A Successful Scouting Mission
Welcome to the gong show! On second thought, let’s call it a successful scouting mission instead.
I am preparing to leave for the Qoyllur Rit’i pilgrimage later today and wanted to share a brief post with you before I depart.
With harvest time and the dry season being upon us here in the Peruvian Andes, I am focusing on other aspects of the project. A big part of that is the agricultural aspect that defines much of the Quechuan culture. I have been planning to spend time with alpaca and llama herders. These animals reside at very high elevations and the indigenous people of the Andes have been herding them for their wool and as a meat source for thousands of years.
Another species of camelid that resides here are vicuñas and they also have high-quality wool. However, they have never been successfully domesticated. So once a year community members gather together to herd these wild animals and sheer them. Once their wool has been collected they are released back to the high-elevation plains (altiplano).
A few days ago I learned about this annual event taking place. It is called Chaku de Vicuñas. A few other people I know asked me if I wanted to join them. I gladly accepted the last-minute invitation. We left Cusco at 3 am and drove for almost 5 hours to get to the community of Phinaya. From there we made our way up the dirt track to where it was taking place. Unfortunately, the sun was fairly high in the sky at this point and the frozen ground had already begun to thaw. We didn’t make it very far as our truck got stuck in the mud.
For the next three hours, we worked to get the truck unstuck. It was exhausting hard work, especially at almost 5000 metres (16,000 feet) where the air is very thin. The lack of oxygen makes doing everything more difficult and affects your body in ways. One of the main ways is the piercing headaches you get up here.
Eventually, we managed to free our chariot but it wasn’t going any further up the mountain. So Héctor (who I just met and whose truck it was) decided to hike up. Our other two friends weren’t able to continue and stayed with the truck. Héctor and I slowly trudged our way up the mountain meeting a few people along the way who all said the same thing: “Just 30 more minutes.”
After two hours of trying to make it there, we came upon many people coming down. They told us it was finished and the vicuñas had been released. They also said it was at least another hour of walking. We laughed and hung our heads at the defeat, then headed back down the mountain. It was a quiet 4-hour drive back to Cusco.
It was not all in vain though and I am glad I made the effort. Part of the challenge with this project is finding information about what is happening in these small, remote communities and then getting to them. Many of these things only occur once a year, so I have one shot at getting to them. Many things also take place at the same time of year. This is why completing this project is taking so much longer than I first thought.
So in the end this was a good scouting mission with a plan for the possibility of getting there next year. We visited an incredibly beautiful place that I wouldn’t have otherwise seen. I also was able to meet Hector who is an architect and avid amateur photographer. He has a truck and lives around the corner from me. He is very interested in my project and has access and contacts to places and people I have been trying to get to for the project. All was not in vain.
There have been many challenges and setbacks of late and although it can be disheartening at times, I am pushing through it and hope to take some wins away when I can. The next challenge to overcome will be dealing with the failed hard drive containing all the photos from this project. (Gulp!) That is currently keeping me awake at night.
For now, I have to muster my strength and resilience for the pilgrimage beginning tonight. The trip up the mountain for Chaku de Vicuñas was good practice for that as well.
Wish me luck
MB
