Chewing Coca Leaves..

The coca leaf has been chewed and brewed for tea traditionally for centuries all up and down the Andean region, specifically Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia and the habit is not going away anytime soon. Read HERE a good article about coca leaf myth and reality.

In other words, it’s a way of life for the outdoor workers of Molinopampa and for much of the manual labor (construction, mining, etc.) in Peru and other Andes countries.  Chewing is called ‘chacchar’ in Quechua, or ‘coquear’ in parts of northern Peru (though in other parts of the county, coquear might be understood as using cocaine), nonetheless, ‘echar una bola’ might be best and most colloquial because that’s basically what you’ll be doing, tossing a ball in your cheek.  Here’s how you do it.

1. Many by the coca leaves in bulk in quantities desired, even 1 sol or about 30 cents will get you a bag.

2. Separate out the small sticks and seeds and put a large marble to golf ball sized wad in the side of your mouth.  Some say that stripping out the center vein of each leaf with your teeth is best, but this is a tedious process and not necessary.

3. When leaves are moist after 1 to 5 minutes add alkaline material to the wad of leaves in your mouth to ‘activate’ the coca by changing the pH of your mouth to be more basic, allowing the coca alkaloids to be absorbed.  This should produce a bit of a numbing feeling in the mouth and chewing the mixture feels more like staying busy with chewing gum rather then any type of mood-changing drug.

4. You can spit mouth juices as they come (will be quite greenish), but most locals just swallow and work on the same wad for 15 to 60 minutes, sometimes longer; often adding a bit of leaves or especially a bit more alkali.

5. Toss the wad when you’d like, and rinse out the small leave pieces with water.  Once again, you never see locals rinsing because it’s a natural leaf that they just spit out completely or swallow.

But, the Alkali is the trick and there’s a couple substances based on where you are in South America:

Poporo, or Puro, or Calero

‘Cal seco’ on stick

Lejia (or ilucta)

Northern Peru / Ecuador: You’ll often see ‘cal seco’ or ‘cal mojado’ being sold cheap at the stores and used in people’s small ‘cal’ containers (called a ‘poporo‘ or a ‘calero’ or a ‘puro’ in Molinopampa).  Cal is basically lime that you would use for concrete or other industrial processes [some say pure slacklime, but I would guess more likely a mixture of quicklime (calcium oxide, CaO) and hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)_2].  It’s caustic and therefore gives you a bit of a chemical burn in the mouth, thus, the coca chewers like to put the stick with cal in the center of the coca wad and not let it touch the skin of the inside of the mouth.

Southern Peru (Cusco) / Bolivia: Is a real big fan of breaking off a pea-sized chunk of ‘Lejia’ or ‘ilucta’ (pronounced ‘Lij-ckta’) in Quechwa.  It’s often a thick, black (or grey), soft, tarry substance that’s made from ashes obtained by burning the quinoa grain (though ‘lejia’ in english translates to bleach or caustic soda or lye).  And lye or the strong alkali, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is probably a big percentage of what the chewed ‘lejia’ is.  Sometimes the makers have a ‘lejia dulce’ or ‘menta’/mint after they mix anise and/or sugar cane with the ash that’s pressed into a black or grey chunk.

Either way, it’s an activity not to be missed should you be allowed or have the opportunity to try.

Last time in Trujillo..

Passing through and here are some of the sights there:

Apple iStores are all around Peru big cities, they are just called ‘iPlaces’ and many people tell me straight out they sell imitation Apple products.

Saying goodbye to the Melendez family in Trujillo, was caring for their house a bit in Molinopampa..

Selections for Miss World Peru.. Probably an honor for anyone that’s in the competition.. Didn’t want to stay around to see what it was like.

Just like with beaches around the world, there are young people goofing off.

Found a Hostel in Cajamarca w a gym..

Decent deal on lodging as well.. S/. 70 each night for a huge matrimonial room w cable TV, fast Internet, friendly staff, plenty of hot water and even a gym w statue of Mary. It’s called Los Balcones del Recoleta.

 

 

Shoe Sole Door Hidge..

Along the lines of the Skil Saw Weedwacker, just another Peruvian innovation that seems to work real well.  I’m sure much of this is done in the US, but I just don’t remember seeing it.

Simple and effective, just a sole and some nails.

Seen here with a quick homemade door, notice the latch on the other side: only a small rope and other nail.

These Boots are Made for Dancing..

Yep, these boots..

Molinopampa is a cow town like no other.  The residents are born into the lifestyle and a good number stay and develop an insane passion for waking in the wee hours of the morning to milk, walking 1-2 hours several times a day to a remote field where they need to move cows to eat fresher grass, and spending weekends at the cow market discussing the differences between breeds (or cow ‘races’ as they call them).  And here is the footwear that all the Molinopampan cowboys are required to wear:

Cheap, easy to use, and do the job in whatever conditions..

Though you can rarely find rubber boots in sizes above 42 (about a size 8 1/2 or 9 in USA), I’ve enjoyed wearing this type of footwear around and find it almost more comfortable then leather and lace-up boots (for anything out in this region: walking long distances, wading through swampy bog, riding horses, jumping walls and crawling under fences, etc).  When asking Peruvians about leather boots, they mostly tell me that they’ve heard that the US does this and always wonders why they do.  They say that the stiffer soles would be horrible and slippery for any kind of uneven terrain, and the leather would gradually start tearing when rubbing up against sharp rocks and barb-wire).

I’m not trying to criticize the western cowboy with leather boots, big hat and fancy belt buckle, but I didn’t realize until spending soo much time around these professional cow people, how much the culture in middle America has to do with branding and image.  Plus, maybe I’m kinda jealous that I can’t really dance like this:

(I also hope I didn’t verge on writing a diary entry with this post..)

Same Festivals, Different Years..

Feast of San Pedro (St. Peter) in Taulia was just as nice and traditional as ever. With the shell-ankle dancers, band, plenty of food and shots of sugar cane liquor.

Shell ankle dancers passing cups of hard liquor.

Chicken given for ‘bote’ or gift for next years party hosts.

Plus, like last year (HERE) the same folks were over-doing it and resting on there way down the mountain.

2013

2014

Peruvian Wedding and Slow Walk to Reception and Corpus Procession..

Really nice wedding service for our friends Nilser Servan and Carolina Calampa.  Power went out for about 1/2 the wedding mass and no one was bothered because they just continued on by candle light.  They took advantage of the gathering and special mass to baptize their daughter Danita as well.

What was nice to see is they signed the wedding documents on the church altar within 30sec of finishing the final hymn.  Rather then having a best-man and best-woman as witnesses, the Peruvian wedding uses ‘padrinos’ or godparents like many important events.  A portable radio was used for the exit which was much more efficient..

The reception was eventually so full that there wasn’t enough seats for the couple hundred that came (and the town is only about 700 people large), but what we thought was interesting is yet again we were apart of the super-slow walk out of the church..  See below..

Then there’s the Corpus Christi Procession..  it too is a slow walk but one filled with music and traditional dance..

Also, stomping on the alfombras or rugs that were put together the morning before..

See my last post for some of the rugs put together this year..

Corpus Christi 2014, the excitement returns for another year..

Very similar to last years Corpus Christi festival, but this year more exciting because we knew what to look out for and how to celebrate.

ANDREA’s Blog entry does a good job summing up the week (click here)

And, she put together a 3min summary video of all the events if you are interested:

On the night before the ‘dia central’ there was the massive fireworks castillo, like last year; there were plenty of sparks and flying things landing in the crowd.

There was the ‘pasa calle’ or Street Passing or Raisin Road which had institutions putting on quick show and demonstrations for the authorities..  this year featured an automatic cow milking machine (Governor Ecco explains that you need to stimulate the utters before starting to milk).

The Corpus Mass was packed.

 

6 women packed on a pew that’s really supposed to hold 4.

But the rugs or ‘alfombras’ were always one of the nicer pieces of artwork for the week.  Often made with dyed sawdust, yeso (plaster), and local vegetation..

 

Hanging Stuff in Peru..

Cloths, fly strips, and raw meat; just some of the things we’ll be hanging around from day to day.

Fly strips get much more full around here.

No picture of cloths, most people know what that looks like.

Mariachi during Quinceañera..

The quinceanera format is pretty standard (see the previous event): grand entry, high-heels being put on, dances with father and members of the family, words or quick speeches from many, late dinner, cases of beer, and plenty of photos.  Though there is room to make the special birthday party unquie.
Last Saturday, Karen Stefany (daughter of Officer Marco and Regidor/Professora Maritza) threw in a surprise Mariachi band.  All the way from the capital (Chachapoyas), though they were claiming to be direct from Mexico at first.  Good times, late night like many.

Entry w roses.

Happy to say hi to our table.

Some kind of choreographed dance with her friends.