Peruvian Experience - Page One
Wednesday, 5 PM, I headed with the family to the Detroit airport. I arrived in time for my 6:50 flight and after waiting in line for 45 minutes was told my flight had been cancelled due to bad weather and I was rebooked on a later flight but would miss my connection in Miami for Lima Peru. Through much wrangling the agent booked me on a flight to Newark to connect to a Continental nonstop to Lima arriving at 6:50 AM in Lima. The flight was long but pretty smooth considering the storms that day along the East coast.
As usual in Lima flights never leave as scheduled. I waited in the Lima airport until 1:30 PM for my flight to Julioca that was originally scheduled for 10:50. Arriving in Julioca I was met by Rufino and our driver Havier. I lounged around my room in Julioca trying to become accustomed to the thin air.
Friday, 5:30 AM: We meet in the hotel restaurant for breakfast before leaving for the day with two trucks, two drivers, three government men, Rufino, me and Jesus. Our first stop produces a very poor selection of llamas to choose from. I choose 1 #3000. No preselection was done, several families were told what day I would come and brought their herds hoping I would choose something. Its uncomfortable telling them that the selection is poor.
We next travel to an area known as Purina. The selection is similar and I take photos of the groups to document that I am not being offered anything to choose from. For 2 ½ hours we look at probably 30 small groups of llamas eventually choosing 5 more. We depart for Sollocotta where we will spend two nights. We stop in Azangoro for lunch where we eat a heavy meal of meat, eggs, rice and home fries. While we are there I call Karen and find that the llamas from Key West have not arrived and everyone is waiting around watching the road for them. She is frustrated but taking it in stride. I will not be able to call for several days, as there is no phone service in Sollocota.
The Sollocota co-op compound had been raided 6 weeks before our arrival by a band of The Shining Path guerillas. 3 co-op members were killed in that raid. These pictures show an armed government patrol on foot and bicycle patrolling the area.
I turn in at 7:00 because there is nothing better to do. A party starts in the main room where we are staying. Music – fireplace – drinking. It’s pretty loud but no problem until about 1:00 AM when a shouting match and fight break out. I can hear punches landing, furniture sliding around and bottles breaking. At 3 Miguel finally staggers to bed and has to have someone show him to his bed because he can’t find it. Peruvians snore loudly.
We generally set up our screening area in a central area and sorted large groups into smaller groups of qualifying llamas then made our final selections after extensive pre-screenings. Sollocota compound.
At 6:00 AM we rise to coffee and soup. Miguel does not get up till 2:00. There are no llamas scheduled for today so I must burn an entire day doing nothing. The Alpaca selection is done at 10:30 AM and now no one has anything to do. The highlight of the day is an outdoor barbeque of a lamb by Hernan. We sit around the spit adjusting the fire and watching it cook. I didn’t think a lamb could cook that fast and when we took it off most of it was done so we cut up those parts for an outdoor picnic and continued to cook the rest.
Hernan, chef for a day, demonstrates his culinary talents. We gathered our own firewood and built the cooking rack from old fenceposts.
Today is my wife’s birthday and I feel particularly bad that I was not there to celebrate with her and her hands were full with the new shipment. I will try to call her as soon as possible but have no idea when we will next be near a phone. We finished out the day sitting around, napping and writing stuff like this. I had brought three Readers Digests and my Farmers Advance but had completely read them all by today. It seems like such a waste of valuable time.
We spent 2 days in Sollocota where camelid breeders from the region brought their llamas to be reviewed. Some brought small groups and others brought entire herds.
Tomorrow we leave for Macusani where there are no llamas scheduled only alpacas. I miss my wife and kids.
For supper Hernan, Havier and I made spaghetti. We improvised on some ingredients, buying tomato paste from a local store, and dicing up leftover lamb for the meat. It didn’t taste all that great but was filling.