Peruvian Experience - Page Two
Sunday Feb. 8th
We leave Sollocotta at 5:10 AM for a 2 ½ hour drive to our first stop. We stop along the way for breakfast and everybody has soup but me and I have two eggs and coffee. When we arrive there is only one truck with alpacas but as we set up more trucks arrive and several groups of alpacas wander in. We are at the local fairgrounds in Crucero. Several groups of llamas show up but they are obviously just local herds and there is no Chacu variety to choose from. We stop briefly for lunch and carve chunks of lamb from the leftovers from yesterday’s picnic. After lunch more llamas and alpacas show up but it appears they are last minute stragglers who heard that the buyers were in town and they brought everything they could round up just hoping that they would get lucky and sell something. Rufino bought several alpacas of nice quality but I didn’t buy anything. We were gone by noon. Just as we were pulling out I bought a handmade llama wool blanket from an old woman for $50. We stopped along the way to Macusani at one more place where Rufino bought three more alpacas. I’m wondering how my wife is getting along with the new llamas as I haven’t been able to call home yet.
We arrived at Chacon’s house where we stayed last year. We unpacked then decided to go to a public hot springs pool. Little did I know it was a 1 ½ hour drive and probably the windiest, most dangerous road I’ve ever been on. It was 1 to 11/2 lanes the whole trip. We descended over 10,000 feet from Macusani to the pool. I swam in my underwear. There was a lot of chuckling and pointing but I’ll never see these people again so who cares. When we left, Rufino said we were stopping at a friend’s house. We left the trail and climbed a ½ mile to a very remote homestead in the rainforest. He raised trout, guinea pigs and hogs and sweet corn. No electricity and small wooden huts more primitive than I’ve ever seen. We took this guy on a small tour 1 ½ hours back down the winding road another 3000 ft drop to view a hydroelectric dam under construction in the heart of the rainforest jungle. It was quite an operation with a small modern town constructed for the men. A stark contrast to the jungle huts along the way. By the time we were done it was past dark and the fog set in heavily on most of the route home. We made it safely and at about 8:30 I called home and talked to my daughter Aja about life at home. The P5 llamas arrived safely and only 1 animal was sick. I started getting a severe head cold that made me stuffy and congested like last year and I stared to feel my health going downhill.
2-9-97
I didn’t sleep well during the night. I couldn’t breathe thru my nose at all. The ride the night before was extremely dusty and I suspect that is most of the problem. I ate 2 eggs again instead of soup and took Seldane to clear my sinuses. We went 2 blocks from Chacon’s house in Macusani to someone’s side yard where I chose 3 nice llamas. I’m feeling better but weak, possibly due to the high altitude. We’re going to the fairgrounds next. At 8:30 it appears that I’m done for the day. Ten or so alpaca groups show up by 10:00. Rufino tags some and we all wait around for more to arrive. Three groups had llamas but none even come close to good enough. Again it looks like people from the area just show up in case they might have something I like. One nice male arrived but he held his tail to the side. He was with two geldings, 1 of which might have been good enough if he was whole. How a few minutes can change things, two llama groups showed up by truck, the first had 3 excellent females and 2 excellent males. I tagged 2 females that were great. #3010 is the best so far. The male that sired them both is tagged #300, our first male. He is strong, heavy boned, good ears and grey and black. The next group had a very nice Suri female, white with red head. We tagged her even though she has small bend on the end of her tail. She had an appy baby by her side that was pretty nice.
Local fairgrounds in the small remote town of Macusani at 14,800 feet above sea level. This Mercedes truck held these three adult females along with one baby and the llama owner Dina Diaz DeCansea. We pre-screened and tagged the white females with the red head #3011.
Back to waiting, 12:00 to 1:15, we came back to our room for lunch. I had alpaca soup but declined the chicken and potatoes. We went back to the hill and waited for 2 hours for someone to show up. Just when I was about to give up and it was ready to rain, four trucks pulled up. Three of the groups had no desirable llamas but the biggest truck had about 20 and had some pretty nice stuff. #3012 is a grey female with pretty good wool but not quite Suri type; she has killer head and ears. #3013 is great except for one thing, she has a small bend in the very tip of her tail, she is pretty, Suri wool and solid black with excellent ears. Then #3014, who is #3011’s mom showed up, she is big, has not great ears, but has single coat fleece and is obviously capable at having Suri offspring. We finished her up in pouring rain as the photos will show. We came back to Chacons and sat around waiting for dinner. I earlier had a choice between meats, chicken or pork to which I replied, “I don’t care”. We were served pork all right – guinea pig – I called my wife to check in – found her home and spent $45 catching up on the P5 imports. Everything at home is OK and that makes me feel better. I am not currently feeling sick in spite of having seen the cute guinea pigs the day before I had one for the first time. Let’s hope I stay healthy for the duration.
2-10-97
We left at 5:30 after coffee and hard boiled eggs. Drove on one lane path 1 hour to Viluyo’s farm where I bought 2 Suri females. We looked at his males and the 3 best had been gelded. We then drove to Huaycho, which is a farming coop where we bought llamas last year.
A co-op near Huaycho at nearly 16,000ft. You can see the weather in the nearby mountains that we are indeed high in the Peruvian Andes.
At the Huaycho co-op in 1997 we take an early morning break in the warming sun on the front steps to the local church.
Maximo Diaz was supposed to meet us there with the black Suri male we saw at the Arequipa show. I checked and double checked with Renzo and Rufina and was repeatedly assured the male would be there. Well, he wasn’t. I was pissed to put it mildly. This male is the backbone of our Canadian Suri breeding program and no one bothered to talk to Maximo. We argued for about 5 minutes until Maximo agreed to bring him to Anticalla 2 days from now. I don’t believe it will happen. Every day I double checked with Rufino about this male and he told me it had all been arranged. At Huaycho he acted like it was the first time he’d heard about him. I was pissed. I’m ready to leave. Anyway I selected 11 animals altogether. They really had some nice stuff. I bought 1 male, fawn colored who had tremendous wool coverage and pretty nice ears. He’s better than any of our males except Kantu. I bought some really special females but as always they are missing one thing, be it size, ears,or wool coverage – something. I did buy a female that I’ll probably catch hell about but she’s a tall Suri with a straight top line. Her ears are not alpaca like but do not curve in either. They are tall and pretty straight. Maybe Kantu can put a hook in her babies. The last hour it poured and we worked right thru it. For lunch we had alpaca soup and I just couldn’t eat the meat. It looked like they just whacked it with a meat cleaver. My piece had bone chips and veins hanging out of it. Next they brought out a huge piece of beef?, on the bone. It was pretty good but I couldn’t tell what part of the cow it came from. Luckily I had a small dog sitting by my chair and he ate well. When we left we drove thru a swollen river. It was the only time I saw our drivers top to debate if and how to cross. We made it with no problem.
The river crossings were always interesting. Generally, we crossed one vehicle at a time, just in case! We had some close calls but never became completely stuck.
We stopped at a remote hot spring but the recent rain made the stream water too cool to take off our clothes, bathe and then get dressed in the brisk wind. We followed a hollow to some co-op that Rufino knew about and that is where we’re staying tonight. Its 6:30 and I just finished a freeze dried spaghetti dinner and I’m writing this by candlelight. I’m going to try to slow down my selections as I already have 25.
2-11-98
At 6:00 we got up. It’s been raining since about 1:00. We are concerned about the river crossings we must make today. We arrive in Nunoa with no problem. I call home and no one is up or in the house so I leave a message. Hernan tells me Tom Hunt left a message to call him, I try but he is not home either. We go to the restaurant where I have eggs, fries and rice. It’s a mixture of rain and snow now. At 9:00 we arrive at the Nunoa fairgrounds where several groups of animals are already there, we are still in the trucks at 10:20, as I write this. No llamas of selection quality are in any of the groups so far. At 10:30 we start going thru the groups. There are many poor llamas and very few good llamas. The first one I choose is not really great but the people are getting impatient with me for not choosing any. I had outright rejected over 150 llamas before choosing this one. Later I choose an extremely nice female and a Suri male from the next to last group. I suspect that some people didn’t show up because it rained all night and most of the morning. Either that or Rufino did not do what he said.
One of the government officials explains to a group of local breeders the selection process. We generally tagged the llamas and made arrangements to come back within a couple of weeks with a large truck to transport the llamas to our quarantine facility in Tacna and pay for our selections.
Just before we left, the greaseball, who showed up drunk at 8:00 AM started to create a scene. Earlier he had gone around to anyone who would listen and spread ill will amongst the people, questioning the process, payment, etc. He really got in Rufino’s face for not selecting his alpacas, which he said were champions at some shows. Eventually his mother, brother and wife escorted him out. He could hardly stand up but kept coming back. As we left he was at the gate drinking with three other guys. We left Nunoa and headed for Anticalla. Along the way we stopped at Kantu’s farm, a nice spread by Peru standards. The owner was supposed to be there but was not, neither were his animals. His son showed up and said he would have the animals there tomorrow. We’ll see!
Kantu's farm along the Nunoa river. We had traveled past this complex on several other Peru trips, but didn't but didn't go there because it was on the other side of the river from the main road to rural Nunoa and about 20 miles out of the way.
We also saw Maximo Diaz in Nunoa and he said he couldn’t bring my black Suri male because the river was too high. I told Rufina that male must come even if we had to rent a bulldozer to get across the river. We may see him yet on one of our other stops. Let’s hope so. We are at Allianza coop Anticalla out post for the right. I’ve been here before and the housing is pretty decent. We each have a bed with two blankets, a mattress, a pillow and no heat.