Parting Ways In Cajamarca

After leaving Bambamarca, we only had a few more days to spend together. I wanted mom and dad to have some time in Cajamarca since 1. it’s my second home here in Peru and 2. it’s one of the most beautiful departments in Peru. The afternoon bus ride down into the city was actually quite pleasant and we made great time so I’m glad to know about it. We arrived around 8 pm, got some delicious soup for dinner, organized a tour for the next day, and headed back to the hotel so we could all take HOT showers before bed. There is nothing like getting into bed feeling all warm and clean – now there is something I will never take for granted again!

The next morning after breakfast we headed to the plaza to meet for our tour to Granja Porcón – a religious community that has eliminated poverty and become very business savvy – a model for all of Peru. While we were waiting to leave, I asked if there was time for me to run next door and buy a phone card. Even though they assured me we had plenty of time, they took off before I came back and my parents almost had a heart attack since they didn’t understand they were just moving the van further down the street! Mom jumped out of the car and came sprinting down the street to get me because she didn’t want her little girl to be left behind.

We requested an English tour guide (after my fiasco at Rita’s house the day before, I shouldn’t be allowed to translate anymore), but were a little skeptical at first because it didn’t seem like he spoke English very well. Boy, were we wrong because once again we had lucked out with our tour guide, Manuel. It turns out that he spoke English very well and was incredibly knowledgeable. He used to be an elementary school teacher and got fired about 10 (?) years ago. He decided that he wanted to become a tour guide and learn English. He told himself that he needed to start teaching himself English that night because tomorrow could be too late. So he set out to buy a dictionary and told himself he needed to learn 20 new words everyday – and now this self-taught man speaks beautiful English! He also bought lots of books about Peruvian history, economics, politics, etc. because he loves to learn. He buys big huge books in English because there isn’t a high demand for them and it helps him improve his English. You wouldn’t believe everything he knows. He was really fascinating, and if I wasn’t so tired, I could have listened to him all day (I fell asleep though on the way home – my energy was quickly drying up). One day a tourist suggested he write a book on Peru’s history since he is so knowledgeable. Well you guessed it – that night he started writing a book and now is nearly done! Once again, another gem of a person – these people are such an inspiration! I wish I could take them all home with me!

The ride to Granja Porcón takes about an hour. The beginning part of the trip goes up the road to Bambamarca, but then you turn off for Granja. On the way there, we crossed over the water shed (?) – to the east of the line the water flows into the Pacific and to the west of the line the water flows into the Atlantic. Before you know it, you’re driving into a thick pine forest, which was all planted by the members of the community in Granja. For many of you, this does not seem like a big deal, and even though I compare Cajamarca to Wisconsin, you rarely find yourself in a forest so this was a pretty exciting day for me. As I mentioned, Granja is a religious community, so while you’re driving through this beautiful forest past the entrance (that’s right, you have to pay an entrance fee to visit their community), you see numerous signs with bible verses on them. I used to have a friend that lived there and he said the religion was almost cult like – I could see what he meant immediately. However, there is something to be said for that because their unification has allowed them to outlaw drinking, smoking, spitting and public urination – now if that isn’t an accomplishment in this country, I don’t know what is. After driving through the forest for about 20 minutes, all of a sudden you emerge into this beautiful valley with a quite little town sitting at its center. It reminded me of a little mountain town in Switzerland and I loved it right away.

Manuel advised us to buy one sol of bread (10 pieces) to feed to the animals in the zoo they have there. We followed his advice even though we thought it would be way too much. Then we visited a couple of weaving workshops where they have many big looms and make gorgeous woven bags, hats, rugs, etc. We also visited the wood-working shop where they make beds, chairs, tables, shelves, etc. with all of the wood from their pine forest. The forest has brought a lot of money to the community and created jobs for so many people that they have eliminated poverty in their town! They have become so successful that many of their products are shipped to Lima to be sold!

After visiting the few workshops, we entered the zoo. I was pretty skeptical about this since I had seen a “zoo” in Chile and it was completely depressing – really mangy looking animals in these tiny cages – but this was actually a really nice zoo. The animals seem to be well taken care of and most have sufficient space. At first we just saw some trout and Manuel told us to throw bread into the lake for them. I thought that was a dumb idea (mostly since I thought the bread was delicious) so I ate my piece of bread instead. Then we fed some deer and vicuñas (they have actually “domesticated” vicuñas here – something Raúl told us is nearly impossible, at least in Arequipa) and had our picture taken with a llama. I thought that part was fine, but spent most of the time eating the bread we bought. But then the good part came and we saw pumas and jaguars! Of course I was SO excited to see the jaguar since that’s all I talked about in the jungle and kept bothering Gerson that he better find one for us. I took a picture to send to him, but I’m actually glad we didn’t see one out in the wild because they are pretty intimidating (this might be partly due to the fact that it was mating season – that male was aggressive – whoa!). We also saw lots of monkeys and macaws, but that wasn’t as exciting since we saw them in their natural habitat and they aren’t scary like jaguars. However, it was fun to feed the monkeys because they would take it out of your hand or hold your hand until you gave it to them. They were so cute and I was so mad at myself for eating so much bread earlier – who knew it was going to be so cool! Well eating all the bread wasn’t all my fault (ahem, DAD) because have you ever tried to feed ducks? If you haven’t, DON’T, because they are psycho – one almost bit my hand off by trying to get the bread from me. I’m not even kidding when I tell you I pulled my shoulder muscle because I whipped my arm back so fast when it tried to bite me!

Granja Porcón is known for its delicious cheese and yogurt (I mean Cajamarca is the dairy capital of Peru) so they gave us some time at the end of the tour to buy some. We got some cheese for mom and me and some yogurt for all three of us to share. All yogurt in Peru is drinkable yogurt so I wasn’t sure dad would like it since he’s not that big on yogurt, but he loved it! After we spent all of our money on dairy products, we got back in the car to head back to the city. I was enjoying listening to Manuel’s stories when next thing I knew we were already in Cajamarca – I was exhausted. None of us were that hungry since we ate enough food in Bambamarca to last us a month so we just got sandwiches before we had to meet for our afternoon tour.

Before we set off on our afternoon tour, my parents got a good taste of Kristen getting really frustrated when Peruvians don’t follow through with what they promise you. Now I know dad thinks I can be too negative about Peruvians, but after living here for a year, I guess you become jaded. I know he’s right and I apologize for my behavior at times. I’m glad he pointed it out because I find that I am more aware of what I say now and how I act in public arenas, but sometimes you can’t help but get frustrated. Here is a perfect example. When we organized this tour the night before (and when we returned from the morning tour) we made sure we would have an English guide for both tours – morning and afternoon. They assured us that it was no problem and we even paid more for it (well, by paying more I mean we paid the actual price – we would have gotten a “group” discount otherwise since there are three of us). Well sure enough we arrived for the afternoon tour and there was no English guide. They kept saying, we don’t have a guide for your tour, but we do have one for this other tour so why don’t you go there instead. I reminded him that we were assured there would be an English guide and we paid to have an English guide. He said he knew, but they didn’t have one so we should just go to the other place! I was too tired for this and had been too spoiled during the other part of our trip where everything ran so smoothly to deal with this. I was so frustrated because they kept saying that we should just go to the other place. I said we don’t want to go to the other place and we were told we’d have a guide so we’ll wait until you find one. After about 10 minutes, they finally found a guide. He barely spoke any English and I still had to do a lot of translating, but I give him credit for even trying. It’s really hard to speak when you’re first learning because you make so many mistakes, but he kept trying so I admire that. In addition to our guide and the three of us, there was another couple on our tour who happened to be from Chile, so I had fun talking to them and reminiscing about my time there!

The afternoon tour started at a place called Hacienda La Colpa. It used to be a huge farm, but after its first owner died, the government took over and significantly downsized it (in a land reform effort). It is now privately owned again by a single family and is kept up very nicely. The grounds are beautiful with gardens, a man-made lake, beautiful thoroughbred horses (that are unique to Peru – I don’t remember what type though), a little chapel, and stables. In addition to the beauty of the place, the attraction is that their cows supposedly know their names and you can watch them call the cows, by name, in from the pasture everyday. I thought we would see all of the cows in this big field, they would call “Aracely” and the cow named Aracely would come into the stable and find her place along the row of names. That would have been cool. Instead you just saw the leader snap his whip and yell something really loud (they all sounded exactly the same to me) and a cow came into the stable and filled the next open spot (every other one), which just happened to be the spot with the correct name above it. Dad and I thought it was such a hoax and that the cows had to be lined up in order behind the gate (where we couldn’t see them), but mom enjoyed it so that’s good. Whether or not it was a hoax, it was still fun to watch (especially because the Peruvians loved it!) and the place itself was beautiful. Luckily the hacienda redeemed itself in our eyes by having the BEST arroz con leche (rice pudding) – dad said it even ranks right up there with Michael’s for those of you who know his obsession with that place!

From the hacienda we drove to a little community called Llacanora where there is a pretty waterfall. I went to the waterfall with my friend Amanda back in February and it was much fuller then, but it was still pretty and I think mom and dad enjoyed it. The most amazing part to me was the evidence of a landslide that occurred! I didn’t even know about it, but the trail was completely destroyed in one place and our guide told us it happened in March or April because of all the rain we had!

The final stop on our afternoon tour was Baños del Inca, hot springs where the Spanish supposedly found Atahualpa, the leader of the Incas, when they arrived in Cajamarca. They say the water has curative powers and is very reasonably priced so many people go there to bathe. Lindsay doesn’t have a place to bathe at her house so going there is the only way her family can bathe! Raúl told us that in the Colca Canyon, the baths are free on Sundays so all of the campesinos go there to bathe and do their laundry because it’s right near the river, but I don’t know if that is true in Cajamarca. The tour returned to Cajamarca from there, but we chose to stay and bathe. We got an “imperial bath” that was HUGE – it would have fit 5 people comfortably – and we ended our long day by relaxing in thermal waters. ¡Ay qué rico! For dinner we went to the mall so my parents could see the only real grocery store we have in the entire department of Cajamarca and where I go to the movies. We had pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken), which is VERY popular here and also delicious! Then back to the hotel to finally SLEEP!

Although Cajamarca has many beautiful tourist destinations around the city, we were reaching our fill of tours so the next day we decided to opt out of a full-day tour again, and spend our time in the city instead. I had heard of a small “city tour” offered at the National Institute of Culture. We were told our ticket would get us into five different places and for a little more money, we could have a guide too (though not in English). The first place we saw was the Templo Belén (Bethlehem Temple) and was one of the most beautiful churches I’ve seen in Peru – ranking right up there with the one in Lampa. It was small, but very beautiful with a lot of gold leaf on the alter and beautiful paintings on the ceilings and walls. Cajamarca used to have separate hospitals for men and women so we also visited them, though they are both now used as museums. One of them had many paintings on display that depicted life in the Sierra, while the other has been converted into a cultural museum, displaying both modern day life and relics found from ancient civilizations around Cajamarca. It’s really interesting to think about how young the United States is as a country compared to a place like Peru. I guess if we didn’t choose to ignore the Native American civilizations, we might have a really deep and rich history too. We really enjoyed both of the museums and learned a lot. The tour ended at the Cuarto de Rescate (Ransom Room) where Atahualpa was held for 10 months (? it might have been 8) by the Spanish. The deal made between Pizarro and Atahualpa is that he would not be executed if they filled a room twice with silver and once with gold in exchange for his life. Therefore, the Incans spent 10 months filling the rooms with all of their best jewelry, vases, shields, etc. though in the end, Atahualpa was killed anyway, but not before being baptized into a Christian first! It’s hard to even fathom what Cajamarca was like 500 years ago when Atahualpa was in that room! It’s really neat to know that I live in a place with such history.

After the tour, dad headed back to the hotel while mom and I ran errands. By that point we had all hit the wall and proceeded to sleep all afternoon. We had to rest up because that night was “meet and greet” with Kristen’s parents. We do this when anyone’s family comes to visit because we (the volunteers) like to know where everyone comes from, plus we all feel in a small way, that it’s like having our own parents there! Mom, dad, and I were still STUFFED, not to mention exhausted, so mom and I just ordered tea for dinner and dad got a coke to try to wake himself up. The restaurant we went to only has five or six tables and we took up three of us once all twelve or so of my friends showed up! The environment wasn’t really that conducive to having a conversation with too many people, but I knew that most people were coming for the free meal (hey I’m not criticizing them, I do it too…we’re poor!) and were just as happy to talk with the other volunteers and just say hi to my parents. My parents were probably relieved by this, actually, because we were all so happy. Basically they just wanted to meet Lindsay and Jessica and since they had already spent some time with Lindsay, for them this dinner was to get to know Jessica, with the other volunteers just an added bonus. Luckily we strategically put Jessica at the end of the table next to them and the three of them spent the whole night talking. All three were so excited to finally meet each other since we know each other’s family and they feel like they already know each other anyway.

Although we were kind of dreading the night in the beginning since we wanted to just stay in bed (and because there was a special on TV about Rachael Ray!), it turned out to be a really nice time. My parents can now associate a face with the names I always talk about, and even had a chance to talk with a few of them as we were leaving. I know my parents found those they talked to fascinating and really appreciated the kind words my friends said to my parents about me. How sweet! We finished off the night with pisco sours (the national cocktail of Peru – free from the hotel) and dad had a limonada (limeaid, but way better) because it was our last night together….

I took mom and dad on our own little “city tour” the next morning so they could see the market. The “market” here is not just produce, but a whole section of stores that sell clothes, hardware, furniture, household appliances and accessories, etc. It’s always really busy, crazy, and pretty overwhelming, but I was glad they had a chance to see it. We also tried to see the San Francisco church because it’s beautiful on the outside, but we were told it has been turned into a museum and you have to pay now to enter it – they were probably trying to take advantage of us since we’re gringos, but we didn’t fall for it. We only entered the little chapel on the side because it was free. By the time we did all of that, we only had about two hours before it was time to leave for the airport! Dad slept while mom and I ran to the Peace Corps store (set up by previous business volunteers to sell their artisans’ goods) to do some last minute souvenir shopping and then we joined dad back at the hotel.

And then that dreaded hour finally came when it was time to leave for the airport. After checking and weighing their bags (and themselves – they do it to know how much weight the plane will be carrying – but how humiliating!) and paying the airport taxes, we just sat around talking, laughing, and reminiscing about the incredible time we had together. It really was a dream vacation and I don’t think any of us have any complaints. We were all doing well on not crying until mom started to thank me for having them and got choked up. That was the end of it for all of us and we all started crying. I begged them not to leave and they wished they didn’t have to, except that they had nearly spent their entire life savings on the trip, and they were done with cold showers, no toilet seats, and dirty underwear! Those few weeks I spent with my parents will forever be some of my BEST weeks during my entire service. We cried on and off for the next 20 minutes until my parents had to go through security, where despite my begging, I was not allowed. It was SO hard to say goodbye to them, but I watched through blurry eyes as they passed through “security” (a table with two guards who go through your stuff – no conveyor belt, no metal detector). We stood there for a few minutes, on opposite sides of the barrier, trying to say our final goodbyes, but mostly crying. I wanted to stay in there to watch them take-off, but I couldn’t stand to be in the airport if I couldn’t be in there with them so I went out to the van (provided by the hotel) to wait until it was time to leave (the driver was waiting for guests to arrive). While I waited I cried and cried – not just out of sadness, but also out of happiness for this incredible, once-in-a-lifetime trip I had just had. I kept thinking how easier Peace Corps would be if mom and dad could just stay with me until the end!

No guests arrived on the incoming flight so the driver and I rode back to the hotel with the soundtrack of my tears accompanying us the whole way. I had been looking forward to this trip since we started planning it in January, and just like that, it’s over. I know we all have fabulous memories that we will carry with us forever, but I couldn’t believe that that was it – mom and dad were gone and I wouldn’t see them again until the U.S.! I tried not to be so sad though because it was our ONE YEAR anniversary in Peru that day and something I should be happy about. Mom and dad treated me to an extra night at the hotel so I could celebrate and enjoy my night. The hotel wouldn’t let me stay in our room though because it was a triple and they said I had to move to a single room. Well it was a pretty rough “downgrade” because I ended up in a room with two double beds, a glass enclosed corner shower AND a Jacuzzi bath! Not too shabby. I went out and got carry-out soup at my favorite restaurant for dinner and took a lovely bubble bath. It was wonderful! I was still feeling really sad though, but luckily Giff called and talked to me for two hours to cheer me up! He’s the best!

Well mom and dad, I just want to say “mil gracias” to you guys, not only for this incredible trip, but for everything you have done for me over the years, and more than anything for all of your support. You now understand better than ever before the struggle of living here, and though I enjoy it, there are some days when I couldn’t do it without your love and support. Not only was it wonderful to have you here, but this trip really rejuvenated me and gave me a huge sense of pride to live here where I get to know and meet so many inspiring people. Thank you for being who you are. I love you both so much.