More children of Pedregal Alto.

These are some of the children who greet us everytime we visit Pedregal Alto. They race to have their photo taken and then have great delight in viewing their faces by virtue of the digital camera.

How the roof is poured.

From this distance you will notice at the right hand end of the building the workmen have completed pouring the roof of the toilet area. The actual method they use is most intriguing and by the use of both pictures and words I will endeavour to try and explain the process.

As previously mentioned they use an enormous number of eucalyptus props to support the ceiling. When you think of the combined weight of the reinforcing steel, bricks and cement you can understand why. However, they do use special bricks for the roof or ceiling, as you can see they are larger than the normal building brick, yet lighter in weight due to the honeycomb nature of their construction.

The men lay planks across the area to be poured and space them apart so that the large bricks can bridge the gap – so to say. This forms a trench between the sides of the two bricks and the base is the plank. Cement is then carried by hand up onto the roof and poured into these trenches. When they are filled the entire area is covered with more cement. Felix, the foreman, says that if the sun stays out all the supports will be removed in about two weeks, otherwise it could be up to twenty days before they are taken away.

You will notice from the picture that the moisture from the fresh cement is seeping through the wooden planks.
Apparently next Wednesday is the day set aside for the main cement pour – and the party at the end of the day! We will be there to bring you, and the rest of trhe world, up to date with the latest!!

The surrounds of Pedregal Alto.

Now that the sun has returned once again to the valley you get a fairly good impression of what it is like living at Pedregal Alto. There is no real demand for such garden items as lawn mowers and hedge clippers! However, the odd bulldozer may come in handy.
In the top photo there is another major valley over the range in the background, that particular valley leads to Tarma and right to the edge of the Amazon jungle. Apparently it is planned that a major road will link Pedregal Alto and this other valley. Somebody did mention that the President, Alain Garcia, has land around here, amazing!
Footnote: Today we created a record, twelve passengers in a Mazda station wagon 'taxi'! Three in the front seat, four, including yours truly, in the next seat and five in the back, including Marion! And all paying customers, a windfall for the driver.

Building report - 14th September.

You cannot win, just four days after the warm sunshine the fog has descended once again with a vengeance. One small blessing is that at least it is not drizzling and damp.
The well used timber uprights and planks have all arrived on site and the workmen have begun the forming up of the horizontal beams.

The first reinforced beam will be placed right around the building on top of the external walls. This will be connected to both the vertical wall beams and the horizontal roof beams in order to form and really good protection against tremors and earhtquakes. This building technique virtually ties the whole building together.

The exterior walls are connected with further reinforced cross beams. You have to be impressed with the use of the eucalypt uprights and the sophisticated method used to prop them all up to the correct height!

Wait for the next report and see how many uprights will be in place to hold up the entire ceiling - a virtual forest of dried euclaypts!

The site is guarded and completely safe thanks to this resident, ferocious hound. He recognised us as friends so promptly went back to sleep on his bed of empty cement bags!

Building report - 10th September.

A beautiful day up at Pedregal Alto, at last the sun is shining and it is warm.

The builders are back and were happy to see us even though there was no cake. We promised to return on Friday with the goodies!

Looking through the front door into the main community space, the kitchen is at the rear.

From this angle you can see the three distinct areas. From the left the storage and toilet area, the kitchen and finally the community space.

The final time at Leo's at Punta Negra.

Leo's House, the one behind the blue gate. We have just spent the last six days there and it really was the last six days as Leo moves out next week just prior to him flying back to Australia for six months. Leo has decided to move back to Lima when he returns in April, 2009. It was rather sad as we have spent many wonderful hours at his house and it will hold fond memories for us.

Marion had a marvellous time assisting with the wrapping, packing and general cleaning of cupboards, shelves and drawers. I constantly remained on the lookout in order to short circuit any attempts by either of them to relocate items to our place of residence in Montenegro!
I may well have been accused of being rather selfish in that I did not want to have to repack anything again in January. Possibly an accurate assumption!

We had great delight in pointing out to him that now that he is leaving they are constructing a rather flash paved promenade right outside his front door and stretching all along the beach front.

When you mention the beach you have to realise that it falls a long way short of our Australian beaches. Our sand could be white or even golden, over here it is grey; our water may sparkle, over here it is grey; our skies are usually blue, over here it is grey! Nevertheless, it is still great to go down to Punta Negra and just smell the sea air and watch the Pacific Ocean pound the shore twenty four hours a day.

I have to admit that the surf is scary; the sets of very large dumpers arrive quite regularly and crash down very close to the water’s edge. If you are brave enough and do venture into the water you must do two things, stay close to the shore and always watch the incoming waves. The undertow is extremely strong. During the summer months the beach is patrolled by lifesavers, however, very few take to the water. They prefer to just sit on the sand under umbrellas.

The fishermen are amazingly patient, every time we come down there is always someone on the rocks fishing. The only time they are missing is when the waves are breaking over the rock pillars!

The brown and white bus in the foreground is the bus we use to travel down from Lima, a journey of about one and a quarter hours – depending on the number of stops. The trucks higher in the background are travelling along the Pan American Sur. This main highway virtually links all the countries of South America along the western coast. Initially it was intended to extend from the United States right through to the south of Chile.
The landscape in the background is basically what you experience for kilometre after kilometre – rock and sand with little to no vegetation.

Building report - 6th September.

We visited the site this morning and would you believe there is still ‘mucho niebla’ – much fog! The locals still say that October will be sunny, we are almost there!
All the external brickwork is almost complete. However, there was no action today mainly due to freshly poured foundations and columns. I believe the next stage being the boxing and pouring of a reinforced concrete beam on top of the brickwork all the way around the building.
Thank heavens Marion did not do her usual cake trick for the workers, it would have to have been brought home for us to eat!
This is the front of the building and the main entrance is on the right.

Standing in the main community area and looking towards the kitchen and servery window.

Looking from the kitchen back into the main community area.

The toilet and storage areas at the rear of the building.

A view of one of the side walls from the rear of the building to the front.