2013 Heading for Peru!

We have our airline tickets and will be heading through Lima, then directly to Lake Titicaca to arrive in Puno on February 28! Two years in a row!!

This trip will include visits from US and Brazilian friends to meet our Taquile Island family.

We will bring efficient LED lights to trade for Taquile magnificent textiles. If we trade for Photovoltaic Solar Electric panels we can happily now buy them in Peru for comparable price and quality and thereby save luggage fees and the work of carrying them.

Below are some pictures of textiles that we have in our current inventory:

Scarves or Table Runners

Hats with Earflaps

Gloves

Chuspas (coca purses) Everything Bags

Portrait of Juan Quispe in Auction

When figurative painter Michael G. Mitchell met indigenous Peruvian Juan Quispe in December of 2010, he knew he wanted to paint his portrait: the strong cheekbones of a descendent of the Inca, the dignified bearing, the traditional red chullo hat that Juan knit himself and even the wig of multiple fine braids, a gift of his mother's hair. 

Michael has beautifully captured these characteristics, Juan's dignity, his energy and life, rendered in oil on Belgium Linen and mounted on foam core board, ready to frame.
16" x 20" The Portrait was donated to the NFRIA-WSERC Conservation Center, an organization that works to protect the natural, human and economic resources of watersheds in Delta County, Colorado.

The auction is over and the painting was unsold. You should contact me to arrange to offer to buy it.  Original Oil Painting, "Juan Quispe, Nativo de Taquile"

Puno to Lima, wild ride

Wild ride to the airport in Juliaca yesterday: roads were all blocked by the informal miners who want to keep mining and polluting without restrictions. We hired a taxi (for a small fortune) to take us on the back roads past the ruins of Sillustani. The ride included a run through a flooded zone where the Toyota Station wagon bumper pushed a wake through the water. Sam and I got out of the car to run around the flood and wade a stream. A bus full of passengers made the same run; they were sympathetic to me "madrina," as I walked barefoot to put my shoes back on in the car. We got a flat tire just before finally reaching the good pavement; Sam helped change the tire and it was done before I could even reach in a grab a camera. We arrived at the airport 5 minutes from flight time to learn the flight had been postponed for an hour. Excellent. Direct flight to Lima in about an hour and a half.

For more about the miners http://www.peruthisweek.com/news-1759-Peru-to-maintain-firm-stance-on-illegal-mining-says-PM/
alsohttp://www.peruthisweek.com/news-1770-Peru-government-prepares-fund-to-formalize-illegal-miners/

It's tricky because you want to sympathize with people who work hard, and some of the talk is that the formal mines aren't so good about environmental protection either, but apparently with no regulation at all the informal miners are really making a mess.

In the meantime, we're in nice hot Lima. We stayed one night in a beautiful 150 year old building hotel in the center of the city, marble staircase, nice carvings, high ceilings. Our guide friend, Eduardo Mamani, was also staying there for a conference in Lima this week, so we took his advice. They have a safe luggage storage. Eduardo took us to a nearby market for breakfast. Then we repacked, stored our luggage and went off with only our daypacks to Felipe's house. He lives up a steep staircase (Sam counted  190 steps) in a pretty basic situation but has running water and electricity, little gas stove, even a cool washing machine with a separate high speed spinner to drive out the water.

With Felipe as a companion and guide, we shopped for mosquito netting, which we will need at our next visit, north of here in Huacho where Noemi lives. Then we rode the electric train all the way to the end of the line, Villa El Salvador. The train is brand new and still free. We met a nice woman who recommended a restaurant, ate ceviche with an excellent lunch and returned on the train. The 35 minute ride would have been over 2 hours by bus. Clean, quiet, fast: quite impressive.

Fredy came from work to be with us for a couple of hours before bedtime; we may see him one more time if he can get a little more time off work.

Right now we wait for Celbia and Asunta, who are riding the bus from Puno. We had bought direct bus tickets for them, but the blockade and subsequent strike has delayed everything and they are on a slower bus. They should be arriving soon (4 hours later than we planned; I'm sure glad we caught our plane, or we'd be on the same bus) and we'll all go to Huacho together. Noemi's husband, Alejandro, is with us, all on the internet as we wait for their arrival.

Soon to see my eldest god daughter!

Last night on Taquile

March 12, going-away party on Taquile; about 45 pople came. We made a huge chicken soup. Dessert was banana cake from the solar cooker!

Musicians came with their mandolins and guitars, played traditional peruvian dance music. I wore 4 skirts and twirled and danced. The full dance floor shimmered with twirling skirts.

We ended the evening with a coca estalia, a ceremony of prayer and the burying of sacred coca leaves. Several people spoke, sharing our cariño, our deep heart connection. They wished us well and wished for our safe return.

Gracias, gracias, yus pagara sunki.

Lachon´, Capachica

Sam and I peeled off from our Putina excursion to visit Asunta and Armando and family (Kusi, Sarita and Yoel) in Lachon´ on the penninsula of Capachica. They live in a beautiful spot on a high point overlooking the lake. They built a big dining hall a couple of years ago, the thatch roof had failed so a few months ago they put up a calamina roof. The windows overlook the lake. A comfortable tourist room adjoins the comedor, which is where we slept.

The weather was really windy. As we soon learned, the Taquile Collectivo boat had to turn back to Puno. The waves were so high and dangerous that they couldn't continue. In the meantime, Sam and I were watching the waves from our cozy viewpoint through the picture windows of the comedor. Several tourist boats heading for Amantani or Taquile stopped off at Lachon since the water was too rough to continue. It's green and beautiful, terraced.

The family was so welcoming that they actually butchered a sheep for us! They'll turn the leftovers into charqui, or jerky. The sheep belonged to little Sarita, whom Sam taught to walk when she was a year and a half old in 2006. Armando said that they wanted to have sheep meat for the men who helped install the new roof, but she didn't want to give her sheep for that, but when they asked her if she would give it for Sam and Tara, she enthusiastically agreed! I can't say that we had wished for such a gift, but we certainly felt honored.

Armando will teach the upper grades of the private elementary school on Taquile this school year, which starts next week, so they won't be in Lachon´for the tourist season again, in spite of their nice facilities.

Putina: Hot Springs Excursion

We traveled with a group from Taquile to San Antonio de Putina to enjoy the hot springs and a little adventure. Our group included Eufrasia and Delfin, Ruperta and Silvano with their two little boys, Ivan and Clever, plus Fredy. W stayed two nights, three days. We had been there 8 years previously and found it relatively unchanged.

The town is full of hot springs, even a little stream ran under the patio in our hotel. They could dip from the flowing stream to bathe. We didn't need to, naturally, since we went to the hot springs at least once or twice a day.

The town has a big play pool, which we went to the first afternoon. Water tepid but good for lots of little boys to play and splash and make noise. The private baths are a very slow fill, though nice and hot. The smaller pool up the hill is much quieter and hotter. They had added an octopus shaped slide since we were there last time. The private baths filled up a lot faster and were actually too hot and needed diluted with cold water to even be able to enter.

Solar Cooking in ILAVE, El Collao, Puno, Peru

Eduardo Mamani with Tara, yams cooking in the Sun Star that we built in 1997, and the brand new ULOG with extra reflectors on the right.

Cross Cultural Exchange
At the invitation of the Munincipalidad de El Collao, Ilave, Sam and I gave a Solar Cooking presentation and demonstration to a gathering of at least 200 government officials from the area. We had a ULOG cooker newly made in Puno and an older 4 reflector panel we had made in 1997 on Taquile Island. We cooked yams in both cookers in partly cloudy conditions. Actually, they printed 300 copies of our cooker building instructions and ran out.

We were introduced as campesinos from the United States, which means we live in the country (not the city) and have an agricultural connection. All true. The audience for my talk was very attentive. Many understood my Spanish, but the talk was translated into Aymara as well. I got the biggest fun responses when I described how to cook a tough old hen past her egg-laying days by cooking it all day for free (no fuel use, just the sun) in a solar cooking for a nice tender meat soup.

Of course, the main advantages of solar cooking are 1) saving fuel costs, 2) saving time--since you can merely adjust the cooker every hour or so and get on with your business, 3) protecting the environment--less deforestation, less smoke, less fossil fuels 4) protecting health--free water purification and no lung impacts from smoky wood fires in an enclosed kitchen. Some areas in this region are suffering from floods as a result of the heavy rains this year, so protecting the ground cover and sterilizing water are priorities.

Sunday is market day in Ilave, so the town was hopping. Besides, it is still Carnaval so we came acrosss beautiful constumed dancers, funny clowns. Also, the different cultural style of dress for this region is beautiful: emboridered short jackets on some women, full skirts (longer than on Taquile), colorful and elaborate.

We are invited to return on Tuesday to demonstrate and present again for a women's group which promotes breast feeding and family health.

Here's a coincidence. Alipia comes to Taquile most Tuesdays and walks around the island from house to house selling bread and whatever else she things she can sell. Last week it was extra skirts for Carnaval dress up. She lives in Ilave and is a member of the women's group for which we will demonstrate this Tuesday. Besides that, she is a good friend of our co-mother, Eufrasia, and stays in our house when she stays overnight on Taquile! Eduardo had asked to to bring us our official invitation from the municipalidad, only because he know she was going to Taquile, and thought she might find us on the paths, but here she was a guest in our home, and no trouble finding us.

Madres: Vaso de Leche
Tuesday we returned to Ilave to repeat Sunday's talk for about 250 women. The talks before ours included information about safe pregnancies, child nutrition and prevention of domestic violence. We were the last speakers. I was brief because the sun was good for cooking and the yams were already well cooked after under 2 hours in cookers up on the roof. Lots of good questions and interest from the women.

Before we left City Hall, we were introduced to the City Manager, a handsome and personable man, who, it turns out, has his own solar cooker. In fact, he has the 3 cooker combination promoted by Cedesol, our friends in Bolivia. http://www.cedesol.org David and Ruth recommend a combination of super efficient twig stove, ULOG solar cooker and heat retention cooking. The latter is when you wrap up the partially cooked food while it is still hot so it continues cooking with the retained heat, sometimes known as a hay box, although blankets or any sort of insulation works.

He also told us about a community with 150 cookers, also from David and Ruth's project of several years ago. I suggested that they enroll those people to help promote solar cooking in the rest of the region. They invited us to come back and help do the promotion, which we would love, but really if they have their own people we can just come and help coach after they get started.

Quick conclusion is that the City and County of Ilave now has a lot of excitement going about solar cooking. Groups of carpenters may work together to build quantities of cookers at a lower cost to distribute in the rural areas. I'll be excited to see how they progress by the time we visit again, probably in 2 years.