Raqchi, Peru

28th August – 29th August 2017

I woke up before my alarm, at about 6, and had a bit of time to get myself ready. We had to pack an overnight bag for Raqchi, as we were staying in home-stay houses, so with local Peruvian families. My bag was pretty much ready but I still needed to add a few things in the morning. Back locker was at 7.15 and we were leaving at 7.30, so we just had to get ourselves to breakfast before then.

We left at 7.30 and after driving for just under an hour, we had a quick stop for the Rianne to check which way we should go – apparently there were two routes we could have taken, that were both off road and very bumpy, so she was asking which one was the best. We also had a toilet stop while we were there.

We carried on for about 40 minutes more before another toilet stop was requested – we were told to keep drinking water because we were so high up but it just means frequent stops which adds more time onto the journey.

We got going again, carrying on, on the very bumpy roads. Not even an hour down the road, we had yet another toilet stop. Even though I didn’t always need it, I found myself trying anyway because I thought it would save us stopping so often if we all went at each stop. At least the views were pretty along the way.

 

After two and a half hours of off road, bumpy driving, we made it back onto tarmacked road for approximately 30 seconds before going off road again. It wasn’t as bumpy the second time but it still wasn’t real road and there were lots of roadworks where we were stuck for at least 15 minutes at some points.

We managed to make it two hours from one toilet stop to the next – which was a record for that journey! Our next stop was lunchtime anyway, so it was perfect timing. Rianne and Anita had bought lunch out of the kitty, so everyone chipped in to help make it. We had cheese, guacamole, bruschetta topping and bread rolls – it was one of the nicest lunches so far. We even had fruit for dessert: I had my first granadilla, which was tasty but difficult to eat. We set back off at about quarter past 1, with 140km to go – still on the bumpy roads.

After about 45 minutes of driving, we reached the first bit of civilisation we had seen since leaving Chivay. We drove through the village for about 10 minutes (with everyone staring at us – one girl even stopped, stared and said ‘woah’ when she saw us), before returning to bumpy roads.

The hourly breaks were back after lunch: the first was a toilet stop and the second was a photo stop – it was making the journey so much longer but we had drunk so much water because of the altitude.

We arrived in Raqchi just before 4.30. We got off the truck and were greeted by the ‘mamas’ of the village – these are the women who run the family homes and look after us during our visit. The mama’s names were read out and Rianne asked for four people to go with them; Celine volunteered first, then I volunteered after (I like sharing with Celine, plus she can speak Spanish), then Jonathan and Sabrina.

We walked through the village, up to our house, to our mama Sonia (with her husband Wilfred). The house was much bigger and nicer than I imagined it would be! We had a courtyard in the middle with all of the rooms coming off it: I was sharing with Celine and Jonathan shared with Sabrina. We put our bags in our rooms and then Celine went into the kitchen to ask Sonia if she needed help: she didn’t, so we went for a walk around the village. I was a little disappointed at this point because Sonia didn’t come to meet us at the truck like all the other mamas did and then she didn’t even introduce herself when we got to the house.

We went for a wander anyway and we were told to be back for 6.30 for dinner. We bumped into a few others from different houses and we walked around the village. There really wasn’t much to see in the centre – there were just a couple of shops. We walked a bit further and then back to the house.

Back at the house, some children were now there playing in the courtyard: the girl was called Lise and the boy was called Yuri. We sat in the courtyard for a while chatting and watching them play. After a while, they approached us and asked us to play football; Jonathan did but after a while he was tired because of the altitude, so he had a break. Me and Sabrina were up next, but football really isn’t my thing and Celine (who was sat down) kicked me instead of the football when I ran past, so that was my excuse to stop. The children were now very hyper and when we stopped playing with them they started messing around with each other and it obviously ended in tears.

Dinner was ready at 7 (I’m not sure why we had to be back for 6.30). The four of us went into the kitchen and there were only five places set at the table but there were 10 of us altogether. We sat down and were first of all served corn soup with potato in it. The four of us got ours and then Wilfred sat with us; the children were in a different room and the three women either stood or sat on stools in the kitchen. We found that strange because there was enough room at the table, so why shouldn’t they join us when they cooked it all? For the main course we had rice, chicken and vegetables (of course, it’s the only thing South Americans eat) and then a weird banana, yucca, cinnamon and vanilla syrup thing for dessert – I wasn’t very keen but ate most of it to be polite.

After dinner, it was time to get dressed up in the traditional clothing and go to a traditional ceremony. I loved wearing the clothing, even though it was really heavy! I had a skirt wrapped around my waist, I put on a jacket and traditional hat – it was all beautifully embroidered in lovely colours. They then wrapped material over my shoulders and around my back, before tying it at the front – I think this is typically used for carrying things in.

Once we were all ready we walked to another house in the village – I think this was the centre of the community. When we got there, we realised it was where some of the group were staying. When everyone had arrived, we all sat in a square with Wilfred at the top. We had a coca offering ceremony, where the coca was blessed and offered to Pacha Mama (mother earth) and Apu (the spirits in the mountains). We were all given three coca leaves to hold in each hand – three for Pacha Mama and three for Apu. The leaders of the ceremony all said some words before blowing on each set of leaves three times and then putting them in two pots – one for each offering. One offering was for our safe travels (to Apu) and the other was for happy and healthy lives (to Pacha Mama). We then had to each go up, one at a time and blow on our leaves to Apu and then blow on our leaves to Pacha Mama, making our own wish if we wanted to. After everyone had put their leaves in the two pots, the mamas brought the pots round for us to blow on again – I’m not sure what this was for.

As the ceremony was ending, each mama and papa came around the group, giving us all a hug.

After the ceremony had finished, they lit a fire, using alpaca poo (which can’t have been good for us to inhale) and they started to play some music for us and got us all up dancing. The men would traditionally ask the women to dance but as I was taking photos, I ended up with no partner. Also, because there were a lot more women than men, it eventually ended up being group dances (if you could call them dances). They seemed to play the same song four times and I just danced with different people – I did end up being a third wheel with Katie and Jack for a couple of songs.

After the four songs, the party was over and we had to go back to our own houses. Yuri came to the party as well and he kept saying ‘vamos’ to me, so there was no chance of partying a bit longer.

Back at the house, we had to return the clothes before we went to bed.

My sleep in the home-stay house was the best sleep of my trip so far! I still woke up a couple of times but I found it easy to get back to sleep and slept up until my alarm at 6.30.

Breakfast was at 7 and the set up was the same as dinner the night before, except no one ate with us for breakfast. We had quinoa pancakes which were delicious, with a boiled egg and a potato on the side, which was kind of strange.

After breakfast, we went to a different house again, for a pottery demonstration. A lot of the families in the village earn money through selling their handmade ceramics to tourists. The man explained that to get the clay, he has to dig 30 cm down in a patch in his garden (which was 15 minutes away). Once he has the clay, he grinds it down into a fine powder with a stone. He then mixes the clay with volcanic sand, which he has to dig 2-3 feet for, after walking an hour to get to the volcano. Once he has mixed two bowls of clay and one bowl of volcanic sand with water, it’s ready to use; the volcanic sand gives the clay strength once it has been made into something.

Once he explained how the clay was made, he began to make a bowl. He explained the process (in Spanish) as he went along and had a finished product pretty quickly. He said he could make around 20 a day from start to finish with decoration.

After he had completed his bowl, he asked for a volunteer to make one. I would have loved to but I volunteer for everything and Claire volunteered first. Whilst this was going on, the mamas had set up their ceramic stalls behind us for us to look at.

After the pottery demonstration we went to the ruins that were by the main square. They were the Wiraqocha ruins, named after Inka Wiraqocha who ordered for them to be constructed. We wandered around the ruins and looked at the different types of building that there were. The tour lasted a bit too long for me because it was really hot and I wasn’t prepared for that, so I lost concentration quite quickly.

After the tour of the ruins, I went back to the main square – which was much busier at this point than it was the night before. I walked around the stalls, resisting the urge to buy everything there!

We had an early lunch because we needed to leave soon after, so at about 11.30, I walked back to my house with Sabrina. We had a little chill time until lunch at 11.45. For lunch, we had a really nice salad as a pre-starter, followed by quinoa soup with potato in (of course). The main course wasn’t exactly to my liking; we had alpaca with very dry corn and a lone potato. None of us were particularly keen on the meal, so ate as much as we could. We then had fruit for dessert.

After lunch, we walked back to the truck and met everyone there. All our mamas came to wave us off. We hadn’t really connected with our mama because she didn’t make any effort with us really – she never even introduced herself to us – so we couldn’t recognise her when all the mamas were there. It was interesting when we had to go and say bye because they all had a necklace with the Andean Inka cross on for us, but we couldn’t recognise our mama – luckily she found us. We then got onto the truck and they waved us as we drove towards Cusco.

Staying in a home-stay in Raqchi was definitely better than I expected and I thought our house was lovely; I just wish our family were a little more welcoming than they were because everyone else seemed to have lovely families. The family aside, I loved dressing up in Peruvian traditional clothes and had a great time at the party and I thought it was really interesting to see how the families in such a small village, earn their income. It is time now for Cusco and the five day hike to Machu Picchu, so there will be no updates for a while!

To travel is to live, Katie x