Driving with the Devil

Everything is relative. I used to think that in relation to New Zealand, Argentina is chaotic and messy. Since arriving in Peru I have decided that Argentina is very orderly and a law abiding!

We went bush yesterday. To get there we took a vehicle for one hour. We arrive at the vehicle depot and sit waiting. There is an elderly man sitting beside me I glance at his white shirt back there is a tick meandering around investigating. I keep a close eye on the tick lest he decide to investigate my bare arm. 

Eventually the driver gets behind the wheel which is a signal for all passengers to board. It's a station wagon so I got in along with two others, that made three of us in the back seat which if we were in Argentina the driver would refuse to let any more in - one person per seat belt after all! Silly me forgot I am not in Argentina. To my surprise two more got in beside me and when I looked in the front there were two beside the driver so all up we were eight in the five seater station wagon. No problem. Start driving the driver has no hair on his head but two black bushy eyebrows.  He has a tattoo of a heart pierced by a sword on his forearm and between his forefinger and thumb  an unidentified black blob tattoo. We drove normally out of the city and once we hit the windy gravel road he was overcome with a great desire to fulfil his dream of becoming a Rally driver. He floored it!  Must have been doing nigh on 100 kmph around those gravel corners on his bald tires.     Drumming the steering wheel to the beat of the music blaring from the stereo.  He was a maniac! I don't get scared easily with "reasonably" mad drivers, but this time I sat there, terrified and holding on for grim death.  The lady and her kid beside me were fast asleep. Palmira wasn't saying anything so I figured this must be normal. She is from a part of the country where the people are unknown for being hotheaded so she would soon put him in his place if she felt it needful I thought. I was very thankful when we started to climb because the car was rather gutless and the steep road inhibited Jehu"s madness what a relief. 

It started to rain. Jehu slammed anchors and leaps from the car to wind up the windows of the rear doors.  Winding up consists of placing a hand on either side of the window pain and tugging with all his might until the glass reaches the top of the window frame this was repeated for both sides.  The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful except for an abrupt swerve or three to avoid colliding head on with a couple of vehicles as we came around the corner and a stretch where Jehu once again briefly translated us  to the Indy 500.  (On the way back we were telling a different driver about our hair-raising trip, and he laughed and said oh you must have gone with El Diablo! - The Devil)

El Diablo in full flight

Paying the Devil...and heaving relieved sighs!

We went to visit this little family, Leyder and Dora and their son Darwin.  Leyder's mother died faithfully, and one of his 8 brothers is professing.  Leyder has been in touch for a long time, and made his choice known a month ago.  His wife is lovely, and listens in the meetings.  Nice to see his joy and enthusiasm....long may it last!

They have a plot of land where they grow coffee and beans amongst other things.  Looking over the coffee plantation

Coffee beans starting to ripen

After seeing all this I realised why coffee is so expensive!  Here Leyder and Darwin are demonstrating how they take the red shell off the beans, which leaves them with a sweet moist coating.  These have to be then dried before being sold to the wholesaler.  They have become very fussy now, and grade the coffee before buying it.  So the grower takes his beans to the buyer and they will roast it and grind it and drink it to see the quality before paying the grower.  

Banana flower

Red beans - cleaning them of the dirt and stones and one or two black and white beans that somehow got in amongst the original seed, then bagging them to take to sell.

No pegs!

Dora cooking in her fancy kitchen...no scullery here!

Going down to the outhouse

Beneath our mozzie net, set to share the bed for the night...

Wardrobe

Our bed from the outside...the family sleep on the other side of the partition.  Gotta be careful who you talk about because every conversation is heard!!

Night in the kitchen, Darwin drawing under a very dim light bulb!!

Some of the fruit...the orange something like a persimmon in flavour.  The white one is guanabana.  A rich fruit with a banana/pineapple/feijoa flavour