“This is one of the prettiest places I’ve ever been” – Hollyn
¡Bienvenidos a Pucará! For the past 5 days, we’ve been spending our time in the beautiful subtropical climate known as the cloud forest. We’ve been staying individually with host families, and spent two of our days volunteering and helping with reforestation. We were able to see the whole process of making coffee all the way from picking the bean to enjoying a cup at the Cafe Rio Intag plant. 100% organic and one of the highest rated coffees in the world! It’s known for its citrusy and flowery aroma due to where it is grown.
In addition to coffee production, the town of Pucará is also famous for its homemade panela, made by sugarcane that a few of our group members had the chance to harvest (shoutout to Jack, Mike, Harvey, Molly and Doug!). Panela is the purest form of sugar, made from the juice of sugar cane which uses a lot more manual labor and a lot less chemicals than processed sugar that most of us are used to, making it a much healthier option.
We also got to meet with the women’s weaving co-op who makes their handicrafts such as bags, hats and frisbees from Kabula fibers found in the cloud forest from a type of agave plant. If interested in supporting these women, they are currently looking for outlets in the United States and overseas to represent them.
Yours truly, Maddy, Emi, Hollyn & Molly choreographed a dance for our community despedida, or going away party. Ours consisted of many games, music and dancing. To say the least, our dance was gas. As we prepare for the next few days in Junín, we have started discussing the mining issue and conflict that has lasted for over twenty years and continues to be a problem to this day. We watched a documentary and visited Carlos Zorrilla today, who is an avid activist against mining and is a founder of an anti-mining group in the Intag region. A place that was largely impacted an made famous by all of this conflict is the small community of Junín, where our adventures will continue.
Abrazos,
Emi & Maddy
