We are so glad we have spent this time down here before our year begins in November. We have made so many contacts thanks to Arturo, and actually have a plan of action (although at times a little overwhelming!). It is definitely a leap of faith, but we now know we have a lot of support from the church, local Rotarians and others we have met.
We flew out of Lima yesterday to Guayaquil, Ecuador and fortunately in front of us in the mob going through immigrations was the rest of our Rotary team from Idaho! Five flights had all landed at the same time, and it took us over 2 hours to work our way through the chaos. What a haven for swine flu to run rampant as we were all crammed into such hot, humid, tight quarters. We hedged our bets....six of our team were prudent and kept their surgical masks on! Part of the bottleneck was a result of the Ministry of Health insisting on using their new high-tech heat sensor cameras to individually photograph each of us to check for fevers. The only thing that got a little hot was tempers!
Willy, don´t play with your food! This small one-room house had over 25 guinea pigs running around awaiting their fate. Guinea pig, cuy, is a delicacy!
A farmer and his wife in the Sacred Valley, on their way back home to thresh their wheat. The donkeys (keep looking....you will see them) help thresh the grains by walking in a circle on the cut wheat, then they throw it in the air to separate from the chaff.
I can´t take these two anywhere.....they managed to join the protest in Cusco with the locals objecting to the privatization of water service. The whole country shut down for a day for a paro, strike, of transportation services (bus, taxi). It was great to have a walking mall for a day, but not so great to drive on the roads that had been covered with large rocks by angry protesters.
Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley still uses the original Inca irrigation and water delivery systems!
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