Semana Santa - Part I, the Alfombras and the Lakes

In most Latin American countries the week leading up to Easter is called Semana Santa (Holy Week) and, depending on the country, various days of the week are legal holidays. In Peru, Thursday and Good Friday are holidays and schools, banks, government offices and most businesses are closed. The archives were closed Thursday and Friday so we decided to visit some points of interest in the surrounding area on Friday. We will cover them in two postings.

We made the trip arrangements with one of the taxi drivers that we met while we were staying at the hotel when we arrived. He has a recent model Hyundai sedan (photo below) and he goes by the nickname of "the professor" since he used to teach school in his younger days. He is very knowledgeable about points of interest and the history of the area. He is also a careful driver, at least by Peruvian standards. He picked us up at the apartment at 8:00 a.m. and the drive to the lakes took about an hour, with some stops on the way to see the "alfombras" (see the descriptions under the photos). We returned to Huaraz about 4:00 and he charged us 220 soles (about US$78.00) for the trip. We bought him lunch and felt that the trip was worth the cost for the interesting things we saw and learned.

Marilyn, our driver, and his Hyundai.

 On the way, we took a couple photos of Mt. Huascarán, the tallest peak in Peru.

About 30 minutes out of Huaraz, heading for Mt. Huascarán.

About an hour out of Huaraz.

On the way to the lakes, we stopped in two towns, Mancos and Carhuaz, to look at the alfombras that were being laid in the streets for the Good Friday processions later in the day. As you will see in the photos, alfombras are colorful designs related to the life of Christ created in the streets from colored sawdust, flowers, plants, etc.

The main square in Mancos with the church and the Andes in the background and a moto-taxi in the foreground. Youth putting down the alfombras can be seen on the street at the left.

Another shot of the square with the church framed by Mt. Huascarán. Note the palm trees. This town is at 8,650 ft. elevation.

These are the bags of sawdust before the color is added.

The buckets of coloring to be added to the sawdust.

Putting down the green sawdust on the street.

 

 

Putting down the outline of a design.

The finished product.

On the way to the next town we saw this rather novel way to support a concrete wall being built by running posts across the canal.

This is the main street of Carhuaz as they begin to put down their alfombras.

An alfombra in progress. These are all different colored sawdust sections.

 

 

Another interesting design.

He was just finishing this portrait of the Savior.

"I left my heart in...Carhuaz"

Leaving the paved highway, we drove up the mountain on a gravel road with lots of switchbacks for about 20 miles to Lake Llanganucco. Actually, there are two lakes, Chinancocha and Orchonocha. These lakes lie in a steep valley between Mt. Huascarán at 22,000 ft. and Mt. Huandoy at 21,000 ft.

Here we are at the lake, elevation 12,600 ft. and with a depth of 92 ft. It was cooler even with the sun shining brightly.

A view of the lake and the boaters. The second lake is beyond this one.

The campsite at the lake. We were impressed by the sheer rock cliffs that rise above the site on one side and snow capped Mt. Huascarán on the other.

Pretty steep cliffs!

Huascarán National Park, a World Heritage site, with an ambulance waiting for an accident to happen.

For a small fee, you can get your picture taken with locals in native dress and a decorated alpaca (relative of the llama).

 

The public restrooms. You pay the lady 25 céntimos (about US$0.09) and she gives you two small pieces of toilet paper and a receipt.

Flowers blooming at 12,600 ft.

Parasitic flowers on a tree.

A pretty spot!

Goodbye from the beautiful turquoise waters of Lake Llanganucco.

Trip to Lima -
When we arrived in Lima on February 15, we were issued tourist visas valid for 90 days. While in Lima we were taken to the immigration office by a Church representative and applied for resident visas. We were notified last week that our application had been approved and that we needed to come to Lima to finalize the paperwork, be photographed and fingerprinted.

We flew to Lima on Tuesday, April and returned to Huaraz on Thursday, April 3. The airline that services Huaraz, LCPERU, only flies on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. That may be increased as the tourism season in this area (May - September) picks up. The plane leaves Huaraz at 10:00 a.m. and arrives in Lima about an hour later. The return flight leaves Lima at 8:25 a.m. Both our flights were delayed an hour due to early morning fog in Lima.

The fare was US$220. RT per person. The Church paid for this since we had to go to Lima to pick up our resident visas. The carnet (card)  we were issued is good for one year so we will have to return to Lima next year to renew for our remaining months.

These photos show the airport facility here in Huaraz. It is small but clean and modern as you can see from the photos. The plane, a Dash 8 turboprop, seats 32 -34 passengers but both of our flights were less than half full.

At the airport with Huascarán Mountain in the background. This mountain is 22,400 ft. and the 4th highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere.

The airport terminal for Huaraz.

Inside the terminal.  What do you think, Jill--will JetBlue fly here?

The Dash 8 turboprop that took us to Lima and back.

Boarding in Huaraz.  Who is that important guy?

The runway here is almost two miles long, but the pilot did not need all of it to take off. The airport is actually in a very small town named Anta which is about 30 minutes taxi ride from Huaraz. The fare is 35 soles, about US$12.50 one way. The valley from Huaraz widens at this point and there is plenty of room to take off and land. The view of the snow-capped Andes from the airplane is pretty spectacular. (Perhaps all these details will be useful to those who may be planning to visit us.)

As Tony said, the main purpose of the trip was to get our legal papers, but the second purpose was to do a little shopping in the 'big city" of Lima.  So when we arrived Tuesday, we checked into our hotel, ate lunch at a Chifa (Chinese restaurant) and went to the Distribution Center by the temple to buy simplified hymn books and assorted stuff.  Across from the temple was a small store that sells book covers, etc. I was excited to find a great addition to my nativity set collection.  (See picture below.) The box-like one we got at the airport.  There was a beautiful one for $400 US but we passed on that one.

The bird, the box and the egg.

The bird opens to show nativity.

The box opens to display the nativity.

Wednesday we went with Graciela to get our carnets.  She was pleasantly surprised that it only took 2 1/2 hours to complete everything--partly because of our age.  They let the elderly, special needs people and pregnant women go to the front of the lines or have special lines for them.  One small perk for being old!

In the afternoon we went to Jockey Plaza--a HUGE mall, similar to US malls.  They have a little bit of everything.  Most of their larger stores are chains from Chile but they have US stores as well.  We ate lunch in the food court and had burgers from Burger King.  

The huge food court in the mall.

Watching a soccer game on a giant screen in the food court.

 While Tony was getting the food, I was looking for a table since it was very crowded.  A lady motioned for me to join her and said she was almost finished and we could have that table.  She asked all the usual questions (where from, why here, how long, etc.) and when I explained what we were doing she got all excited.  She said she is trying to write a book about her family and went to her church and asked her priest if she could see their records.  He told her no.  Then, someone told her about Family Search on the internet and she has been able to find some of her records there.  She said, so your Family Search is good for us Catholics too!  It was exciting to hear of someone that is using the program.

Lego store in Lima.

We went looking for an area rug for our front room and finally found one that is imported from Egypt.  We think it adds some color and style to our front room.  The salesman rolled it up and wrapped it in plastic and Tony carried it around for the rest of our shopping.

The rug from Egypt.

Then we went to the grocery store and found a few things that we haven't been able to buy here, like a paper towel holder and some canned corn--the corn here is huge and ugly and some other things.  Next door was a Home Depot equivalent where we found a filter for the fan over our stove. But the biggest find of all was in a little store with no name  that the taxi driver drove us to--chocolate chips!!  I bought a whole big bag--I think she usually sells them by the 1/2 cup or so and some powdered sugar.  I have looked everywhere for baking soda and finally found some the other day at a drug store.  Just one of the interesting things about living abroad.

We were beat so went back to the hotel and went to bed so we could get up at 5:00 to be ready to go to the airport at 6:00 and then wait for almost four hours before the plane took off.  As my brother Bob says--hurry up to wait!

As soon as we got home I thought of a bunch of other things I wished we had purchased but we will survive without them.  I also realized that I am really happy that we are assigned here and not in Lima, even if there are more imported things there.  It was hot, much more crowded and the traffic was horrendous--possibly even worse than here, if that is possible.  We are in the right place.

Sights and Sounds from Huaraz -


We have been taking note of and photos of some of the many interesting, and different, things we have seen and heard here in Huaraz in the past few weeks. Collectively, they make us realize that indeed we are in a different country and culture.

The Sounds -

When we were in the hotel, we thought we heard the clip-clop of horses passing on the street. We finally realized that there were no horses. The sound came from the cars passing over the concrete pavement, laid in large squares, and the clip-clop was caused by the tires going over the seams between the cement sections.

 

Since moving to the apartment, we hear roosters every morning, starting well before the sun comes up around 6:00. The owner said they are fighting roosters and the neighbors on both sides are raising them. There is nothing new to us about roosters crowing early in the morning, we heard a few in Mesquite, however here we have them in stereo. From the top of our building I spotted one of their cages on the roof of the building just east of us. Here are the cages and one rooster was poking his head out of his feeding trough. They are on the top of a three story building.

The rooster roost next door.

Closeup of the rooster cages with colored feeding troughs in front.

The garbage truck plays music (the same song every morning) on a loudspeaker as he approaches our neighborhood. The first pass occurs before 6:00 a.m. and then he comes again around 7:15 a.m. Same music. There is a municipal garbage yard on the corner about 1/2 block from us and we were told that is why he comes twice. From what I could see from our roof and peering through their gate when it is open, it is mostly a drop-off for recyclable items, wood, metal, plastic, etc. 
 

Garbage waiting to be picked up.

The musical garbage truck.

We are on the ground floor and can look out three of our windows at the small parking patio. We have seen as many as 4 autos parked there, but generally there seems to be only two that are permanent, the owner's small Chevrolet diesel pickup and a red Toyota pickup belonging to the apartment above us. When they enter, their headlights hit our windows and due to the small parking area, they must maneuver for several minutes to fit in their respective spaces. We hear their engines as they move back and forth to position their vehicles.

Here is the parking patio outside our front window.

Speaking of the apartment above us, we must mention the constant clack-clack of the lady's high heels on the tile/cement floor. Since we hear the sounds day and night, we assume she either really likes her high heels or doesn't have any other shoes to wear. We also hear their two year old when she has a temper tantrum.

Every time we go out on our little patio (laundry room) eight year old Zoe on the third floor sticks her head out a window and says "Hola, ¿Qué están haciendo?" (Hello, what are you doing?). She also occasionally pokes her head out a front window as we are arriving from the archives and asks the same question. She goes to school half day so we rarely talk to her in the mornings.

This is Zoe, our chatty 8 year old neighbor.

We can't overlook the steady beep-beep of the thousands of taxis that cruise the streets of the city. The beep-beep of their horn is both to notify you that they are available for hire and to warn other vehicles, pedestrians, and animals that they are coming and to get out of their way. Several we have ridden with have added an additional horn which sounds like a siren and is effective in warning  anyone or anything in front of them. The beep of the horn or a short burst of their siren is also used to greet an acquaintance that may be walking on the sidewalk or to attract the attention of a pretty girl along the way.

One of the nicer taxis.

The Sights -

There are so many, we don't know where to begin. Here are a few that caught our attention. We will post more in the future.

Let's start with a picture of the town and mountains northeast of us, taken from our roof.

This is the "Bodega La Familia" (family store) across the park from our apartment.

 

What do you do on Saturday morning in a light rain? Block off the street and play volleyball. In front of the family store.

 

Nice volley! Note the rain clouds in the distance.

 

As you can see, the volleyball game is in front of the "family store". Note the spectators sitting out of the rain.

Skateboarding in the park in front of the apartment is also a popular activity on Saturdays when it does not rain. He is attempting to jump over the pile of cardboard and newspaper. He made it.

This is a fire hydrant. Did somebody pour the cement too high?

New apartment building going up nearby.

 

Closeup of the construction crew. The sign says 2 & 3 bedrooms, living, dining, kitchen, laundry, maid's room w/bath, elevator, parking. Our landlord says they are selling for US$140,000. Anyone interested?

A colorful daycare and kinder near us.