I just arrived the "house on top of mountain", in other words, German Perez's other house. The time is 8 o'clock sharp and the air is silent. I am being kept company by one of German's relatives (I later found out her name was Sofia, German's younger sister) and her three young daughters. It is cold up here, but the mud insulated rock house and cow dung fed fire are enough to keep us warm until the morning sun rises high about the mountains.
There is a frost blanket over the maca fields right now. The fields are small and sprawled across the curves of the mountainous terrain. It is very unlike the farming practices in the USA, but there are also no mountains like these in the USA.
The field below belongs to German Perez and field above belongs to another community member.
The mom and her daughters keep quiet as I write, the daughters only uttering sweet nothings to their loving mother when needed reminders of her presence. I am waiting for German to return with two of his daughters, Maritza and Carolina. Elizabeth and her mom will make the journey by foot with the donkeys.
After sitting a while in the small stone house I was given a bowl full of warm chuno soup, and the soup took away the coldness that was left in the morning air. I think I will do some walking around.
This was the only entry I put in my journal for the 4 days and three nights that I spent high above Totorani; although it won't be hard to rehash the details of my time in the high Andes.
The first day I arrived in the Maca fields I only thought we were going to stay one night, but after harvesting maca all day, I knew the time was going to be longer. The process is very slow, and even slower if the maca is smaller. We used small pointed hoes to lift the first 5 inches of top soil, and then the maca is loosened from the surrounding soil creating enough space between the earth and the maca making it easier to extract. German's wife used her hands to extract the maca, but I thought using a hoe was easier. I was harvesting the maca on my feet until my back started to hurt; I eventually transitioned to working on my knees. The process can be tedious depending on the size of the maca root, there could be 40 little maca roots within a square foot of land. Every little maca roots contributes to the overall weight, so we harvest all traces of maca.
We worked in the west part of the field in the morning because the soil on the east part of the field wasn't thawed until 11 am. Then we eventually moved to the east part of the field in the afternoon to make the line of harvest horizontal as we moved up the field.
We ate Pampaku for the majority of the meals, but it only contained potato. Pampaku is a method of cooking using wood burned fire to eat stones, then covering the hot stones and food with soil and letting it cook for an hour or so. The combination of dirt and peeling dirty potatoes results in the creation of this extremely sticky black substance. There is no sink or close water source to wash your hands.
The first two days we ate and worked within the clouds that surrounded the mountains, but it was only cold when you are not moving.The sun starts to set around 5:30-6, and I remembered to take a photo of a beautiful sunset, that can almost be compared to those I have witnessed in Kansas.
We make the trek back to German's Small Stone House during the making of this masterpiece that can only be seen well above Totorani. His house lies about a mile from his field, and we used the newly constructed road as our trail back to the house. This part of the year is the dry season, so any soil that isn't reinforced by grass turns into powder.
The morning is generally the coldest part of the day, but waking up high in the mountains also has advantages. Every morning I was able to see sun slowly rise from outside the door from the laying position within the house; it was truly spectacular.
Other than maca, they also produce potato, which was originally all they produced before maca was introduced into the area. Maca was introduced for obvious reasons - to increase the variety of crops that are planted to prevent the dependence upon a single crop (this reason brings to mind the Great Potato Famine in Ireland in the years of 1845-1852), to increase the income of the local farmers, maca can be planted along with other crops to prevent disease, and maca is a good supplement in the diets of the locals, etc.
Most of the potato grown in the high fields is turned into chuno. Producing chuno is the process of freeze drying/dehydration of a plant, mainly tubers. In Totorani, they mainly turn oca (a type of tuber) and a variety of potato called Waych'a. They lay the potato or oca out on a layer of paja, and the process usually takes a week and half depending on the temperatures and humidity. This is one of many things you can see as you walk along the road high up in the Andes along with herds of llamas and flocks of sheep.
The last night we stayed in the mountains was more interesting than the others. German went back to Totorani, leaving his wife to watch over the children...and me. Maritza decided to burn some pasture grass, which burns hot and fast when it is dry. At one point, the burning got a little out of hand, so I had to step in and help. I think the craziness of the night is a consequence of the full moon and clear skies that provided an atmosphere perfect for little mischievous acts.
The following Sunday we washed the maca in the river, and then laid it out to dry.
Our giant pile of maca.
Part of the group that helped wash the maca.
These are the different varieties of maca we harvested over the week. There are varying colors and sizes, but the majority are ball shaped like the ones above. The black maca contains a higher amount of iodine than the yellow variety, and the all root maca can yield a higher amount of alcohol, which is the preferable variety for the factories that produce maca liquor and beer. I have read that eating too much yellow maca can give you a goiter, and by supplementing your diet with black maca will fix this problem.
The time I spent in the mountains with my host family was opportunity to build trust and to experience the life of the Bolivian Andinos. Although I enjoyed my time in the high Andes, I definitely enjoy living in the lower part of the mountain. I hope that God continues to bless my journey in Bolivia with new and exciting experiences that bring flavor and excitement into my life. I want to say thank you to all that read my blog, and I hope that you can vicariously experience my life through my pictures and words. I hope to post again sometime in the next two weeks about the construction of a greenhouse, and also about problems that are occurring in my project.
Below is a picture of the mini vacation I was able to enjoy this past weekend in beautiful Toro Toro, which lies 4 hours by trufi (a van that can fit up to 14 passengers) or 6 hours by bus southwest of Cochabamba. The area contains beautiful land formations, evidence of dinosaurs, friendly Bolivians, and a few good places to eat.
