The Winding Road to Huanuco

I sit here writing in the warm Huanuco sun, cuddled up against little Oso and watching a sheep wander curiously through the yard, occasionally getting scolded for going in the kitchen. Yes, Huanuco, it’s good to be back.

Birthday girl Karen and her mom, Graciela.

Of course last week started in Callao, finishing up business and celebrating Karen’s 23^rd birthday on Tuesday night (yes, there was cake). But before we knew it, Wednesday was upon us and at 6 a.m. Wilfredo, Rocio (our host sister), Gladys (our host cousin), Katrina and I packed up El Comandante (the car) and began our journey to Huanuco.

Oh Wednesday. Black Wednesday. Wicked Wednesday. Wednesday of Doom. We weaved out of Lima traffic and into the mountains and within an hour I knew: today would not be my day. Vomit number one was orange, liquidy and finished its journey in a Peruvian Airlines bag I stole on our trip to Cusco. I ate some “chifles” or banana chips (don’t worry, they are fried and completely unhealthy) immediately afterwards because if there’s anything worse than losing your lunch in a hot car, it’s not having a lunch to lose and hacking up a mixture of bile, air, salvia and pride. Round two of barf was a lovely banana yellow, chunky and also ended in a Peruvian Airlines bag, this time from our trip to Arequipa.

Creepin´ in the jungle with Rocio. 

Oh? You didn’t want to hear about the vomit? Well then let’s fast forward through the rest of the details from the trip: I vomited again (green, in a bag from the market). Gladys vomited twice.We got pulled over and bribed the police officer with 20 soles. We got stuck in traffic for a half hour for construction. A bus tried to cut us off in said construction and swiped into Wilfredo, which caused lots of yelling in Spanish. Wilfredo tried to pass a truck, miscalculated and took the mirror off the passenger side of the car. 

And finally, after 11 hours in the car with no meal stops, we arrived in Huanuco. Do you understand why I didn’t like Wednesday? Wednesday can go crawl up and die.

The giant yellow mound? Tacacho. 

Naturally after that glamorous adventure, we decided the most logical thing to do was to spend three MORE hours in the car on Thursday, so we headed out to Tingo Maria. The trip was mainly for Gladys and Rocio’s sake, because they´d never been to Huanuco or Tingo before. 

We visited all the touristic spots Katrina and I had visited with Jimmy on our previous trip to Tingo, but the trip was still worthwhile in my opinion. How often do you get to go to the jungle? How often do you get to swim in a sulfur pool? And chiefly, because the fatty inside of me (who you can kind of see from the outside) adores the food in Tingo. They have something called “Tacacho” which is essentially mashed up fried bananas and it’s fantatic. They have all the delicious juice the jungle can offer, including camu camu and cocona. They do pork like no other, and it’s socially acceptable to eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was the perfect way to ensure I didn’t lose a single ounce from barfing my brains out the day before.

We spent a night in Tingo, then headed back to Huanuco late on Friday. Saturday it was time for us to get to business so we visited Melania, Fabrizio’s mom, who now lives in Huanuco. For a recap, Fabrizio is the 7 year old who lived with us last time we were in Huanuco. We chatted with his extended family and Rocio taught a quick bible study. Perhaps my favorite part of this is that the family works in the fireworks industry and during the class they were making elaborate structures that they would later attach explosives to.

Out on a walk with Fabrizio (front) and Eynor. 

Saturday night was Gladys’ turn to teach, so we headed down to Junin (our home away from home in Huanuco) to see some familiar faces, including Grandpa Antonio, Victor (and a few of his six children), Vanessa and Brian-Henry (no matter which name you use for Brian/Henry nobody ever knows who you are talking about, so I call him Brian-Henry.) Things seemed to go well and a few promised their attendance our church service the next day.

We spent Sunday morning enjoying the glory that is Huanuco. Delighting over the family’s new turtle and lamb. Strolling through the countryside with Eynor and Fabrizio. Stuffing ourselves full of Carolina’s cooking. Breathing in air that isn’t so thick with smog that your boogers turn black. Looking at the mountains around us.

Group photo after church on Sunday (art by Jimmy.)

Nightfall brought our church service, which was a lively affair. Eder, who was also visiting from Callao with his new fiancé, MaryCruz, played the guitar and sang, Gladys presided and Rocio preached. A few people from Junin showed up, which gives me some hope for our attendance later this month. We wrapped up the service and bid our farewells to the Callao gang who departed at a chipper 4 a.m. today.

So—we’re here. For the next three weeks we get to enjoy all the pleasures of Huanuco, but also have some business ahead of us. Wilfredo wants us to make regular home visits and focus on growing the church while we’re here. And, as always, we’ll have our English classes and church services. We’ve got our work cut out for us; and, of course, during our downtime we’ll spent ample amounts of time with Oso, Lucky and the ever famous Mojada (these are the names of dogs, people.) With that said, I shall now end this blog and begin examining Oso´s ears to remove all of the garrapatas (ticks) within them  #glamorous. Until next time!