Special places; Stories about knitting and spinning; Encounters with locals; Excursions; and much more!
I was fascinated with this ancient site where salt has been harvested for over 500 years and maybe even for a millennia. So, on Thursday I decided to again hike up to the salt farms—a beautiful and tough climb from the Sacred Valley.
So, on Friday I decided to make empanadas. With some advice from Mabel in mind and suggestions as to where to find fresh chicken, I walked the 10 blocks to the mercado and started shopping.
Michell’s Mill is the place where more tourists go because of their very interesting alpaca museum, Mundo Alpaca and high-end apparel shop located on the mill grounds.
As you drive through the area around Huarocondo, you see signs for roadside stands selling fresh homemade cheese and yogurt.
Smoothies? You ain’t Seen Nothin’ The Juice Ladies of San CamilloOne of the highlights of the San Camillo market in Arequipa, is the long line of women (about 50 stalls!) selling just about any kind of smoothie or juice you can imagine. Along with the Seccion Fruitas (Fruit Section), it is the most colorful part …
Shopping…Cooking…Eating: Tamales! En Peru! One day a couple weeks ago I asked my host, Adela if she knew how to make tamales. “Claro!”—of course she did. Since I also like to make tamales and wanted to make some here from the foods I could get in the market, we planned a day for shopping and …
I really enjoy walking through the busy streets picking out the places where I want to shop. Each street seems to have its own specialty and once you know which streets cater to which items, then you know where to go.
Luckily, everyone thought is was very funny. I had to repeat peluquería over and over before I could hear the difference and get the pronunciation down. Today, I am still repeating it in my head, especially whenever I pass one of the many salons on the street!
The hike up seemed to get longer as we got closer to the finish. The last 15–20 switchbacks seemed interminable. I was stubbornly refusing to ride the horse and I made it to the top on my own—worn out but thrilled at the accomplishment.
Choquequirao means “cradle of gold” in the Quechua language. After another filling lunch and a rest, we started up the trail to visit the Choquequirao ruins.
Choquequirao is considered to be a sister-site to Machu Picchu, but few people know about it. Researchers believe the site may be even larger than Machu Picchu. A very difficult 4-day trek in and out is required to visit these remote ruins.
Most of our energy for the day was spent at the San Camillo Market, where Rebecca enjoyed pointing out the fruits here that are also grown in Hawai’i.
Tonight, I took the opportunity to point my camera out my bedroom window and try my hand for the first time to capture some of Mother Nature’s power:
The tienda faces the plaza and there were some young men outside on the steps. Meliza and I moved outside to sit near them. I asked if they could spin. Freddie, sitting next to me smiled broadly and said yes, and he started using the little Turkish spindle while his friend tried out the one that Ben made me.
I decided to take a little tourist jaunt to the island of Amantani in Lake Titicaca. You can purchase a tour from one of many agencies in Puno, but if you go to the pier in Puno and pay the captain directly for the trip and then pay your host family directly, the families receive more of the proceeds and don’t have to wait for the agency to send the money.
Sitting there with no work reminded me of a very classic American story by Mark Twain. In very broken Spanish, I tried to recount Tom Sawyer’s method of snookering his friends into whitewashing the fence.
A woman sat on the ground with not only her raw fiber of many colors, but also her hand-crafted husos (spindles) for sale. WOW! Here I was
As I turned to leave, the woman in the stall across the way held out a ball of yarn and asked “Lana de alpaca?” JACKPOT!!
The Festival takes on a new meaning in Puno, where the Virgin of Candelaria is the patron saint and the celebration goes on for two weeks! Dancing and music go on every day and last late into the night.
On my third day in Arequipa, Adela took me to Michell’s Fiber Mill. There is an outlet store there with all kinds of alpaca yarn at very good prices. Adjacent to the mill is Mundo Alpaca, a museum showing the process of preparing alpaca fleeces for market—both by hand and by machine.