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.

.

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.

.

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.

.

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!