Llamas in the Andes & Dancing inTarma

Our journey to the Andes/jungle was made in a private bus which picked us up the morning of the 6th at the Universidad Católica. Our trip truly began, however, when the bus had to pull over to the side of the road for Matt to puke his brains out on the sidewalk from what he’s convinced was bad chifa. I think it’s just Peruvian food/water in general; it’s been putting all of our tender American stomachs to the test. Basically everyone got some form of sick on this trip ranging from upset stomach to Kurt having to be rushed to the hospital after days dehydration due to too much coming out of his body and nothing being able to go in.

We made our way out of Lima east through the Andes mountains reaching altitudes of over 10,000 feet. It is very common for travelers to suffer from altitude sickness at these heights and many people felt sick as dogs on the ride through the mountains, although somehow I have managed to escape any vomit-inducing illnesses as well as the effects of altitude sickness – lucky me. We stopped for the restroom in the mountains near a restaurant that was preparing a pachamanca, which is a typical method of cooking Andean cuisine. It consists of a subterranean oven lined with rocks where a fire is built and other rocks are piled on top to absorb the heat. Then the rocks are removed and replaced with food: potatoes, sometimes vegetables, meat such as pork, chicken and cuy (guinea pig!) and humitas which are like sweet Peruvian corn tamales. The rocks are piled back on top and around the raw food and the entire thing is covered and left for about an hour to cook.

As we continued on through the Andes we passed so many beautiful waterfalls on either side of us streaming down the sides of the mountains and sometimes coming right by the road. We drove through areas of green hills covered in cheerful yellow flowers with snow-capped mountains in the background. We even saw from across a ravine a bunch of grazing llamas bounding around the steep inclines. The surrounding mountain tops kissed the clouds as a reminder of how high we were.

We finally arrived at our destination at la Hacienda Santa Maria in the town of Tarma, both of which were quite charming. The hacienda was actually very old and my and Julia’s room (called del Elegante) had a cute story behind it that the owner insists is true. Apparently during Peru’s war with Chile, the Chileans had taken control of Tarma and knew that the Peruvian general was there and surrounded. The owner of the hacienda at the time offered to help the Peruvian general but knew that the Chileans would immediately recognize the general’s horse if he tried to escape on it, so they hid the horse in our room. When the Chilean general came to the hacienda he asked to search all of the rooms but the owner told him that a lady was staying in the room with the horse, thus it would be rude to insist on a search. The Chilean general, who was a gentleman, allowed that room to be untouched and the horse, for whom our room was named, and thus the Peruvian general, were never found and captured by the Chileans.

It was surprisingly cold in the mountains and even with a long sleeve shirt and heavy sweater I was disgruntled about the weather. To warm up, we drank some tea made from mate de cocoa and mint. Mate de cocoa comes from the same plant that is used to make cocaine, however it is perfectly legal in Peru and actually ubiquitous throughout the Andes. Interestingly, instead of a stimulant, the leaves of mate de cocoa are a depressant usually chewed or made into tea for mild relaxation. It is also recommended for altitude sickness, so we all were eager to drink up. Unfortunately, very light meals are also recommended for altitude so we made due on cream corn soup and unleavened bread for the evening, which most (who weren’t already sick in bed) weren’t too pleased about.

The town of Tarma was rural, located in a mountain valley, but still is at a high elevation. Those of us that were well enough walked into town to explore and passed by fields of corn and lots of animals such as chickens, dogs and sheep grazing in the fields. We found a plaza where uniformed musicians seemed to be practicing and we watched and I talked with some of the local children who were very sweet and curious about us. We noticed by looking around the plaza how unusually short all of the people were – we stood out like giants! In Tarma there is a more indigenous, less European population meaning darker and shorter people, leaving us tall gringos sticking out like sore thumbs. We were about the leave but the musicians insisted that we dance for them to make a video and they wouldn’t let us refuse. So the lead musician demonstrated a partner dance with me that consisted of shuffling your feet and swaying side to side (he probably wanted to make it simple for us) then they split us into couples and we danced in front of the gathering crown and their video recorder. It was hilarious. A random local even jumped in to dance with Melissa and Abigail because we were short on men. Next we walked to the Plaza de Armas, which I’m convinced is the name of every town’s center in Peru. There was a little procession/parade going on but we had to get back to the hacienda so we took mototaxis (called tuk-tuks in India) back to the hacienda and checked out the house of a weaver who showed us how he took colored wool to make tapestries. The most interesting part of that for me was his unrelated but impressive collection of pre-Columbian ceramics which he had found around Tarma, some of which was Inca.