Though the original plan was to only spend a few day in Huinchos, that plan was soon out the window, David wanted to celebrate his 35th birthday, Dec. 15th, there and when we discovered that he was actually born in the village of Puna, some 14,000 in the Andes and maybe and hour and a half away by truck, we wanted to visit there as well. Then there were all the relatives who wanted to spend some time with David and learn about his life, and this is not even to mention the pastoral beauty of the village of Huinchos, located on the side of a wide valley at about 11 to 12,000 feet in the Andes. It is hard to describe the place because as soon as the altitude is mentioned the mind reaches for pictures of rocky peaks and barren landscapes and in some ways, despite the lack of a lot of trees, the landscape is better described as bucolic. So, anyway we were there for at least a week.
The next day was filled with visiting relatives and with David encouraging them to help him build a family tree, people came and went and meals were served by Bertha, but it was never quiet and one was never alone. This day, Wednesday, also featured a visit from Aunt Victoria, a force of nature of a woman. She lives at 14,000 feet,in the village of Puna, which is above the line where agriculture is possible and where herding is dominant. Her husband has passed away but she still, in her late 60's or older, continues running a heard of over 100 animals, including sheep, alpaca, llamas and cows. She does this with a few dogs and sometimes some help from young relatives. She spent the day with us and we were able to learn a bit about her life and she about David's. We also now knew that we would be able to visit Puna, where David was born, over the weekend.
Wednesday was also a day of adjusting to life in an Adobe house in a rural village. The floors of the first floor were packed earth, the walls of course were packed earth, the cooking was done over a clay, wood fired stove in the kitchen, there was one source of water, a pipe in the courtyard and the roofless Adobe latrine was a little ways up the hill. Ali and Bertha have three kids, a girl and three boys. In order of age they are: Sayori (the girl), Juan Manuel, Erik Leo, and, the baby, Jhon Edu. Erik and Jhon Edu were always around, while Sayori and Juan were in school for part of the day, all of them were a joy to be around and fascinated by us and how we lived and what we did. The day was, like most of our days there, idyllic, a blue sky day, that clouded over in the afternoon for a bit of rain and then cleared up in the early evening. During the day the temperature went up to the mid 60's and at night down to the mid to low 40's, or, at least, that is what it felt like to me. Still a little sleep deprived, I went to bed early, David a bit later, not because he wasn't tired but because he was still the center of conversation and had a harder time getting away.
By Thursday morning, David was starting to get a bit sicker, it had started the day before, with an intestinal reaction to the food or water or both. By late morning we decided to take him down to Andahuaylas to a clinic to get examined by a doctor. As is usually the case it was a bacterial dysentery, for which the doctor prescribed a few days of antibiotics and some probiotics. By the time we left the clinic it was mid afternoon so we got some food and then David and I checked into a small local hotel while Victor and Mama went to her daughters house where they stayed the night. Late that afternoon, when David was already feeling a bit better we met up with a cousin of his and toured some parts of the city we had not seen before. We were back to the hotel fairly early, I treated myself to a hot shower, the first in a week and a half, and then a restful night.
The next day we had breakfast with Victor and Mama at the hotel, walked around town, seeing the sights of Andahuaylas, including the church where Victor and David's mom were married. Later we went to Mama's daughter's house for lunch and to hang out a good part of the afternoon before heading back to Huinchos in the late afternoon, getting back in time for a beautiful sunset, time with Ali's family, supper and with David already feeling much better.
Saturday was the day we were going to Puna, all of us were excited about the trip, and I was a little apprehensive about how we would manage with the altitude. A while after breakfast we all piled into the back of a friend truck, with David driving, and headed up the road toward Puna. The road first went through a larger neighboring village that was heavily agricultural and had irrigated fields, but as we moved out of the upper limits of the village the fields dropped away and the land became primarily natural pasture for sheep, vicuña, alpaca, llama and cattle, all of which we saw along the way. The road wound relentlessly up through the arid pasture land, dotted, here and there, with lakes until we entered a large spectacular altiplano valley, we were in a pastoral valley surrounded by peaks of the Andes. Simply amazing!
Part way through the valley we pulled over, parked and set up cooking equiptment in what looked like it had been a large old stone corral. Off in the distance we saw a large herd of sheep and alpaca, part of Aunt Victoria's heard. Some ran, a chore at this altitude, over to greet here and soon she walked over to greet all of us. She had an Andean slingshot with her which many of the men in the group showed their prowess, or lack of prowess, with. We settled in, talked, walked around a bit and just enjoyed the day. A group of us, including David, walked toward the area where we were told Aunt Victoria lived, we never got all the way because, part way there, we met another of David's uncles, Mariano. Again, it was another of those amazing meetings, two people who knew of each other but never really thought they would meet. They both looked amazed and touched - they couldn't stop looking a each other. Another homecoming, this time at nearly the top of the world. We all walked back to the old stone corral, sat down and began to talk, to get to know each other. After a while it was decided that we needed meat for lunch, Aunt Victoria offered a sheep and thus began one of the more astounding shows of competence I have ever seen. Within an hour and a half a sheep had been wrestled to the ground, tied up, brought back to camp, slaughtered, butchered and cooked. At times there were five or six people working on the sheep, everyone knowing what needed doing and no one getting in another's way. Lunch was delicious. But by the time we finished eating it was getting toward late afternoon, storm clouds were building up and we were in a open truck. So, we quickly cleaned up, packed everything in the truck, bit goodby to Victoria and Mariano and started back. Somehow we dodged the storm, though at times I was sure that we were about to be soaked, and got back to Huinchos, tired but happy. Another chapter in David's search for his birth family completed.
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