Chiclayo

Claes: it looked rather dry and barren from above the airplane. A patch work of open fields cross-crossed by dried-up watering canals. We're an hour north (by plane) of Lima, in Chiclayo. A cab drive through buzzling city streets to La Fiesta, so far the best restaurant in Peru; had a tremendous combination of causa, cebishe, papa and duck. Tomorrow, a collectivo-cab dur East for five hours to Bagua.

Men to Match the Mountains

Claes: Marcelino Cruz is the former President of Copa Grande, a small farming village in the Cordillera Blanca. We're standing outside of his home, looking at the maize that has yet to grow. And with the magnificent Copa glacier in sight. (The glacier is to the north of the magnificent peak Huascara - above - the highest point in Peru)

Marcelino has lived here all his life, but now he tells us that he doesn't expect his two children to stay. There simply will not be enough water fir them to be able to continue farming the land. At the rate the glacier is melting, Marcelino thinks it'll be entirely gone in maybe twenty - thirty years. And with no water, there's no life in Copa.

Marcelino's thirteen year old daughter Margot is standing by his side, petting the new puppy. She doesn't seem overly concerned about her Dad's prediction of her future.

Just around the corner from where we're standing is Kate Dunbar's rental room. Kate is from Univ. of Georgia and is working on her Ph.D in anthropology. She has been here for thirteen months and has another three to go before her field work is done. I have known Kate since my visit here last December and I think her work on how climate change's social and cultural effects in fascinating.
Kate walks us down toward the center of the village. But we don't get very far before the first thunder clap rolls across the valley. It's a tremendous roaring sound with a long rumbling tail. And it's followed by plenty more. Somehow we disregard these obvious signs are a caught in the rain. We quickly try to cover up ourselves and the electronic equipment and return to Kate's room.

Copa is struggling. Water managememt and drip irrigation are fine ideas, but without a way to store the melt-off from the glacier (or the heavy precipitation) there'll be a lack of water come the dry season. But who will pay for a reservoir? To make ends meet Marcelino is working as a security guard ever night at a rose plantation halfway down the hill. And the central government in Lima can't afford to build one either.

Potatoes at 12,000 Feet

Jon:The British group ‘Practical Action’ was founded in the 1960s with the recognition that many of the aid efforts put forward by the big NGOs were inappropriate for the populations for which they were intended. They set out to find practical and efficient, technologies as a way to wipe out poverty. Forty years later, they have not wiped out poverty, but they have made amazing

Cordillero Blanco's
breathtaking clouds

changes in communities from south Asia, central, eastern and southern Africa, and the Pacific coast of South America.

Claes and I were taken to the Yungay regional office of Practical Action (which was originally named the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) by our stalwart driver Hugo Dextre. At the Yungay office, we met up with one of the directors of the region, Alcides Vilela Chavez, who described the nature of the work they were doing in the Cordillero valley of north central Peru.

The ‘solutions’ described by the Vilela were deceptively simple, and had to do with a careful recycling of animal poop into not only usable fertilizers, but also a kind of liquid protection against frosts, which could destroy a family’s crop and livelihood. It’s important to remember that the majority of the farming in this area is for family consumption. A relatively small portion finds its way to regional markets – although that is changing

The tiny village of Copa on Cordillera Blanca

What this means, however, is that these indigenous farmers cultivate their crops of several varieties of corn and potatoes to provide food for their families. Much is preserved and used in times when other food stuffs aren’t available, but the importance of these two crops – and their dozens of variants can’t be underestimated.

It’s been said that the Eskimo have 30 words to describe snow. The descendents of the Incas who live in the Cordillero valley, likewise, have doesn’t of names for the many varieties of potatoes and corn. Tonight at dinner, we had two varieties, for example: mote – which is essentially toasted popcorn that hasn’t really exploded; a crunchy shell and a floury interior served with the mild queso blanco of the region, and cancha, a steamed white corn with red onions, and a slice of tomato.

The high points – literally – of the day, were the visits to two of ITDGs projects in the area, one on the eastern side of the mountain range, the so-called Cordillera Blanca, for its snow, sun, ice and water. We stopped in the tiny farming village of Huashao, where local farmers were rotating crops of a number of varieties of corn, as well as managing water in a drip irrigation scheme that used plastic bottles. Huashao being on the ‘Blanca’ side of the valley, is seen as being somewhat better off than their compadres on the other side of the valley, the Cordillero Negro. In the tiny settlement we

Our erstwhile driver Hugo Dextre:
he smoothed out the bumpy roads

visited, our interview subject spoke eloquently and knowledgably of the shifting dynamics that controlled their communities. He then showed us the Cuy, 8 inch long Guinea Pigs, that are a staple and delicacy of the regional diet.

To reach either of these communities (they couldn’t really be called cities) required Hugo to navigate massive ‘hueco’ (pot holes) filled rock and dirt roads, many kilometers into these mountains. Most of the people who live in these mountain settlements have to walk the steep mountains daily to get the fundamentals of their lives. This is a tough way to live. The folks we spoke with seemed moderately happy, the aid workers at ITDG were consumed with the passion of their work, and clearly there is economic development here. But it’s still a tough life.

I came away really liking these people, and mostly being blown away by how hard they work and what they have to overcome to survive.

(L t R)Claes, Miluska Caldas,

Jose Vasquez, Alcides Chavez and me

Lomo Saltado

Claes: Lomo Saltado - a first taste of Peru, at dinner after our first day in Lima. Low hanging clouds, or was it possibly a marine layer, prevented extensive video recordings, but Jon did an excellent stand-up and we got some great images and audio of para-gliders nevertheless.

Leaving early tomorrow morning for the Andes, an "my" village in
Cordillera Blanca - Copa Grande. The village is home to maybe five
hundred people who live at the foot of a beautiful, but rapidly
retreating glacier.

Copa sits at about 3,500 meters above sea level, and although
there are certainly places at higher altitude, I remember how just
walking down to the market in the center of Copa was... well, let's
just say - not effortless.

Adelante a Lima!

JON: We arrived in Lima a bit after midnight, and the cool, moist air of Callao - Lima's port - felt good after 8 hours on Lan Chile. Not a bad flight, however, and the food reminded me how bad we have it in the land of US air travel, where it seems American airline companies have complete disdain for their passengers.

Lima is much more modern than I expected, with lots of late night café's and what appears to be the latest arrival, Las Vegas-like casinos. Long stretches of the city, coming into Miraflores, where our hotel is located, have pint-sized versions of Vegas style clubs, with lots of neon, uniformed door men and the like. Oh, and of course, the promise of instant riches. It would be easy to criticize these garish pleasure palaces, but it would be mighty hypocritical. They appear to be serving their purpose here: separating people from their money.

I've only been here less than two hours, but I am left with an inescapable
reflection. It was here, in this city, 41 years ago, that I first saw the
world outside the US. It was the first city off the North American
continent where I ever set foot. Traveling with Fr. Paul Meineke, I was all
of 15 years old. A young boy traveling abroad with an elderly priest
probably just couldn't happen today, but of course, that was a different
time.

Nonetheless, it leaves me with a bit of nostalgia, thinking that this was
where I first experienced the wider world.

It's after 3:00 am, local time; I'm beat. Off to bed.

Time to get going

The last late supper at IHOP before leaving.

Jon: Claes took this picture of me out side the window of the South Arroyo Pkwy. IHOP on the Thurs. before our Sat. departure. We are sitting with our friend Kevin MacLaughlin, checking out 'gadgets' - enthralled with Mac technology and late night cuisine in Pasadena.

One Week To Go!

Claes: Just one week before we're leaving for Peru. Still a lot of practical things to fix, interviews to set up and hotels to book. But we're on our way!

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