My trip to the ¨Beach¨

Part of my job is working with artisans who make souvenirs and such from sea shells. You know those things you´d buy if you went to Mexico on vacation, things such as a big sea shell that has a sunset painted on it and the words ¨Cozumel, Mexico¨ written on the side and it was made by a local Mexican. My artisans make these things. Well to get the material, they go to the beach and find a variety of seashells: big ones, small ones, red ones, orange ones, circle ones, spiral ones, sharp ones, soft ones, etc.

So last Wednesday, my artisans tell me we are going to the beach Friday morning to find sea shells. I was all for it because just getting out and doing something different is great. Friday rolls around and they said we were going to leave at 9:00. Therefore I got up at 9:00 in order to eat breakfast, drink some coffee, watch some t.v. Why did I rise at 9:00? Well simple. In Perú, 9:00 really means 10:00, or possibly 10:30. It depends. That is Peruvian time. At first it was a little pain, but I have gotten used to it and it is really nice. So anyways, I got up at 9:00 and about one hour later, one of my Artisans comes to my door to get me. We walk down to the locale where we have our meetings and there are 8 other artisans waiting for our ride. Last time we went to the beach, we rode in a pickup truck: 3 people in the front, 4 in the backseat, and about 10 in the bed of the truck. Peruvians will get in any moving thing and fit as many people as they can into them. That’s the way things work. Well this time, I was expecting something similar. After about 15 minutes of waiting ( we only waited for 15 minutes?! Usually we wait for anything and everything for at least 30 minutes. Needless to say, I am definitely learning patience), this big truck that looks like a trash truck comes driving down the street and my artisans tell me that’s what we are riding in. I laugh because I thought it was a joke, and they laugh too because they thought I was laughing because I was in disbelief. Sure enough though, when the truck got closer I saw two of my artisans riding in the front seat. Okay, I am thinking, this is definitely not a joke!

All of my artisans begin getting into the back of the truck which has 10 foot walls that are made of wood and and nailed together quite loosely. Once you see the back it looks like something cattle would travel in. There was nothing in the back but 4 wooden benches that we all sat on. The only problem with them was they were not nailed down, so whenever we hit a bump or the driver slammed on his breaks we all went flying. Anyways, a couple of the women tell me to ¨sube¨ (to get in ) in the front, but I insist in riding in the back. I think it would be fun and I always want to ride with my artisans. I don’t want to feel like an outside or someone who is better than them. I want to live like they live so I can understand them and relate to them better.

After I sube in the back, we ride for about 1 hour on the highway and honestly, the only time I fear for my life in Perú is when I am travelling. These Peruvians are the craziest drivers in the sometimes most un-stable vehicles. When I went to Ancash for my FBT (field based training), we rode up the side of this mountain in a taxi that was going so very fast, on this dirt road with loose gravel, that had a drop off into the canyon just 5 feet from the road. Talk about scaring! It seems like on slip of the drivers hand and he would lose control and send us scaling down the mountain.

Well the driver is taking us to Parachique, which is the town where we are going to be finding sea shells, and instead of taking the road that goes down to the beach, we takes the road that continues into the vastness of the Sechura desert. He then stops the truck and drops all of us off in the middle of the desert. I had no clue what were going to be doing in the middle of this desert when we were supposed to be finding sea shells on the beach. I ask one of my artisans and she tells me we are finding sea shells, of course. It was really strange, but there were just random piles of sea shells scattered all across this desert. And they were assorted by type, too. It was quite easy to find sea shells that we needed once we found the piles, but finding the piles was the hard part. My artisans told me they were there because the fishermen gathered the shells for the food, then dumped them in the desert. But that wasn’t the only thing I found dumped in the desert. While walking for 2 hours, in bloody flip flops from all the thorns that were getting stuck in my shoe and gashing at my feet, I happened to run across a decayed cow corpse and the corpse of a dog that had a decayed head but still had all of its hair on its body. Weird. I almost tripped over them too because here I am looking down at the sand trying to find sea shells and not watching where I was going.

We walked around for a couple of hours and THEN went down to the beach to eat. Parachique is a big fishing spot so there are hundreds of boats from all around Piura trying to make a living catching and selling fish. There are also a bunch of women there who have set up tables just 20 feet from the shoreline where they serve ceviche (raw fish) and camotes, canchita ,chincha (sweet potato, fried corn kernels, and this really bad fermented corn drink) to the fishermen and locals. I am not a big fan of ceviche unless it is made in a restaurant. Anywhere else, people do not prepare it correctly. I did have to sit and pretend to eat it though. I always just eat the onion and tomato that is served with it to make it look like I ate some. But it was really cool to be eating at these tables right off the shore and to be surrounded by all these big fishing boats and ocean wildlife flying and crawling around everywhere.

After five hours of being in the desert, we finally went home. I had envisioned the trip being only 2 hours, max. But that’s one thing you need to know about being here. Things never turn out like you think they will.