Going downhill the Chachami by bike

One of the main activities to be done near Arequipa is to go down with a bike from an altitude of 5000 meters from the Chachami mountain. It is a radical experience and also provide some really nice view! You basically take 2,5 hours to go up and around 3,5 hours to come down which includes some tough terrain to control the bike but also some radical high-speed road down!! I believe the image will tell more than words!

If you want to see more pictures, click here!

A country called Arequipa...

Arequipa is part of Peru but at the same time it is not. According to the Limeños, Arequipa is another country. And the Arequipenos pretty much agree on that! :)
But because of one of those ironies from destiny, they were gathered together in the same country! And it feel really nice to be in Arequipa, the sun was shinning, the food was excellent and the people very happy!!

(Calm down Limeños, you city is also extraordinary but with your own identity :p)

The three mountains around Arequipa form a strong landscape, almost impossible not to refer to them when taking pictures. Arequipa is also called the White City because of the frequent utilization of volcanic stone in the buildings. But I believe this is just possible because the air is extremelly dry there, therefore, helping to conserve it. You can see all the pictures here!

The trip to Machu Picchu

Hola todos!!!!

This week, the pictures from Machu Picchu. Since everybody know what it is and where it is, we are just posting the pictures.
If you want to see more pictures, you can click here.

The trip to Cusco - Inti Raymi festival

This post brings the pictures from Cusco! We were privileged to see the Inti Raymi, the Inca festival of the sun. It was a very impressive representation of what happened during the Inca times. Since the Incas followed a circular way of life, the solstice was important to mark a renew cicle.

To be honest, I got a mixed feeling towards the Incas, not sure if I would like to be living under their 'management'. In this sense, I still prefer the Moche culture from all I have seen from here but the reason is subject to another post.

The Inca king appears - impressive posture

Servents from different tribes prepare the King's path

Tribes loyal to the Inca's post themselves in the cerimony

The sun (God Inti) hears the claims from the Incas and decided to appear

Tribes aligned to reverend the Inca king and start the party

Tough walk to go and to come back to the Inti Raymi festival site

Ayacucho and Huanta (Day 2)

The second day in Ayacucho was pretty full and we continue to visit business ideas in order to understand better what is the impact of business model generation in small scale entrepreneuship, we started with two businesses that are more than interesting.

The first one uses cactus to produce various handcraft such as lamps, frames, tables, earrings and others. What is interesting with the cactus is that it is a raw material that is abundant in the region and its properties are light and at the same time hard. The only issue with it is that it takes around 20 to 40 years to have a cactus that is ready for use so some thinking about the business sustainability will be needed in a medium/long term.

Products made of cactus



Explanation on the production process

The second business was some sort of school formed by youngsters that were graduated in several fields of knowledge and decided to give classes to develop the children in Ayacucho. The main idea is to develop some children that have potential and give them free or very cheap education. This business has the profile of other new business, the youngsters have tried to open the school on 2006, and then on 2008 again. They succeeded but they had to close again. On 2010 they have been through the Emprende programme (this is the name of the CEDRO's programme that teaches Entrepreneurship) and finally reopen in 2010 as they were one of the awarded initiatives. The results are already appearing as they have gone very well into the Peruvian mathematics Olympics and several 2nd places on other competitions like that.

Talk with the social innovator

One of the spaces used to teach children

After that we went to Huanta, a different province that is around one hour from Ayacucho. Huanta is interesting because it shows one of the first districts that saw the potential for business developments in small scale. CEDRO has developed the Emprende Progamme there and the municipality has hired themselves some consultants to continue the programme. We have seen some initiatives from the first year:

The first was a farm that grows chicken and cocks, the chicken are taken to the farm to produce eggs and the cocks are sold, just one remains to be the reproducer. The eggs are organic as they are fed with organic corn since they are raised up thus getting a better price for it. The business is very sustainable, the only issue is the wolf that sometimes attacks the chickens.

Piero with the pollitos

Organic eggs

 

Meeting in the municipality of Luricocha (notice that the symbol in the flag is an avocado)


The second initiative is a girl that sells popcorn. With the money awarded from CEDRO, she bought a popcorn car and she now owns already 3 cars. She is soon diversifying the business and will start offering fried potato and banana to schools.

One of the Popcorn car (started with one and there are four already!)

The last intiative was a pig farm where the pigs were awarded by the Emprende programme. The business is also growing as no pig has died yet and the profitability is strong.

Pig growing site

The trip itself was very usefull to understand how CEDRO has been working with new business generation and also to understand the profile of business we are talking here. More important, it shows that small initiatives using people's creativity can indeed take people out of poverty.

If you want to see all pictures, you can click here!