condores," (Lake of the Condores.) I got a quote from a local guide, but really wanted to do it with at least one other person so that I could get it for a much cheaper price. A couple of days before the weekend I met a Swiss whom I'd met the previous weekend in Chachapoyas. I asked him if he would like to join me, explaining that we could probably get a good price with the two of us. He agreed, and after a few negotiations we had the trip organized for a very good price. We had arranged to leave early in the morning on the Friday and return late on Sunday afternoon.
I was very excited on Friday morning. I'd barely ridden a horse in my life, and now I was going on an epic three day journey. By the time we finished loading the gear and getting the final things organized it was about 7.30, and we were finally on the road. I'd been told that this is a very challenging journey to be made by foot, so I was surprised to find that our guide would be walking with us for the whole time. It didn't take me long to build up a bit of confidence with my horse. It felt great to be traveling these tracks in the true traditional way. The weather set the stage for a great trip, and as soon as we started climbing the views where clear every where we went.
There were three stages to the first day. The first was from Leymebamba to the pass, which we would eventually be heading over. This was very typical Peruvian farm country. From high up in the hills it looked like a tapestry of different shades of green, with pockets of trees scattered around here and there. The tracks were very basic and weren’t really maintained because horse is almost always the mode of transport used. As we passed through the small pockets of farmland and moved higher up towards the pass, the scenery changed. It was now more open tussock land which very much reminded me of home with it's open tussock fields, very similar to the mountains of central Otago. As we crossed over the pass and edged closer to our destination, the scenery changed once again. I now felt like I was searching for lost treasure as we traveled through tracks that were so rough, even the horses struggled at times. The scenery here was very much like the rainforests of an Indiana Jones movie. The forest surrounded us, and then as I looked up it tapered off into a series of rugged cliff faces which towered over us as we rode through the valley to the final point of our destination. The site of our cabin was a very welcome site for me. I never realized that nine hours on a horse was so physically tiring. By about five o'clock we had finally arrived, and after an early dinner and some broken Spanish conversation it was time for bed.
I didn't really know what the second day would hold in store for me, all I knew was that it involved a walk to the main attraction here, the lake and the ancient ruins site where recently,(1996) 200 mummies were discovered, still in tact. I also heard hints that we may be having a go at catching our lunch. Waking up at eight was a nice little sleep in for me and energized me for ended up being a very challenging physical day.
The cabin was located at the foot of a hill which we had to walk over before we could get a view of the lake. When I got to the top of the hill and saw the lake for the first time, I couldn't believe how something this spectacular could be this far out in the middle of nowhere. We continued to walk all the way down to the foot of the hill where we finally got to ground level with the lake. Walking around the lake felt like we'd gone into a different world. As soon as we got to our first clearing the guide got out his fishing line and tried his luck at catching some fish. All he had was a line with a luir attached to the end. The technique involved throwing the full length of the line out onto the lake, then pulling it back at the right speed in which to deceive one of the fish. After trying a few different spots with the same technique and no results he went on to plan B. He now took the luir off and swapped it with a big hook. For bait he removed a small bag from his backpack, then pulled out the biggest worm I've ever seen (about 20cm long and 1cm thick!) After wrapping it around the hook and throwing it into the lake he said that this technique required a bit of a wait so he proposed that we go and see the ruins, then return to see if we have any luck,(which he was quite sure of.)
After a challenging walk we'd reached the site of the ruins. It was a very small site perched on the side of a cliff. There was barely much room to walk around so it was intriguing to wonder how they would have constructed something like this in the time it was made. I also found it hard to get my head around the fact that there were 200 mummies found in here. After a small snack and some time to catch our breath it was time to return back. Upon arriving at the fishing spot we found that plan B hadn’t worked either. We deiced to return back to the cabin and try a few different spots on the way back. We ended up catching two, and I even had a go myself. It looks very easy but I quickly discovered that it's one of those things that's very much harder than it looks. The rest of the day involved a lot of rest and relaxation. My body hadn't been put through this much exercise since I'd started traveling so I was more than happy to recharge for the trip back the following day.
The final day began with a very early start. Being higher up in the mountains meant that the mornings were very cold. It was the first time that I'd seen frost on my trip and it gave me a bit of sympathy for how everyone must be feeling back at home right now. With a quick carbohydrate fix for breakfast we were out our way back out. This day ended up being faster than the journey in. Once we get out of the freezing valley to sun soon warmed us all up. I was glad to arrive back to Leymebamba, 18 hours of balancing on a horse seemed to give my whole body more than a good workout.
The end of this trip also signaled the end of my stay in Leymebamba. So much has happened that I feel like it has been a "trip within a trip." Now is also a significant stage in my travels because for the first time I have no commitments ahead of me. I've now passed the pre-planned stage of the trip and I can't wait to just let go and see what comes out of the rest of my time. From here I'm heading to Iquitos, deep in the Peruvian Amazon. I initially never had a purpose for this, just following my curiosity. But a few days ago I met an American girl who is going there also. She is doing some volunteer work with someone whom I'd come to know of through a very inspirational movie some years ago. She said that I would probably be more than welcome to join in if I wanted to. This has potentially opened an opportunity for me to meet and work with someone whom I never thought I'd ever meet in this lifetime, let alone this trip! Who is it? Well I'm going to keep that one a secret for now, lets just say I may be doing a bit of "clowning around" for a while. ;-)
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