Martin Varela paints St. Patrick.

Friends of ours asked us to approach Martin Varela to see if he would be interested in painting two pictures of St. Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland. When you think of it an interesting concept – a young Peruvian artist painting an Irish Saint using the symbols and colours of Peru!

As you can see the results to this stage are amazing in style, detail and colour especially when you realise that both are little more than 40 centimeters square!
Small details such as the trebol or shamrock, the traditional potato digger being depicted as the bishop’s crozier and Martin’s signature piece in the pica flores or humming bird. He also uses the green of Ireland.
One St. Patrick is older than the other as shown by the different shade of hair.
The style of the frame is based on the Ayacuchan retablo. The retablo is a sophisticated Andean folk art in the form of portable boxes which depict religious, historical, or everyday events that are important to the Indigenous people of the highlands of Peru, especially around Ayacucho.
Both are fascinating works in that they successfully combine the two vastly different cultures of Peru and Ireland.

This second work is not yet complete – no humming bird or shamrock in St. Patrick’s hand!

Remember you can 'click' on the actual picture to see an enlargement.

One last time into the Andes.

We travelled back to Ayacucho, Huancapi and Cayara for one last time this year.
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.

Fun and games and a chocolatada at Cayara

One of the main reasons for Marion and I to travel once again to Ayacucho and then Cayara was to attend their Christmas Chocolatada and Panettone festival that was being funded by Sister Anne Carbon and funds from the Sacred Heart community. It also gave the people of Cayara another chance to thank Marion for all her work raising the funds to establish their cuy project.

Anne had spread the word and the whole pueblo had been invited to attend the fun and games. Cayara has a population of about five hundred people.
Firstly, her staff had organised games for the children as well as small gifts for everyone.

The proceedings began in a very small way.

However, it did not take long for the word to spread and the numbers grew, especially as the prizes began to flow!

There were many running races, balloon races, a small talent quest and even the odd tug-o-war.

The guests of honour had to hand out the prizes at the end of each event. It was great fun and the smiles told the story. These children had a present for this Christmas! It may have only been a pen, pencil, comb, tooth brush, exercise book or even a lolly pop, but it was their present!

At the end of the games everyone was treated to the Chocolatada and Panettone. You know what panettones are but I’ll bet you have not heard of a ‘chocolatada’.

It all starts with the ladies getting organised in the outside kitchen.

Next boil water in three huge pots. All afternoon people kept arriving with one or two sticks of wood supplied from their own wood pile to keep the fires going.

When boiling add packets of piles of cooking chocolate, heaps of sugar and constantly stir.

The final act is to pour in many tins of condensed milk. The end result is a warm, extremely sweet chocolate drink that all ages love.

Young and old brought their mugs, jugs and even small saucepans to collect their drink. Anne had not only organised individual panettones for everyone but she had also collected bags of small loaves of their sweet bread. Most people had ‘seconds’ and some may have had a third drink. One thing is for sure there was nothing left at the end of the day and everyone seemed happy.

On a very sad and reflective note it was obvious to Marion and I that there was almost a total lack of older men present. The older women were all there with the traditional flowers in their hats, but no men. You must remember that this was one of the worst hit areas by terrorism in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and the men simply ‘disappeared’ – for the want of a better term. It is terribly sad to see these women surviving on their own, knowing what has happened to their husbands, sons and daughters.

However, a number of the women sincerely thanked Anne for all her efforts knowing that this Christmas will be remembered because of the smiles that she brought to the faces of their young children.

Main course - cuy frito.

One of the greatest compliments the ladies of Cayara can offer you is a meal of one of their precious cuy – guinea pig. However, it can be a little disconcerting viewing them living happily in their enclosures and knowing full well that they are the next meal for everyone.

Our special meal was prepared for us over a wood fire in their outside ‘kitchen’.

The plate could be described as ‘cuy frito con papas, espinaca y limon salsa’ – fried guinea pig with potatoes, spinach and lemon sauce. It looks really good if you can overcome looking at the little claws! At least there was no head served up on this one.

Both Marion and Anne think it is wonderful, I tend to be very polite and tackle only a very small portion and offer the rest to my immediate neighbours.

Marco, the son of one of the nurses who travelled with us, tucks in with fingers and all. They say the best way to eat them is with your fingers, personally I think the best way is to let others eat them!