The next morning, we all loaded into a bus and 
headed up the road to Salkantay. The drive took about an hour. I believe I mentioned this road in an earlier post, but the ride was ridiculously suicidal. Okay, that might be a little dramatic, but it definately was alarming. I wouldn't take my car on this road. Maybe a four-wheeler. Maybe. We took a thirty-passenger bus up it! The first of many adventures. It was such a good feeling driving into that tiny village. They weren't expecting us yet. Because of the strike and our disrupted schedule, we were there a couple days early. The people all lined up and gave
us each a hug, one by one. It was the most heart warming thing I've ever seen. The women were all dressed up in traditional, very colorful clothing. I was surprised at how small they were! We visited for a little while, got settled, then got to work. Oh my heavens, I have never worked so hard in my life as I worked that day. I was assigned to the group that helped a man haul eucalyptus logs up from the bottom of a valley to his house on the top of the rather large hill. Those logs were so heavy! They are incredibly dense, and since they were lying in the stream, they were waterlogged. These things 
honestly were hundreds of pounds. It took our entire group to get them up the very steep hill. I fell over when I tried to pick one up and it landed on top of me, which was quite the experience! It was so hard, but there wasn't ever a time that I wanted to give up and find an easier job. The work was worth it, and the smile on the man's face when he saw that the chore was all done was more than any paycheck. Not that we got a paycheck. We got dinner. We also helped put some windows in an adobe home. All the homes were adobe. We hammered the wood window frame right into the clay bricks and sealed it up with mud. It was so primitive, but it was just life there. It felt 
so good to just sit and eat, even if the food wasn't spectacular and it was freezing cold. Me and Haley decided it would be a lot warmer to share one of the twin-sized bunk beds than sleep on our own, so we combined blankets and body warmth and actually had a rather comfortable night! Lots of people woke up feeling not so good due to lack of sleep due to being too cold. Not us! The next day my group leader was Arturo. He's Peruvian, of course, and was so much fun to work with. I think he was 26, and he had such a goofy sense of humor. We helped put several doors in the only two-story house I saw in the entire village. It was hard because we had to get it just right. We also hauled 60 pound adobe bricks up the ladder to the second level to fill in the 
windows that the owner couldn't afford to keep open. Again, it was tough work. Not as hard as the logs, but still hard. I used some power tools as well as some picks and hammers and such, which isn't entirely new to me, but it kinda funny to me that my primitive skills were plenty sufficient. The next day, our work was a lot of fun, but again, so hard! My hands were covered with blisters and bruises to the point that I had to wrap them in bandages to keep them from splitting and hurting even more. My group, led by Arturo again, named ourselves "The Strippers" that day. I'm pausing for effect and imagining the expressions on your faces before I explain............alright, 
I've had my fun. Our job was to strip the bark off of eucalyptus logs so they could be used for construction. We loosened the bark by hitting it over and over with a hammer (hence the blisters) then peeling it off. The wood underneath was beautiful! We only worked half a day because we were leaving after lunch to head to Maccu Pichu, which is going to be a different post! Before I get to that, though, there were somethings we did every day while we were in Salkantay that I want to mention. One is that after lunch, for half an hour or an hour before we went back out to work, there would be a soccer game going on between us and the villagers. The altitude was making my asthma 
not so fun to deal with, so I mostly watched, but it was quite the sight. Most of the time it was the little kids that played against us, but sometimes the Peruvian group leaders would play, like Arturo and Wildfredo and Alex. They were all very good! One day, the women even played. They get to play only once a year because of how many chores they have to do every day to keep their families alive, and they chose to play with us. It was such a neat feeling. Another thing we did every day, and not just the days we were in Salkantay, was have a devotional to start the day. We all took turns giving a thought and choosing
a song to sing. All the hymns we sang, we sang in Spanish. It was fun to try and pretend like I could pronounce the words. One thing that did NOT happen every day was shower! I don't know if I mentioned how awful our hotel in Cusco looked when we got there. It wouldn't have passed code here in America. However, after seeing what kinds of bathrooms and showers Salkantay had to offer, and the beds and just about everything else, the Royal Inn in Cusco seemed absolutely luxurious. Even though it was the hardest place to be physically, Salkantay was my favorite place we went.
headed up the road to Salkantay. The drive took about an hour. I believe I mentioned this road in an earlier post, but the ride was ridiculously suicidal. Okay, that might be a little dramatic, but it definately was alarming. I wouldn't take my car on this road. Maybe a four-wheeler. Maybe. We took a thirty-passenger bus up it! The first of many adventures. It was such a good feeling driving into that tiny village. They weren't expecting us yet. Because of the strike and our disrupted schedule, we were there a couple days early. The people all lined up and gave
us each a hug, one by one. It was the most heart warming thing I've ever seen. The women were all dressed up in traditional, very colorful clothing. I was surprised at how small they were! We visited for a little while, got settled, then got to work. Oh my heavens, I have never worked so hard in my life as I worked that day. I was assigned to the group that helped a man haul eucalyptus logs up from the bottom of a valley to his house on the top of the rather large hill. Those logs were so heavy! They are incredibly dense, and since they were lying in the stream, they were waterlogged. These things 
honestly were hundreds of pounds. It took our entire group to get them up the very steep hill. I fell over when I tried to pick one up and it landed on top of me, which was quite the experience! It was so hard, but there wasn't ever a time that I wanted to give up and find an easier job. The work was worth it, and the smile on the man's face when he saw that the chore was all done was more than any paycheck. Not that we got a paycheck. We got dinner. We also helped put some windows in an adobe home. All the homes were adobe. We hammered the wood window frame right into the clay bricks and sealed it up with mud. It was so primitive, but it was just life there. It felt 
so good to just sit and eat, even if the food wasn't spectacular and it was freezing cold. Me and Haley decided it would be a lot warmer to share one of the twin-sized bunk beds than sleep on our own, so we combined blankets and body warmth and actually had a rather comfortable night! Lots of people woke up feeling not so good due to lack of sleep due to being too cold. Not us! The next day my group leader was Arturo. He's Peruvian, of course, and was so much fun to work with. I think he was 26, and he had such a goofy sense of humor. We helped put several doors in the only two-story house I saw in the entire village. It was hard because we had to get it just right. We also hauled 60 pound adobe bricks up the ladder to the second level to fill in the 
windows that the owner couldn't afford to keep open. Again, it was tough work. Not as hard as the logs, but still hard. I used some power tools as well as some picks and hammers and such, which isn't entirely new to me, but it kinda funny to me that my primitive skills were plenty sufficient. The next day, our work was a lot of fun, but again, so hard! My hands were covered with blisters and bruises to the point that I had to wrap them in bandages to keep them from splitting and hurting even more. My group, led by Arturo again, named ourselves "The Strippers" that day. I'm pausing for effect and imagining the expressions on your faces before I explain............alright, 
I've had my fun. Our job was to strip the bark off of eucalyptus logs so they could be used for construction. We loosened the bark by hitting it over and over with a hammer (hence the blisters) then peeling it off. The wood underneath was beautiful! We only worked half a day because we were leaving after lunch to head to Maccu Pichu, which is going to be a different post! Before I get to that, though, there were somethings we did every day while we were in Salkantay that I want to mention. One is that after lunch, for half an hour or an hour before we went back out to work, there would be a soccer game going on between us and the villagers. The altitude was making my asthma 
not so fun to deal with, so I mostly watched, but it was quite the sight. Most of the time it was the little kids that played against us, but sometimes the Peruvian group leaders would play, like Arturo and Wildfredo and Alex. They were all very good! One day, the women even played. They get to play only once a year because of how many chores they have to do every day to keep their families alive, and they chose to play with us. It was such a neat feeling. Another thing we did every day, and not just the days we were in Salkantay, was have a devotional to start the day. We all took turns giving a thought and choosing
a song to sing. All the hymns we sang, we sang in Spanish. It was fun to try and pretend like I could pronounce the words. One thing that did NOT happen every day was shower! I don't know if I mentioned how awful our hotel in Cusco looked when we got there. It wouldn't have passed code here in America. However, after seeing what kinds of bathrooms and showers Salkantay had to offer, and the beds and just about everything else, the Royal Inn in Cusco seemed absolutely luxurious. Even though it was the hardest place to be physically, Salkantay was my favorite place we went.
1 comment:
I liked to read this...
pictures are great...
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Melvin
Getting a Payday advance is just a few steps away
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