We climbed out of Ayacucho and within about 30 minutes we were right out in the countryside and at about 4,000m, with beautiful views of mountains all around us. We passed a number of small villages along the way, as well as adults and children walking along the roads with sheep, goats, donkeys ... women carrying babies or produce in mantas, some of them knitting whilst walking along the road! We also saw lots of people out in the fields, planting crops - mainly potatoes, also ploughing with oxen and old wooden ploughs. It felt like we'd gone back in time.
We then drove down into a valley and stopped at a lovely riverside spot so that Ken, one of the volunteers, could do some fishing. Some locals who lived on the other side of the river said he could fish there, but there was no bridge, so Ken declined! No fish was caught for dinner, unfortunately.
Then another climb up to about 4,000m again, and then a right turn off the Lima road onto a dirt track for another few miles. This is when things began to get really interesting!
Once over 4,000m the air felt different and it was distinctly colder - this is the beginning of summer and even when still in the minibus we were putting putting fleeces on! And the landscape changed too - remote, peaty terrain, and nothing much other than potato crops here and there. And then I saw my first Peruvian llama! And soon after several others, also alpaca.
We continued to climb and must have reached about 4,500m, when we reached a remote village. It is incredible that people can live up here. The only crops that grow are potatoes, and there's a market down in the valley once a week where fruit and vegetables are brought up from Ayacucho, but this must be a good 4-hour hike each way. And a lot of these people don't have any money, so can only get provisions in return for produce that they grow themselves. It's incredibly bleak up here, and people live in tiny stone huts, with very little else.
Some children let us look inside their house and we saw their kitchen - a circle of stones for a fireplace, and a couple of pots containing potatoes. And the sleeping area was just a piece of wood off the floor and covered in blankets. All incredibly basic and bleak. And this is the beginnning of summer. I can't imagine what it must be like up here in winter!
Before we set off, we had been told how tough it was living up in the mountains and we had asked how we could help. Although CCS don't have projects up here, they suggested that if we wanted to help, we could buy some basic goods like hats, socks, leggings, water jugs, etc. for the villagers, so we'd all chipped in and had gone shopping in the market before setting off. Another group of volunteers had done this a few weeks before and they told us that the villagers had really appreciated it. We'd also bought a box of ´Wawa bread´- special bread in the shape of babies that people eat around 1 November, All Saints Day, and as these would not normally reach people up here in the mountains. We were heading for another village further up in the mountains that as far as we knew had not received gifts before, but we gave out some bread and jugs in this first village too, and these were gratefully accepted.
We then reached the second village and parked in the centre. Alejandro, our driver, explained to the villagers in Quechua that we had brought some gifts for them, and soon lots of people gathered round us.
We handed out the gifts to the villagers, but somehow it just didn't feel right at all. I felt very uncomfortable - was it right for us to be deciding what they needed? Were these the kinds of things that were a priority for them; how were we to know? And the villagers seemed a bit frustrated with us that we hadn't brought enough for each person to have something and asked us to come back again with more! I'm not sure they realised that we'd just bought some things out of our own money on a personal trip, and I have a feeling they thought we'd come on some kind of official trip - apparently the state sometimes brings things up to to the villages. We weren't expecting them to be grovelling with thanks, just a bit more appreciative.
We left the village questioning whether we'd done the right thing bringing gifts at all, and wondering whether the previous visit to the area by volunteers had created expectations that gringos would be bringing presents everytime they passed by. We also questioned whether we'd given the right kinds of things - woolly hats and clothes would keep them warm, but they have been living up in the mountains in these conditions for centuries ... was it just our cultural norms telling us that they needed more? And maybe something more sustainable like a llama or an alpaca would have been a more useful gift, if we were to give anything? This also led to a long debate about culture versus development - an issue that keeps cropping up here ...
Although I came away not sure whether I wanted to do this kind of thing again, some villagers were appreciative, so I'll leave things on a positive note and with this little girl who loved her new chullo!
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