14 years later...

I’ve been intending to visit Cusco for a while - partly as generally finding my way around the area and learning about culture and history, partly to meet a local community development NGO, and partly to get to know a couple from the UK who are based there with Latin Link.

I stayed in the same hotel as 14 years ago, with views over the city... I hadn’t planned on it but when I was looking for somewhere on the internet I saw a photo that jogged my memory

I spent a day waiting to hear from the NGO (they had just moved to a new office and so hadn’t got my email saying “I’ll come on Thursday”) - so in between ringing them up, I did some sightseeing.  It was very strange, but very lovely, to be in Cusco again after having visited 14 years ago.

My bus tour included a trip to an alpaca wool shop.  These are some of the different materials used to dye wool, including quinoa and cochineal.

The meeting eventually did happen on the Friday.  I was so glad I had come, because it was a very helpful and encouraging meeting.  They have been working in Peru for about 20 years, starting off in Cusco but expanding to other regions and applying lessons learnt between the areas.  They have a representative in the government office in Abancay, and a pilot project in Apurímac that I am hoping to go and visit.  They’ve also given me some teaching materials they used in the past, training people in development and management.

Then I spent a day with the family from the UK.  They hosted a kids’ cell group (basically a Sunday school) which was fun to help with, finished an improvised go-kart and took it down the road outside the house with increasing speed and volume (which was fun to watch, and be involved in discussions for its improvement!). 

We also went on a “nature walk”, which they do most Saturdays with another expat family and any others from the local area who want to come.  We walked up to a lake, where the kids fished for tadpoles and made friends with a donkey, while the adults sat and drank coffee out of flasks in the rain.  It felt very English! 

We did also overturn various stones on the way back looking for scorpions - not so English - but only found some interesting spiders and a very speedy lizard (too quick for a photo).