The Flaneur: September 2012

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Day 6 (cont.) - Light Trails

A combination of wind, rain, and the hail that already fell was the perfect recipe for the ultimate chill.

I have never been so cold in my life.

Storm's a-brewing.

"Senor Tim esta aqui." TIM?! TIM!!!

Then we had some fun with headlamps.

Day 6 (cont.) - Traditions

Some pictures are going to be very graphic. Don't say I didn't warn you.

It's weird when you realize you're watching knowledge that has been passed down for generations. From the amount of patience it took for Victor, Paulina, and her mother to herd the alpaca into the stone circle to the ritual with the coca leaves before the sacrifice and the skinning of the alpaca, I knew I was witnessing something special. The whole process was done so skillfully and so much respect was given towards the animal that it made me feel calm and reassured through it all...

For the coca ceremony, Victor picked out three of the best coca leaves from a bag and carefully arranged them on top of one another before he chewed them. Then he picked out another group of three leaves, raised them up towards the mountains and sky as he whispered something in Quechua, and then placed the leaves into the alpaca's mouth. It made me think about how we eat and how our food comes to us. Killing your own dinner or seeing your dinner get killed definitely puts things in a different perspective.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Day 6 - Getting to the Alpaca Farm

I took a lot of pictures today. Putting them all on one post might be a little too much so I'm going to split day 6 into at least two parts, maybe three.

Victor brought along a little radio for the hike :)

A neighbor's fish pond.

Looking down at the farms.

The farm is two hours away from their home. I have no idea how often Victor and his family make this trip.

Sasha was having a little trouble washing the knife.

So I told her to spit on it.

The white clouds turned into storm clouds which resulted in big, cold HAIL. Ahhh

Paulina spins alpaca wool as we wait out the storm.

Week 1

Monday

8:30 classes means I get to rise with the sun. Yay?

I was experiencing a serious case of reverse culture shock. The botany greenhouse provided some solace.

Seeing best friends helped too. Remember the last time we matched?

After choir.

Tuesday

I couldn't stay apart from these guys for long! A mini Peru reunion at the UW Bird Club table.

Wednesday - This was a really awesome week for sports. It started out with this volleyball game against UCLA, then our football team beat Stanford on Thursday, then the next day volleyball tore it up again against USC.