Up, Up and Away

Travel day to the highlands! Chris, David and I met Carlos at the Lima airport very early and got ready to take our very small propeller plane to the Andahuaylas Airport in the Department of Apurimac which is in south central Peru. Today’s travels began the program visiting part of our trip but today was primarily a travel day.

We flew to an elevation of about 13,500 ft. All of the programs are in this general area and we will be at this elevation or just a little lower for the duration of the program. We are high up in the Andes Mountains. I was somewhat nervous because I have had problems with altitude before, but I have brought a number of remedies to deal with this. Those who traveled with me on the World Neighbors trip to Ecuador two years ago might remember my hands turning purple - I think everyone on the trip took a photo of that phenomenon!

The plane we took was tiny! I think this is why we were told to only bring a carry on size bag for the trip. This plane was only slightly larger than the bush plane I used to take to get to my Peace Corps post in Africa years ago. On board, we were given a boxed snack and a pair of ear plugs. Chris said we would need the ear plugs. He was right; the propellers were quite noisy. Memories of bush plane flights flooded back as we took off and in a matter of moments I noticed that our pilot (who was sitting about 5 feet away from me) was using his feet and pedals to fly the plane.

The views outside the windows changed from seaside vegetation to arid hills. It is now the dry season (May-August) and we have learned that one of the problems for the farmers we will be visiting is the lack of water and the need for irrigation. Many of them have only been able to grow one crop a year during the rainy season. With irrigation, they could have two crops and this would allow their families to have better nutrition all year as well as provide them with a source of additional income.

We landed at the airport and could immediately feel the altitude: Just a slight sense of a lack of enough oxygen to breathe deeply and difficulty at any type of exertion. Julio and our driver Uri were waiting for us and we started our long drive from Andahuyalas to Chincheros.

Another challenge for you readers: Looking at the photo of the area near the airport – can you guess what the red crop in the photo is? Hint: A staple crop of Peru. If you cannot guess, I will tell you in a later blog posting.

The drive took the rest of the day because the families and the communities we will be visiting live in extremely remote areas of Peru. On the way, we stopped at a town square which had a fountain consisting of statuary of several pumas surrounding the chief of the Chancas. The Chancas were the rival tribe of the Incas and pumas are symbols of strength and power. We also stopped for lunch at a nice outdoor restaurant, Puma de Piedra, and I learned my first Spanish food word in Peru: “trucha” (trout). My second Peruvian culinary name to learn that day was “chicha morada” which is a non-alcoholic dark purple drink made from corn, pineapple and cloves. It was sweet and quite good.

After lunch, we stopped at the beautiful Pachucha Lagoon (pictured right). and then at the nearby Ruins of the Chancas of Sandor. The Chancas were fierce warriors and there were many battles between them and the Incas.

The road soon became a small dirt-gravel road and as we started to climb higher, it also became a series of many switch-backs with sharp turns. We soon began to appreciate Uri’s driving skills as he negotiated these turns. This drive is not for the faint-of-heart: a glance out the window and straight down awarded us with a view of a several thousand feet drop in many places as we were traveling deep within the mountain ranges. Indeed, the view was breath-taking. This part of the drive was about 80 kilometers and took the rest of the day.

We began to really appreciate the magnitude of the work that World Neighbors has been doing in this region since the 1960’s as we could see for ourselves why the remote and arid nature of this area contributed to the extreme poverty of the people who reside here. The Departments of Apurimac (where we are), Ayacucho and Huancavalika are collectively known as the “trapezoid of poverty.”

World Neighbors goes into areas such as this: they identify which areas have the most extreme poverty and need and they go in where the NGOs (Non Government Organizations) won’t even go. As we were to learn later, our visit would be the first that these communities would have ever had from the outside world.

As if the severity of nature weren’t enough, the area we are going deep into is also an area which was heavily infiltrated by the Sendero Luminoso, or “Shining Path.” This was the Maoist guerilla movement who, for over 10 years, terrorized these populations and there were many Sendero cells hidden in these mountains. The increasing conflict between the Sendero and the government military of Peru between the 1980’s to early 90’s forced World Neighbors to leave as the violence increased. It is estimated that three quarters of the indigenous people of this region died as a result of this conflict. World Neighbors returned to Peru in 2007 and our journey is the first since their return.

We finally reached Chinceros in the early evening, and stopped at our small hotel. A quick dinner and off to bed as our schedule of program-visiting is a full one.