The First Weekend

ProPeru has many positives as an NGO: the people working with it, the wide array of projects from which to choose and free internet access (from which I am writing this post). But, my favorite perk by far, are the weekend trips which ProPeru arranges for its volunteers. Last weekend we went on one such trip.

Lares is a small town about 3 hours from Urubamba. To get there, like to get to most towns in the Sacred Valley, you must drive precariously close to the sides of multiple mountains, over mountains and next to packs of llamas grazing and giving you confused looks. The main attraction of Lares, aside from the beautiful ride there, are it's hot springs. And what's really nice about them is that they're not just a touristy thing. Saturday baths in the hot springs are something of a local tradition, with whole families gathering, bathing, eating a picnic and maybe taking a hike. Some people even come to the springs to just hang out, and don't even bother to get into the pools. But of course, I'm not one of those people.

We hung out in various levels of really hot to cold water, which was a good way to relax after our first week of work and stress in a new country. After, we took a walk into the town of Lares and had a two course meal for the equivalent of one dollar.

Sunday we went on a once-a-month mini-project in a town about an hour away where ProPeru has a history of construction projects. We were told that we would be helping build a kitchen for a school. However, what we weren't told was that there was absolutely nothing done in preparation. So we spent our morning and early afternoon using pick-axes (!) to knock down adobe walls that were in the way and pull up the grass and roots that were where the foundation needed to go. We dug some ditches and moved rocks from the near-by river to make up parts of the foundation as well. Although moving the rocks was extremely hard, I think it's a great tactic: the rocks will be used to make parts of the foundation, so that the village can save money on concrete. Talk about sustainable design - using rocks from a river so that you don't need to use other materials!

The work was absolutely back breaking (and, in my clumsy case, hurtful in other ways as well). I spent a good part of my time knocking down walls, which was a great way to get out aggression (unfortunately, I didn't have enough to keep my stamina up throughout the whole project), but I spent the majority of the time bent over a pickax ripping up vegetation. I'm proud to say I only hit myself in the legs with the ax twice, and both times were thankfully lacking force. By lunch time, I was spent.

Lunch itself was wonderful. Some local women had cooked three huge bowls of potatoes and brought out huge slices of what's known as Andean (or local) cheese. All of this for just 12 volunteers. Apparently it's a typical lunch, and it was exactly what we all wanted at that point. After lunch we worked for another hour and then drove back to Urubamba to sleep.

Looking at the weekend, I think we should have done it in reverse: the mini-project and then Lares. The burning water would have done good things to my muscles. As it is, I was only sore for a week or so afterwards.