Andagua day 1

Andagua 1

I was traveling with a young woman who was one of the main staff persons at my hostel in Arequipa. Julisa was returning to spend the weekend with her parents and to celebrate her mother's 40th birthday. She would be in part guide and advisor in my time in Andagua. To begin with she set me up in a hostel for the rest of the night. After a few hours sleep Julisa met me for a hike outside the village through the terraces to an overlook of a 300’ waterfall. There must have been old lava tubes at the top of the falls as water came out not only the main channel, but at several places along a horizontal seam to the side. Having gotten used to the thin air of Chivay, I was surprised to be so out of breath in an area 1,200’ lower. Then I remembered I hadn’t had coca tea for a couple of days (and missed breakfast.) Managed to get back to the hostel and locked the key in the room while using the bathroom so had to find the attendant. Luckily I had seen him working on a project on the way out of town for the walk. There were a dozen or so men digging up several hundred yards of side streets by hand for I’m guessing for water and sewer. He was quite perturbed to have to interrupt his work to find me a spare key but seemed satisfied when I apologized and gave him 2 Sol (about 66 cents) for his trouble. Made a couple of cheese and avocado sandwiches (the avocado I had gotten 2 weeks earlier in Colca Canyon was finally ripe.) Then, having found there was no place to make tea at the hostel, I went back to the store where I had bought the bread and the woman in charge boiled water for me and lent me a cup to make some coca tea them refused any money for the favor! There were at least 6 tiny stores around the plaza, and more on the side streets for a town of maybe 500 people. Usually about 200 square feet and very basic, but they seemed happy to do extra favors one would never ask at the local convenience store. After a brief rest, I went to take photos around the plaza. Some one had spent years creating a couple dozen topiary sculptures around a big cement fountain (no water while I was there.) There is an assortment of people and animals and some figures I just couldn’t figure out. Defiantly a world away from Versailles. Most of the houses of Andagua retain the thatched roof once universal in the towns of the Andes. Metal roofs almost universal in Chivay are rare here. Nearly 1/3 of the houses were empty, many with no roofs remaining and others in various stages of decay. Again the move to the city was apparent yet there were signs of new construction taking place here and there. In one case one of the older town buildings was being dismantled, the rock being reused to rebuild on a near by site. And as I mentioned a major ditch digging project was going on some side streets. It was a bit surreal seeing light posts in neat rows running down streets with 1/2 the houses abandoned.

A group of teen and twentyish people were setting up a volley ball court on one side of the square, tied between 2 lamp posts on opposite sides of the main street, the street being the court. Noticing the sides were un even I asked if I could join in and was welcomed as part of the team. There are basically no cars in Andagua, or pickup trucks for that mater. Foot travel, burros, mules and a few horses are the local transport. We did have to pull down the net for a minute to let an evening bus go through but otherwise the street was ours to use. We plated for a 2 liter bottle of soda. With 6 to a side, that meant a sol apiece for the losers. I ordered a cup of coca tea from a restaurant/store next to the ?court? to help with the altitude. I gave the owner a Sol and she held the 30 centimos as a deposit for the cup. Unfortunately my side lost both games but it was still only one bottle of soda and when I went in to the store where the winners gathered to share their prize, I was given a cup even though I was on the loosing team.