Site Visit

I visited my site, Huallanca, for the first time, but I'm back in Lima now for my last week of training. After that I'll move to Huallanca for good. I had already visited Ancash (the department, or state as we'd say in the US, where my site is located) a couple weeks ago for Field-Based Training (see last blog post for more on that). So for my site visit we started by returning to Huaraz, the capital of Ancash. I'll probably be visiting Huaraz a couple times a month over the next couple years because the bank the Peace Corps uses doesn't have a branch in Huallanca.

We climbed a hill outside of Huaraz to get a look at the city...

After making sure I was thoroughly sun burned I walked back down to Huaraz.

Once we'd spent a couple days in Huaraz, Kendra (another Peace Corps volunteer who will be my site mate for the next two years) and I headed down to visit our site in Huallanca. It's a 3 ½ hour bus ride from Huaraz.

After we got to Huallanca I was being lazy and didn't take very many pictures, but I'll have a couple years to post some good ones so ya'll will just have to be patient ;-)

Here's Kendra. Not sure what she was doing...probably looking for ice cream. We found some eventually and it was awesome.

As you can see in the background of that picture there are a few mountains around Huallanca. If you noticed, though, it looks quite different from Huaraz. There are two halves to the Andes in Peru. The Cordillera Blanca (“The White Mountain Range” or snow capped mountains) and the Cordillera Negra (“The Black Mountain Range” or non-snow capped mountains). The two Cordilleras run parallel to each other north to south through Peru. The Cordillera Blanca is very visible from Huaraz (if you check out the background in that first picture or the pictures from my previous blog post), but Huallanca is located in the Cordillera Negra, so its a little less scenic. Huallanca does have a higher elevation, though, about 3,500 meters (translates roughly to 11,500 feet). Because of the elevation its pretty cold in the shade, but the sun is scalding hot. That means wearing clothes that can be layered and changed depending on if you're in the sun or not, haha.

The economy of Huallanca is based mainly on a nearby mine and additionally on agriculture. The altitude is too high to grow much more than potatoes, but pastoralism is pretty common...cows, goats, sheep, pigs. In fact, Kendra lives across the street from the slaughter house. It gives her a nice view from her bedroom window. Her host sister mentioned that there are always lots of flies around her house because of the slaughter house. Good luck, Kendra! ;-)

This farmer was transporting his livestock by hand when Kendra and I met him in the street.

Well, before I wrap up this blog post, one last note. To all of you who had been hoping to get a postcard or guinea pig in the mail, I haven't forgotten you. Unfortunately Serpost, the Peruvian postal service, has not been cooperating...

Props to them on knowing enough English to make their sign understandable. I'm not going to hate on their English grammar because I butcher the grammar in their language on a daily basis. Chau!