Work and stuff

Well, this last week or so has been especially fruitful from a work standpoint. I’ve been talking for awhile with several groups about possible environment projects, but this last week everything has started to fall together.
The first project that showed promise was a grant the high school wanted me to help with to make a plant nursery for trees to combat erosion and a grass crop called tara that has commercial value for a number of reasons. After that, I finally got a youth group interested in doing a recycling business going. One kid, Ivan, has a lot of ideas and determination and will be going somewhere in life. After that, I finally got started with a nurse interested in doing environmental projects from the Health Post. With the Environment Committee of the municipality getting interested we now have the opportunity to do something really special.
As of now the idea is to educate the populace on environmental themes. Then, if we can get an ordinance requiring the separation of organic and non-organic materials passed, the kids’ recycling business will receive the non-organic materials and the organic will go to a related composting project. The kids will receive the proceeds of recycling in the town minus a choclatada (holiday party with hot chocolate and sweetbreads) for the populace and the cut that the “recycling association” needs to sell the non-organic materials to the nearest big town and after that the capital. It should be a good youth, business, and environment project all rolled into one.
Of course, the likelihood of us coming out of this with nothing is pretty high considering all of the other projects I’ve tried and seen wither. There should be a stat for projects attempted in the tri-annual reports we do. This is simply the most promising project I’ve seen to date and with the most interested and dedicated people to see it through.
So, besides trying to marshal the forces I’ve been working with the nurse and some of the youth in sorting through the local throw-away spot. You can’t really call it a landfill because it’s pretty much just a cliff that people throw their trash off of. We’ve got a pretty good quantity of metal, plastic, and paper to sell already, which will be a nice start to the project as a whole. I also worked with some folks making the famous Incan-style andenes, or farming terraces. It’s some hard menial labor that I’m not getting enough of these days.
Another interesting factoid from this week is that I weighed myself at the health post and came out at 82 kilos, which is about 185 pounds. Considering I came to Peru at around 230, that’s pretty crazy. I’m not sure if I believe it, but I’ll get the official stats at our one-year medical checkups in September.
The only other news to report is that I’m looking forward to going to do some nice hiking in the mountains in Ancash, one of the more spectacular hiking destinations in the world. I’ll be there in about a week and can’t wait.

Volcano climbing

Well, I have really falling down on my blog duties lately. Been awhile. There´s not really a whole lot to report in the world of work and play. I´m starting the steps necessary to build a library in town, but that will take awhile. Still teaching an unhealthy amount of English, and looking forward to my next vacation possibility at the end of this month. I´m thinking of going to Ancash, one of the great hiking destinations in the world, but after my recent climbing experience, mayhap I should have second thoughts (I don´t).
I recently attempted the climb Misti, the iconic volcano that overlooks my capital city of Arequipa. It is 5800 meters tall, making it taller than any mountain in the contiguous United States and taller than the tallest mountains in Antartica, Europe, or Australia, and darn close to Africa´s tallest as well. It´s a two day hike, starting at around 10 a.m. the first day. You hike to base camp, which takes until around 4 p.m., set up camp, and settle in for a cold, cold night. At midnight everyone gets up and sets out for the summit, to get there in time for the sunrise at 6 a.m.
Unfortunately, that was not to be for me. An hour into the hike I vomited, and afterwards I was so fatigued putting one foot in front of the other was a huge chore. I gave it a shot anyways and hiked on for another two hours, but when I started feeling nauseous enough to puke again it was obvious that I was suffering from altitude sickness and there was no more point in going on. I went back with one of our guides, who had seen suspicious lights around our campsite. The way back down was for a change kind of fun. Misti has vast slopes of black volcanic sand stretching from the summit almost all the way down, and you can slide down on your feet in a kind of snowboarding sort of way and get some pretty good speed going. Doing this in the dark with only your headlamp is a bit of a rush.
When I got back to the camp I settled in until the sunrise, which was still not bad from my vantage point at around 4000 meters. One beautiful facet of it all that I forgot to mention is the city itself. It´s set out like a giant glittering Maltese cross in the night and this view just about made the other depredations worth it. In the end, I got to 5300 meters, as high as I´ve been and still quite a bit higher than any mountain in the U.S. outside of Alaska. With some training I think I´ll try and tackle Misti´s taller partner, Chachani, which is apparently the easiest mountain over 6000 meters to climb in the world. Still, this body was not made for mountain climbing, but I won´t let that stop me just yet.

Pictures!

Hey all,

Nothing much to report here except that I finally got the chance to upload all the pictures from the last few posts- including those of Holy Week in Ayacucho, my vacation to Macchu Picchu and Lake Titicaca, and my brief foray as a bullfighter. All of those can be found here-

http://picasaweb.google.com/zijerem/AyacuchoCuscoPunoAndBullfighting#

Enjoy!

Bullfighting

Well, I did something a little dumb but exhilarating this week. I bullfought, toreador style, in the next town over.
We´ve been celebrating the festival of San Isidro this weekend, which seems to revolve round bulls more than anything. The people of the town brought their yuntas, or plowing pair of bulls, to the church to get them blessed on Friday, followed by the usual marching around with a band and dancing that all festivals here seem to feature. On Saturday, the next town over, Lari, had a bullfight. I had heard that they would let whoever felt like it enter, and had been mulling it over, because as experiences go it would be one of the more unique I´d likely have to boast of in my lifetime.
It turned out that indeed amateurs were allowed in the ring. I decided to check out the first bull and see how that went. One guy got knocked out and as I was taking a picture of that the bull turned and threw another one about five feet up and out. These two were drunk, as were the majority of the amateur talent out there. After that a real toreador showed up, in costume and all, and I figured that that was the end of amateur night, but as it turned out a few folks jumped in anyways. In one of the less thought out decisions I´ve made I hopped right in as well.
At first I just intended on using my coat as a kind of makeshift cape, but the mayordomo, or the guy financing the festival, took off a decorative cape he was wearing and let me use it. The first bull I tried was a pretty mad one (or maybe it was a cow- as it turns out they get just as pissed off when goaded and their horns are just as sharp, so there were a few mixed in with the bulls) I soft-stepped up to it and got it to paw the earth at me, but I was a bit surprised (I have no idea why) when it actually charged. I was able to misdirect it with the cape and hightail it to one of the board set up for toreadors to duck behind when a bull is right on their tail. The next few I was more daring on and I even faced off a group of three who in the end didn´t do a whole lot. All-in-all I fought four bulls (not including that lame group of three) with increasing confidence and walked out of the ring without a scratch and a lot of enthused drunk folks (who had a habit of falling of the wall surrounding the ring and having to be helped up in the middle of fights) yelling for the gringo toreador.
So, I´ll get those pictures up this next Friday when I´m in the capital and the internet can handle it. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries half way through so I only have pictures of the first couple of bulls and the group of three, but you´ll get the idea. And mayhap I´ll try it again at my town´s bullfight in July...

Trips and such

Well, it’s certainly been awhile since I’ve written, which seems to be becoming a habit lately. I’ve been on the road lately, going to the sierra cities of Ayacucho, Cusco, and Puno over the last month.
First off I went to Ayacucho for Semana Santa, or holy week. Ayacucho boasts the second biggest celebration of this week in the world, after Sevilla, Spain. The big highlight of the week is the large number of parades and processions carrying saints and icons during all hours of the day and night. However, my favorite part was the jalatoro, or, literally, bull-pull. I originally understood this to be a legit running of the bulls like in Pamplona, Spain, but I should have paid attention to the name. Instead of running free and wrecking havoc along the way, the bulls were pulled one at a time by horses and riders and frankly looked more scared than the crowds running with them. I went ahead and ran alongside a couple of them, but actually got closer to a goring working in the chacras several months back, which in retrospect should half been enough bull-related danger for a lifetime.
Also during this week I got to wander up to the battlefield of Ayacucho where the final Spanish army of any size in South America was defeated by an army made up of nationals of several South American countries, sealing the independence of virtually the entire continent. Oh, and the day before we went to a state fair-type event and ate tons of samples of fresh cheeses and exotic fruits from Ayacucho’s more tropical lowland regions. There was also a competition for caballos de paso- trained horses that walk in a very distinct and uncomfortable looking manner.
After a week back in site taking care of business and preparing the test that the majority of my students are failing this week (really need to work with them on study habits, or simply just paying attention in class- feel like I’m back in the good ‘ol hometown school system) I was off to Cusco and Puno. These two cities are the most touristed in Peru, due to the nearby attractions of Macchu Picchu and Lake Titicaca.
I only stayed in the city of Cusco for one day, and found it much too touristy. For one thing, all prices were extremely inflated and when you are a volunteer you need things as cheap as you can get them. I was lucky enough to get Peruvian prices for many of the attractions due to my residence card, but even then they were priced to the point that it’s literally impossible for the majority of Peruvians to visit these important pieces of their patrimony. I’m trying to increase tourism in my site, but like the highly controversial mines, one has to serious think about the costs before counting the benefits. On the plus side, the ruins around Cusco, particularly the huge fortress of Sacsayhuaman, are spectacular. The ability of the Incas to fit together huge stones so precisely is stunning, especially compared to the nearby Spanish stonework, which is good enough to have lasted for hundreds of years but is obviously not even in the same class of craftsmanship.
After Cusco I headed down into the Sacred Valley of the Incas, stopping first at the ruins of Pisac and Ollantaytambo. Pisac is a bit overrated, but the views of the river valley are quite nice. Ollantaytambo is very impressive, but also claimed my Ipod, likely by a little crapper that worked at the place I had watch my baggage. I hope he goes hiking with it, trips and breaks his leg, and the battery runs out two minutes into the four hour ordeal, which is likely because he was too dumb to also steal the charging cord. It was on its last legs anyway, and if one of my trips goes completely right (got really sunburned in Ayacucho) it means that I’m due a bus or plane crash at the end of it. Still, the ruins are worth the look.
And then there was Macchu Picchu. I’m not sure I can write anything that hasn’t already been said and said again, but there is a reason why it is a consensus wonder of the world. Almost as impressive is the drive up, through tropical mountains shrouded in mist. I hadn’t realized how tropical the area was. Everything is a lush green that I have yet to run into (although I intend on getting to the Amazon at some point here). I’ve got some pictures forthcoming that hopefully do it a bit of justice, but I’m not sure that is possible. I also made sure to get there early enough to be one of the four hundred allowed to climb Wayna Picchu, the spear-like mountain you see in most pictures of the area. It was a really, really difficult climb, but worth it. From there you could see the condor shape of the ruins as described, as well as a great view of the area as a whole.
After Macchu Picchu my friend and I made a quick run to Puno. The town itself is nothing to write home about, so we stayed the night on one of the islands dotting Lake Titicaca. Before doing that we visited one of the isles de totorra, or reed islands. These islands are made completely of reeds by their inhabitants, who also make houses, mattresses, and even boats out of them (which I got to ride as well). The pulpy center of the reed is also eaten, which tasted a bit like sugar cane meets fresh coconut to me. After a brief visit we went to the island of Amantani, where we stayed with a local family. It was possibly the quietest night of my life, and I live in a secuestered town in Colca Canyon and have slept in Amish homes. We ate and read by candlelight there being no electricity and just enjoyed the calm and clear night sky.
The next day we stopped by the neighboring island of Taquile on our way back. This island was also beautiful, and had developed a cooperative to share the tourist profits coming in. Still, the prices were only what Americans or Europeans would find acceptable, and not being paid like them I decided to subsist on crackers until I could get back to 2.50 (about 90 cent) menus on the mainland. The customs of the island are very unique, with the dress being the most noticeable. Everything is woven and embroidered, and the number and type of women’s skirts and the positioning of the men’s hats communicated all the social information you would want to know.
Well, I had better sign off. Tests are to be given in the morning and as I wrap up a giant brown recluse-lookin spider is crawling around behind my computer. I hesitate to kill him because he might eat the fleas that the stupid chickens bring in my room, but he’s big enough that I think I’ll grab him and take him outside where he can wander around without making me paranoid. So, off to that…

It´s been awhile...

Hey all,

I just realized it´s been roughly a month since my last post. That´s pretty lazy of me, I guess, and I´ll try and make it a little more frequent. The good news is I should have some interesting things to report. I´m heading up to Ayacucho for the world´s craziest Semana Santa (holy week) celebrations and should have some pretty cool cultural stuff to report from that. I also plan on getting to Cuzco and Macchu Picchu this month if I´m approved to do it, and that should be highly describable as well.
As for what I¨ve been up to the last month- work. That is a very, very good thing, because it means that people are waking up again in my town and starting to do some things I can help with. I¨m still teaching English in all the schools and working with some community groups with their computer skills. However, bigger fish to fry are starting to hit the pan, like an environmental committee within the municipality that is warming up to a landfill project and the high school starting to make a reforestation project to combat erosion. The health post is starting a garden project with the old folks and some high school students are looking into working with them to make a recycling small business. Also, some people interested in tourism development are starting to pop up again and I¨ll be working with them to make project plans and see if we can get some of them moving. All-in-all it´s an exciting time to be around because things are actually getting done...
Other things of interest I guess would be that even as high as we are we´re not safe from mosquitos. My system doesn´t take to them all that well, so I get some pretty impressive swelling once in awhile. Benadril is my third most prevalent food group at them moment. I also got a q-tip end stuck in my ear recently, due to some shoddy local q-tips. It wasn´t that big of a deal but I had to jaunt down to the capital to get it out so I was half-deaf for a week. I definitely appreciate people with reduced hearing and their plight a lot more now. Felt like I was living in a swimming pool. So, that´s the update. Take care all and watch some baseball for me.

Photos!

Hey all,

Here´s the photos I got from the disastrous Argentina trip as well as some I took at a ceremony held at our Incan fortress in the valley, giving a pretty good idea of what it looks like where I´m living now. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.es/zijerem/ArgentinaAndColcaInSpring#