Getting ready to leave

Cusco on Corpus Christi above and Cusco with a pre Inti Raymi festival today. Inti Raymi is celebrated on June 24th.

As I was riding into Cusco this morning on the bus I was filled with love and gratitude for this land and its people. I was surrounded by such magnificent mountains and I could see the llamas grazing as well.
I am grateful to the team at Living Heart for welcoming me into their work and providing an opening for me to make a contribution, in the process I have learned a lot and want to continue to contribute when I return home.
My time with Aida and Kinkulla has been full of laughs, great food and patience with my spanish, they are very happy with my progress.
In conclusion I want to thank all my family and friends and neighbors for their support and interest in what I am doing here.
My time here in Peru has led me to conclude that Peru is my second adopted home, Chicago the first and of course Ireland my place of birth.

Growing Quinoa in the Sacred Valley

I saw many fields of quinoa growing and it adds a warm colour to the landscape.

Visiting Vicunas, Alpacas and Llamas

I now know the difference between all three. Upon leaving Arequipa for the Colca Canyon/ Valley with a tour group of 16 arranged by a friend of Tanya´s who is a tour guide, we visited the preserve for Vicunas, they are wild and were going extinct until the government of Peru created a reserve and set big financial penalties for killing them for their wool, it is very very fine and of the highest quality. As you can see from the picture there is not much to eat here for the vicunas and they are very lean and graceful, they run very fast. They like this area because there is water from a recent rain. We could just see the vicunas from the road, no entry is permitted on to the reserve.

In front of the National Reserve for Vicunas.

This formation reminded me a little of the Grand Canyon, the colours are different.

A very barren landscape, nothing grows here, the vicunas live on very little. A beautiful sky above.

A field of alpacas found some green and a little water. They are domesticated animals and used for their wool and their meat is found on menus in restaurants as well.

Some llamas here as well, the llamas are bigger and are used for carrying loads. The poeple who live in this area depend on the alpacas and llamas for their livlihood and are very poor, the conditions of life are very harsh and it gets very cold at night at this altitude.

 Snow on top, all in a day´s travel, lots of contrasts, that is the story of the geographic landscape of Peru.

Women selling their wares along the highway, chalinas/ shawls, knitted goods and weavings.

My visit to Arequipa

Arequipa is the third largest city in Peru and is also the city closest to Colca Canyon where the Condors are. I decided to travel at night, it is a 10 hour trip from Cusco to Arequipa. It is typical here on those long distances either to travel very early in the morning like 4 a.m or leave at night and arrive in the morning, those are the choices. I left Cusco at 8p.m. and arrived in Arequipa at 6 a.m. The Plaza de Armas in Arequipa at 6 a.m. very quiet, it was also Good Friday and most of the shops were closed.
Tanya, Aida and Kinkulla´s daughter lives in Arequipa and she met me at my hotel and we walked all over the city. Mario Vargas Llosa, who won the Nobel prize for literature in 2011 was born in Arequipa and made a dedication of this new library to the city, it is a great cultural addition.

This is the oldest part of the city and is built with volcanic rock and the homes are passed down through the generations, it is called La Nazarene.

This is the original Plaza de Armas de Arequipa, you can see how small it is compared to the present Plaza. It is near the La Nazarene above.

A popular plaza for taking a picture to get a view of the city, however the day was slightly overcast so the view is limited.

The Newsletter and the start of the school year

One of the things I came here to do was to help with marketing and fund-raising for Living Heart, I helped to write the newsletter which was e-mailed the end of March. One of the things I feel Living Heart does really well is keeping in touch with supporters on a consistent basis, if you would like to read the newsletter here is the link: http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/912975/9741d36d45/TEST/TEST/

April is the beginning of the school year here for the children in the highland communities, they do not go in March because their parents keep them at home to help with the harvest. I visited one of our highland communities where we provide  a hot lunch and dinner to the children as they are malnourished, very small for their ages. We brought the food for two weeks, rice, cereal and fresh vegetables and in two more weeks more fresh produce.

Rita the nurse who works for Living Heart is measuring and weighing all the children, this is done at the beginning of the school year and  again at the end of the school year to see how their development has progressed. Peter a volunteer dentist from England is checking all the children´s teeth and Living Heart plans to invite dentists to treat the children´s dental needs.

We decided to go see the high altitude lake since we were quite close and it was worth the visit, the lake is at 12,000 feet.
The team, myself, Fani (staff), Suzanna, a photographer from England and the daughter of Sonia, the founder of Living Heart, Rita (staff), Peter, a volunteer dentist from England and Martin our driver.
Martin does very well on these roads, they are not paved and there are lots of curves.

A visit to a highland community above Pisaq

On Friday, I had my first visit to one of the highland communities that Living Heart serves, it is so beautiful up there, it is an Andean community where the people wear traditional dress, grow food and raise animals. They grow many varieties of potatoes, some of which have purple flowers. I was joining Rita, our Quechua speaking nurse, who was visiting a family with a child who has a congenital illness, Rita provides therapy to the child and it is really helping him. The parents of the child have taught themselves to weave, they start with the wool from the llama, use natural dyes and create beautiful weavings. The weavings are displayed and sold in the Living Heart cafe and all the money goes directly to the family.
Chrisologo, the father wants to learn English. I ended up spending two hours with him, he got out a notepad and asked me to write in Spanish and English what he wanted to learn e.g basic conversation, how are you? I really believe he will learn English, he is very determined. He has a dream of inviting tourists to his community and teaching weaving as a way to fund a school to teach weaving to orphans in the community to that they will have a marketable skill. He is very grateful for the help he has received and continues to receive from Living Heart and wants to give back, reciprocity is one of the values of his community.

A visit to Living Heart Cafe

I invited Aida, Kinkulla and Tanya to join me for lunch at Living Heart´s Cafe in Ollantaytambo, where the train leaves for Machu Picchu. The cafe is located at the corner of the road leading to the ruins and the road leading to the train station. The cafe recently moved to this great location and the restsurant itself is beautiful with a view of the ruins. The profits from the cafe go to support the programs of the NGO/ONGm, Living Heart Peru. We spent a very enjoyable afternoon eating wonderful food and travelling by bus about one hour each way.

One of the things I am doing is spending at least one afternoon each week in the Cafe talking with guest and making them aware of the work of Living Heart. I have met travellers from Austrailia, Ireland, US, Canada, Sweden, Japan, China. It is a lot of fun for me, everyone is in a good mood, they are on vacation and enjoying the ambience and good food in the cafe. I met a teacher from Boston who is interested in acquainting her students in Boston with the children in Sacred Valley.