A View from "our" terrace at Lula's B & B

Feral (?) dogs fighting, cows being milked, goats being tended, farmers tending their crops, and lest we forget, fabulous views of the snow-covered Andes Mountains  --  these are all aspects of the views surrounding “our” terrace at Lula’s B & B where we are spending the first two weeks of our time in Peru.   Here is some commentary about the views along with some pics. 

We wake up to a cacophony of roosters around 5:30 am.  We can’t see the roosters, but wow, are they close!

At 6:30 am, bells rings for several minutes – so much better than an alarm clock. 

Breakfast is served to us on the terrace around 8:00 am.  The view of the mountains is stunning, and it’s amazing how quickly the air warms once the sun arises.

View of El Misti -- a perfectly shaped cone volcano (active):

View of El Chachani -- inactive volcano, a popular hiking mountain:

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Five levels of terraced fields are visible off to our left, and it appears as if one field is unkempt, another is being re-leveled, the third is grazing land for cattle, the fourth is a field (note pics of the workers who are weeding and perhaps thinning), and the next was plowed over the course of two days with a real tractor.

the five terraces:

the grazing land terrace:

the terrace that was weeded over the course of two days:

One lucky farmer has a tractor (or perhaps he hires out to people that need a tractor).  He plowed for two days, and we now realize that on the second day, he was digging trenches for both irrigation and planting.  The planting  was done by hand the third day (second pic).  We think it may be onion sets or something like that; onions are massively grown in Peru: 

People also head to work, walking along the little dirt path between the terraced fields:

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There is a concrete block structure directly in front of us.  It's a milking barn, apparently used by several farmers.  Around 4:30 pm, cows and herders start streaming in in groups, with cows mooing all the way, and they are moved into the structure for the evening milking.

cows on the path heading to the barn:

cows in the barn:

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Directly below the concrete milking barn is a field that has recently been planted.  Every evening, around 5:00, the farmer comes over to cover the new plantings – to keep in the heat.  This operation takes about two hours. By the time we get up and have our breakfast, the coverings are gone.

False alarm!  In the previous two pictures, we had thought they were keeping new seedlings warm, but we now know they were actually trying to get the plastic set right for the dropping off of oregano, which came early the next morning (unfortunately, we missed the delivery).  They spread it all out to dry, fluffing it often and raising a lot of dust, which they then swept off the plastic.  Perhaps this is the oregano you find in the spice jars at Hy-Vee! 

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In the midst of all the activity, Harold does some work on his computer.

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Just over to the right, goats can be seen with goat herders, but we are sure they are very careful not to get them in the corn terrace which is right next door.

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Off to our right and a tad higher, we have a view of a “young town.” Peru's "young towns" often started with groups of people who would spontaneously take over land.  Houses  evolved from the shacks which led to brick, clay, or concrete homes being built. Community structures were born, with communities banding together to build stairs so that residents at the top could get home more easily.

  

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And directly in front of the "young town," we find this contrasting mini-castle surrounded by concrete walls.  The structures at the top of the taller white portion are a series of solar water heaters.

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As the evening milking and other activities take place, we watch the clouds thicken over “our” mountains, but if it's clear, we get to see the marvelous lighting of the sunset glowing on "our" mountains.

 

El Misti:

El Chachani:

Pichu-Pichu -- the mountains off to the far right of our terrace:

   

And so it goes, here in Arequipa, Peru, a couple of days from our terrace, brought to you compliments of Julie and Harold, who hung around “home” because Julie was – well, “under the weather.”