A taste of Cajabamba

This morning I returned to Lima after a week spent visiting my new site, Cajabamba. When I first heard my site assignment, I felt that it was going to be a great fit, and this week confirmed my initial impressions. My new host family, house, socios, town, and environment all seem wonderful, and I'm excited to finish training and officially become a cajabambina.

Here are some photos to give you a taste of my new home...

First stop on the week's journey was the regional capital of Cajamarca. The "Cajamarca crew" of Peru 19 had a couple of days to explore the city together before splitting off to our respective sites. We climbed up to a vista point overlooking the city:

Visited the main church on the plaza de armas:

And experienced first-hand some of the social conflict in the region regarding the controversial Conga mining project - this sign in a local dairy shop reads: "water and cheese YES, gold NO - Stop Conga d*****!"

Then on Tuesday we had "socio day," where each of our host families and one or two community partners (socios) came to Cajamarca to meet us, hear a bit more about the Peace Corps, and then accompany us back to our towns. Here's me on socio day with socio Edwin, Papá Javier, and Mamá Lourdes:

As it's currently summer in the mountains, every morning in Cajabamba dawns a beautiful sunny day, with the brilliant blue cielo cajamarquino (Cajamarcan sky). Cajabamba's main plaza just recently finished renovations, making for an even more picturesque scene with the church and yellow-painted buildings around the square.

This is the view from my house at sunset... not too shabby :)

One of the institutions I'll be working with in Cajabamba is the local technical college for agriculture and livestock, called CEFOP. Edwin works there as a veterinarian/professor, and he showed me around and introduced me to the farm's two adorable baby cows:

When he's not busy at CEFOP, Edwin also raises quails on his own... he has 600! I got to try some of the eggs he sells, and they pretty much taste like normal eggs - just smaller and fun to eat.

 Another afternoon, I went on a hike with Edwin, Papá Javier, and Jessica, the youth development volunteer who's already been in Cajabamba for a year. Here we are at la peña del olvido, a lookout point over the river valley below.

Instead of taking the same road back, we wound our way through some of the neighboring farms, passing cows, sheep, donkeys, dogs, pigs, chickens, and a whole lot of fields. Cajabamba is in the middle of a very agricultural zone, and many people make their living off their farms. In this picture you can see one such farm, the town of Cajabamba in the middle ground, and the beautiful mountains and cielo cajamarquino in the background. This is where you'll find me for the next two years!