South America Day 9

We had another big drive day today, 420km from Chivay to Raqchi so we had an early start, a 5:30am breakfast again.  Our route took us up over another high pass, it was slow going as we were mainly on dirt road for most of the way.  There was a sprinkling of snow on the mountain tops after the previous nights rain, the views were fantastic again.  To our surprise coming down from the mountain pass we passed another Dragoman truck, Torluga, going in the opposite direction.  We stopped for our usual picnic lunch on the roadside, luckily outside a cheese factory so we could buy some cheese, the cook group had left the cheese and ham they had bought for lunch back at the hotel in Chivay!  We arrived at Raqchi around 4pm. 

Raqchi is a small village situated a few hours drive from Cuzco.   We stayed here as guests of the local families in their traditional houses, our homestay host was Lydia.  We were split into groups of four for each homestay, we shared with Tonia and Lizzie, two lovely ladies from Guernsey.  It was a fantastic way to get a real insight into how people live here and to learn about their culture and customs.  Lizzie and I helped Lydia shell some peas.  Commuication was a bit difficult as we didn't speak Spanish and Lydia didn't speak English, Nigel knew a few Spanish words and with the help of our guide book we got by.  We were cooked a traditional dinner, soup followed by rice, yellow potato and chicken, followed by a sweet runny banana jelly dish.  After dinner we were, to our surprise, dressed up in their traditional costume as we were to join in with one of their local ceremonies.  We participated in a ceremonial and spiritual offering to the gods (apu) and mother earth (patcha mamma) using coca leaves.  Afterwards a fire was lit and there was lots of singing and dancing around the fire.  A fantastic fun evening.