May 6 & 7

We are in Huaral, a town of 70,000 about 3 hours north of Lima. It is well known as an agriculture-producing area, which became apparent when we approached from the barren desert of the Lima area. Suddenly there was crop after crop: cotton, citrus fruit, corn, lettuce, avocado, and banana.

We had a breakfast of chicharrones, fried and fatty pork, served with sweet potato, hominy and pickled onion. You eat it on a french roll. From breakfast we visited a cotton gin, which is run by a Rotarian. We saw cotton production up close in all the stages. Workers were sitting in heaps of cotton, cleaning out the seeds. We saw how it went through the giant cotton gin and how it got packed into 500 lb. bundles.

Next we went to a castle perched on a high cliff above the ocean. An eccentric widow descended from Spanish royalty had lived there and in the 1990s the castle was converted into a tourist attraction. Inside is the old furniture as well as poems that the widow had written. There is a museum with artifacts from the Chancay culture. We saw ceramic goods and mummies that had been found in tombs just 20 minutes from the site.

On the beach in Chancay, just a few kilometers from Huaral, is a Hare Krishna ashram called Eco Truly. It is the only Hare Krishna retreat in Peru. It's a small plot of land just off the highway but feels like a sanctuary where the rest of the chaotic world melts away. There is a community of constant residents and it is also open to people to come and stay for various amounts of time. People do yoga, meditation, and art. There is an organic garden and all the food eaten at the ashram is vegetarian, cooked without electricity in solar ovens. Eco Truly is quite a site because it is comprised of trulys which are cone-like huts built out of adobe and adorned with stained glass and colorful ceramic. These look very magical and dramatic coming out of the brown sand of the coast, in a little oasis of greenery.

Lunch was at a Cevicheria. We ordered quite a variety of seafood including fried lenguado (white fish), kalamari, octopus, and cold seafood stew called "tiger milk". Osho got to drink this since it is believed that drinking it will help single men achieve having a family.

In the evening we attended the Mother's Day event being put on by Huaral's Rotary Club. About 150 mother's attended, many who brought their children. The women all came from low-income neighborhoods, invited by individuals from the Rotary Club. The club arranged for a night of entertaining games and prizes. We helped by passing out soup and Inca Kola for dinner. At the end of the night we passed out gifts to each of the mother's as they said goodbye.

Thursday May 8

After a late night of karaoke in Huaral, we woke up at 5:30 to catch the early bus to Huacho, about an hour and a half away. Huacho is on the ocean and so we travelled along the desert coast passing many shades of brown between the half-finished brick houses and the contours of the sand. The morning was covered in a blanket of mist which burned off by afternoon. We arrived in Huacho and were able to leave our things at a hotel where we rested a bit and had a breakfast of french rolls, fresh cheese, and eggs.

Near Huacho is an archaeological site called Bandurria. These are some of the oldest ruins in Peru and all of South America, dating from over 5000 years ago. It's said that the pre-Incan civilizations in Peru are the third oldest in the world (after Mesopotamia and Egypt). Bandurria has just recently begun getting excavated in the last decade so much of the site is still buried in sand. A large part of the site cannot currently be excavated because there are settlements built on top of the sand covering the ruins. There are no facilities there but a tiny shack selling snacks and water. It was interesting to see ruins that are still in the process of being discovered, especially when most travelers come to Peru to visit the well-known Machu Picchu. The most amazing thing about Bandurria is its location perched above the ocean. Below the sand cliffs where it sits, there is a long stretch of lagoon separating the ocean from the desert. In the lagoon we saw a myriad of birds, some who are passing through and others who are permanent residents. Apparently there is also a colony of flamingos who live in the next lagoon. Luz, the president of the Huacho Rotary Club, is the principal of a school and that day the kids from her school were visiting Bandurria as well. As soon as Amy took out her camera, the kids flocked to her and she spent a good while chatting with them and taking photos. They sang some songs in English about Mother's Day for her. In return, Nicole led a round of "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes."

Lunch was at the harbor of Huacho where most of us tried the fish of the day (shark) in different forms: fried, breaded and fried, ceviche. Kay happily ordered a green salad in which she added a fresh avocado which she had brought from Huaral. Our lunch was accompanied by chicha morada and canchitas, the crunchy corn snack. Victoriano and Pablo, RC Huacho's treasurer and secretary, joined us and Luz for lunch.

Huacho is actually the location where Peru first proclaimed independence and was Peru's first capital before Lima. San Martin, the liberator of Peru, had lived there awhile while he strategized for the independisization of the country. We went to a small museum located in a colonial house which has the balcony where San Martin stood and declared independence. To this day, Huacho maintains a very independent spirit. This dates back even to the time of the Spanish conquest. Pablo explained to us the history of the Spanish conquest of the Incas. He said that at the time of the conquest, many tribes were not allied with the Incas because the Incas had taken over so many groups, imposing structure and culture. So when the Spanish came, they were not necessarily viewed as a threat or an enemy in light of many tribes' history with the Incas. Huacho was one area that had not really allied with the larger part of the country.

Pablo and Victoriano then took us for a tour of the town of Huacho. Most of the buildings in Huacho have been built in recent decades since the town suffered three bad earthquakes between the 1960s and 70s. It is currently mainly a city of migrants, people who have come from rural areas to work in fishing and agriculture. We drove through a picturesque part of town that was full of colorful small houses and tiny plots of farm land. The plots of land had gotten smaller and smaller throughout history as they were divided amongst family members. Each person, though, finds a way to reap a fair amount of sustenance from the food they grow on their respective piece of land.

In the center of Huacho we went to the market and its surrounding streets. Kay was looking for a straw hat so we saw some beautifully crafted ones that were made out of the junco reeds that grow in the lagoons along the ocean. We saw a vivid variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, meat, and fish being sold at the market. It was definitely the most lively and bustling market we've seen so far, but our Rotarian friends were quite worried about us since it's not the safest atmosphere. Even a stranger on the street told us to be careful and to put our cameras away.

Blissfully, we decompressed with coffee and pastries. We indulged in the following: strawberry cheesecake, german chocolate cake, flan, and tres leches.