Sun Cream

Michael has been a little worried about sunburn, but perhaps he is overdoing the cream a little

We have all been looking forward to drinking sweet-water, the water from a local spring that flows across rocks and under the main mud road to Mentushari. it was a hard sweaty hot walk up to where it comes out but well worth it to drink our fill of spring water. We filled some bottles too to take home. A lovely outing.
In Huancayo you should never drink the tap water un boiled, but here in Mentushari we have two separate supplies that are both excellent and this spring that is the best of all. Water rates in the village are 1 sol per month or about 3 pounds per year! Perks of the Rain Forest I guess.

Here is Michael muddying up the spring water with his trainers, after dipping his hot head in the flow,

Michael has been looking forward to going out to the Chakra, the plantations. He really wanted to see coffee plantations, but first it was time to go to pick Yukka. I am pretty sure this is the decorative plant people have in their houses in England but it is a really vegetable crop here. The big fat roots of the plant are cut up and boiled or fried and are a tasty staple of the diet. You can also make a mildly alcoholic drink from it called Masato which is truly vile, and should never be tried, ever.

Stomping around the field trying to keep up with Florentino was hard work for Alvaro, Michael, our friend Diego and me, but we just about managed and Papi Florentino pointed out the Yuccas ready to pull up. There was a technique involving wiggling the plants to find where the roots lay and digging a bit by hand before yanking it all out. It turned out to be great fun and Michael was proud of his first pulled Yukka plant. We got a sack full and took them home to eat.

Here's Michael with a machete in one hand and a yucca in the other. He was also so very hot that the sun cream was dripping down his face with his sweat. He did not even once complain, ti was all a great laugh.

We also picked some bananas to ripen at home from a sole banana plant in the yucca chakra.


Back home the guinea pig we brought with us from Huancayo seems to have settled in just fine. it lives with about 6 others in a play pen next to the wood fire in the kitchen. The play pen thing is not at all escape proof and there are often guinea pigs running around the kitchen. They could easily get outside and run away, but they don't.
Here is a sneak view inside there home

On the way up to the coffee chakra we stopped by a banana field for this picture of Michael with bananas and cotton above him. I don't think much cotton is grown here but there is some in this field.

And so at last to the coffee fields, here is a selection of beans laid out to dry in the sun with Mami Noemi and machete in the background

Michael with a hand full of younger drying beans

and Papi Florentino's break time, we had gone to take him his midday meal and we sat for ages eating, chewing coca and chatting. We picked some orange looking fruit from the tree in the chakra and had fun eating it. I say orange looking because they are in fact lemons. You can't trust appearances of fruit here. So very sharp, only Michael managed to eat a whole one.

And then on to the sweetest sweet of all, the sugar cane. Again it seemed not a sugar cane plantation, just a random plant there that Papi Florentino cut up for us with the ever useful machete. We chewed it up and spat out the pieces, it was tremendous. I love it.
Then Michael posed with a coffee plant picking some berries and we harvested a large tree with lemon looking fruits on it. I say lemon looking because these are very sweet and not at all sharp. They have a taste closest to grapefruit to my mouth and I don't know if they are oranges, lemons or what. You can't trust appearances !

Back home we found a tiny lizard in the bed!