Ica

We made it to Ica in an overnight bus on the curviest road in the world. Its so windy that they hand out barf-bags to everyone onboard. Thankfully, we didn´t need them. I think it helped that it was night and dark outside with no points for our eyes to focus on. I didn´t sleep a wink though, as everytime I started to get comfortable, I was rudely repositioned with the swerve of the bus. But, we made it in one piece and were met in Ica by our friend Ian, a brit who is leading the project we´re working on, and two locals who he´s met since he´s been here. We ate at a lovely vegetarian place, dropped of our stuff at the local´s house, and headed out to sightsee at some incredible sand dunes. I was tired after the trip, but it didn´t stop me from ascending the highest one for a spectacular view of the city. And many more dunes. Apparently they stretch two hours west until they hit the ocean.
In all this time, I was able to learn a lot more about the project, and in doing so, became a lot more excited about it. First, I learned that its not really affiliated with the Hare Krishnas. Don´t get me wrong, the Krishnas are lovely people, but I wasn´t sure if I could handle too much chanting and Krishna talk. As of now, its basically just Ian, Nati, and myself. Which also means that its less organized than I thought. And that´s definitely not to say that´s its disorganized. Ian knows his stuff and has great experience, but it definitely feels more like a collaboration. A family affair. We make decisions and work out the details together. I just showed up off the street, but already, I feel very involved.
Ica is not in as bad of shape as I thought, though they´ve had some time to clean up. There are areas where lots of rubble is piled in the streets, that would be considered normal in some Bolivian towns we went to. We stayed in the city for one night, then came out to where we´re going to be working, a small town called Guadalupe, about 20 minutes outside of Ica. Upon arrival we went straight to the Municipalidad to find out the exact location of construction and were immediately loaded into a truck only to discover, enroute, that an exact location had still not been determined. Ahhh, bureaucracy. We drove around for a half-hour just to find a place to put our tent. They told us that they were going to buy some land for the project and the process would take 5 days. But knowing that we are dealing, not only with a local government, but a Peruvian local government, and that 5 days could easily turn into 5 months, we set upon the task of finding someone who lost their home, and wouldn´t mind some gringoes building them a new one. It didn´t take us long.
The models that we´re working with are made of earth. One is a pointy dome called a truly, made of adobe bricks. The other is earth rammed into bags and stacked however you like. They are the cheapest and quickest homes you can build, and there are several ways to reinforce them to be anti-seismic. We´re currently trying to decide on the best, yet most inexpensive way. We were concerned that we were going to be met with apprehension as the general consensus seems to be that the homes and buildings made of adobe were the ones that fell down, but the people still want adobe, and are thrilled to find out that there are inexpensive ways to make them strong in the event of another earthquake.
So we found a family that lost their whole house, moved into a tent on their property, and started building today. Building being mostly digging the foundation. The family pitched in and we finished the whole hole today. I´m dirty, my hands hurt, and it feels fantastic. I´ll have some more details about the construction in future posts. I´m still learning a lot of the details myself as we go. But here´s a great website if you want to read up: http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/QandA/adobeQandA.htm#adobe
Love you all. I´ll post again soon and hopefully with some pictures. I have to blow the dust out of my camera first.

Catch up!

My sister came to visit and spent the first two weeks battling food, water, and altitude, but now she´s right as rain and its been damn nice to have her here. Despite her many stomach ailments, we managed to take her to Bolivia, La Paz for the shopping, and La Isla del Sol for the beauty and tranquility. My birthday was on the 19th and the day before, the two of us hiked up to Huchuy Cusco to see the ruins, the view and camp for the night. Out timing was perfect on all fronts, though at first we thought the opposite. The normally clear skies of the valley seemed to turn gray the second we stepped of the bus at the trailhead, and less than an hour up, it started to rain. But when the hail came, we happened upon a gazebo to wait it out. After an hour and a half, it let up, and we continued on, making to the top just in time for a beautiful sunset. We managed to make a fire though all of the wood was quite wet, but like newborn child, it required constant attention.

The next morning we woke up to sunshine, basked in its glory, reading, meditating, and writing in our journals, then went exploring. I can´t imagine a better place or way to wake up on your birthday. When the sky started to turn gray again, we decided to break camp and start the journey down. We entered the bus the second that rain started splashing down on the windshield and relished our wonderful luck. We went back to the house to meet up with Lebn and Nati, then went to Calca to live it up Calca-style. We had a great time, but something gave me food-poisoning and the next day I spent in pain.

But I´m better now and on my way to Ica, slowly but surely. After much internal debate, I decided not to accompany Jess and Lebn back to the States in October, but remain in South America and continue my trip North. Only my rational mind wanted me to return. All of my instincts are telling me to stay. I´m trusting my instincts.

First, I´m going to Ica to help build a house for the earthquake victims, and then I´m heading North to a community in the jungle in the Northern part of Peru, and then a slow boat down the Amazon and into Brazil. I´m very excited.

It will be weird travelling without Lebn. He´s been an incredible companion, and though we´ve certainly had our ups and downs, I can´t think of many other people on this planet with which I could have made such a trip. But it´s time to go our separate ways. For a while at least.

And speaking of Lebn, there´s some more pictures posted on his picture page. Here´s the link again: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lebnjay

I should be writing more now that I´m back on the road again, so if this little blog hasn´t lost all of its readership in my absence, you can expect to find more here to read in the coming weeks. Months? Years? Vamos a ver.