The Long Drive

Yet again we were up early today (2nd August) as we have a 9 hour drive ahead of us.

Once again we got to see the beautiful sunrise over the mountains and the llamas had not yet been let out off their overnight pens. At a farm we stopped for a closer look. Having made friends with a llama yesterday, with it enjoying its fuss so much it rolled over so I could tickle his belly I've taken quite a liking to llamas!

This particular farm was owned by a man fast approaching 80 years old. He lives on his own and looks after around 30 llamas. Each one will bring him around 10 nuevos soles (£3.30) per llama per year. His family have moved to the city and only check in on him a few times a year. We made up a goody bag and he seemed extremely happy with the few slices of bread and fruit we gave to him.

This man's family are not the only ones to leave for the city. Over the past few days we have seen abandoned houses everywhere we have driven.

A little further along the road we stopped at a lake and low and behold there were flamingos! Six pink flamingos at 3500m altitude on a freezing cold dawn morning.

By around 10am we reached a small pocket of civilization, stopping for a quick snack and look at the two churches which were destroyed by earthquakes. Mining once again is an integral part of this village. The mining company has built an astroturf football pitch and other new facilities are also under construction. The companies buy off the farmers to stop any protests by giving them cows which seems to be keeping them happy.

The minimum wage in Peru is 750 nuevos soles (US$288) per month. However someone working in a gold mine on average finds 3g per day at US$60/g making it a lucrative career for Peruvians.

Further along the way we met some more children. Although education is compulsory in Peru most children in the mountainous regions don't go to school as it's too far away and instead stay and help on the farm.

Just outside of our final destination for the day we saw a band playing on the edge of the canyon, then a little further along were lots of children all in traditional dress dancing in the road. It was the final day of the celebration after the cleaning of the aqueducts. 

Finally at around 3pm we arrived in Chivay, our final stop before we headed back to Arequipa. For lunch there were lots of choice traditional Peruvian dishes including llama. Obviously we had to try the llama and were not disappointed. It tasted like a cross between pork and beef - delicious :-D We liked it so much we had it again for dinner.

After lunch we went for a short walk up a hill overlooking Chivay. At the top were Wari military buildings still in remarkably good condition given that they were around 800 years old. It seems that the Wari civilisation was perhaps more impressive than the Incas and certainly longer lasting.