A Great Time to Give Back: The Longest Journey

Wow...It´s only been a week but I am willing to say this is the most eventful week I have ever experienced in my lifetime. Last Sunday, June 14th, six interns (Steven Cymerman, Anthony Tijero, Steven Ramirez, Kate Voss, Ben Bell and myself) and one representative of the Peruvian Ministry of Education (Norma) set out on a journey that would span four days and an absurd amount of rugged moutain ¨roads¨. Our week of training in Lima had come to a close and all of the interns were being sent out to their deployment sites where we will be for until July 3rd. After a great night out in Lima, the six of us loaded up into cabs and made our way to the bus station where we would catch a ride to a pueblo called Huaytara which resides in the Huancavelica region of Peru. Before leaving the hotel I took a shower. This tidbit of info will play a critical part later on in my story. All of us with luggage in hand made some last minute purchases (*a tip for anyone traveling to South America especially Peru, always have some TP on hand. It will make life much better) and then loaded into the bus. The journey started out with a bang which came as a result of being seated in on the second level and in the front row of a double decker bus. We all had an amazing panoramic view from our seats. The ride took around 5 hours and included an exceptional meal of a local dish called lomo saltado. It is essentially a stir fry of beef, onions, and french fries ontop of rice. The perfect addition to an already great situation. At this point none of us really knew what the future would hold for us.

As we traveled south from Lima we headed into the desert where not much live was found present. The scenery became more bland but this soon changed as we made a quick turn and began east bound into the Andes. I spent last summer in Peru but as the sun went down and the stars came out I soon remembered how beautiful the landscapes of the Peruvian Andes are. The first part of our journey soon came to an end as we got off the bus at the foot of the small pueblo of Huaytara. It seemed a bit strange that the town was so dark as we collected our luggage from the cargo hold beneath the bus. We were quickly informed that the city was without electricity until a unknown time in the near future. We were greeted by a lady from the local municipality who guided us through the darkness to our accomodations for the evening. As we passed through the town we were met with gazing eyes from locals, an action that we have now become accustomed to experiencing. Let´s just say not too many Gringos make it to the parts of Peru where we are now living. Our hostal was a humble building with nothing more than the basic necessities that a shelter should offer. After a quick dropoff of our baggage, we headed to a small restaurant for some late night Peruvian Cuisine. Half of us ate fried trout while the others chose another round of lomo saltado. The restaurant owner, a stocky, fast talking Peruvian gentleman, made sure we were well fed. Following dinner the six of us made our way to a quiet spot to take in all of the beautiful stars overhead and just discuss what we thought of how things were playing out. In the middle of our conversation, the lights suddenly show down on the pueblo below, signaling to us that the electricity had decided to return to Huaytara for the time being. After an hour or so, tired and our stomachs full, we decided to call it a night.

The next morning, with the sun beating intensly down on us, we returned to the same restaurant for a quick bite to eat before meeting with Edwin, a representative of the local branch of the Ministry of Education, who would be coming along with us for the remainder of our journey. Our meeting with Edwin gave us further insight into the sites at which all of us would be staying. We found out internet was unlikely, and cell phone service was probable. At the conclusion of the meeting each of us used the internet for any last minute correspondence that we had and loaded up on any supplies we thought we might need including a lunch to eat on the road. It was at this point that our adventure truly began.

Norma had told us to get our bags and meet back in the main plaza where our transportation would be waiting for us. As we approached the square in bags in toll, we saw two brand new, shiny vans waiting for us to board. As we walked toward them we were intercepted by a Peruvian man named Oscar who informed us that he would be our driver for our trip. Next to him were two older, well used trucks. We assumed at that point our luggage would be thrown in the back of one while all of us would be riding in the other. This was not to be as Oscar told us all nine of us and our luggage would be packed into the small Nissan pickup and driven to our first destination of San Francisco de Sangayaico where we would be dropping of Steven Ramirez and Ben Bell. We were baffled at how this was to be done but as I have come to learn in Peru, nothing is impossible. After about 30 minutes of figuring out how we would be arranged, we began our journey into the depths of the Andes mountain range.

The view from the bus on the way to Huaytara