1 month & anniversary of Ollanta

This past Sunday marked our one month here in Ollanta. "I can't believe you've been here for that long!" say all my coworkers. Some say, "I feel like you've been here forever!" Time truly flies.

A few days ago, Ollanta is celebrating its town anniversary with parades of all kinds, frutellada, a fermented fruit drink that is super delicious, and, of course, churros para chuparse los dedos (super delicious). In Adam's words, "There were better than I thought they would be."

We found some new restaurants in town that have some amazing pizza and great organic greens.

We have been doing a lot lately! One of the main things we have done is move into our new house on Lari Calle just a 2 minute walk from Brooke's work and a few blocks from our host family's house. I loved that I could move my stuff by hand just a few blocks. We both agree it is the easiest move we have ever done.

Some interesting things have occurred so far. We saw a scorpion in our home that was about 5 inches long. I have never seen one that was not in a zoo or in a pog. Our host mom said that a scorpion that big is sure to have kids around somewhere. The Peruvian nurse said to smoke a cigarette in our room so the scorpions come out because they are scared of smoke. 

This past weekend, we went to the hot springs in Lares, which took us about 3.5 hours to get to through amazing mountains. I think the highest point was 4600 meters on the trip. Our host dad gave us the advice to chew just 2 coca leaves on the way up, and that we did. We had no issues.

Another fun thing we have done was go to the town's anniversary, which is basically when the whole town dances to the traditional Peruvian "shuffle music" as I call it, or Huayno as they call it here.

Brooke is officially taking over the 3 communities of Huilloc, Yanamayo, and Piscacucho as her predecessor, Elly, left yesterday.

Adam continues to use our host family's fixed phone to make some calls and is finding success.

This weekend, we plan to go to Cusco, Pisac, and Qoya, the town Brooke stayed in before.

This Sunday, Brooke goes to her furthest community of Yanamayo and will enjoy some time working with her health promoter, Matilde.

Lots of good pictures below and more to come soon, friends!

See the blog Brooke wrote for SVH here focusing more on her health care work in Perú: http://sacredvalleyhealth.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/trucha-torta-and-training/

Much love,
Brooke & Adam

Guy in the parade

Recycling car

Float with a fire on it

Traditional costumes

Float with a chicken (?) and corn

On our trip to Lares

Adam and Darragh, Brooke's co-worker from Ireland who is in charge of media for Sacred Valley Health

Brooke's first time teaching with the Peruvian nurse, Leticia, on obesity and diabetes

"Adam", our dummy, helping us review CPR with the health promoters

Brooke doing education with a health promoter, Berta, from a community called Soccma

Sarah did such excellent job on Heimlich training that she had some true-to-life, interesting experiences when she tested the health promoters on their skills

Darragh taking care of a girl at one of our trainings offering "Darragh daycare"

Churros in the town plaza :)

No shortage of candy for those times when you want it

Town plaza in Ollantaytambo

People watching the parade

Adam trying frutellada for the first time, a fermented fruit drink

People in the parade

Women in the parade

Adam walking to the fruit truck

Getting ready for the parades

Children getting in line for the parade

Adam waiting to march with Sacred Valley Health

Waiting for our spot in line

Neon and traditional garb

Traditional dress

Sacred Valley rainbow slide

Adam doing yoga in Pisac

At the Albergue restaurant doing a Pachamanka lunch

Ready to bury vegetables and herbs under the Earth with hot rocks

The house of one of Brooke's health promoters in Huilloc

Pigs in my health promoter's backyard in Huilloc

On a hike in Lares (you can see all of the hot spring pools below!)

Group picture for the Sacred Valley Health retreat in front of the Lares sign

From Toilet to Triumph

SO- the adventures continue down in Peru:

Brooke woke up at 3 AM having some GI issues on Wednesday morning and visited the local health post. After an interesting experience at the very Peruvian health center, she got some medicine and fluid and quickly made a full recovery. Our host mom is very careful with our food and Adam didn't get sick at all, so we deduced that it may likely have been the chicha, or fermented corn drink, that Brooke had in the mountainside a day previously offered by an older woman in Soccma. It's really hard to say no to offers of traditional things, but even harder to not feel so hot.

We have just two weeks left with our lovely host family and we started the search for our new, permanent home earlier this week. Brooke's coworkers, Ayo and Sarah, found a house in Ollantaytambo close to the town square and had an extra room with a full bed in place! We took a tour and fell in love with the house and we are due to move in after we have finished our time with the host family near the end of the month. [Picture below!]

We found out that this home was used previously as a yoga studio and it makes sense because we have a large living room! 

On Friday, Brooke went shopping in Urubamba, a town about 30 minutes drive from Ollanta, and bought some furniture such as a work desk for Adam, some stands on which to put our clothes, sheets, and two new pillows. 

This past weekend, we went to a market called the Baratillo in Cusco that was absolutely insane. There were several streets lined with people selling everything from shoes and clothes to fresh juice and food. We got a big plate of noodles and veggies for 2.50 soles (dirt cheap!). That's less than $1.

We also were lucky enough to walk away with a pot, pan, lightbulb, powercord, two blankets, a rug, bowls, utensils, plates, and what appears to be a handwoven brightly colored mat for under $100.

Later on last night we had a date night complete with Indian food from Korma Sutra (nice name, huh?) in the San Blas community of Cusco. Afterwards, we walked around the downtown plaza, and Brooke remembered this local watering hole called Inkakara where they serve a very unique fermented beverage that is made with 20 different kinds of local herbs. We got a bottle, but there was no room in this small pub to have a drink, so we walked back to the plaza and grabbed a seat on a bench. So, we went to the town square to hang out and drink and were met by a very drunken Peruvian guitar player. He got VERY close to us, falling into us while asking Brooke for kisses. It was extremely hilarious and fairly obnoxious. He wouldn’t leave us alone, and we ended up taking off.

Woke up yesterday morning, went to San Pedro market to get some foods and juice. Adam's favorite juice is: pepino y sábila más zanahoria which is cucumber and aloe vera + carrot. Bought Maca + bee pollen + chia seeds to add to it to make it a superfood juice.

Made it back to Ollantaytambo Sunday afternoon and started moving our stuff into our new place. Delicious lunch at the Albergue and afterwards Adam went on a long hike up the valley with new roomie Sarah. Hiked along the river up to ancient ruins where there were steep steps straight up the side of the mountain. Gorgeous view at the top and a great workout.

Tried our first pizza place in town and although it was no Giordanos, they made a pretty decent pie, and we were happy. 

¡Horray!

Breakfast in the house kitchen

Brooke helping to administer pre and post tests to the promoters to see how much they have learned

Brooke helped teach CPR & Heimlich this Friday and reviewed first aid for bites, wounds, burns, and fractures

Cevichearama with quinoa soup

Our host brother, Conrado, eating some very welcomed salad with the tongs Mrs. Lori Fohrman so kindly gave us for our host family

San Pedro market music this weekend

And the laundry starts!

Our guinea pigs

Another hello from the goat down the street

Adam in a traditional hat that cracked up the neighbors and the host family.

Brooke & our host sister, Gabriela

Musician in the town square in Cusco missing 2 guitar strings

Our new home in 2 weeks complete with 2 cacti. Photo credit: Sarah!

First week in Perú: ¡Great Success!

Hello again, dear readers.

Our first week in Ollanta was amazing. Adam is continuing to work remotely and is set up with an internet stick and a variety of different calling options of varying reliability. Adam still can't believe that he can operate business in the middle of this enormous and remote valley.

We are both enjoying going on hikes and the beautiful scenery (see below!) We just bought a book today about many of the hikes available in the area and we look forward to taking advantage of all that this area has to offer.

This past weekend, we went to the nearest large town called Urubamba in search of a clinic. Brooke has some sort of "sinusitis" going on and was told it would go away within a few days, which it did. "Es por el cambio de clima" or "because of the change of climate", said the doctor, and the cure was coca tea and wrapping myself up in warm clothes. Also, I was advised not to leave the window open. I love it.

We also went to Urubamba in search of this "ecoferia" that we saw an ad for. We found it in the central plaza and met many people of like mind there. Lots of organic food, nuts, and live music. We enjoyed some fresh juice at the market with our juice maker Teresa, and barely made it back before dark. 
We ventured up to the top of Pinkuylluna (free ruins near us) to find a cave and went on a hike down the local river. Rumor has it that there is a basket you can pull yourself across if you go down far enough, but we didn't find it on our first try.

Our host mom made us veggie burgers from scratch tonight and we laughed as the host family ate lettuce they had never seen before. They also tried cashews for the first time the other day. "Are they peanuts?" asked my host sister? "Nope. Just try them"  I said. They were all gone when Brooke got home.

Brooke starts Quechua lessons next week and Adam is making some new friends in town. 6 am workout session ignite! 
¡Hasta pronto!

Our neighbors-the friendly boars. They aren't so friendly and kind of smelly.

View from our favorite morning hike. You can see our home by the flag on the right of the picture (kind of by the ruins)

View from our porch

Photo taken in Camino del Inka-our host family's restaurant

All of the streets have water flowing through them! It's like walking next to a perpetual waterfall.

Start of the hike!

Eucalyptus tree?

Host family decorations-these bulls are generally on top of houses to bring luck to the family

Our kitchen