Birthdays and Rapids

February 26th, 2007 Yapatera, Peru

The Pilca

Today I headed out to a little town called Yapatera with some youth from town. There are some rapids about an hour and a half from La Encantada. It was really refreshing as the water was a lot clearer and quite a bit colder than the river we normally use to swim in. We packed lunches and ate on rocks with water rushing by. I wouldn’t mind going here monthly to escape the heat.

February 25th, 2007 La Encantada, Peru

Host Dad’s Birthday

Today was my host Dad’s birthday. This morning we slaughtered a lamb, skinned, gutted and butchered it for later. It wasn’t too much different from doing the same to a deer, only smaller. We would later cook it a style called capus. This is basically cooking it a big pot in the ground. It’s tender as if it were straight out of a crock-pot.

Around 3 o’clock the extended family came. We sat around and passed the cup and the beer bottle. After this party and they one for my host grandma, I am starting to get to know my extended host family pretty well. Later the dancing began and we partied until 3am. Then we had to find places for 10 people to sleep. I pitched my tent and slept with my cousin while my other cousin and her mom slept in my bed.