Spring Planting with a Community School in Taray

We found out about an amazing, Waldorf-inspired community school for Quechua children in in the nearby village of Taray, in Peru's the Sacred Valley. Since the rainy season is beginning now, in October,  farmers are preparing to plant their corn and beans. We were invited to participate in this community planting ceremony with the parents, teachers, and students.  It reminded us so much of the Waldorf school-celebrations we'd become used to back home, but of course with the local Andean traditions integrated into it.

The Elemental Ritual


Following the ancient Andean tradition before planting,  an altar was set up on the edge of the field. Bags of the seeds to be blessed were arranged in a circle. Each of us took our turn to blow our prayers and intentions into a trio of coca leaves, laying them on the altar, and finishing by sprinkling water over the altar. I watched as each of the farmers removed his shoes and hat before performing this ritual.

The team of oxen carved out the furrows in the rich alluvial soil. Then, the girls placed the seeds, while the boys followed with handfuls of guano (sheep and llama poop in this case). Seeds were covered with soil, and songs were sung.





Finally, we all sat in a circle and shared a snack of choclo (roasted corn niblets) and chicha morada (warm purple corn drink--not fermented). Beautiful.


Then we dipped in the creek to cool off. A wonderful day in Peru!!!

River Cleanup in Pisac!

Trash is a big problem in Peru.

River cleanup in Pisac (Serena in green hat)

 Today we joined the monthly river cleanup in Pisac. The 8 of us--representing Mexico, Chile, Canada, and the USA--spent the morning pulling garbage out of the little river that flows into the big Urubamba River.  We were so proud of our kids who showed enthusiasm for this volunteer work.

Afterwards, we shared lunch donated by a local restaurant near the river.

Serena helping "Oso" (Chile) to sort garbage

Great helper that girl!

Another "tire-less" helper!

William fearlessly wading into the cold water to pull out trash

While we were working as an efficient team to gather the garbage, we discussed the scale of this issue.
In Pisac, there is a lot of trash generated but very little recycling available. It seems only plastic bottles (plenty of those!) can be recycled.  Plastic bags are handed out with every purchase, unless you remember to bring your own. They end up all over the place, and people even dump their trash in the river.  In fact, the municipal garbage dump is right next to the Rio Urubamba!  The problem seems daunting. But at least we made a start.


As it turns out, the Big Tree on the Plaza, some 430 years old, was struck by lightning at 2 am this morning, thus demolishing this icon of the town. The pieces were trucked to the riverside dump just as we were bringing our collected trash there. The girls played with the beautiful moss from the old tree's branches.

Cleanup organizer and all-around super hero, Paz

Tarantulas as pets?

Everyone has heard of this big, fuzzy kind of spider, but how many of you have let one crawl over your hand???  Not for the faint of heart...

During a rainstorm, the kids found this one crawling on our porch. Will enthusiastically collected it in a jar, and we brought it to Mark's place (our next door neighbor). Mark has a lot of experience with spiders and scorpions, it was a childhood hobby, so we took turns letting it crawl on our hands. Nobody got bitten, and we learned about their life history.


Thanks, Marc, for teaching us not to be afraid of big fuzzy spiders!

Natural Sanctuary: La Veronica

Glacier - fed cascades run down the forested slopes of Veronica

Will hiking up to the waterfall

Joy communing with one of the dozens of spectacular waterfalls in the Veronica Sanctuary

We are so fortunate to have connected with an amazing Peruvian man whose dream is to protect a special piece of land in the Sacred Valley.  30 years ago, Miguel's parents built a rustic house on a piece of land at the gateway to one of the most pristine tracts of native Andean montane forest left in the Sacred Valley.  He brought us there for a personal tour of what he hopes will become a protected natural area, El Santuario de la Veronica.

There are a few small meadow areas surrounded by wild forest

    How we met Miguel:  Gary just happened upon a small store near the plaza in Pisac, la Tienda de María, where a sign advertised the natural sanctuary.  María, a long-time family friend of Miguel's family, helps support the Santuario de la Veronica project by selling Miguel's t-shirts (his original designs). María's daughter, Noemi, put me in contact with Miguel, and our mutual friendship and enthusiasm for protecting this wild place took off.

The forest is rich in bird life, including five species of hummingbirds, numerous species of song birds, hawks, eagles, condors, and also rare mammals like puma, spectacled bear, and Andean deer.

Mountain orchids grow abundantly on the Polylepis (queñua) trees.

This is an important refuge for rare and endangered animals, since their mountain forest habitat is all but gone in the Sacred Valley, deforested by centuries of human inhabitation.

Miguel is an avid photographer, fascinated with the abundance of epiphytes (air plants) in this forest.

Here are some views of the Veronica Sanctuary, from our first visit. It is an amazing, unusual place, very steep forested flanks of a big (18,000') high mountain, Nevado Veronica. Looooong, thin waterfalls cascade down the green slopes, encircled by the giant arms of the mountain. There are a few trails roughed in by the cows and Miguel's father, but much trail work is needed.

Miguel clearing trail on our first visit

Already Gary has written up a proposal, is preparing to find grant money to hire a guardian, and spreading the word to organize service learning opportunities for young people.

A Visit to the Salt Pans of Maras

Plaza sculpture at Maras

We've been enjoying weekend explorations to some of the many places around the Sacred Valley. We took a fascinating hike last weekend to the Salineras, or salt pans, outside of Urubamba.  Urubamba is only  a 45-minute bus ride down valley from Pisac.  Upon arriving, we found a pleasant guest house aptly named "Los Jardines" (The Gardens), where we dropped our overnight luggage, and got some valuable suggestions from the owner, Raul, then headed down to the bus stop.

Beginning the descent from Maras

Getting to the start of the hike

Although we realized were getting quite a late start (3:00pm), it only took about 45 minutes to get to the trailhead.  First, we hopped on a Cusco-bound bus from Urubamba, asking the driver to let us off at the "desvio" (turnoff) to the small town of Maras.  There, a run-down taxi was waiting, and for a few Peruvian Soles he took us 15 minutes to the beautiful little plaza of Maras, set on top of a vast plateau with panoramic views of the Andes.  Although it was mid-afternoon, there was nobody on the plaza to ask directions. So I wandered over to the Police Station, where the friendly Police Chief shook my hand, and cheerfully sent me off toward the north, to find the trail behind the old adobe church.  Behind the San Francisco church there were several unmarked trails, but after some debate, we chose to follow the "acequia" (aqueduct) around the hill, where we hit the main trail (also unmarked) down to the Salineras.

As we plodded down the heavily eroded horse trail, we passed pairs and trios of young kids herding the family burros and cows up and down the trail. They assured us the salt pans were only about 45 minutes away, though we took twice that. The clouds cleared and the sun turned up the heat. Farm families worked in their corn fields and hawks soared overhead. More groups of burros passed by. Much of the time we were completely on our own, with no one to ask if we were still on the right path. We passed remote homesteads surrounded by beautiful green fields of young corn, seeing young kids keeping an eye on a team of oxen at rest. We saw no other foreigners on the hike. Then we met coming up a friendly old cowboy on a beautiful strong horse; he was tickled that a North American family with kids were passing through his territory. His boys listened to pop music on their cell phone as they herded the burros up the steep trail.


The trail switchbacked down into the canyon, and as we came around the corner, suddenly the salt came into view. Wow! You can hardly imagine the sight of some 5000 salt pans, blazing white, in the middle of a reddish canyon slope.




It's quite a touristy place actually, but at this point, around 4:30pm, most of the crowds were gone, and we had a feeling of having the place almost to ourselves.  As we tiptoed carefully along narrow, salt-covered pathways through the salt works, we were constantly saying wow! and check this out!, asking each other questions about how they were able to produce so much salt for so many centuries (since pre-Inca times we were told).  

Though they were selling small  bags of salt at the gift shop, we opted to toss a handful into our pocket. Beautiful, totally unprocessed mineral salts, evaporated in small basins and scooped up daily for export all over the world.


The steep descent finally flattens out,  reaching a bridge over the Rio Urubamba.  We made it back to the highway just at dusk, and flagged down a taxi back to Urubamba. Round trip was about 3 hours.

Staying Cool

Serena tests the waters

The weather's been hot, and naturally the kids are asking to go swimming. There is an Olmpic-size swimming pool in Pisac (I kid you not!), adjacent to the fancy Royal Inka Hotel. For 15 soles (about US$5) you can use the pool for the day. But we also found a really awesome natural swimmin' hole in the creek just up the nature trail. The kids can play there for hours too, for free.  The cliffy canyon wall is covered with cactus and other drought-tolerant plants. Much farther up the cliff wall are the Inca terraces of Pisac.

Refreshed!

Joy and the kids after a refreshing dip in the mountain creek above Pisac

Where we are living in Peru

Moving in day, our casita in Pisac

We are living in a tiny 2-room adobe cottage on the edge of town. 

The Andes Mountains

Typical adobe brick house in Sacred Valley, Peru

Known to South Americans as "la Cordillera de los Andes",  or simply "la Cordillera",  the Andes Mountains comprise the longest, as well as the second highest mountain range on Earth (the Himalaya is #1 of course). It is a grand, extremely diverse range, forming the continental divide along the entire western edge of the South American continent.  Extending some 5000 miles north to south through more than 60 degrees of latitude,  from tropical to temperate to subpolar,  from the lush Caribbean to the storm-battered island of Tierra del Fuego, the Andes boast an incredible landscape diversity that defies generalization. 

Living in the Sacred Valley of Peru

We have based ourselves in the small town of Pisac, in the Sacred Valley of the Incas.  A mile-deep gorge carved by the Urubamba River, the Sacred Valley, and Pisac especially, has been an important agricultural center since Inca times. Its fertile, well-watered farmland still produces large amounts of food, primarily corn, beans, squash. There are extensive Inca ruins on the mountainsides above Pisac, and modern day farmers still make use of the lowest terraces and their irrigation system (see below).  

Tropical Highland Climate

Though our latitude is just 12˚ South of the Equator, the climate is pleasantly Spring-like, on account of the 9000 feet of elevation.  It's not unbearably hot during the day, and mornings and evenings are quite cool and crisp. Alpaca sweaters are abundant and not expensive, perfect attire for the cool, damp weather.  We arrived in September, near the end of the dry season. Now, in October, the rainy season has begun, and farmers are busy planting corn. Still, there are beautiful sunny days and gorgeous clouds and rainbows between showery periods. 

Rainbow over Pisac, Peru

Traditional Springtime (October) corn planting in an indigenous "comunidad" above Pisac, Peru

Sunday Market in Pisac

Indigenous girl with lamb at Pisac market, Peru

Raising llamas, alpacas, and also sheep, the local people masterfully weave, embroider, and proudly wear beautiful, brightly colored clothing. Pisac is famous for its large Sunday Market, where you can find all sorts of artesanía (hand made goods), as well as crystals, jewelry, and musical instruments. A large proportion of the people speak Quechua ("kech-wa") as their first language, and you hear it in the market interspersed with Spanish. Serena took this photo of a local girl in her "Sunday best".