On Wednesday morning we arrived at the Lima International airport at 3.15 a.m. to board the 5.00 a.m. flight to Ayacucho. It is only one hour by air over the Andes, far preferable to the ten hours by bus! Anne met us at the airport, took us straight to our hotel for breakfast and a few hours sleep.
That afternoon we visited Ruth’s house, one of Anne’s nurses at the Clinic. The workers were just completing the pouring of the roof over her third floor of the house. Same procedure as always, workers carrying buckets of wet cement up three flight of stairs on their shoulders, empty the bucket and repeat the performance until the area is covered. This took most of the day and their pay $20.00 Peruvian Soles, about $10.00 AUS, plus a hot meal and a beer at the end of the working day!Thursday we are up again at 5.00 a.m. for breakfast and the five hour drive to Huancapi followed by another hour further up the mountains to Cayara. Narrow, dirt roads all the way, climbing in the Andes. Our drive peaked at 4,250 metres above sea level and you definitely notice the shortness of breath.
Spectacular views and spectacular drops off the side of the road - if you care to look. It is amazing how many prayers flood back to mind when you travel on these roads.Just when you thought you had seen everything the road literally dropped into the valley of the Rio Pampa.
This river would have to be a spectacular sight when the wet season is in full swing.
We had a brief stop at the Huancapi Hostel in the Plaza to drop our bags. Our room is very different this time, we have water in the shower, hand basin and toilet, even though it is cold it is better than lugging buckets up the stairs!
Our hotel and the view from the bathroom window!
The local women of Huancapi wait patiently for their $100.00 Peruvian Soles allowance based on the number of children in the family and also controlled by a type of means test.
On to Cayara for a cuy lunch, games for the children and the grand chocolatada and panettone Christmas festival.
The two ladies in front, Dina and Lourdes, are supervising the food preparations.We were also shown a number of houses where the women are participating in the cuy project that was sponsored by Sacred Heart Primary School, Mildura, two years ago.
Eventually we wound our way back to Huancapi for a very early bed for the both of us, 7.00 p.m. in fact. Would you believe for the second night in a row we have rooms right above a party! The music fired up at about 8.00 p.m. and ended at 4.00 a.m.! The amazing thing was that we were so tired we still managed a good sleep.Another local community venture.
Friday morning and we were driven higher again to visit a trout farm managed by members of the Huancapi community.
The group are working extremely hard to make this project financially viable. The site of this farm was extraordinary, one hour from Huancapi and situated among high mountains and deep valleys.
Set within a beautiful natural garden with an ample supply of fresh mountain water.
We had an extra passenger on the way back from the trout farm to Huancapi.After more farewells we finally departed for Ayacucho. Our driver, Fredy, was excellent and at all times we felt very safe and secure. In fact so much so that all the passengers fell asleep at different times on the way back to Ayacucho.
No plane ride for us this time, rather the 9.00 p.m. Cruz del Sur bus service back to Lima. One thing about this bus line is that their cama seats on the lower level are virtually full recliners and very easy to fall asleep in. So much so that the next thing we knew it was 5.00 a.m. and we were racing through the outskirts of Lima. Back to the reality of nine million people and the serious traffic, the noise, the rock and the dust. Oh well it is Lima.
The final thought from this trip that Anne left us with was why not come back to Ayacucho some time in the future and teach English to all the staff members of the Clinic. Because they have to communicate professionally with so many visiting English speaking doctors Anne believes that this development of their education is most important.
We both departed silently agreeing that you could do a lot worse things in life than return to Ayacucho for three months to teach English sometime in the not too distant future.
The final thought from this trip that Anne left us with was why not come back to Ayacucho some time in the future and teach English to all the staff members of the Clinic. Because they have to communicate professionally with so many visiting English speaking doctors Anne believes that this development of their education is most important.
We both departed silently agreeing that you could do a lot worse things in life than return to Ayacucho for three months to teach English sometime in the not too distant future.
