though at times it was a bit death defying where the edges of the road had collapsed and we swayed dangerously over dizzying falls. But we made it (which is probably clear as we are writing this update) and descended the mountains again a little to the more humid area near the tiny pueblo of Chahaures where we were to work.
The farm focuses mainly on cacau at the moment (though there is enough coffee that every morning we were drinking what J was pretty sure was pure gold). We picked it and also spent some time splitting the pods and extracting the seeds for fermentation. They come in a white goop which, whilst tasty, is nothing like the end result of chocolate.
We also picked and hauled corn
weeded with sickles, shucked the corn inside on rainy days, hefted firewood, and when not working played card games with one of the kids and helped out with cooking. Sadly this was the worst part of our stay as we never quite got enough to eat. At times it was watery oatmeal for breakfast, soup for lunch and the same soup watered down for dinner. It wasn't just our huge appetites- there were several other people working there at the same time and everyone was struggling. Three people left early and others bought extra food to keep themselves going. It was a shame as leaves a bit of bitterness with otherwise lovely people and they would find it easier to keep workers if they could manage to up the rations a bit.
We got on very well with our co-wwoofers though and have adopted one to travel with for a while, the lovely A.R from Oregon, USA- who has her own blog here. We might meet some others later as well. The three of us retraced the beautiful journey to Cusco last night.
and have found a very cheap and friendly hostel and eaten some alpaca (it is very good, not unlike lamb, very rich and not industrially farmed). Today we shall begin to explore the town.
Awww, I always wanted to be adopted by hippie anarchist hitchhikers, it's like running away to join the circus!
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