SULLUSCOCHA LAGOON COMMUNITY

History

Enrique Huaman has lived here for 25 years with his wife Graciela Rojas and their children, Maria Hermelinda, 23, and Maria Eugenia, 15, and his son-in-law Fermin Huaripata, in this picturesque house located next to the Lagoon Sulluscocha. Don Enrique is a farmer and bricklayer, and he has also been the mayor assistant for Sulluscocha for eight years. During this period, he carried out many important projects such as the sewers and the building of the primary school. This family had their happiness assured by the arrival of Don Enrique’s grandchildren: Eligio,1, Jose, 3, and Vilma, 6, Don Enrique has built with great effort the house where he resides at the moment, and he has been part of the implementation of the rooms destined to tourist accommodation. Doña Graciela, Enrique’s wife, is a midwife, and as the whole family, she is willing to welcome the travelers who want to share their singular way of life.

Among the activities they carry out, you can find the raise of small livestock, sowing and harvest of agricultural products according to the season, fishing, etc.

Location

The rural house is located in the Namora district, next to the Lagoon Sulluscocha, Km. 17th of the Cajamarca-Namora highway.

Geography

Access ways: Dirt road
Estimated car travel time from Cajamarca: 30 minutes.
Height : 9,850 ft. above sea-level

Lodging description

The household area destined to the tourist accommodation is independent of the family house.
Capacity: the Huaman Sanchez family house consists of 2 rooms assigned for tourist accommodation equipped with beds, bedtime table and lamps. Both the materials and decoration style are native of the area, both in the house building and in the furniture. The bedrooms are located on the second floor, and they have an independent access; the small bedroom can accommodate 3 people, while the large one can accommodate 7, with a total capacity of 10 people.Building materials: the house was built by Mr. Huaman using mud and stone. It has a tiled roof and the floor is made of wood.

Household services

Water supply: there is no drinking water. Water is provided by filtering of underground wells surrounding the lagoon.
Electric power: there is no electricity. Lamps and flashlights are only used at night.
Bathroom: one ecological bathroom that includes a bowl, a sink, cold-water shower, which go to a septic well.

Activities carried out during the visitor’s stay

Food-related:

  1. We will share the typical breakfasts, lunches and dinners with farm products harvested during the season.
  2. The host family will teach us how to make bread in their mud oven.
  3. Partaking in typical food preparation cooked in mud pots and using firewood.
  4. Traditional carp-fishing in the Lagoon Sulluscocha, which is located next to the rural house, essential for enjoying our subsequent lonche and breakfasts.

Livestock raising:

  1. At cockcrow, we will take the livestock to pasture.
  2. We will reap the pastures for the small livestock such as guinea pigs, ducks, hens and rabbits.

Farm-related:

  1. We will be part of the faro work sowing or harvesting diverse food products from the area such as potatoes, corn, ocas, beans, barley, chocho, tuna, quinua, etc., in relation to the season (see agricultural calendar).
  2. We will join the community works such as platform and house building, and irrigation projects.
  3. We will also help the family in farm chores such as trilla, or by preparing the fields for sowing.

Handcraft-making:

  1. The rural mother will teach us the handmade process for using wool in the making of looms.
  2. We will travel around some local houses where we will be able to see how they make guitars, artifacts made of wood and totora. We will learn the ancient textile techniques that are still used by local people.

Cultural:

  1. We will join in mystical rituals such as the Table Serving for thanking the Pachamama and the sacred invocations to the Apus (Holy Hills and Mountains) to better understand the ancient Andean vision of cosmos.
  2. We will light fires at night under the moonlight to participate in local storytelling of tales, myths and legends, about their ancestors, customs and traditions, followed by local music and dance performances.
  3. We will go to community school meetings with the family, to get to know more about the organization of the community.
  4. We will participate in traditional festivities organizad by the community (see the Traditional Festivities calendar).

Cultural and Natural Attractions:

  1. We will visit the Kollor ruins and the Saint Nicholas Lagoon near the “Capac Ñam” Inca road, traveling across little towns in the valley and learning about the local flora and fauna.
  2. In the town of Llacanora, we will have the opportunity to appreciate the Llancanora waterfalls, where we will see two amazing waterfalls and the caves of Callacpuma, with primitive paintings.
  3. We will also go on a night walk to the Sulluscocha viewpoint, from where you can see the city of Cajamarca.

We will climb the female Apu located near the Lagoon, where we will see the geological formations.

Program:
03 Days / 02 Nights

Day 1

Cajamarca:
Arrival and reception at the city of Cajamarca.

Baños del Inca:
Transfer to the “Baños del Inca” complex, where you will take a comforting medicinal thermal bath in its extraordinary and healing warm water.

Transfer to the community of Sulluscocha:
Transfer to the town Lagoon Sulluscocha.
During the trip, we will enjoy the beauty of the landscape and get to know the rules, tips, and some important distinctive traits of the countrymen, which should be taken into account by the tourist to have a fraternal and pleasant coexistence.
On the road, we will make a stop in the town of Llacanora.

Welcome to the Andean house:
Welcome by the countrymen and accommodation in the house. Here we will begin our great adventure of socio-cultural exchange.

Lunch and Farm Work:
After the accommodation, we will have lunch at noon. Among the countrymen, this time is very important and it is immersed in a ritual context. It is carried out around a no-legged table, i.e. a circle, where we sit down on the ground, and everybody shares their food looking up to each others’ eyes.
We can participate hands-on in the harvest and sowing of vegetables and other products in the “Tourist Orchards” according to the current season. These vegetables will be used to feed other guests who will come later. So, the very tourists will sow their own food.

“The meal at seven”:
It is the countryman’s dinner. There, the family gets together, talks about daily work, achievements, problems and what has to be done for next day in front of a warm fireplace.

Day 2

Andean morning, bread-making and farm work:
We will get up at cockcrow to hustle the hens while we will collect the eggs. Then, we will help women make the bread for a typical highlander breakfast.
This breakfast is also timely to get to know a little more about the local customs, and the origin of food. We also talk about the farm work done the previous day.

Kollor Ruins and Lagoon San Nicolas:
After breakfast, we will depart to the Kollor ruins and the lagoon San Nicolas which belong to the district of Namora, going through little towns in the valley. We will start communing with the indescribable force of the Andes, its impressing landscape, clean crystal waters, and its dry, vivifying weather.
Return to the rural house where the family awaits with a delicious typical lunch, to recover our energies.
Later, we will help in the household chores: collect the wood, lock the cattle in the pen, feed the guinea pigs and hens, and other chores women do restlessly, but which encompass a fascinating appeal.

Fishing at Sulluscocha Lagoon:
Walk around the beautiful Sulluscocha Lagoon to see and be part of the collective traditional Carpa fishing.

Dinner and Storytelling of myths and legends:
When dinner time arrives, we will enjoy the tales, myths, legends and traditions, as well as anecdotes and rural jokes, which are usually full of a marvelous, naïve candor.
Mystic Ritual for thanking the Apus and the Pacha Mama.
After dinner, we will walk to the Apu or Holy Mountain “La Carshga” (which is the Quechua word for “rugged”), listening the noises the night brings to us. The we will light a fire to commence the ritual of offering to the sacred Apus (hills and mountains), and to the Pachamama (the earth mother), ancient Andean gods, who have not been wiped out of the rural men soul, despite the western religious control, and who have been adapted and transformed by the very rural men according to their own earth sacred vision. Then, the time for “chacchar” (to chew) the holy coca leaves will come, always accompanied by the ritual of drinking cañazo (sugarcane spirit) and the smoking of INCA cigarettes while we sing. Here, we will be able to feel nature and understand the Andean cosmo-vision a little better.
Accomodation.

DAY 3:

Breakfast:
We will have a delicious breakfast with cachangas and a heartening soup.
We will walk around the farm, doing the last tour around our hosts’ property, while we help in the farm work for the morning.

Lunch and Farewell:
This is the last lunch we will have with our hosts. It will be something special. During the farewell ceremony, you are free to show your feelings of love, friendship and solidarity that this experience had helped create.

Return to Cajamarca:
We will begin our return to the city of Cajamarca where you will have a free afternoon to go shopping.
Finally, at the scheduled time, we will pick you up to transfer to the bus terminal or corresponding hotel.