Kissing the Clouds in Huancavelica

11 March 2018

Our journey this week took us high in the Andes Mountains into the region of Huancavelica, a very remote part of the country with tremendous needs. This was an investigative trip to assess needs and develop three projects to help the poor.

Huancavelica - an isolated and remote mountainous region high in the Andes Mountains. I took this shot as we flew over the region. Note the villages in the tops of the mountains.

The Huancavelica Region is so isolated, they don't even have an airport. We had to fly into Ayacucho and drive into the region on twisty, winding roads that defy description.

High-Altitude Adventure

Our government partners picked us up in Ayacucho for our journey into Huancavelica (no airports in the region). The 4-wheel-drive pickups that the government sent to get us were critical to getting into the remote villages we were to visit. We spent most of this trip traveling at high altitude above 14,000 ft elevation.

We have never been on more twisty, winding, narrow roads. Notice how this road is only one lane wide, just like most in this region.

Many narrow roads ran along steep cliffs with no guard rails - we said many silent prayers, especially after the rain started and things got slick.

We left the paved roads at certain points and traveled for hours along stretches of mud-bog roads through boulder fields trying to reach some of the most remote villages.

A few hours of driving in the mud was a part of the adventure we had not planned on.

At some points, the mud got so deep we had to cut cross country while trying to avoid the boulders.

And just when we thought we couldn't get any further from civilization, we passed an old Andean woman carrying a load on her back as she walked back to her village.

Andean woman carrying a load in her shawl along the muddy path in the middle of nowhere.

Health Centers in the Andes

There are no hospitals in this region except in the capital city of Huancavelica. Except for cases of extreme emergencies, everyone gets treated in remote health centers (this includes giving birth). If there is a problem pregnancy and if the mother is not sent the the hospital ahead of time, the mother and baby often die en route (since it is about a 5-hour drive on awful roads from many remote locations).

Diagnostic equipment, like ultra-sound devices and fetal heart monitors, are life-saving devices that most of these remote health centers do not have. We visited a few of these health centers, and we will now try to help provide these diagnostic tools to reduce maternal and infant mortality.

Doctor and assistants in the delivery room of the Julcamarca Health Center. Note the lone space heater in this delivery room, the only heat in this hospital in a region known for its year-round cold. Thank goodness there is a baby incubator.

The Health Center in Julcamarca lost a mother and her triplets last year because they didn't have the ultrasound device that could have detected the multiple births. Our project will seek to turn that situation around.

Mothers from villages around Chachapunco showed up at their health center to show support for our project when they heard we were coming.  (Note the dress that almost every woman in this region wears: the traditional hat and garb with up to 12 layers of petticoats.)

Residents from the villages around Chachapunco showed up to show support for our proposed health project.

We showed up about an hour late (due to the roads), and we came wearing coats, but the local women seemed content in their traditional multiple layers of sweaters. This is another world up here in the Peruvian highlands. 

Soup Kitchens (Commedores Populares)

Many poor people in Huancavelica depend on government-assisted soup kitchens for their one meal of the day. They pay $0.50 for a lunch that is the only sustenance many of them get.

The region asked for help with their soup kitchens in terms of pots, plates, and blenders. We dropped by one of them to verify the need.

Local officials and the soup kitchen presidents showing us their humble little adobe-walled soup kitchen in Julcamarca.

They cook all their meals for the community on firewood inside the soup kitchen.

The back wall of the soup kitchen is actually the stone hillside - it made the place feel like a cave.

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This soup kitchen, led by their association presidency shown here, is one of 125 soup kitchens that we will be helping.

School Projects

We were asked if we could help with school furnishings that are in bad shape at many schools in the region. We visited a few and saw the sad state of the desks.

It's hard to study at tables with only 3 legs or at desks that are this damaged.

Kids in the school at Illapata (above 14,000 ft elevation) greeted in their makeshift classroom in a community center (note how the kids wear coats and boots year round at this altitude).

Cute bunch of kids at one especially cold mountain school. They wear boots because of the mud and hats because of the extreme sunshine that damages their skin.

The kids stood up and showed us that the only bench they all shared at the school was two wooden planks.

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The parents were so pleased to have visitors (no one ever comes to this remote place) that they fed us cooked potatoes, alpaca meat, and herb tea - basic food that they consume everyday. Sandy and our partner Glenis Monge from the regional health department are shown here eating this simple meal with the children.

Local Partners - Key to Project Success

We never work on our humanitarian projects alone - we always work with partners who can sustain the project after it is done. In Huancavelica, we have partnered with the regional government, health department, education department, and social development department. We can provide donations of goods, but their part of these projects includes covering shipping costs, maintaining inventory and maintenance control, and overseeing these items to make sure they are accounted for and maintained into the future.

Partners in Huancavelica from regional government and departments of education, health, and social development

Glenis Monge (province of Angaraes health department) and Alex Principe (our area welfare specialist) as we overlook the city of Lircay, the focus of our projects.

Devastation left by the Shining Path Guerrillas

Mountain regions were hit especially hard by the Shining Path guerrillas (Sendero Luminoso) that caused havoc here in the 1980s and 1990s. Twenty years have now passed since the communist uprising was squashed (which left over 70,000 dead). But you can still see the aftermath and suffering this uprising caused.

This school in Illapata was burned by the Shining Path. The rebels took men from the village who opposed them, locked them into the school, and set it ablaze. Twenty years later, they are finally building a new school (shown in the background). 

Illapata is the village where the terrorists attacked and killed the men. The old woman in front is an 80-year-old widow who lost her husband in the attack. After all these years, people are only now starting to return to the mountains where there was so much violence.

We are glad that we can be part of rebuilding parts of Peru that saw so much sadness during the days when terrorists ruled this region.

Living at Altitude

Life at 14,000 ft elevation is hard in these remote places. Electricity and running water are usually not available. The locals build their own houses out of adobe or large boulders, and the roofs are either corrugated metal or pampas grass they gather from their fields. Temperatures are cold year-round. Most people make their meager income raising alpaca or farming potatoes. This is a hard life that they have led for generations.

Homemade boulder house with grass roof - a rough way to live in freezing conditions.

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Herds of Alpaca were everywhere - there are probably more alpacas than people in Huancavelica.

You are considered rich if you can afford a corrugated metal roof rather than a grass roof.

The sun came out on our last day in the mountains - I think the herds of alpaca were oblivious to the sunshine. They just kept foraging whether it was sunny or not.

Life in these remote villages continues as it has for centuries.

Around Huancavelica

We spent the morning of our last day in the city of Huancavelica, capital of the region. Often described as the Switzerland of Peru, the city is ringed by spectacular mountains.

Huancavelica - The 'Switzerland' of Peru.

Huancavelica's main cathedral on the plaza.

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Delivery truck (bike ?) beneath the peaks surrounding Huancavelica.

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Ancient church in Huancavelica (note the plants growing in the roof).

One final shot shows a scene from the city of Ayacucho (where we flew to get to Huancavelica). This is the Arch of Triumph to celebrate the defeat of the Spanish forces in 1824 at the battle of Ayacucho that led to Peru's independence.

Ayacucho's Arch of Triumph - a reminder of the battle that led to Peru's independence.

And so our productive (but exhausting) journey to Huancavelica came to an end, and now the real work begins in developing the projects and trying to complete them before we go home.