Pumacanchi

After a little more than 24 hrs at altitude, I’m starting to feel the edginess wear off, as somehow my body is adapting to using air with 67% of the oxygen that it is accustomed to. It also helps to be eating the seriously good food prepared by our hosts: hot tea, beans, rice, potatoes, soups, some sort of chocolate broth for breakfast, etc. Not fancy, but really solid basic foods that make a good case for simple eating.

This afternoon we got our driver to take some of us up to a nearby lake (Pumacanchi), fifteen minutes and a mere 1,000 vertical feet away. The lake was really nice, reminiscent of Klamath Lake, and had some cool-looking birds. My father-in-law and oldest son (the birders) will appreciate my evocative descriptions, for example: “small, black bird” or “looks like a duck.” I’m hoping the pictures can be reverse-engineered by an expert to determine their actual names.  I did get a panorama of the lake:

Tomorrow morning we are heading out early to our base camp in Japura, and then taking a trip to Lake Sibinacocha near the summit of the Peruvian Andes (check it out on google images!). This should be exciting! 

I hear that we may not have cell service out there, so I will do my best to write about the water system work but I may not be able to post anything until Friday, the day we are planning to turn on the taps for the first time.  Thanks for reading!