Toil

His scythe is from a past century; his muscles from hard work, not a protein drink. He doesn’t have the luxury to complain about headlines or Facebook posts. He was a reminder about how most folks in Peru live. Hard work with no paid vacation, Lazy Boy chairs or coffee breaks.

While parts of Peru are gorgeous , rural areas like La Merced, about three hundred KM from Lima, supply a mix of Lonely Planet adventure and hardship. But hardship doesn’t mean not to visit this rural and gorgeous area. Just don’t expect hot showers or vegan restaurants in this selva or high jungle city. Do expect a good cuppa joe as La Merced is in the heart of Peru’s coffee bean region, Chanchamaya. And birds. You’ll see a lot birds in La Merced. Coffee bean trees are their version of a five star hotel.

What to do in La Merced?

Well, you can sign up for a day tour. Tourists booths are everywhere, each with the same fading signage hawking the same attractions. Waterfalls, rope bridges, and a stop in Perene. It’s a Peruvian version of Holland Michigan’s Dutch Village, part culture, part cringe, with a big wooden shoe and tulip farms back in the day. Anyway, indigenous folks don’t have the wooden shoe, but have their own rituals. They dress up in their native attire and introduce you to their customs. Visitors take an active role in the evening, putting on beads, headwear, a bit of face paint, and the evening culminating with everyone dancing around a bonfire. I wasn’t really keen on it, especially when they brought out an anaconda, yes, a real one, turning my holiday into a lost episode from Animal Planet. But there was a boy with our group with down’s syndrome, about ten years old. He was having the time of life, taking in the dancing and even the snake. If there were only a way to put his joy in a bottle and give it to folks who post those mean things on Facebook.

Other than the tours and birding, you can walk up to the Jesus cross on the highest mountain in La Merced. Just as every highway stop in America has sparkling bathrooms, every town in Peru has a Jesus cross on the highest hill. I climbed to the top, but was thwarted by a pack of not-so-happy dogs on my way back down. They were all in dire need of baths and obedience school. One actually bit me. Yes, an ankle biter actually bit my ankle! His fangs didn’t break my skin, and he wasn’t foaming at the mouth, so I wasn’t worried. At the time, I was a bit scared as there were several more mongrels on the path. A few local kids escorted me back down the hill, keeping the fangs at bay. There’s a moral to this story, I’m just not sure what it is. Be on guard when you visit Jesus? Not all dogs go to heaven? Don’t walk to the cross alone? Who knows. But the little ankle biter sure is cute.

La Merced is on the banks of a rambling ChanchamayaRiver, which also doubles as a laundry mat. You can hear the roar of the river everywhere, except in the morning, when the sounds are drowned out by roosters and the buzz of bugs.

The weather is balmy in La Merced, a nice change from Lima where winter is approaching, the skies the color of that old pair of sweat socks you should throw out (ya know, the one with the hole that you fold over so your toe doesn’t poke out?) Grey and blah. It’s weird literally having Christmas in July in Peru, but I’m getting used to it. Everything is weird here, but that’s a different post. Back to La Merced. A local wedding in the town square provided entertainment for the entire city. Yes, I was a wedding crasher. No, I didn’t even try to catch the bouquet.

What to eat in La Merced?

You can try grilled banana, or anaconda, which I’m not sure is a vegetarian choice. And there is always chicken which I’m sure tastes like anaconda, or maybe it’s the other way around. Huevos (eggs) in the morning come with Yucca fries, which are like steak fries but with a stringy texture. Grilled bananas are good; I’m just not sure how they’d hold up on Cornflakes.

Of course, you’ll want to try the coffee in La Merced. There are roasters everywhere. It is good luck to put five beans in your pocket. Gee, I wish I knew that before I ran into the dogs. You can also purchase kion liquor. The word kion originating from a mispronunciation of the Mandarin word for ginger, jiāng. You can call me Ginger, you can call me kion, you can call me jiāng…

After my long weekend, I took the night bus back to Lima, surviving eight hours of twists and turns. TIP: be sure to take a cocktail of altitude and motion sickness medicine before embarking the bus through the mountains. It is brutal, even in the comfie 160 seating of a Cruz Del Sur bus.

After I left this blue collar town, life in La Merced goes on. The digging, the planting, the hawking of t-shirts, the grinding of coffee, the handling of peculiar critters, and the pleasure of simple moments, that somehow seem to get forgotten in the big city.