Vision Project in the High Jungle, Chocolate Factory, and the Water Tank

24 September 2017

This week's journey took us into the 'high jungle' of Tarapoto to finish coordinating a vision project that gets underway in October and November.

High Jungle of Peru

We arrived in Tarapoto and were greeted by a wave of heat. Although not as overwhelming as the heat in the Amazon (when we were in Iquitos), Tarapoto is nevertheless hot jungle. The altitude is higher, so it is a little drier. At least we weren't as drippy wet like we were in the Amazon.

High jungle with mountains, rolling hills, and grasslands outside of Tarapoto

Tarapoto, about 600 miles north of Lima, sits in the Peruvian jungle. Half of Peru is jungle, but only 5 percent of the population lives there. Nevertheless, many needs exist in jungle regions because of how remote they are.

Coordinating the Vision Project - Glasses Donation

After arriving in Tarapoto, we immediately boarded the car we had hired from a member of our church and drove 2 hours to Moyobamba, the regional capital. The purpose of the trip to Moyobamba was to coordinate the donation of 1,000 pairs of glasses that we will be making in mid-October. We came to Moyobamba to meet with health officials who will coordinate the glasses donacion. From the time this project was setup until now, many of the health officials had changed, so our boss had us return to reestablish contact and ensure the project goes off without a hitch.

Coordination meeting in Moyobamba with Carmen Tipian (right, from Regional Health Department), another regional health official, and us.

Our donation of 1,000 glasses to children and adolescents includes the visit of a team of optometrists we hired who will fly into Tarapoto and Moyobamba to measure each patient and obtain the prescriptions to make the glasses. There is lots of coordination to make sure all of this happens in both cities within a 5-day period.

After our visit in Moyobamba, we drove the 2 hours back to Tarapoto along the twisting jungle and mountain roads, passing farms and jungle villages along the way.

Jungle villages scattered along the highway. Most of these humble homes only have a tin roof. Most of the remote places have no electricity or running water.

The landscape of the high jungle offers contrasts, including rivers and mountains. This region is far more interesting than the flat, low jungles near the Amazon.

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Swinging nests of the cacique birds towered overhead. The birds build these hanging nests that have the advantage of allowing maximum air flow for cooling in this hot jungle environment.

Ophthalmology Surgeries and Donations

Back in Tarapoto, we met the next day with the director of the new (and still unfinished) hospital and his team of Peruvian ophthalmologists. Our project in Tarapoto includes donating ophthalmology surgical equipment to the new hospital and coordinating the visit of a US ophthalmologist in November to teach techniques and perform cataract surgeries. We serve as the in-country coordinators for that visit, so we return to Tarapoto with the US ophthalmologist when he comes.

We coordinated with the team in Tarapoto for the visit of the US doctor and reviewed the contract we have on this project, including the donation of the ophthalmology surgical equipment. We feel much better about this project now that we all know each other and what to expect.

Meeting with the hospital staff in Tarapoto. (Right to left: Dr. Arevalo, Dr. Villafuerte, Dr. Naccha, Carmen Tipian, and us)

The new Tarapoto hospital, where the training is to take place, has been under construction for a few years and has been delayed in opening. The Tarapoto doctors and hospital director asked us to hold all of the donation of ophthalmology equipment in our office in Lima until the hospital finally opens in the next week or two, just to keep it safe. Until then, I have about $25,000 worth of high-tech surgical equipment packed up under my desk.

The new (but still unfinished) hospital in Tarapoto. Our project is on hold until they actually finish the hospital (which they promise will be done in the next week or so). This is a real improvement over the current hospital - a dilapidated wooden building that looks like it was built during World War II.

Around Tarapoto

Typical of most Peruvian jungle cities, Tarapoto is filled with motor taxis. Cars are a rare commodity here.

Downtown Tarapoto - mostly motor taxis and motorcycles. Cars are rare.

Motorcycle parking lot. The attendant collects one or two soles ($0.30 to $0.60) to watch your motorcycle for the day. What she gives you is a sheet of cardboard to cover the motorcycle seat from the sun and thus make it cooler when you get on the motorcycle to ride home at the end of the day.

Riding on a motor taxi costs between $0.60 and $1.50, depending on the distance. It is actually a fun and cooling experience (and also a noisy one) to ride around town in a motor taxi.

Every Peruvian city (including Tarapoto) has a central plaza, which they always call the 'Plaza de Armas'. That translates into English as something like 'parade ground'. Day or night, it is a popular place to relax.

Jungle Cuisine

We always like sampling the food when we go to the jungle. We often find things in the jungle that are not available in Lima, and the food is always tasty.

Yummy food from the jungle. Chorizo sausage (extra spicy in the jungle),  a slab of smoke-curred beef called 'cecina', and mashed bananas (instead of mashed potatoes) called 'tacacho'.

Jungle Chocolate Factory

No trip to Tarapoto is complete without a visit to the chocolate factory. In the short amount of free time we had after all our meetings, we were able to take in the tour.

Orquidea Chocolate makes all of the chocolate bars that they send around the world in their one and only factory in Tarapoto. They make 3,000 bars a day at this factory.

Orquidea Chocolate Bars. All of these different bars for export come from this one factory in Tarapoto.

Peru grows 4 percent of the cacao in the world (cacao in Spanish, cocoa in English). Putting a chocolate factory in Tarapoto makes perfect sense when you consider that the plants are grown in the jungle. Peru has been encouraging production of cacao to replace the production of coca (which is used to make cocaine). Of course, chocolate may be an equally addictive substance, but it is a lot better for you that cocaine.

Many farmers throughout Peru have now switched their crops from coca to cacao. Orquidea buys cacao beans from local farmers all around Tarapoto.

Cacao trees growing around the Orquidea Chocolate Factory. Notice how the pods grow right out of the trunk of the tree.

Cacao pods contain up to 30 cocoa beans.

Farmers cut open the pods and send truckloads of cocoa beans to the factory for processing.

Cocoa beans after being removed from the pod.

Cocoa beans are set on large trays outside to ferment and then dry in the sunshine for a few days.

After drying is complete, workers gather up the beans and take them into the factory for roasting. Then they remove the meat from the husk, grind it up, blend it for 72 hours in large mixing machines, combine it with the other ingredients like sugar and vanilla, then form it into bars.

Touring the inside of the Chocolate Factory. We had to dress like we were going into surgery with booties, masks, and hair protection - everything is kept super clean inside. No photos were allowed inside the building so they could protect their 'secrets'.

The Orquidea Chocolate Factory sits on the edge of Tarapoto overlooking the beautiful rolling hills, rivers, and mountains of this high jungle region. If you have to visit to any Peruvian jungle, this is a good one to visit.

View from the Orquidea Chocolate Factory overlooking the beautiful jungle valley and river. 

And so we returned to Lima to recover from the three trips in a row over the past two weeks (Cerro de Pasco, Arequipa, and Tarapoto). These trips, far from being vacations, are intense and exhausting work experiences. We relish our time back in our Lima office just to recover.

Only in Peru

Once back in our Lima office, we completed a project that had been lingering since last year. A local social agency had asked for help with a desperately poor and at-risk woman. The last thing on the list of needs was a water tank for her home (actually a shack), which did not have a water supply. 

We met the woman and the social worker at a local hardware supply store, we bought the tank, and we were getting ready to put it into the van we hired to haul it to her house. However, the tank would not fit in the van, so a local taxi driver came to the rescue. For $5, he agreed to haul the tank on the roof of his taxi, unload it, then carry it up the stairs on the side of the mountain to her shack. The photo shows how unusual (by American standards) this looked. 

Water tank for the home without a water supply. The taxi driver had no problem lashing it on the top of his taxi and delivering it for us.

Here in Peru, scenes like this are common. We laugh at things like this and often repeat what one Peruvian told us early on our mission: En Peru, todo es posible (In Peru, anything is possible).

Warm Clothing in Chalhuanca, Land of the Vicuña, and Monastery of Santa Catalina

17 September 2017

This week's project took us up to the highlands in the Andes above Arequipa in southern Peru to deliver warm clothing and shoes to children in a very remote school. This included a trip to Chalhuanca, a tiny village at high altitude in a part of Peru we had never visited.

We flew into Arequipa high in the Andes, then drove for hours to get to the remove village of Chalhuanca

Journey to Chalhuanca

The tiny little village of Chalhuanca sits at 14,300 ft. elevation and is a 4-hour drive (some of it on dirt road) from Arequipa.  We came, along with regional government officials, to make a donation of warm sweatsuits and shoes to school children as requested as part of an emergency project related to an extremely cold winter in the Andes.

Sandy assembling the donation in the school yard.

Some of the shoes that needed replacing.

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Packages of new shoes for distribution while about a hundred school children looked on.

We passed out the shoes and sweatsuits, and the children were pleased with the new items. This little village, so isolated from the rest of the world, was doing its best to provide for their children in spite of their extremely limited resources. A little extra help with surviving here was appreciated.

Donating warm clothing and new shoes in this region that is perpetually cold.

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Happy group of school girls with their new shoes and polar-fleece-lined sweatsuits. These are the shoes we had made at a home factory in Lima - red for the girls and black for the boys.

A happy day for all in Chalhuanca. Donations like this are a fun ending to an enormous amount of coordination on our part.

This was a good donation to participate in, one of three taking place this week in the Arequipa Region.  This was the only one we were participating in - the other two were in even more remote locations requiring a 12-hour drive each way.

The school invited us to stay for lunch in their humble cafeteria. The food was delicious and nutritious, much of which was raised in a greenhouse next to the school. With temperatures so extreme at this altitude, not even trees grow outside, so a greenhouse is the only way they can get fresh veggies.

School lunch - rice, something-like-pizza, potato, fresh veggies from the greenhouse, along with corn tea.

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The lunch ladies - Andes style. I asked if I could take their photo, but they just stared blankly. They only spoke Quechua, not Spanish, so I just took the shot anyway, then showed it to them. They were amazed.

Land of the Vicuña

The 4-hour journey to the remote village of Chalhuanca took us above 14,300 ft. elevation. As we traveled, we were amazed to come across a group of rare, wild vicuña.

Group of wild vicuña at high altitude north of Arequipa. In the background is Misti Volcano, which last erupted in 1985.

Everyone has heard of the alpacas and llamas of South America. Both have been domesticated for millennia by native people. Less known is this related but wild animal called the vicuña. The vicuña were never domesticated. They were almost hunted to extinction, but due to conservation efforts, they are making a comeback.

These animals are really shy and run away at the slightest disturbance. Taking their photos can be a trick. I took all these shots using my telephoto lens from about 100 yards. This shot shows them all looking at us as we whistled to get their attention.

All the vicuña stared at us once we started making noise

Vicuña wool is super soft and warm - and it is the most expensive in the world (a scarf made from vicuña wool costs $1,500 to $2,000). Since the days of the Inca and continuing till today. wild vicuña are rounded up, sheered, then set free. Anciently, only the Inca royalty were allowed to wear garments made from vicuña. Nowadays, only the rich can afford vicuña apparel.

All our noise to grab the attention of the group resulted in a vicuña stampede as they all took off in a run.

Vicuña stampede as they run to safety.

The Peruvians prize the vicuña so highly that they put their image on all of their coins.

Vicuña appears on all Peruvian coins.

This was a rare surprise for us to actually see vicuña in the wild.

Monastery of Santa Catalina

Once we returned to Arequipa after the donation, we had a few hours before our evening meeting with local church leaders. This gave us enough time to walk from our hotel to visit the incredible Monastery of Santa Catalina. This site is the premier site in southern Peru, and it draws visitors from around the world.

This massive monastery was founded almost 500 years ago. One portion is still in operation with just a handfull of nuns left in the monastery. Thousands and thousands of nuns have called the monastery home over the centuries. Much of the monastery has now been converted into a museum, providing a glimpse into a life that continued unchanged until just recently when the remaining nuns moved into a more modern part of the complex.

Great Cloister (or courtyard), Monastery of Santa Catalina, Arequipa

Cordoba Street

Orange Tree Cloister

Arches and alleys, surprises around every bend

Sevilla Street (main passages are named after cities in Spain)

Orange Tree Cloister, one of three main cloisters or courtyards at the monastery.

Stairways to lookouts on the monastery roof.

View of the Santa Catalina Chapel from the main crossroads of the monastery.

And so our journey to Arequipa came to an end. Of all the cities in Peru, Arequipa is our favorite. To us, it always feels like home: mild temperatures and dry climate at a high altitude. Coming to Arequipa feels like we are back in New Mexico.

Our journey next week takes us into the jungle. The variety of assignments on this mission never ceases to amaze!

High into the Andes - Huanuco and Cerro de Pasco

12 September 2017

At Altitude

This week's journeys took us again high into the Andes Mountains in Cerro de Pasco. At 14,400 feet elevation, Cerro de Pasco is the highest city in the world (according to Wikipedia). We came for the donation ceremony of critically needed medical equipment in this remote region.

High in the Andes - Cerro de Pasco, center of mining in Peru. Half of the city is consumed with an open-pit mine, and other open pit and underground mines surround the city.

Golden arches welcoming us into this mining capital at high altitude.

Many mothers and newborns have been lost in this remote region due to inadequate medical diagnostic equipment. This project was designed to improve maternal and newborn health at a series of five remote health centers.

Expectant mothers gathered at the Pasco Health Fair, being held along with the donation ceremony.

In total, our donation included the following items that will be placed in remote health clinics where poor mothers currently have limited diagnostic care:

• 3 Ultrasound Machines
• 2 Fetal Monitors
• Biochemical Blood Analyzer

Currently, without these medical devices, many poor mothers have to spend one or more days waiting in lines to get ultrasounds at an overcrowded government hospital, and most just give up and go home and never complete their checkups until it is too late.

The press always shows up at these events. Here I am being interviewed by four local radio stations all at once - and all in Spanish.

The regional department of health decided to hold their health fair in conjunction with the delivery ceremony. This turned out to be a great idea since it started raining on us and on the equipment. All of the tents for the health fair provided a great escape from the storm that let loose right in the middle of the delivery ceremony.

Rains put a damper on the celebration for a little bit. Thank goodness the health fair had tents setup that helped protect from the downpour.

At the delivery ceremony in Cerro de Pasco with some of the equipment being donated to remote health clinics. Government, health, and church leaders (along with volunteers in their yellow 'helping hands' vests) gathered to celebrate this life-saving donation.

We had been working on this project for about 6 months, including getting Area leadership approval, obtaining bids and purchasing the equipment, working with the health leaders in Cerro de Pasco to develop their plans, and then delivering the equipment. The formal delivery ceremony represented the end of many hours or work. The end result should be an improvement in maternal and newborn health for many years to come.

Journey to Cerro de Pasco

Getting into Cerro de Pasco is a challenge. Due to its extremely high altitude, there is no airport. We first had to fly to Huanuco, spend the night, then have a driver take us early in the morning in his car for 2 hours to get there. Twisting, winding mountain roads are the rule if you want to go anywhere in the Andes Mountains.

Cerro de Pasco sits on the back-bone of the Andes Mountains. We flew to Huanuco and spent the night before the 2-hour drive that got us up to Cerro de Pasco.

The 2-hour drive each way always presents interesting scenes. This was our second trip to Cerro de Pasco. Our first trip in March had many delays caused by boulders falling on the road or herds of alpaca. The traffic jam on this trip was caused by donkeys and sheep.

Traffic jam high in the Andes - donkeys and sheep this time, but no alpacas and llamas (which are sometimes the cause of the jams).

Twisting roads, deep canyons, and sheer drop offs mark any journey into the Andes Mountains. The Andes run the length of South America through six nations.

Surprises lie around every bend. We stopped for this photo-op where a spring was gushing right out of the side of the mountain.

Traditional Women in the Andes

Many women in the the Andes wear traditional clothing. This consists of a hat, shawl, and an unusually wide skirt. Although the dress varies a little from region to region, most of the clothing has these basic components. It is always interesting to observe their outfits.

Typical hats and wide skirts worn by many women in the Andes. The skirts are so wide because they have multiple layers of petticoats to help keep them warm.

Many traditional Andean women, if they don't wear wide hats, wear tall knitted hats (like the woman in the center). They always carry their babies in bright-colored blankets.

Note that most of these traditional Andean women speak Quechua (rather than Spanish) as their primary language.

Many traditional Andean women like bright clothing. They may wear tights under their skirts and multiple petticoats to further keep their legs warm. 

This traditional Andean woman was wearing subdued clothing as she sat on her porch knitting. We think she was probably mourning the loss of a spouse or child, thus her clothing. 

These women are not too traditional (they left their hats and skirts at home), but they prefer to carry their babies in the traditional way, wrapped in bright blankets on their backs.

Llamas and Alpacas in the Andes

During our drive between Huanuco to Cerro de Pasco, we saw what must have been thousands of alpacas and llamas. For many traditional Andean people, these animals provide their only source of income as they raise them for their fur and meat. You only see these animals at high altitude in the Andes (unless they are being kept in zoos and parks in coastal areas like Lima).

Thousands of domesticated alpaca graze on the steep hillsides high in the Andes.

Alpacas in the front, llamas in the back. Alpacas are shorter, fluffier, and have shorter ears and are often bred with white fur. Llamas are taller with longer ears. Their fur is usually not spun, so llamas appear in more colors.

Mother and baby llama. Note the colorful bands that the owners put through their ears to identify the animals.

This llama even had a bell around its neck.

Brown llama with his white alpaca cousins. Alpaca meat is preferred over llama since it is more tender. Llama meat is most often made into jerky (or "cherqui" as the locals call it).

Huanuco

Before driving up to Cerro de Pasco, we had to fly into Huanuco and spend the night. Huanuco sits at 6,000 ft elevation and is said to have the best weather in the world - it is spring-like year round.

Grand Hotel Huanuco where we stayed - this reminded us of hotels where we have stayed in Spain.

The Huallaga River runs through the middle of Huanuco and is one of the headwaters of the Amazon as it flows down into the jungle.

The valley floor in Huanuco filled up with houses and crops, so the only place to grow was up the side of the mountain.

The Huanuco Cathedral reminded us of being in Spain.

And so the adventure of this trip is now behind us and it is time to move onto our next (of many) projects we are working as we try to improve the lives of those most in need here in Peru.