They contained a wide variety of herbs and plants for medical purposes. There were plants for rashes, plants for poultices, toothaches, etc. [A drink made from this bush's flower made a well know and powerful diuretic.}Saturday, July 19
At daylight we rose and Eduardo heated up a little water that we used to wash our face and hands. No one even considered changing clothes. I brushed my teeth with a little drinking water in a cup, spit out the water in an inconspicuous spot outside around the corner of the building. That sanitary code sufficed for all.
After Eduardo served breakfast with eggs, yogurt, instant coffee, we began to visit some of the homes of Huasipamba. All were made of adobe, unplastered, with one or two rooms and dirt floors. There were no sanitary facilities in the homes. Living here was extraordinarily primitive. In some of the homes we visited their gardens were located to the side or behind their homes. They contained a wide variety of herbs and plants for medical purposes. There were plants for rashes, plants for poultices, toothaches, etc. [A drink made from this bush's flower made a well know and powerful diuretic.}
We visited the sister of Ricardo who has a small home consisting of one room a little removed from the rectangle. She lived alone in this room of about 8x8ft. On one side there was the fireplace and on the other side her bed, cooking utensils, picture of the Virgin Mary and some wood scraps for the fireplace. She said she was seventy but she looked much older. She was barefoot and poorly dressed. She had no electricity because she couldn't afford the initial installation charge. At one home, the wife was there alone and she spoke to us from out front of her home. It would have been unseemly for this lady to allow men into her home without her husband present.
We spoke to everyone we met about their family histories trying to find a lead or an opening to a possible Converso connection. There was either nothing to be learned or they were not ready to discuss such intimacies. These conversations led me back to basic questions. Why is this group of seemingly Caucasian persons living in this isolated village? Why were they living in the same manner as the indigenous? What is their history? It is obvious from their appearance they did not originate from this area. Some of the residents looked as though if they were scrubbed, their hair trimmed and if they were dressed in U.S. style clothing, they could pass as the normal residents of any city in the U.S.
Next to the schoolhouse is a church or rather a small, bare chapel. One of the ladies was making a garland of flowers at the front door of the chapel in honor of an impending visit of a priest. The priest makes a trip to the village once every six weeks or so from Pucara. We met the priest when we made the mule ride to Pucara from Huasipamba. He was a young man of 30 or 35 and we found him at the Mollepogo ruins on his way to Huasipamba.
We left Huasipamba about 9:30 a.m. with a fresh set of mules and mule drivers. Eduardo had rented the mules and the services of Jose and his cousin Maria to lead the way and prompt the mules. During the entire trip to Pucara they walked rapidly along the trail while we rode. She wore inexpensive rubber boots that came 2/3rds of the way up to her knee. Maria, who looked as if she were in her 40's would walk briskly and then suddenly jog out ahead of the mules and lead the trail. We were always travelling between 12 to 14000 ft and she walked effortlessly as if on a fast morning stroll. Sometimes we climbed a steep , rocky embankment. Sometimes we went down a rocky, stubbly decline. She was always striding ahead with amazing stamina.
Along the way we stopped at what Eduardo called the "undiscovered" Mollepogo Indian Ruins. This is the remnant of an ancient Inca ruin that is slowly being restored by a Japanese archeologist who believes this site will rival the splendor of Machupichu in Peru. At this point the ruin is mostly remnants of walls of perfectly cut stones that appear to line up with the sun at the summer solstice. Eduardo suggested that we climb a small hill to get a better view. As we went up my head was light and I was puffing as I would at the end of a 10K run. Barry said that he stayed behind me to pick up the pieces when or if I fell. At the top there was an uninterrupted 270 degree view of the mountains. When you looked downward you could not see the ground. The skies were clear and blue. The sun was bright and I was sure that night my nose would be a sunburned beacon to the world.
Coming down the hill we came upon the remains of an ancient Inca bath. A small stream fed into the carefully designed cut stone bath about 6 ft X 6ft and perhaps 7 ft. deep. There were cut stone stairs leading down to the base and the water fed into the bath through a spigot that was at one time a small fountain on one side. The water disappeared through invisible drains and seepage on the stone base. We felt this Inca bath had a striking similarity to a an ancient "mikvah".
As they say, "boys will be boys". For hours I had been angling to get my mule into first place right behind the jogging Maria. I found that Dave Wollner and Barry Reder always managed to squeeze around turns in such a way that I was pushed to the rear behind some animal that was either passing wind or delivering a bowel movement. Finally, during a left turn Dave and Barry elected the wider and better of two trail choices. I chose the shorter and narrower turn and ended up in first place. This was the ultimate, adult version of "king of the mountain". Within minutes we had another turn and Barry gave his mule a sharp kick, shouted at him and broke into a trot that forced me back into my traditional position in the line. Obviously, this position towards the rear was intended for the older, more reticent members of the group.
About 5:30 p.m. we arrived at a meeting point with our jeeps and drivers not far from the town of Pucara. When the government installed electricity during the past few years they had built some roads to transport utility poles and other supplies up the hills and this road was part of that infrastructure. We loaded supplies from the mules and boarded the jeeps while Jose and Maria turned the mules around and headed back to Huasipamba. We had been travelling since 9:30 that morning and they were heading back to Huasipamba at 5:30 p.m. What strength and vitality!
After a 15 minute drive on a dirt road we arrived at the home of Jose Pesantez who lives a few miles outside of Pucara. This was a 3 room adobe cottage where Jose lived with wife, nine children and a few grandchildren. We took over one room about 10 ft. deep and 12 ft. wide. About 2/3rds of the floor was earthen and 1/3 wood. There was a fireplace on the floor in one corner and in moments Jose lugged in a 4 burner country gas stove. Jose, Eduardo and almost everyone in the family scurried about producing remnants of tables, benches or wooden stumps to be used as seats. By comparison with residents of Huasipamba, the Pesantez family lived well.
The Pesantez family appeared physically similar to the people of Huasipamba. They were Caucasian looking. They were light skinned and had very ruddy complexions at least partially due to the cold air. The mother and older daughters dressed in the traditional indigenous costume of puffy skirt, embroidered blouse and little Panama hat.
The children were dressed more or less in modern clothes. The children were very pretty and shy. Later we would meet a 17 year old son who works in the mines and a son in law. My impression is that Jose is entrepreneurial, rents out this room when possible, has a few chickens running around the yard, at least a few cows and goats and a pig in the meadow area to one side and behind the house. There is no sanitary facility. It's every man for himself at some secluded spot in the fields.
Eduardo, who loved his role of chef, produced from somewhere and somehow a dinner of chicken, rice and hominy. This hominy was not grits but large sized chewy kernels somewhat like giant sized corn kernels. Dinner was preceded by a warm drink of a local alcohol mixed with a variety of juices. It was strong and did the job of warming us in this cold room. Out of another mysterious pack that the mules have lugged across the mountains, Eduardo pulled out another bottle of red wine.
In the room, there was a small window with a wooden, swinging cover that opened to allow more air into the room. The wind through that window destroyed the effectiveness of the draft of the fireplace and in moments we were covered with soot, ash and odor from the fireplace. A thin film of dirt was deposited on our clothes, bed packs, etc. I closed the window and restored the draft but this concept was hard to translate into Spanish and Sr. Pesantez opened the window again with the same results. Finally, the message was deciphered but by now we possessed an odor of smoke that lasted for days. This was the end of the second day without washing or changing clothes. We were getting grungy.
After dinner, we sat around the table and each man told a little of his personal background. We really did not know much about each other. One of the men, Andy Loeb, an attorney from San Diego, had been very quiet on the trip. He spoke infrequently and quietly. However, when it was his turn to describe himself and his family he found his tongue. After 45 minutes of his monologue, we found that he was only up to age 12. We gave up on the project and headed for our bedrolls. We would have to learn about each other some other time.
Again, I placed my sleeping bag next to the door for an easy exit during the night. About 12:15 I awoke and headed outside. There was a full moon. It was so bright I didn't use my flashlight. The air was cold but still. I could see the reflection of light off the top of the clouds somewhere below me. It was a feeling of the unnatural.There may have been some residue of the drinks and the wine in me but the coloring of the night and the cold air were strange. I wasted no time in getting back to my sleeping bag but between the cold, the hard floor, the air, I didn't sleep much the rest of that night. In the morning, the other men told me they also had trouble sleeping.