June 10 - Getting Ready for Courses and Biochar

We started off the day by holding a team meeting for the biochar project to reconfirm our goals and establish a schedule now that we are here.  Main team members are Jesus and Abiola, but others have said they will help out.  Our main goal is to create sufficient biochar to create several plots of land, each one small and with varying amounts of biochar and nutrients.  This will be a test plot so that the residents can see the difference in crops with and without biochar and with and without a biochar/nutrient mixture.  We are leaning heavily on the book "The Biochar Revolution" by Paul Taylor.  It is extremely useful and practical for helping small farmers and was recommended by Ryan Delaney of Carbon Roots, International, a non-profit working in Haiti.  Ryan is an ASU MS graduate in Sustainability.

A second goal is to teach the community how to prepare and use biochar so that they can be self-sufficient and possibly create a small business helping other farmers.  We are looking forward to tomorrow when we get to see the community and the plot of land they are making available to us to use for our test plots.

We need a 55-gallon drum with a sealing lid and to cut a chimney hole in the top, create a flat steel lid for the hole and make a chimney.  The system we used at ASU is our model and shown in the picture below.  This system is not necessarily the best way to make biochar, but it is very simple to make and use and that's what we want this first time.

We agreed on our goals and set forth to make our drum.  Edwar and Llayne, our partners in Andes Libres, helped us locate a drum by visiting a whole string of small hardware stores (maybe 150 sq ft each).  We did locate several drums but it appeared that all drums in Peru have sealed welded lids, mostly for petroleum products.  So, we needed to modify the drum.  We searched farther and found a steel construction company who had a drum available and agreed to create a removable and sealable lid for it, cut the chimney hole and create a flat lid to seal the chimney hole during the cooling cycle.  They charged us S/200 (that's 200 nuevo soles = $80) and promised to be finished by 5PM today.  In the meantime we needed to buy other supplies to add vent holes in the bottom, string to layout the plots, extra work gloves, wire and wire cutters to "sew" the chimney into a cylinder and some other stuff.  Strangely, or not, we found a Maestro store which is a clone of Home Depot (see photos) even down to the orange buckets (well, these were red, but identical otherwise).

 

So, by 6:00 we had everything we needed.  In the meantime, this was the first night of the courses.  Gerry Poleski taught 2 2-hour courses each night:  Market Analysis and Human Resources the first week and Creativity and Innovation and Project Management the second week.  We got the course going at 5:00, then Edwar and I went to pick up the drum, which was done on time. Yay!  The rest of the team was attending the course.

Tomorrow we get to see the Community and start to work on their buy-in of the biochar.

June 9 - Tooling around Cusco

 
We had originally planned to visit the community where we are introducing biochar on Monday (June 10) but that has been moved to Tuesday because they have a community council meeting.  So we have another day to prepare for the community and, since this is really our first day in Cusco, we spent the day at the town Plaza de Armas at the center of the town.  It is surrounded by two large churches and covered sidewalks with plenty of restaurants and souvenir shops with people also selling their wares in the crowds.  When we arrived a parade was happening so watched for awhile (see photo).  Beautiful costumes, dancing, music.  And there was a judging station on the church steps.  Reminded me a bit of drum corps.

We were (not) surprised to find a Starbucks, McDonalds and KFC, all on this square, although well camouflaged.  I feel like I need to apologize for bringing expensive coffee, fast food and greasy chicken to the rest of the world. 

We spent the afternoon buying souvenirs for gifts back home and really having a nice time together.  We did get a taxi back to our lodging by evening.  What a beautiful city.  Lots of taxis and they drive the streets, including residential streets just occasionally tapping their horn to let people know they are there.  I think the majority of people may not own cars because traffic is really not that awful even though the streets, especially in the old part of the city, are very narrow. 

The evenings do get cold at 11,500 feet altitude and since the houses are not heated, I'm not sure what people do in the evening but sit around bundled up.  That's sort of what we did.  We have a very nice place to stay that is very cheap and within a block of Andes Libres, our partner in Cusco.  We have two bedrooms, kitchen, living room and entry way and two bathrooms and we share the whole thing with Nila Salas, the owner.  She is extremely nice, fixing nice breakfasts for us and she even brought me special Peru herb tea when I wasn't feeling well.  But, it is cold:  35-65 temperature range.  Since the house is not heated, of course the bathroom is not heated and waking up and taking a hot shower in a cold room can be exciting.  After the shower when I open the shower curtain, steam rolls out and I can see my breath.  It must be in the 50s in the bathroom.  It wakes you up!   Being from hot Arizona, I can tell that I can't take cold like I used to.

June 8 - Amazing Machu Picchu

We arose at 4:30 to have breakfast at 5 and catch the 6:00 bus to get there before the crowds and it worked really well.  The bus ride is up a switch-back road for about 20 minutes that leaves you off outside the main entrance gate.  We had our tickets already because they limit it to 2500 tourists a day.  I had read in the guidebook about how to get to the viewpoint that you see in all of the pictures of Machu Picchu so we headed up that path and came out on a trail with Machu Picchu spread below us.  It was a goosebump experience since I have seen pictures and heard about this for years and years.  It on a lot of peoples' bucket lists.  The place is huge and obviously all of the Incas were in great shape because it is all stairs up and down to various levels.  They did terraced gardening and used every square inch of space on the mountain.  As you look out, the left side is all royalty dwellings, the right side is all the workers and the middle is the agriculture.  The houses are missing their thatched roofs so you can see in very well that some were two story.  The Incas made good use of land.  Here are some pictures.

June 7 - Travel to Machu Picchu

We left on June 7 by a reserved van to the Sacred Valley at Ollantaytambo where we caught the Peruvian train to Aquas Calientes, the doorway to Machu Picchu.  The trip was all downhill to about 9000 ft which was designed to help us acclimate to the altitude and it seemed to work.  We had a great evening walking the streets.  The Hotel Imperico was just fine.  The weather was a bit warmer than Cusco.  We walked to get bus tickets for the morning trip to Machu Picchu.  Gerry an I elected to have beer at a local restaurant while the others went to the hot springs.  We ate at a restaurant that served Peruvian food.  This is a real tourist town and all restaurants have someone outside to convince you to come in and eat.  The guy at our restaurant had a monkey named Ricardo on his neck so I guess that strategy of his worked because we ate there.  He also offered free Pisco Sours and free nachos with amazing guacamole.  I had alpaca and it tasted like steak, but was a bit whiter.  It was marinated in some pretty strong alcohol (Everclear comes to mind) and I think it was supposed to be flambe, but they forgot to light it.  It was still good.  Served with potatoes (did I say that Peru grows 3000 varieties of potatoes?)  Back to hotel to sleep for a very early morning the next day.

June 6 - Arrival in Cusco

For 7 people I think we had 4 different flights to Cusco from Lima.  Abiola and I left at 5:25 AM, flew to Cusco, tried to land and were diverted back to Lima because of low visibility.  Gerry, Meredith and Stephanie were diverted to Arequipa, Peru.  Erin and Jesus were on different flights, yet but didn't have to divert, so we all got to Cusco by 5:00 PM.  It was great to see Edwar at the airport.  He met us all individually and took us to Andes Libres headquarters.  Our first joint experience was to visit a grocery on the way to our accommodations where we stocked up on water bottles, cereal, juice, coca candy for altitude acclimatization and, of course, chips.  Three of us went to the home of Senora Salis, who is a wonderful host for us.  The others went to an apartment in a high rise building with four bedrooms, kitchen, living room and small kitchen.  We went to Neley's restaurant down the street for dinner.   The food was good.  The specialty in Peru is Pollo de la Brasas.   Feeling good about the trip now that everyone is here.

June 5, 3013

June 5 was filled with highs and a bit of stress that all came out just fine in the end.  I left Phoenix at 10AM to Houston on an uneventful flight (after going first to the wrong terminal at Sky Harbor and having to drive to the United terminal - I guess I should have taken that as omen of the day).  We were all traveling separately and meeting at the food court in Lima, Peru airport.  I was first to arrive at 10PM.  Gerry and Stephanie arrived around 12:30 and it sure was nice to see them.  Abiola arrive soon after so we have four of us plus Tom, a retired serious traveler who has visited over 100 countries and was going to Machu Picchu.  Meredith and Erin were supposed to arrive between midnight and 1:00 but we never did see them before taking off for Cusco early in the morning.   Jesus' airline had changed his flight so he would miss his Cusco flight so he was to arrive around 6AM and fly to Cusco at 10.  Erin and Meredith and Jesus are all smart seasoned travelers so it all worked out.  Erin was at the gate for the next flight after not being able to find us in the food court and Meredith had a reservation at a youth hostel and went to get a few hours of sleep before flying to Cusco.  None of us had working cell phones so I bought one for about $40 including 120 minutes of international calling. Erin rented a cell phone so at least two of us had ways to communicate both with each other and with Edwar, our host at Andes Libres.

We all arrived at Andes Libres by 5:00 PM on June 6 and started our in-country adventure.

Last Minute Preparations

We all leave tomorrow on different flights from different places (Phoenix, San Francisco, San Antonio) and have been getting ready by reading up on Peru and contributing to a Google Doc about Peruvian history, medicine and healthcare, agriculture, family life and other topics that we will share before and during our trip.  The plan is that each night, if we have energy, we will talk about the day, about our high points and concerns and plans for the next few days.  We are very grateful to Edwar Escalante, Executive Director of Andes Libres (http://www.andeslibres.com/), who is coordinating our visit and local travel.  What a fantastic help he has been in getting us ready to go. The planned itinerary for the first few days is as follows:

June 6, Thursday
Arrive in Cusco, bus and train to Machu Picchu arriving by mid-afternoon.  Take a non-strenuous walk to the ruins since we will be at 9,000 ft altitude and probably be huffing and puffing.  Stay the night in Aguas Calientes close to Machu Picchu.  Hopefully acclimatize to the altitude.

June 7, Friday
Arise very early to see sunrise (hopefully no clouds) over Machu Picchu.  Explore the site. Lunch close by.  Catch train and bus back to Cusco late afternoon.  Go back up to 11,500 ft altitude.   Dinner, debrief and bed.

June 8 and 9, Saturday and Sunday
Take it easy getting used to altitude. Explore Cusco.

June 10, Monday
Travel to the farm to start teaching and making biochar for the fields.  The farmers have been collecting agricultural waste for us.  Gerry Polesky will teach two classes in the evening this week:  Human Resource Management and Market Opportunity Analysis.

After that, as far as biochar, we play it by ear over the next week or two to do the best job we can in communicating biochar practice to the local farmers and demonstrating how to improve crop productivity.  It will be interesting to see how close the above itinerary is to what we actually do.  Plans can change and a sense of adventure and flexibility are always good things when traveling in the developing world.