Chicon: Day 1

The day is finally here. The climb to Chicon. I apologize in advance if this post is not to your liking because as I write this because I am absolutely exhausted.

Starting in the morning, we drove from Urubamba to the city of Chicon, which is at the base of the mountain leading up to the glacier. 18 of us started the trip but only 16 reached the top. At the beginning of the hike, I honestly thought I had made a colossal mistake. There was no resemblance of a trail, and much of the hike was composed of strenuous rock climbing and moving through dense forests. In fact, after only about five minutes, I was already exhausted. It would be this way for the rest of the hike; seven or ten minutes of hiking followed by a two or three minute break. I thought I was in good shape. Apparently, I was not even close to fit enough to climb Chicon without any worries. Adding to the pain was the backpack, which had excellent padding but was still 35 pounds. Trying to hike up Chicon with that kind of weight really takes a toll on your muscles.

The first part of the hike was through a forest, and took about two hours. We waded through streams, climbed through trees, and went up steep mountainous terrain. However, this wasn’t even close to the hardest part of the journey. After lunch, we had to hike up a series of rocks for three hours. This honestly was more like rock climbing than hiking. We had to grab onto a rock two or three feet above us before hoisting ourselves, backpack and all, onto the next rock. Doing this for three hours was extremely painful, and by the time I reached the top, I didn’t think I could take another step. Adding to the pain was the altitude, drastically reducing the amount of oxygen available. I started to get a headache and my chest started to tighten up. Additionally, I think I am starting to get sick, since my throat hurt for the last three hours of the hike. Once we got the house, we stopped for a minute to enjoy the amazing view before eating dinner and going to sleep.

Prepping for Chicon, Pt. 2

Today marks the beginning of our journey to Chicon. However, before we set out for Urubamba in the afternoon, we had to work in Occoruro.

It seems as though most of the houses have completed alacena. Therefore, we started on our next project: constructing the micro rellenos. While they didn’t look to be very hard from our orientation, we soon found out that it was going to be a long and hard day of work, exactly what we didn’t need before the strenuous hike to Chicon. Each micro relleno was to have a volume of one cubic meter, meaning that we had to first mark an area of a square meter on top before digging down an entire meter. The top part actually may have been the hardest, since we had to uproot all of the grass and break the ground with picks. After we did this, we had to push with the shovels and dig up the ground. I started to get really tired doing this, so in the middle of the day I switched to finishing the curtains and cloths for the last house in the community. I feel that I have gotten pretty good at sewing, and am really very comfortable doing it.

In the afternoon, we were supposed to go out to a chicharroneria for lunch, but we decided that it would be a little too unhealthy and filling for a meal the day before a long and strenuous hike. Instead, we went to El Tablon, a place in Cuzco that specializes in pollo a la brasa, or spit-roasted chicken marinated in a special blend of spices. I didn’t think anything could top some of the food I have had thus far in Peru, but the pollo a la brasa was out of this world. For about $5, I got a quarter chicken, a plate of fries, some cake, and a drink. The chicken was really tender on the inside and had a really tasty blend of spices on the outside that I really couldn’t identify. The easiest way I can think of to describe it is to say that it was a little spicy, but had a little salty and sour taste as well. Perhaps a marinade of salt, lemon, and hot peppers?

After lunch we went back to the office to plan for our class on Monday. Our next topic, as mentioned before, is on hand washing. We planned our skit, created a lesson, and formulated a plan for our presentation. After this, we all went back to our houses to grab our bags and say goodbye to our families until Sunday.

Finally, the journey to Chicon begins. We took a colectivo to Urubamba, a small van similar to the combis in Cuzco. Once we arrived, we walked to the ProWorld office to drop our bags off before going out to dinner. After we returned, we relaxed for a bit before turning in for the night. Starting tomorrow at 6am, we will start the journey up to Chicon.

Prepping for Chicon, Pt. 1

Today was another normal day in Occoruro. We did what we have been doing pretty much every day for the last week or so. All of the families in the community now have an alacena, but all of them do not have curtains and cloths for the shelves. Therefore, our job for the next couple of days will be to complete this phase of the project so all of the families have completed alacenas.

After working in Occoruro, I went back home for yet another great lunch and then headed off to Spanish class. Today we worked on the conditional tense, which is similar to phrases such as “I might” in English. The rest of the day was relatively easygoing, as I packed my new hiking backpack for our trip to Chicon, had dinner, and went to bed.

El Molino and Chicken Curry

Today was a normal day in Occoruro, at least by what we have been doing over the past two weeks. We were going to start digging the holes for the micro rellenos, but once we got to Occoruro, we learned that some of the families still didn’t have curtains on their alacenas. As a result, we spent the entire day working on finishing up these curtains. Starting tomorrow, we will start to build the micro rellenos and the coops for the guinea pigs and chickens.

After working in Occoruro, I had a relatively normal rest of the day. When I came home for lunch, I was immediately served a variation of arroz con pollo, except instead of chicken it had beef. After this I had Spanish class, which has been a lot better since we stopped focusing so much on grammar. Immediately after Spanish class, I decided to head over to El Molino, the black market, once again.

This time at El Molino, I was consciously looking for some hiking pants, since our group hike to Chicon is in only three days. I swear that I will never get tired of going to El Molino to shop. I know it sounds crazy, but they literally have everything there. Even better, while El Molino is a black market, the goods there are pretty high quality. On Monday, I got a hiking backpack and some hiking shoes. Today, I got the hiking pants, but also had to get a new North Face jacket and a couple of Lacoste polos. Before you make any judgments on the amount of stuff I’m getting, think about this. A North Face rain jacket costs at least $100 in the United States. It’s not even 100 soles in El Molino. Same goes for the Lacoste polos, which are $70-100 in the United States but only 30 soles in El Molino. Again, I will never get tired of these great deals. Something else I learned today is that El Molino doesn’t even have fake goods. Rather, many of the big name companies have manufacturing plants in Peru. For example, North Face has one in Juliaca, which is in the southern part of Peru. I’m not sure where the Lacoste manufacturing plant is, but it is also in Peru. This at least partially explains the amazing prices. That and the fact that it is a black market, meaning that the vendors don’t have to pay taxes...

Earlier today in Occoruro, Lalo and I were playfully arguing about cooking and which food cuisines are the tastiest. He bragged to me that he could make really good Indian-style chicken curry, which honestly, I thought was a little too much. Apparently, he took this as a challenge, since we had chicken curry for dinner, prepared by none other than Chef Lalo. As soon as I tasted it, I knew he wasn’t playing around. As an Indian-American, I have tasted my fair share of chicken curries, both good and bad. Lalo’s was definitely up there with the best. He definitely simmered the chicken in the sauce, since the chicken absorbed all of the spices. He also got all of the spices correct, even using some cardamom. The sauce was rich and flavorful, and had a nice kick to it. In fact, when I think about it now, it was kind of an Indian chicken curry mixed with Thai green curry. Regardless, it was excellent. I know that I’ll believe everything Lalo says from now on, at least with regards to cooking.

After dinner, Jordan and I met up with the rest of the Cuzco group to discuss our plans for next week’s health lesson in the schools. We decided on hand washing, and came up with some innovative ways to make the topic interesting for the kids. The pinnacle of this innovation was the song we composed, which is as follows:

Lávate tus manos

Con agua y jabón

Antes de comer

Y después del baño (sung to the tune of Happy Birthday)

For those of you who don’t speak Spanish, here is an English translation:

Wash your hands

With water and soap

Before eating

And after the bathroom

I thought it was pretty cool, and I feel that the kids will be able to use the song as a way to remind themselves when to wash their hands and for how long (as long as it takes to sing the song twice). Hopefully they will find it as interesting as we did.

Family Bonding

Today was the start of our second week in Occoruro. I did much of the same stuff today as I did last week, such as making curtains and lining the shelves with cloth. Something that was interesting today was working without any. While at first I was frustrated that there weren’t enough materials for me to do my job to the best of my ability, I realized that the people of Occoruro are really patient and are thankful for any help that ProWorld provides. I guess I will return tomorrow with more glue and materials to finish the jobs I started today.

I then came home for lunch and then rushed off to Spanish class. All of last week, I had Spanish class at 5:30pm. However, starting today and continuing for the rest of my time here, I will have Spanish class at 2:30pm. While this makes my first couple hours each day really stressful, I get rid of all my work sooner in the day, allowing me to use the rest of the evening however I please.

This afternoon I played with Marcelo, Violeta’s son. He really is a bundle of energy, since he is only seven years old. In fact, he reminds me of my own brother at that age. We play cards together, and I have even begun to see him as a family member. He really comforts me, and I feel really comfortable talking to him in Spanish because of his age and his unassuming nature.

Later after dinner, I watched The Dark Knight with the family. They haven’t ever seen the movie, mainly because it is a pretty new one. There isn’t a single movie theater in Cuzco, something I find to be somewhat strange. While I did not expect movie theaters to be ubiquitous in Peru, I did expect that a large city like Cuzco would have at least one theater. After watching the movie, which turned out to be a great family bonding experience, I went to bed.