There was the link and here is the nearly identical post.
In August myself and some classmates headed down to Peru with some folks from Green Empowerment. We flew into Lima and from there we went to Cajamarca. Cajamarca is in the Andes on the east side of the continental divide. This city is known as the switzerland of Peru because of their well known dairy products. I was pretty excited because I'm a huge fan of cheese and I've heard nothing but good things about Cajamarcan Cheese. What's cool about this town is their old architecture and city plan. There is a plaza in the center of town called Plaza de Arma (turns out just about every plaza in Peru is called plaza de Arma). We stayed in a hostel just a block from the center of town called hostal de Cajamarca. Hostels in Peru aren't like hostels that we think of in the states, Hostels are really just hotels that aren't 4 star hotels. This hostel was really cool because it had a courtyard that we often used as the central gathering location or hang out spot when we were waiting or just chatting. It reminds me of how much I want a courtyard to be the center of my house. Of course this style is of spanish influence, not of the indigenous groups. We spent the first few days here, getting acqainted with what to expect and meeting with various people from the NGO Soluciones Practicas.
We were here because me and a few others had spent 6 months preparing a project for a community in the Andes of the La Cocha subwatershed. 6 months is a lot of work to be doing for a place that we had never seen before. We based all our judgements on figures and numbers on everything we could find about the area. We did research on the slopes, the rainfall, the temperature, types of crops they were growing, types of innovations their ancestors employed and a bunch of other things. We came up with as many solutions we could to help them adapt to global climate change and help them survive in a more globally effected climate.
But we finally made it out here, and were excited to be able to see what it was really like. Cajamarca is a relatively cold city, but based on our research we new that the town we were going to, Chilete, would be warm or even hot like it was back home. Unfortunaley I had forgotten that the climate and temperature could change in Peru in such relatively short distances. On our way up we found that much of the Andes is being afforested with new trees that never grew here before.
Trees like Eucalyptus and pines we being planted along grids, and some of us weren't sure wether they were the best species or not because they could become invasive.
The ride was definitely educational and we began to learn more about the Yanacocha mine that was nearby. It is one of the largest gold mines in the world yet the locals do not benefit from it.
Once we got to Chilete we presented some of our work to some leaders of the community. It was amazing to finally present our work to the people we intended it for. It being a class project that we had spent 6 months on, it never seemed like it was a real and viable project until that day. Our work was finally coming to life. If only we had really had this feeling earlier we may have been more prepared. Things like understanding that we need to produce our work in spanish for them, and many other language barriers were a problem but we were able to make it through with our classmate Rene. Rene hadn't been part of the project, but he was the most fluent spanish speaker and he became an important part of the project. After our presentation we exchanged contact information with the hopes of keeping in touch.
We received a much needed info on the La Cocha sub watershed and we finally were able to see the hillsides we had been so accustomed to seeing on maps.
It was getting closer to our trip to Suro Antivo.
Suro Antivo is higher up in the Andes, on the way up we almost hit a Vicuna, a rare species related to the Alpaca. Its fur was once reserved for royalty because it is so soft.
There was much concern over how well our bodies would be able to handle the altitude when we got there, so Jason thought it'd be a good idea to play soccer when we got there. The long car ride made me beat so I decided to sit this one out.
Suro Antivo is an amazing town to visit. Farmers all own large plots of land and everyone lives no less than a quarter mile apart. Suro is a type of bamboo that was used as a common building material. That plant is no longer found in town. Antivo means “old” similar to the word antique. The grassland landscape here must have changed a few times over the many years that people have been here. It is likely going to change again.
Most of our meetings took place in the school house because it is the only public gathering place. In Suro Antivo many people have just received running water for the first time, and neighboring communities many people do not having clean running water at all. This means the most common causes of death is dysentery from dirty water.
Our objective in Suro antivo was to locate and plot the existing springs on a GPS unit and then create tapstands for the existing taps so that they will not break.
We split up into a few groups, Some of us checked the flow of water on the existing springs. Some went and did environmental assessments on springs around town. When we returned we shared our findings with each other and began working on plans to keep the newer springs in optimal condition over a long period of time.
Here we are working on the plans for the assessments
And presenting them to the community.
Later on we went to other communities in other parts of the greater Jequetepeque watershed. We assessed other springs and conducted interviews of people that lived there.
So many people have no clean running water and so many people are sick every other week because of it. It's truly eyeopening to know how fortunate we are in the US to have clean running water.
Our nights were coming to an end in Suro Antivo and our next stop was to be in Alto Peru on our way back to Cajamarca.
On our way to Alto Peru I noticed some locals packed in hauling trucks who seemed angry at us. We were driving by in the same kinds of trucks that the miners use so, many of the locals thought we were miners. When we arrived in Alto Peru we spoke with some of the community leaders who voiced extreme concerns about the mine.
The irony was that there were many power lines held up by large towers that ran right past Alto Peru and went directly to the yanacocha mine. The only source of power for those in Alto Peru were from their own wind turbines.
The road the rest of the way was paved. Again, the road to the mine is paved, but not to other parts of the watershed.
When we arrived back to Cajamarca we took a trip out to Cumbe Mayo. Something I have been wanting to see. Cumbe Mayo is the location of a pre Incan aqueduct, the craftsmanship of the aqueduct is just amazing.
Back in Cajamarca we met with some more folks from soluciones practicas and discussed our findings and impressions of Chilete, Suro Antivo and the surrounding areas. We said goodbye to our drivers who became our friends and before we knew it we were on our way back to Lima.
On our last days in Lima it became easy to become bored because our days previously were so filled. However it was our friend David's birthday and we had a chance to celebrate. (he loves the cuy.
Now only a couple of months later I am back in school and still thinking about what kind of impact we may have had on the people we had visited.
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2 comments:
Sounds like a cool trip. Clean water out of a pipe is pretty rare outside the US. We are fortunate. How did they respond to your ideas?
They were actually really open to them, mostly because they had input. We talked about types of trees and understood what kinds of tools and materials were available.
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