Pucará

Pucará was the final community we lived in, and it was probably our favorite of the three. It’s located in the Intag Region, a wild intermediate area between the Northern Highlands and Amazon Basin. All of the roads leading there are unpaved and crumbling, making the long bus rides both exciting and a little nauseating. Somehow the drivers manage to navigate their way through the dust and fallen rocks to reach the scattered communities within. Preceding Pucará are the beginnings of the huge and tangled cloud forests, full of colorful wildlife and thousands of different plant species.

Pucará itself is surrounded by dark forested mountains and two rivers. It is raised up on a sort-of plateau overlooking the surrounding valleys. When we first arrived (dusty and tired in the back of a truck) we were blown away by the jungle-y atmosphere. The steamy climate was especially blissful after freezing our butts off in La Chimba. In tank tops and shorts we wandered around the banana trees and sugar cane (quickly changing back into pants after a few painful mosquito attacks).

Our host mom and her kids were also very warm and pleasant. They’re house is in what is referred to as the ‘Eco Pueblo’, a cluster of eight houses built by volunteers for people from the area who were before homeless (very similar to Habitat for Humanity). We later found out that there are some social issues that have sprung up with this new micro-community, and the saying “Pueblo pequeño, infierno grande” (Small town, big hell) definitely applies. Gossip and resentment run high, especially when free houses are being given out. As a result of this Pucará has become somewhat divided between the Eco-pueblo and original community.

It was a little bit of a strange situation with our host family. They usually live in a nearby town called Apuela where the husband works making cinder blocks. Another problem with bringing new people into a (eco) community is that if there is no work they can’t really stay for long. Our host mom only really lived in Pucará when visitors, such as us, came to stay. This meant that she was basically in the house cooking for us most of the day, with not much else to distract her. While the situation was both awkward and a little sad, there wasn’t much we could really do about it. At times her kids came up and stayed with us too, which livened things up a bit.

Our host mom making tortillas

The food in Pucará was also much more diverse and interesting than in the prior community. We got to help with making lots of traditional foods, shelling beans and pinching empanadas. The chicken we ate was very fresh, literally straight from the back shed. I think we probably went through three or four different chickens while we were there, but they all looked pretty much the same while they were alive, so we just pretended they were the same one. The lunches were always massive, causing us to pass out in food-induced comas for an hour or so every afternoon.

Between our napping and working on the guides, we managed to do a fair amount of hiking and biking around the community. A steep hike down the side of the Pucará plateau took us to a mossy riverbank with ancient wood footbridges and icy water. We spent a few hours sitting by the river, dipping our feet and sketching, taking in the surreal surroundings. The hike back up the plateau is very rigorous, and left us dripping and out of breath.

We also rented bikes from a young local guy and biked/ pushed our way to the nearby town of Santa Rosa. We wanted to go interview people at a forest reserve station there and figured we could get some exercise while at it. Little did we know that between the crappy bikes and steep dusty hills we would end up walking our bikes most of the way there and back, roasting in the tropic sun. We tried to hail a truck to pick us up, but they were all full or didn’t see us through the clouds of dust. Somehow we made it back hours later, exhausted and cranky. I don’t think I’ll be making the mistake of randomly renting sports equipment without knowing exactly what I am in for again… I learned my lesson!

Dishing up some pig at the nearby market