William in Wilkawain

     We went to Willkhuain and stayed with a family.  The family was made up of: Cristian, his parents, his brother Nelson, and his sister.  His uncle came to visit and helped with farming. 

On our first day we had a hike to an archaeological site of Ichik Wilkawain, where the pre-Incan Wari culture had tombs.  I played hide and seek inside the maze of chambers and I probably was hidden for half an hour before Sam found me. While I played, Mama (Cristian’s mom) cooked guinea pig, I only managed to eat one bite.

I met one of Cristian’s llamas at the ruins; it’s name was Asua.  It liked to lick faces and spit.

     We took a couple of hikes.  The first one was when we went to a hot spring swimming pool (which ended up being closed when we arrived).  Along the way we saw people working in the fields and women washing clothes in the canal that ran near their homes. We were close to a mountain range called Nevado Huascaran.  It is the second highest mountain range in South America. The second hike was when we visited a lake called Llaca where we got to eat fresh ice from a glacier.  On the way back to the taxi we saw wildlife like viscacha, a long-tailed rabbit like animal.

On our last day, my mom dressed up like a local and so did I.  The sack around my neck is normally placed on a llama’s back.  After the fashion show, we went to a field. We ended up filling the llama bag with seeds to plant while one person plowed with two bulls.  Everybody except Sam got to try plowing with the bulls. My mom got dragged across and out of the field by the bulls and I was afraid she was going to hit a tree.  I was more successful.  All you had to do was hold on and lift the metal plow out of the ground when you wanted to turn. 

     When I was done with my turn at plowing, we built a pachamanca, which is an earthen and stone oven.  The first step was building a dome of rocks with space inside for twigs and leaves to burn so that the rocks would heat.  Once the rocks were very hot, we collapsed the dome and put potatoes, fava beans, corn, and tamales over the rocks.  Then, we piled on leafy branches, a tarp, and finally dirt and let it roast for 30 minutes.  Unfortunately, I don’t like potatoes, beans, or corn so I ate granola bars instead.
     Our last activity was adobe brick making.  First, Cristian’s dad added water to a pile of loose dirt.  Then, Sam and I stomped around in it with bare feet.  The mud felt cold and rocky on my feet.  Then we added straw and stomped some more.  We did this process about three times.  Then, we used an open wooden box as a mold and poured the mud in.  You stepped in the mold and then you slapped it like you were playing the drums.  The last step was to lift the mold up.  Sometimes the mud stuck to the sides making it hard to pull up.  I learned that the advantage of adobe is that: the material is cheap and easy to get, its preparation doesn’t require machines, it effectively insulates from temperatures and sound, it doesn’t burn easily or get attacked by insects, and finally it's a breathable material.  We only made 10 bricks, but it takes 300 for a small house.  One person working hard could make 100 bricks in a day.

When it came to leave, I wanted to stay.