Quillabamba Coffee & food markets

Coffee

I had the opportunity to see Quillabamba and to visit my best friend's family farm for a week.  It is so different from Cusco.  Cusco is primarily distinguished by it's denominant culture and history, and by old architecture and ruins.  Quillabamba is a lot more modern, and I was a bit surprised by the huge difference in conservatism there.  However, the climate is also a lot hotter, so it's not necessary for layers and alpaca-made gear!

The farm is beautiful, in a very jungle, tropical-like climate, but without big spiders, snakes, or monkeys.  Mango, mandarin and papaya trees are everywhere, although it's a bit early for them to be ready yet.  Bananas and avocados were prime for picking, though.  I didn't know there were so many different kinds of bananas.  Today I actually experimented with frying bananas for the first time.  Delicious.

I also learned the process of farming coffee and cocoa beans.  I sure understand now why imported coffee and chocolate are so expensive in Canada.  A LOT of time goes into preparing coffee for drinking!  The beans are hand picked, dried, washed, dried again, then eventually toasted, and ground.  I learned how to toast the coffee and also ground some to take home.  Also delicious.

PHOTOS OF QUILLABAMBA AREA:

Photo 1: In Quillabamba   Photo 2: Coffee and lime trees  Photo 3: A pineapple plant

Photo 4: Banana tree  Photo 5: Maiz   Photo 6:  One of two waterfalls we trekked to

 Photo 7: Beautiful tropical-like plants

Photo 8: More tropical-like plants!








Food Markets
Being away for a week made me realize how much I missed the kids at the Casa and how much I love my work and love those kids!  Their vibrant welcome when I came in the door on Monday was also heart-warming.
When I had left, Luis was still only walking about 6 steps at the most, but he is now walking all over the place!  It's exciting getting to get to see and be a part of their new stages of growth.
The little babies are also becoming more expressive and connected to their environments, so that is also fun.
One of my new tasks in helping out where needed at the orphanage is assisting one of the staff with the weekly grocery shopping on Friday mornings at the food market.  It is so interesting and different from Superstore, and it is a big job.  Sometimes it can take an hour and a half or 2 to find everything down all the isles of different fruits, vegetables, flours, meats and fish sections.
I am hoping to have photos of the meat section in the future.