Coca, School Visit, & Home Cooked Meal

Today was a day of many local experiences Urubamba, Peru. We started off meeting a local farmer, Irma, who grows coca leaves and sells them at the local market. It takes her a day by bus, train and trail to get to her farm high in the mountains where the leaves are all harvested by hand. She can harvest three times a year and it takes three days to harvest. Each bush can for last up to 80 years.

While coca leaves can be illegally grown and processed to make cocaine by the cartels, the people here use the leaves as a natural stimulant similar to caffeine. They dry the leaves and chew on them. You can also roll them up and put them in your cheek, like chewing tobacco. They are sometimes mixed with stevia or mint. The use of coca has deep cultural roots in Peru. Another use for the local people of the Andes is traditional medicine. It was the primary source for calcium before dairy products became more readily available. Irma is 70 years old and none of her children have any interest in taking over the farm. Sadly, her farm will likely be taken over by the jungle. She was such a sweet lady.

Next we visited a local primary school named Arim. The 5th graders met each of us as we stepped off the bus and held our hand and led us to the classroom. .Sue was matched with Meloni. She was shy and very sweet! Pablo chose Dan as soon as he stepped off the bus. He was not shy.

The kids got up and introduced themselves and told us what they wanted to be when they grew up. Pablo wants to be a soldier and Meloni a teacher. We also got up and introduced ourselves and said where we were from and what we did for a living… Our guide David translated for us. Then we did some drawing where we showed them the English word for something, and they told us the Spanish word. Meloni was really into the activity and kept Sue busy :-). Pablo, while an excellent artist, was a little more interested in Dan’s “smart” watch. He wanted it for his own. We then gave the teacher, Marco, the presents we had brought them like crayons, stickers and balsa airplane kits.

Next we went to a local market in Calco where our guide showed us around and explained some of the unique items. We sampled the excellent chuta bread and then had free time to look and buy some items for the family that would be making us lunch. We bought flowers, peppers, gooseberries and quinoa. We then took a TukTuk ride to the bus to meet back up with the bus.

We arrived at the family’s house and presented our market gifts. The mom and dad were Leonor and ArcAngel. Leonor’s mother was Nancy. The kids were Ursula and Rosemary. The grandkids were Aria and Neithan. 4 generations living together.

We then split up to help prepare the meal. Dan “helped” make the picante salsa or hot sauce. Nancy took tomatoes, peppers, cilantro and salt and went out to the yard where there was a flat rock table and a rounded stone she used to grind it all up. We took turns doing it but we needed Nancy to finish it. Sue went into the house to make the stuffed peppers. They had scallions, peppers, oil, boiled egg, peas and carrots. We stuffed them in the pepper and then used a flour type paste to hold it together and cooked them on an open fire skillet. Others helped set the table.

In addition to the two item we made, we had a delicious potato soup, a pumpkin curry with white rice, corn and the star of the show, guinea pig. While everything was delicious, the peppers were the favorite, and we probably never need to eat guinea pig again. For those of you wondering….no it does not taste like chicken. It tastes like guinea pig. They raise the guinea pig right in their house. It is a delicacy in Peru and they only typically eat them on weekends, birthdays or other special occasions. We also had the chicha morada, purple corn drink. After the table was cleared, we each presented the gifts we had brought the family from our home states. We brought Jelly Belly sample kits. It was a really neat experience.

We went back to the Urubamba hotel to pack for we leave for Machu Picchu tomorrow.

Coca Farmer