A couple of forgotten videos before we move on to Friday's events

For some reason, my photo program doesn't put my videos in chronological order along with my photos, so these got overlooked earlier.  I'll include them now so they won't get forgotten altogether.

A stretch of road between Cajamarca and Hualgayoc 

(on our way to Ramoscucho on Wednesday)

Approaching Hualgayoc

Can you tell we're not on a paved road anymore?

Here's that place we stopped just outside of Bambamarca for our quick picture-taking session on the way to Ramoscucho.

A 360 scan on the road near Lisho and Dalila's during our walk on Wednesday afternoon

The last post for Thursday

Olinda and I had Thursday supper and the night with Lisho and Dalila and family.

Here are all three children: Kevin and Janela holding David.

A dirt floor in the kitchen doubles as a play slate for Kevin.

Yep, it's rabbit for supper!  Along with rice and seven potatoes!  

Conked out! 

This is how you keep the fire going.  Blow through the hollow tube to provide oxygen for the flames. It's quite a chore to get just the right amount of heat consistently for cooking your meal, but the ladies here are experts.

Not pictured: 

Our fun time of making shadow figures on the wall when we were without electricity for a while that evening.  The kids loved it.

Also not pictured:

The hail that landed on my bed during nap time earlier in the day.  That was definitely a first for me!

And the day's end journal entry:

To bed in my long sleeved silk undershirt, pajama shirt and fleece jacket on top and fleece leggings, silk long johns, pajama pants and fuzzy socks on bottom. Plus fleecy "sheets", three heavy blankets and my chanchito (hot water bottle). Hopefully that should keep me warmer than last night.

Ramoscucho sunset

Possibly one of my favorite pictures of the trip

Just because he's so cute...

he gets his own post.

The berries

The results of our labors this morning

That thing on top in the orange bucket is an egg of some kind that one of the berry pickers found and added to our collection of treasures.

A couple of random pictures

Leading the cow to another pasture

Collecting the clothes before they get even more wet

Lunch at Pilodoro and Rosa's

Looking down on the house

Daughter, Lucila, is out tending her sheep.

Again, I feel rather gigantic next to the majority of people here.

That's the kitchen through that doorway.

Watering the horse

and leading him out to pasture

The ever-present cuyes in the kitchen

Serving the potatoes

Little tiny benches are quite common for sitting in these parts, though they usually have taller benches for guests.  

Holding a baby guinea pig

Detergent sacking makes for a colorful tablecloth.

Keeping the broods separate so they won't fight

All the rain complicates the raising of cuyes because they cannot eat wet grass.  Apparently, they don't even drink water, so if the grass is wet, it causes their stomachs to explode or something like that.

Don't have a clothesline?  Just lay everything out on the (damp) grass.

Berry picking

We needed berries to make jam for Special Meetings in Olmos and Coyunde, so on Thursday morning, four of us set off to see what we could find.

Celmira carries the berry bucket plus an umbrella that doubles as a walking stick because you just never know.

The scenery was stunning!

Celmira, Johny, Lisho

Found some!

Not all of our trails were this well marked.  Oh, wait, most of our "trails" were non-existent.

It's rather hard to get the sense of the "up-down" nature of our hike in an up close shot.  Perhaps the more zoomed out shots will give a better idea regarding that small detail. 

Some of the berries were located on rather precarious perches.

I think I took more pictures than I picked berries, but I did get my hands a little dirty and scratched up.  

Apparently there's cell service all the way up here!

Video scan of our surroundings

If I remember correctly, that's barley in the field.

When I agreed to join the berry-picking crew, I really had no idea what kind of a hike I was in for.  On some of the uphills, my lungs did some pretty violent protesting.  However, I wouldn't have missed the experience for anything.