This weekend I took some time to do a very Western Form of entertainment: hiking and camping. Instead of cuddling up with the kitten in my hut, I went up to the top of the nearest cerro Saturday night, then to the riverbed of the bottom of the canyon Sunday night to pitch a tent. Since the family sent Niñacha, the family dog, to the ranch to guard the alpacas, sheep, and llamas, a new dog has made our commune his home. This sweet and slightly stupid chow-looking-mut has become my buddy, and he did all the hiking along with. The heavy pack of firewood and supplies straight up the first day gave my thighs strength to hop over the rocks along the river the second. As usual, the sites and smells were breathtaking. It sure felt like I wasn’t breathing all weekend.
I took a combi back into Madrigal with the dog between my legs, and kids piled on my lap. Surprisingly, everyone on the combi happened to be friends and family, so two little ones and I sang childrens’ tunes together in Spanish, English, and Quechua as a form of entertainment when we got a flat. It was amazing how the chatty adults went silent every time the children started to sing, and in supportive applause, kept them singing for a couple hours. Having issues changing the flat in the dark the driver ended up with my camping headlamp on under the bus using the Leatherman my father gifted to me before I left The States.
I had purchased a cake in Chivay when I passed through and arrived just in time to celebrate Doña Juana’s birthday with the family. What I didn’t know, that Doña Juana shared with me in a mildly drunken stupor, was that she has been waiting for me all day so I could kill and roast a hare for her birthday dinner. Thank goodness I didn’t know that, or I would have been a hurried wreck all day, and still not arrived in time to get the freshly cleaned meat in the solar oven. Yes, she could have done the dead and fixed up the meat, but who wants to cook their own birthday dinner? And who better than your daughter to do so? But, all was well, when she got home from school, Roxana had taken some jerky from the sheep meat we killed a couple weeks ago and made a yummy stew the dog smelled from outside the house.
As Roxana and I tended to the adults, keeping their plates and cups full, we all tired out quickly and unfortunately never made it to a proper dancing circle. But, somehow, both Juan y Juana ended up with cake and frosting all over their faces.
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