Our home in Peru for a few weeks

Alpaccollo:

Instead of going to La Paz on Sunday the 8th as planned, Andrés got some good contacts in several villages, so we stayed in Peru and moved to an office building in a small village. This is our home for a few weeks, and then we plan to go further up in the mountains where Cañiwa (the crop Andrés is studying) is grown. While we’re here Andrés will interview people at marketplaces who sell Cañiwa and possibly also go to a village that processes Cañiwa in a stone mill. More about that later.

We have already bought Cañihuacu at the market, and as soon as we find a cow in the village from which we can buy milk, we’ll be starting our mornings with a warm Cañihuacu drink. Cañiwa is a very nutrious grain filled with proteins among other things, so apparently a bowl Cañihuacu milk would be enough for breakfast here – and they eat huge portions of food in this area!

We also bought a 5liter gas tank and a small stove, because this place is without kitchen, warm water and wifi – only a slow ethernet internet. Moreover, they wash the wooden floors here with petrol!! So one morning, after I had a night with a sick stomach, they changed the room next to ours into a gas chamber! I was ready to jump in and safe the guy cleaning the room if he stopped breathing, because that’s how I felt, like either not breathing the toxic air or throwing up. But it seemed normal for them to do a thing like this. I got Andrés to tell them not to wash our floor before we have left the village.

Here are a few pictures of the area where we live. 

This is the place where we live. Our room is in the building to the left. 

The rainy season is upon us, with awesome hale and thunder storms. We hope to hike the mountain seen in the distance one day.