Photos: Huaraz

A few weeks ago, some friends and I headed out for a long weekend in and around the city of Huaraz.  There, we spent three days exploring lakes, forests, and ancient temples in the Cordillera Blanca, the highest mountain range in the world outside of the Himalayas.  Here are some photo highlights:

These pictures were taken from the roof of our hotel in Huaraz. If you look closely, you can see the impressive peaks of the cordillera blanca rising up to the east of the town.

After a day spent exploring the city of Huaraz and acclimatizing ourselves to the thin mountain air, we set out on a trip to the Chavín de Huántar archaeological site.  On the way, our bus stopped at lake Querococha, shown here.

After a stunning drive through the mountains, our bus finally arrived at Chavín de Huántar, an ancient temple built by the Chavín, a technologically advanced pre-Incan culture which dominated this part of the world until around 300 BC.

The following day, we set out once more into the mountains on a visit to Huascarán National Park.  On the way, we visited the Yungay cemetery, built to commemorate the 25,000 who died in a 1970 Yungay avalanche, which wiped out the entire town.

 This sobering yet beautiful monument presents an amazing view of rebuilt Yungay and the surrounding countryside, including an impressive view of the cordillera negra, the smaller, yet no less beautiful mountain range which lies to the west of Huaraz.

Continuing from Yungay, we eventually abandoned the drivers whom we had contracted in Huaraz, (since, as it turns out, they didn't have permission to enter the park), and set off on foot into Huascaran National Park.

Forsaking the road, we set forth into the jungle...

Finally, we arrived at beautiful lake Llanganuco...

 ...were we finished off our journey with a lunch of roasted cuy, or guinea pig.  Actually, it does taste a lot like chicken.

And that was more or less the trip.  The following day we bused back to Lima in time for work on Monday morning.

Thanks for reading,

Dan

Photos: San Lorenzo de Quinti

Hello everyone,

Since I haven't posted any pictures from my trip in awhile, I thought I'd dedicated this and the following posts to photos which I've taken over the past few months. In my previous post, I described my field-excursion to San Lorenzo de Quinti.  Here are some accompanying photos:

The View of San Lorenzo from my hotel

Hard at work (rare photo evidence).

                         
                       






                           Beautiful San Lorenzo

The llama train arriving from Tanta.

Villagers who live higher in the mountains sustain themselves partially through trade with communities located in more forgiving climates.  Villagers from Tanta bring meat and textiles in exchange for vegetables and fruits grown in the fertile valleys surrounding San Lorenzo.

I was interested in the llamas, but these kids were way more interested in my digital camera.  Everyone had to take a turn...

                 More shots of SLQ

 Leaving San Lorenzo de Quinti

Thanks for checking up on me.  Pictures of some of my other advertures (Huaraz and Chachapoyas) will be soon to follow.

Dan

INDEV 401 Update: November 5, 2012

Hi everyone.  In an hour or two, I'll be leaving to visit the beautiful city of Chachapoyas.  I'll be gone for a week, and since I wanted to post at least one blog before I left, I've decided to share this INDEV 401 update, from November 5th (only a few weeks late).

Dan Root

INDEV 401 Bi-weekly Report

November 5, 2012

Last week, an opportunity arose for me to leave the office in Lima and spend some time working for GEA on an assignment en campo.  As a result, I was able to spend five days in the beautiful mountain village of San Lorenzo de Quinti, getting a closer look at the project which I have been marketing and meeting many of the people involved in its implementation. In San Lorenzo, as in Tanta and Canchayllo, GEA is overseeing a painting project intended to improve the appearance of several houses, providing the village with a more attractive and tourist-friendly facade. My job was to coordinate with the local construction workers contracted by GEA to record the measurements of every house in San Lorenzo that will be included in GEA’s project.  In the evenings, I also accompanied my co-worker Anna to meet with those villagers who had recently inscribed themselves into San Lorenzo’s community tourism association.  The people whom I met during these meetings have led me to new questions regarding inclusion and exclusion in capacity-building development projects.
When discussing development in University courses, we often contrast capacity-building forms of development, which seek to equip individuals and communities with the tools they need to take advantage of their own ingenuity and hard work, with a ‘charity’ model of development, which simply offers hand-outs to those in need.  It is generally assumed that capacity-building is a more effective model for sustainable development because it allows beneficiaries to take control of their own economic situations, thereby instilling the necessary sense of project ‘ownership’ and breaking a potentially endless cycle of donor dependency.  This is clearly the goal of GEA’s rural community tourism project in San Lorenzo, which aims to provide hard-working and entrepreneurial community members with secure and managed access to urban markets through tourism.  GEA’s capacity-building model of rural community tourism is, I believe, an effective tool for meaningful rural development.  Yet as a result of their exclusively capacity-based approach, GEA’s project may be leaving behind many in San Lorenzo who are in most desperate need of development assistance.
The situation of many whom I met in San Lorenzo de Quinti was epitomized by one elderly señora whom I met through these meetings, living alone with no education and no real marketable skills with which to earn a living.  Throughout her life, this individual has provided for herself by working as a subsistence farmer. Yet time has seen her body weaken and her children leave for the opportunities of the city, leaving her alone in a state of near-abject poverty.  Now, she has signed up to participate in GEA’s community tourism project, in the hope that it might provide her with some form of economic stability.  Unfortunately, her situation is such that she has very little to offer the project, and therefore very little to gain from any rural community tourism operation.  GEA’s project is designed to be an effective tool to help rural Peruvians help themselves, providing those who are able to run businesses or work as tour guides or artisans with access to larger and more stable markets. Yet, by exclusively focusing on ‘building capacity’, GEA’s project may be leaving behind those who are in the direst need of development assistance: those with little or no ‘capacity’ upon which to build.
This problem has not gone unnoticed by the members of GEA involved in this project.  Still, no simple solutions seem to be available.  GEA’s project is clearly designed to be a capacity-building project, with no budget availability for hand-outs.  This fact may mean that GEA’s capacity project could actually increase income inequality within San Lorenzo, a fact that would run counter to the goals of any rural community tourism project.  Currently, I do not see any easy ways for GEA to address this issue, but I will certainly continue to reflect on this issue as I continue to experience Peru.


Thanks for reading.  Hopefully, I'll have some pictures and information about my trip to Chachapoyas (and my previous trip to Huaraz) available for posting.

Dan

INDEV 401 Update: September 24, 2012

Hey everyone.  As per the requirements for my INDEV 401 course, I have been writing and submitting bi-weekly reviews which report on the status of my work and contain some of my thoughts with respect to my placement and to development in general.  In lieu of writing a real blog post, I have decided to post some excerpts from my INDEV 401 updates, which explain a little bit of what I've been up to and some of my questions that have been brought to light as a result of my time in Peru.  Here's the first one:

Dan Root

INDEV 401 Bi-weekly Report

September 24, 2012

One week ago, I began my work with GEA on a rural community tourism project called “Caminando con el Apu Pariacaca”.  This project is an attempt by GEA, a large, well-organized, and experienced NGO promoting sustainable development in Peru, to improve the well-being of those living within the ecological reserve of Nor Yauyos Cochas.  During my first week of work at GEA, I have spent a significant amount of time reviewing the project documents in order to better understand the product which I will be marketing in the coming months.  I have also had the opportunity to travel to two of the villages within the reserve in order to meet the people who stand to be affected by GEA’s initiative, and to experience Nor Yauyos Cochas like a tourist.
My interactions with coworkers and with the locals whom I met in Nor Yauyos Cochas have led me several questions about the role of tourism in development.  Fortunately, my travels to and from the reserve, a trip totaling close to 14 hours, provided me with ample time to reflect on the possibilities, both positive and negative, for tourism as a form of meaningful development, and to reflect on GEA’s approach to rural community tourism.
Admittedly, my first reaction upon hearing of my organization’s project and of my mandate therein was less than euphoric .  Assisting in the development of a marketing strategy for a tourism project seemed to me to be less than that which I had envisioned for myself during my INDEV 401 placement.  Much of the tourism which I have previously experienced bears little resemblance to the ideals of equitable and sustainable human development.  Yet GEA’s approach to rural community tourism seems as if it might offer communities with a practical way to meet pressing economic and social needs, while safeguarding important cultural and environmental resources of these communities.
Few would doubt that things like cultural practices and the natural beauty of the landscape in Nor Yauyos Cochas are of significant intrinsic value to those living in the reserve.  Unfortunately, such intrinsic value is often ignored when evaluating ‘development’ projects through a simple economic cost-benefit analysis. By implementing systems of rural community tourism, however, communities are able to give a market value to those elements of their lives which already carry an important intrinsic value, thereby protecting them from other forms of economic development which would harm these natural and cultural elements. Tourism is therefore able to provide communities with economic benefits including jobs, while providing an economic disincentive for other socially-harmful development practices.
Still, some questions remain in my mind regarding the authenticity of cultural practices once given a market value.  It is also worth considering whether or not any harmful side effects of tourism outweigh the social benefit brought about by economic protection of cultural manifestations?  These and other questions I hope to answer during my 8 months in Peru.


Dan