New Businesses that want to Bloom

Last week I went out with our new village bank officer, Elizabeth to visit 2 groups of women that are in the processing of forming a village bank. I want to give you a little taste of what some of the possible future businesses forming new village banks look like:

One woman sells beauty products door to door out of a catalog.
Another woman milks cows and sells the milk, while also raising other small animals for sale at the market.
A third woman sells skewers of chicken feet in the afternoons in front of her house.

This week has been exciting, but not in a photo kinda way. I am setting up the new Hope House and my office, our central hub for educational and business activities for the loan recipients of village banks. The space is shared with a small group of nuns that have been doing amazing community service for years. And, it is beautiful. Computer room, sewing machine room, an oven...we are really fortunate to have created an alliance with the Sisters. This coming Monday my Director Maggie is coming to town for a week, so get ready for some jam-packed blogs! Til then.

DHF 2010 start!

Yes, DiscoverHope Fund work has started and it feels good to have purpose again. I loved traveling, but the role of tourist is a little unfulfilling after awhile. Carnaval came and went, crazy water and paint fights that keep normal folks from doing normal things. Hugo and I skipped the last big parade to chill and clean at home. There wasn't a noise in the whole neighborhood, as everyone headed to the parade - complete peace! As soon as Carnaval ended I went out with our new village bank promotora, Elizabeth, to visit possible new village banks. It felt great to be out in the field again, like coming home. Granted, we are forming new banks with new women this year, but the common thread of poverty and hope are evident among the women we talked to. DHF Hope House is coming alive as boxes and sewing machines were taken out of storage this week and have made their way to their new home.

Stay tuned as things unravel and transform in the next week or two!

Magnolia

Meet Magnolia - our pitbull. She is very playful, but has a mean bite. Sexy is a great dog, but Magnolia is a nice compliment to the house. They are good playmates and guard dogs. They both come running when Hugo and I come home - there they are with their tags wagging side by side at the gate. For not being a dog person, it is nice.

Hugo and I haven't been so much into carnaval since our return, but we did paint our faces yesterday and dance in the rain in the street today.

Home Sweet Home

Our last honeymoon stop was the Candelaria fest in Puno....enjoy the colorful pics....





Back in Cajamarca. No more looking for a bed, where to eat, carrying the big backpack, or wearing dirty socks. Aw, the comfort of home.

Our backpacking honeymoon was eye-opening, adventurous and anything but a relaxing trip. None the less, I feel re-energized and happy to be home after amazing experiences and traveling the long, bumpy mountain roads of southern Peru and Bolivia.

Our last day was spent in Puno for the big Candelaria festivities. It was colorful, musical and fun. Costumes with all the colors of the rainbow and devils dancing in the street with girls in short skirts. We didn't do as much dancing in the street as I was expecting, but that leaves more energy for this weekend - Carnaval in Cajamarca! I was pleasantly surprised to find out the carnaval activities will end this coming Monday, that means less time to get wet by water balloons and more time to get back into the groove of daily life and work. I was dreading a full month of water balloon dodging.

We came home to more flowers in our front lawn and a big pitbull, Magnolia, our new watchdog. Magnolia makes a good pair to Sexy, they run back and forth in front of our house barking at anything that moves. The inside of our house was a bit of a disaster when we came home, dry flowers, presents and other remains of a lovely time with family during the wedding. We didn't waste time and started cleaning immediately. With little time we will be back in the groove.

Thanks for traveling with us and staying up on the blog with the few postings I could manage this past month.

Paz ~ Nora

Cusco, Peru

After more than 2 years in Peru, I finally made it to Cusco! Despite what the news has shared with you about the flooding, Cusco has remained unaffected by the flooding - it is the surrounding small towns that have felt the brutal affects of mother nature. Macchu Picchu has been closed for the past week, and will continue to be closed for the next 2 weeks - 2 months, depending on when they can get the train tracks back in line. Talk about bad timing for us to make Macchu Pichu the last big bang on our trip. Well, a good excuse to come back to Cusco.

So we have been exploring the town, which is almost void of tourists, and gives us the advantage to bargain big when it comes to hotels. We are staying in a really, really nice colonial hotel on the main plaza which usually costs $65, but for us, $20. We have been able to visit some amazing ruins around town and in the Sacred Valley. Although there is this huge sense of guilt when you travel for tourism to disaster stricken places. On the tour bus we passed by the Urubamba river where houses were completely destroyed and families were shoveling out the remains of their houses. It was really heart breaking. One of the bridges in the valley was also destroyed, so we saw part of the sacred valley and only some of the ruins. Pisac and Ollantaytambo were the highlights. In fact we liked Ollanta so much, we stayed a night and got lucky the next day. We headed to a very authentic Quecha festival up in the mountains ( a nice 2 hour hike) and witnessed a sea of red ponchos and amazing color and movement. A festival that happens once a year and we happened to be there. It was like we were in a documentary film about this colorful Quecha community. Sometimes we get lucky.

Believe it or not we are ending our trip in Puno (yes, for the third time. WE LOVE PUNO). We want to get our last taste of the big bang that is the Candelaria before we fly into Cajamarca on Monday.

Back in Puno - Candelaria!!!!

SO I realized I left off with the post that we were going to bike down the most dangerous road in the world (aka death road) and then I never wrote again. Do not fear, we survived with sweat and smiles. It was an amazing bike ride from 4,000 meters down to 1,800 meters, practically jungle. Breathtaking scenery, although it was hard to appreciate as we were trying to not fall of the cliffs that marked the entire ride. The death road is no longer used for public transport as there were so many fatal accidents on the road. A new highway was built on the other side of the mountains, and that is the road we took back to La Paz.

From La Paz we headed to Tiahuanuco, pre-Inca ruins near the Peruvian border, said to have been the centre of the universe due to the strategic location of many of the carved rocks that create perfect harmony during the solistice. We actually got stuck in this town because we found out too late that the border crossing closes early on Friday. The next morning it was a challenge getting to the Peruvian border due to heavy rains and overcrowded minibuses with old women going to the market. We were wet and tired at 9 am when we had to stand in line for an hour in the migration office on the Peruvian border.
In Puno we felt like we were coming home, although we still have a week of vacation. We visited the floating Uros island and had the bad luck of being stuck on a tourist boat that didn´t take us to visit an authentic island. None the less, it was a cool experience weaving throughout reed islands that form a unique community.
One of the highlights for us during our honeymoon was the start of the Candelaria celebration yesterday. (Candelaria is the Virgen Saint for Puno) Puno is known for being the follore capital of Peru and yesterday I understood why. Hugo and headed to the city stadium to join the locals in witnessing the day long (7am-7pm) dance and typical dress contest. Dancers from small towns around Puno came to proudly display their typical dress, song, music, dance. I was stuck inbetween joyous, sweaty, and amazed all day long. Some of the most colorful, detailed, bright, playful traditional dress I have ever seen. We got lucky mid-morning because a guard saw me taking pictures and said, ¨you´re not from Puno? why don´t you get closer so that you can take better pictures?¨ So Hugo and I got VIP front row seats right where all the dancers were coming in and out of the dance floor. If I was a better photographer I probably would have got some national geographic shots.

The official competition ended in the stadium, but the dancing and music continued in the street. I danced with some of the women from Juliaca in the street while Hugo shared a beer with the musicians that had feather hats. We fell in love with Puno yesterday. When I awoke this morning at 4am, I could still hear one of the bands playing down below in the plaza!