ProPeru Service CorpsNGO Internship Volunteer ReportAlfred Dunn6th April, 2007 – 18th, May, 2007
1. Project Name:
Agricultural Tourism in Chichubamba
2. Contacts:Jaime Olave, Coordinator, AgroTourism Project in Chichubamba, ProPeruPrudencio Herrera, President, Chichubamba AgroTourism Association
3. Timeline:
Week 1
Orientation of the project, conducting 2 consultation visits during the day to participating families – those failing to receive the volunteer are formally dismissed from the program. Starting to discuss with Jaime about plans for the brochures and postcards, and familiarizing with all past volunteer reports and supporting documents
Week 2
Continued visits to the community to familiarize with the people and take pictures for marketing materials. Started drafting the evaluation report during the nights. Conducted the first tour with tourists on 20th April, 2007 and remarked on the progress since this was the first tour in many months’ time.
Week 3
Finalized the evaluation report. Conducted 2 tours, one with a group of tourists and the other with 2 volunteers, with the former being more standardized and the latter focusing more purposely on evaluating the sustainability of the program. Started designing the brochures and postcards and continued to discuss with Prudencio on the issue of bathrooms and hygiene of the community. Held a meeting with Arariwa on Thursday and they promised to add Chichubamba on their ‘tourist map’ and would conduct a brief tour of Chichubamba – but this was done in rush and I personally didn’t sense much interest from the representatives of Arariwa during their brief visit to Prudencio’s house. Held an evaluational meeting on Saturday and taught the villagers about the 4Ps of marketing and asked them to rethink about how to improve their services based on this model.
Week 4
Completed the evaluation report, started translating into Spanish with the assistance from my Spanish teacher, Reyner. Finalized the design of brochures and postcards and started translating the brochure from English into Spanish with the assistance from Stephanie and Sandra. To ensure that the tourists know about what the participating families explain during their visits, I asked each family to submit an information sheet – this was not completed until 1 week later.
Week 5
Went to Cusco to print the brochures at a printer recommended by William Careño, one of the participants of the program. Later we discovered that the real print was very different from the endorsed version and asked the printer to redo the publications. Jaime and I called an urgent meeting with all the families to discuss various issues, including the printing of postcards, hygiene, bathrooms…etc. Collected information sheets from the main participating families during the meeting.
Week 6
The brochures were still not ready, to our dismay and frustration. The community asked for more designs of postcards and I was trying to finalize them but couldn’t finish due to the lack of time and the essential existing procedures. Conducted another evaluational tour with the new group of volunteers. Finished translating the ‘essential phrases’ and distributed translated manuals to each family that had submitted the vocabulary lists in the beginning. At the same time each family received a translated version of the evaluation report and was asked to improve according to the suggestions in it (the report is attached at the end of this document). During my farewell session Jaime also reiterated the need for the community to clean up the surroundings, and the participants promised to conduct an 1-hour cleaning session every Sunday at 6pm.
4. Summary of the Project:
The agro-tourism project was informally set-up as a collaborative effort between the previous director of ProPeru, Toni, and the community of Chichubamba roughly 3 years ago, but Scott and Jaime justly recently took over the project approximately a year ago and almost completely revamped the project. Instead of imposing the model of “Kanchay Wasi” (another Pro-Peru project under the supervision of Lily) in which the women are more like employed instead of administering the project themselves, the Agro-tourism Project in Chichubamba now aims at giving the highest degree of flexibility to the villagers such that ProPeru will only be giving suggestions to the people unless in dire circumstances. At the basic level, the project aims at tapping into the growing off-the-beaten-trek mode of tourism in Peru, especially in the Sacred Valley that has been excessively marketed or even exploited in recent years. What we believe is, in addition to the ruins and markets that have been overwhelmed by tourists, other communities in the Sacred Valley such as Chichubamba can also benefit from the growth in tourism by showing their traditions to the tourists without giving in to modern commercial needs. In addition to their income from agricultural activities, we hope to derive an extra economic initiative for the villagers for they are the real ones, not the foreigners, who deserve to benefit in the tourism growth in Peru. By allowing more flexibility into the project, we hope that eventually the villagers can eventually detach themselves from ProPeru and market themselves to the tourists independently and in reality playing the role as owners of a communal enterprise.
My short presence in the project makes it difficult to carry out initiatives to educate the villagers, but instead, Jaime and I focused on improving the more readily observable software such as publicity and cleanliness. Of course, this is far more difficult than expected not only because of the innate lack of educational background of the villagers, but is also due to the lack of input by the community. This will be detailed in the sections below.
5. Vision:
Officially, the project in Chichubamba aims at capitalizing and combining Peru’s two main sources of income – tourism and agriculture – to appeal to local and foreign tourists whose appetite appears to be less and less satisfied by the routine tourist tasks and who are constantly seeking alternative and more genuine cultural interaction experiences with the locals. Chichubamba, affords great potential to be included in Sacred Valley tourist packages not only because of its rich natural resources but also because of its excellent location in one of the more accessible parts of the Sacred Valley of relatively lower altitude. However, the project was not set-up just as a plain economic initiative for the people in Chichubamba, but rather is aimed at providing a full package of education that compels the villagers to rethink in various areas such as marketing, packaging, hygiene, coexistence of modern day needs and traditions…etc. My belief is that it’s very easy for Chichubamba to depend entirely on ProPeru to bring in tourists and achieve the economic incentive part, but in order for the project to be sustainable and beneficial to the community in the long term, the villagers should view tourists as a positive impact on their lives. With this global perspective coming in, it is inevitable that the community change accordingly to match the needs of tourists. For on a personal incentive level, the villagers will only be driven to change when there’s a need to change. For this reason, the project appeals to me much more than just a single direction output from the community level to the tourists – but rather it should be a dynamic one that transforms the evaluations and feedback of tourists into the force and motive behind ameliorating their ways of life in the community. Members of the community will also benefit from the international, cultural exchanges through constant conversations with people from other parts of the world and mutual appreciation of each other’s way of life.
6. The Role of the Volunteer:
Usually the volunteer capitalizes on his/her English and computational skills to produce marketing materials and solicit them to international and local travel agencies alike. Yet the level of interaction that the volunteer can achieve is highly dependent on his/her Spanish skills, for he/she will soon find out that he/she is the only person in the project who masters both languages. When tourists come, the volunteer is the first person to approach for translation – be it he or she can actually carry out that function or not. In the low months, the volunteer is also supposed to carry initiatives to improve the software of the project such as teaching English and computer classes, improvement of publicity as well as helping the community to clean up.
In addition to the routines of receiving tourists, what I focused on doing was improving the publicity software, such as designing brochures and postcards and getting them printed before the high tourist season comes in June so that the community will be able to market itself to the tourists in the right time. This was not finished at the time I left, to our anger and dismay, in respect of the inefficiency of the printing company. And being the first volunteer on this project in the year of 2007, I revisited all participating families to conduct a tour focusing on the purpose of evaluating their ability to present, hygiene and sustainability. This was also given highlight when I conducted tours with other volunteers. On the basis of these observations and feedback, I drafted a detailed evaluation report, with specific comments and suggestions to each participating family as well as a working timeline, and distributed this to all families so that they will be able to work accordingly. (See attached)
Previous experiences of other volunteers and my short presence have made it difficult to carry out large-scale initiative such as English and computer classes. But more so, contrary to the belief of previous tourists, I do not think the community members of Chichubamba have the ability to gulp in heavy English and computer materials. One instance of trying to teach Katerina (Prudencio’s daughter) a couple phrases in English made me realize that it will take 6 months or more to engage anyone in the community with a basic English conversation. Participation is another problem – for the community members are generally older and are so occupied that it’ll be very hard to hold regular classes, and their kids are either too young and shy or are obsessed with school work and outside activities to sit in English classes. What’s more is that the community members actually need not, and are not capable to, engage in a fluent conversation with tourists in English. I believe all they have to know is how to explain their specialty and talk a few general phrases – and this is all that some 40 or 50 year olds who have received minimal education and not situated in an environment that facilitates English conversation can afford to do. The same goes to computer classes – it makes no sense to teach them when they don’t even have chances to practice at home.
In view of this, I asked each family to submit a small procedure and vocabulary list so that I could translate into English for them. This was completed for the families that had submitted the lists, and was given to them in the end. For the meantime, they can show tourists this translated manual when they come to visit. And in the future, these small lists can serve as new teaching curriculum for future volunteers.
7. Role and responsibilities of involved parties:
a) Jaime
Jaime is the ProPeru coordinator for the Agro-tourism project. His ability not only lies in the length of presence in the project and the ability to communicate in both Quechua and Spanish, but also because he is from the place and knows exactly how to interact with the locals. Often volunteers will think that they have a lot of great ideas for the community but without care and moderation this can be turned into an imposing western framework – which contradicts the aim of the project of not to alter the traditions and customs of the people unless in dire needs. Thus Jaime is crucial in streamlining the western concepts into which the community can capitalize on for their growth. Aside from the cultural mix, Jaime is also strongly involved in getting the locals to work and improve their environment – but at times both him and I have gotten frustrated with the repeated failures of the community to meet their promises. Nevertheless, he is still striving very hard to improve both the hardware and the software on his part and hopefully the situation will change very soon.
b) Agro-tourism Association
The Agro-tourism Association is supposedly responsible for all day-to-day administrative matters. However its composition of Prudencio, Elisabeth and Alcione is a natural obstacle to functioning well. Elisabeth and Alcione are competitors on the ceramic market and they hardly even talk to each other. More so they are always away to Cusco or even Lima for long periods of time to market their products such that they have limited energy to attend to the matters back in the community. Prudencio is the contact for any arrangement of tours and in cases when important information has to be disseminated through the community. As the president of the agro-tourism association, he himself doesn’t appeal to me as having dedicated enough leadership effort throughout. I would have expected him to be able to demonstrate to the rest of the community as the person who is able to change so that the same concept can be instilled in other people. But on several occasions he himself did not fulfill his promises after weeks because of himself being occupied with a lot of external work (such as the Salle). Some participating families also complained about not being informed by him about the location and time of meetings and visits. I would suggest the next formation of the board of the association to include other people such as Eufracia Madera who is always present in the community so that we can really capitalize on his/her efforts to motivate the community forward.
c) Participating families
The families are the crucial part of the project for they are what the tourists have come to see. Right now we have 14 participating families, with 2 of them apparently dropping out as seen from their lack of participation in the association affairs. (Emilia Duran and Josefina Saloma)
Some of the families are more visited than the others and this is clearly a problem – not only that those who are less visited can appear to be envious and less willing to participate in the future, but those who are frequently visited (such as Prudencio Herrera and Regina Sanchez) are now much less motivated to change since tourists will come to their places regardless of the conditions. Another huge problem is that some activities are naturally more engaging than the others and can generate more income (such as bee-keeping and ceramics), but others such as cuys and floriculture can only depend totally the meager income from visits.
In view of this, Jaime and I have concluded that we should help more on the less visited families and design more marketing materials such as postcards specific to each family, calendars, bookmarks…etc so that each family can have its own capital to rely on. We also talked about the possibility of setting up a small shop/agency in Urubamba so that the less visited families will also have the showcase opportunity by displaying their pictures and products. These are detailed in the timeline below and are expected to be some of the main tasks in the next few months.
d) Arariwa
In the middle of my internship we had a meeting with Arariwa and they gave fruitful suggestions to improving sustainability of the project. They also promised to include Chichubamba on their ‘tourist map’. However during their brief visit to the community I sensed little interest but more distaste about the cleanliness of the environment from their representatives. They promised to shoot a video clip for Chichubamba but to my knowledge this has not been done at my time of departure. I do hope that a meticulous investigation into the genuineness of their interest can be carried out soon.
8. Special Considerations:
The current hygienic conditions in Chichubamba, as Jaime has reiterated for so many times, is far from satisfactory. For instance, the chocolate house, one of the most frequently visited, is always full of mosquitoes and flies. On the road that leads to Prudencio’s house, there is always animal excrements dumped here and there, and the space in front of his house is always full of garbage. And many of the houses don’t have bathrooms – and when tourists come they have to rely either on the bathrooms in Eufracia’s house, William Careño’s house or the bathrooms in Chichubamba School (which at this point the flushing system is not functioning well)
This recurring problem has been plaguing the community for such a long time that any effort to change has been futile. The community members are often, as they cite, too occupied to initiate a change. We of course don’t want to change their ways of life and their traditions, but when it comes to the issue of hygiene and beautification of environment both Jaime and I think that there really is a necessity to improve. Chichubamba is not the most naturally deprived place – other places like Isla Amatani and Isla Taquile on Lake Titicaca don’t even have electricity and phone coverage, however, all their roads are paved with designs and the houses maintain a communal garbage system such that the houses there do appear clean and tidy. And at the end of the day, it’s not only about showing to the tourists but also about the health of the people. Living in close proximity to garbage and pests can obviously create a lot of problems. I believe if Isla Amatani can receive more than 300 tourists per day, so does Chichubamba, but only if they community takes up the effort to improve the appearance of the environment.
Jaime and I eventually concluded that if the community does not improve on this, ProPeru has to take up more radical measures such as banning visits. For what we really want is that tourists can come and go in smiles and appreciation of Chichubamba’s customs and traditions instead of in distaste of its unsanitary conditions, which inevitably will lead to ruining of the place’s reputation and does no good but harm to the project’s sustainability.
9. Future:
The sustainability of the project depends on the following issues:
a) Ability of the community to subsist without relying on ProPeru and its volunteers
b) Ability of the community to improve their environment and hygienic conditions
c) Ability of the community to remain attractive in the realm of growing competition all over Peru and other South American countries
d) Ability of the community to continue to brainstorm and create more attractions to appeal to tourists in the future
Regarding a), the consensus is to slowly instill business and marketing concepts in the villagers so that they’ll be able to manage the project as their own. Previous volunteers also dedicated much of their efforts to teaching English and computer skills to the villagers. My belief is that the villagers must learn to think critically about each of their own service in their time, for after all they are the people who are presenting the skills to tourists. They should always keep in mind questions such as “What do tourists want to see?” and “How can I make the experience more engaging?” I aided them with an initial evaluation report, but they should always try to take the initiative instead of relying on volunteers to tell them what to improve. For this reason I started asking them to think using a simpler version of the 4P Marketing Model, but lots of concepts remain untouched. The villagers are also far from attaining professional, especially in areas such as organic flower growing and breeding cuys.
For English and computer skills, I don’t think any of the villagers will have the time and capability to attain even the basic level, so instead of conducting classes I handed them a short list of general greeting phrases as well as translated lists of terminology specific to each service. My belief is that in the future we should teach them whatever they have to know, and if they show immense interest in learning, then we can reconsider holding formal classes of instruction.
The criteria b), c), d) are tied together to the recurring problem of hygiene. We have also consistently received suggestions from tourists to include a wider variety of activities. In fact on Isla Amantani, they have started a pilot tourism scheme in which tourists will have the chance to stay on the island for 7 days to teach little kids. I personally think that while Chichubamba can continue to present itself as it currently is, the villagers should also continue to create more opportunities for tourists to ‘feel’ and ‘experience’ their lives – this not only will reinforce our aim of presenting the traditional Andean life to tourists, but will also afford numerous opportunities of cultural interactions which at the end of the day is beneficial to both Andean and foreign parties. A lot of people have commented on the fact that Chichubamba is rather modern – its villagers use mobile phones, its kids play online games, and that they don’t wear ‘cultural costumes’. For me, this perception is a blatant disregard of the fact that the villagers constantly blending their traditional way with the modern way to form a new culture. As some of the tourists mentioned, their way of cultivation, cooking, singing, dancing, teaching, story-telling…etc are all way of different from our own and should definitely be displayed to the tourists whenever possible.
I very much agree with some of the previous volunteers that the children of Chichubamba should assume a central role in learning English and computation. However, within the 14 participating families, altogether there are no more than 10 teenagers, and some of them like Katerina and Sandra (daughters of Prudencio) are as young as 8 or 9. Without a strong backing from their parents, they spend most of their time playing games in the afternoon. For the sustainability of the project, I absolutely think that they should spare their time on doing what their parents don’t have the time to do such as cleaning the streets and learning English.
For precise suggestions in the short term and the medium term, please review the timeline below:
10. Unresolved Issues:
- Some of the families are more frequently visited than others, and some generate more income than the others during each visit. Worse is that some families receive no competition such that they appear resistant to change because there is no such need. I believe this is due to the nature of the services (such as floriculture and cuys now only afford the chance to be visited but nothing else) and can only be solved with diversification of products.
- The members of the community should also understand better the abilities of volunteers and really should learn to appreciate the efforts of volunteers by listening to their suggestions. At times Jaime and I got really frustrated by the fact that while they ask a lot from ProPeru but themselves don’t really take up the suggestions from ProPeru volunteers. For example, the information bulletin that previous volunteers set up for Prudencio is simply hanging outside his house and has not been used until one instance when I reminded him of that. Almost in every single meeting some members complained about the lack of communication and punctuality became a matter of dispute among themselves. It’s imperative to let them know that the language barrier of volunteers often lengthens the time needed to process their requests. What’s more is that there are tasks that they should work on their own, for example cleaning and painting their houses, because after all it’s a part of their living and they should take up the main responsibility instead of expecting ProPeru volunteers to take up the initiative to raise the awareness and do that for them.
- The lasting problem of hygiene is not only an issue that we have repeatedly mentioned, but also by some travel agencies such as Kiswar and apparently even Arariwa. In order to really open up the project to tourist agencies and travel guides, the community must be substantially beautified and cleaned up first. Fortunately or unfortunately, the brochures were not ready by the time I left, so I didn’t have the chance to contact travel agencies in Cusco – but from the reports of previous volunteers it does seem that this problem does bother them.
- The community has very rarely displayed a commitment to group work. Animosity exists between particular members due to competition for tourist, and has led to lack of communication. It is, however, imperative for them to understand that ProPeru will try to be fair in giving them opportunities and should not be bothered by this.
- Over-dependence on ProPeru volunteers for translation. Some tourists have suggested that without ProPeru volunteers to stimulate cultural exchange, the project will be much less attractive.
For problems specific to each family and suggested solutions, please refer to the report below:
11. Review of costs:
Printing of brochures 952 Soles (at my point of departure only 300 Soles were paid as a deposit)
Photocopying 11 Soles
12. Attached Document: Evaluation report
(This report has also been translated into Spanish and distributed to all participating families to raise their attention)
Evaluation on agro-tourism projects, by Alfred Dunn (Apr-May, 2007)April 2006
4Ps de Marketing
- Promotion (Promocion)
- Product (Producto)
- Price (Precio)
- Place (Lugar)
General comments: (Red: urgent, Yellow: completed)
a) Create specific vocabulary lists for each family, ensuring that they’ll be able to greet tourists and explain the technical terms in English. It’s not necessary to teach villages difficult structures and unnecessary phrases.
b) Set up a shop in Urubamba to sell products and display photos of the available activities. In the medium term, consider designing new products such as bookmarks, calendars, notebooks, jewellery, utensils…etc. Each house will sell its tailored products. In the long run, operate a small office/shop in Cusco as well, but that’ll need a lot more marketing efforts such as packaging.
c) Contact travel guides such as Frommers, Lonely Planet and the Rough Guide by sending them our brochure samples.
d) Approach travel agencies in Cusco, and international ones that organize 10-day trips in the Sacred Valley and Camino Inca. Promote agrotourism as the ‘introduction to the Andes’ or the ‘best location to acclimatize to the mountain climate’.
e) Organize English and computer classes on weekends instead of at night on weekdays. Consider organizing the classes in Eufrasia’s hostel. Most villagers are too tired and live too far away to attend classes in ProPeru in the past.
f) Depend more on the younger generation for English and computer proficiency. Spend more effort on teaching them instead of the older generation. The older generation should focus on their services and cleaning their houses, whereas the younger generation should take the lead in contacting the outside world.
g) Put standardized signs in front of each participating house. Establish road signs and clearer directions of where to go for each activity along the paths. For example, draw a map outside Prudencio’s house. Consider printing maps and distribute to tourists when they come.
h) Include other activities such as school visits in the near future.
i) Market the interactive, educational nature of the activities that one can participate: for example, tourists are allowed to cut honey, make their own personalized chocolate
j) Ceramic workers should research more into the historical, cultural and anthropological context of the patterns that they use.
k) Diversification of products: Honey – more products, chocolate – more products, hostel – more activities.
l) Central information system: set up information bulletin, and require all participants of agro-tourism to check the latest information every 3 days.
m) Conduct evaluations of each service every 3 months: take away houses that lack behind in the progress and add in new ones when necessary
n) Hear about and record the life stories of each house – make sure the translators know them beforehand
o) For the time being, floriculture activities can only be offered during the ‘low season of the year’ – in other times, don’t market it to tourists.
Suggested timeline for the next 18 months
Short-term Medium-term Long-term
Suggestions:1. Launch new promotional schemes in Lima and to international agencies2. Employ professionals to improve the projects (especially for cuys and flowers)3. Open agency/shop in Cusco
4. Help the villagers establish contacts with the outside world
Prerequisite:
- recruit at least 2 volunteers
Suggestions:1. Take tourists around during the peak season
2. Start designing new materials for sale or marketing (e.g. bookmarks, calendars, notebooks)3. Continue to promote in Cusco4. Launch the shop in Urubamba5. Teach simple English phrases
Suggestions:1. Launch new, participatory activities such as dance, music, school education visits…etc2. New marketing materials – try to involve more local efforts by the villagers in Chichubamba instead of totally depdending on ProPeru3. Conduct evaluation on the sustainability of the project
Suggestions:1. Launch a new series of English and computer classes, targeting at the YOUNGER GENERATION
2. Improve the hardware: signs, maps, houses...3. Launch the sale of new products in each house and the shop in Urubamba4. Research into the historical and cultural context of products
Suggestions:1. Help each house rethink about its products, and put diversification into practice2. Teach the people about the historical and cultural context of products3. Assure all houses are equipped with a) bathrooms, b) water. Clean up all roads
4. Set-up large group visits with travel agencies
Completed:1. Report on participating families, work plan for the next 18 months
2. Designed brochures and postcards
3. Revamping the website4. Simple information bulletin outside Prudencio’s house
5. Started promoting to agencies in Cusco05/2007 06-08/2007 09-12/2007 01-05/2008 06-08/2008 09/2008 - after
Specific Comments for each house
1. Chicha: Selia Torres, Leonarda, Juana Chilinos
Process:
- Buy maize from the market (Leonarda also grows maize on her own), dry it under the sun for 15 days, and then boil it for 2 hours, using wood, and then ferment for 2 days before serving.- Chicha is the essential drink for each house in the region, used in work, matrimonial ceremonies and religious traditions
- Other form: Frutilada: softer, red in color because it uses strawberry, apples, cinnamon and anis leaves in its fermentation. (Usually in December, January)
- Good chichi: with a good amount of ‘puma’ (bubbles), if the chichi is over-fermented, then the amount of bubbles decreases
- Chicha is not kept for more than 1 day.
Possible problems:
a) Concerns about the hygiene of the chicherias - There are many flies around most of the chicherias
- Tourists are concerned about the hygiene of the utensils, need to be washed thoroughly with distilled water
b) Distribution of chicha is relatively limited: needs more channel of distribution and promotion of natural chicha- Only sold locally
- Difference between chicha in Chichubamba and chicha in Urubamba: in Urubamba the shops add ‘levadura’ – a kind of chemical that adds strength to the chicha
Comparison of the 3 chicherias
Leornada > Selia Torres > Juana
- All chicerias need to put in more efforts in killing off flies
Leornada:
- More hygienic
- Have an indoor area for clients
- Cultivates plants on her own so she’ll be able to show tourists about how she grows the materials herself
Selia
- Relatively less hygienic
- Have a large space for clients to hang out, but without much light available at late afternoon
- Doesn’t cultivate her own maize, so tourists can only see the process
Juana
- Very small place, no place for tourists to sit around and chat with the owner, and relatively much less hygienic
- No cultivation on her own
Suggestions:
a) Wash utensils with purified water right in front of tourists
b) Have better communication with the ceramics shops, using new ceramic cups for tourists
c) Serve Chicha in the proposed Tienda in the center of Urubamba, with an emphasis on the natural fermentation and the absence of additives.
d) Educate chicheria owners about proper handling of drinks of a sweet nature, so as to reduce the number of flies in each place
e) Educate chicheria owners about the sequence of explanation, and only serve chicha at the end.
f) Emphasize the need to learn about the scientific process of the production of Chicha
2. Apicultura: Prudencio
Process:
- In order to obtain honey, need to use smoke to tranquilize the bees
- Each bee needs 25 days to become fully-grown up
- Identifies the queen and her royal escorts
- Currently honey is sold
Suggestions:
a) Wash utensils with purified water right in front of tourists
b) Serve traditional drinks such as ‘honey tea’ in the shop instead of selling honey. Many tourists can’t buy honey for their own use because foreign agricultural products are not allowed into several countries such as the United States, but most will be willing to try out local drinks.
c) Serve honey/tea with honey in the proposed Tienda in the center of Urubamba, with an emphasis on the natural fermentation and the absence of additives. Diversification of products – such as candles…etc, with designs specific to Chichubamba or allowing tourists to design on their own too.
d) Clean off the areas near the house
3. Preparation of Cuy and typical dishes: Nery and Paulina
Process:
- Remove the hair of cuys, wash its meat with BOILED WATER
- Season the meat with natural spices such as HUACATAY, AJO, SALT, LLEVABUENA (OJITA)
- Cuys of 3 months old are the most tender, thus are the best for cooking
- ASADO de CUY (CUY AL HORNO)
Suggestions
a) Wash utensils with purified water or boiled water right in front of tourists
b) The hygiene conditions of Nedi’s house are not up to standard. Would recommend serving outside or in the hostels (Eufrasia/William)
c) Can combine with chicha / tea with honey to offer a complete experience
d) Create a menu with photos for tourists to select ahead online/in the proposed shop in Urubamba, thus ensuring a wider variety of plates but at the same time allowing time to prepare the required plates.
4. Hostels: Eufrasia, William
General comments:
- Both offer excellent services, while William’s house has better facilities, Eufrasia’s house seems to offer more Andean hospitality and originality.
- The hostels are not necessarily in competition with each other, for they can be marketed to different clientele – one offering more hotel-like experience while the other serves more like a ‘home-stay’.
- William’s house also hosts the activity of horticultura, and there’s a lot to see in almost all seasons: no specific changes needed for that.
Suggestions:
a) Both hostels need more promotion online and in the proposed shop in Urubamba. Clear signs should be posted in various areas of Chichubamba
b) Should offer pick-up services from Urubamba when tourists come and pick-up at night as well. Currently accessibility of the hostels is a big issue. Clear directions should be given online and in all brochures about how to reach the hostels.
c) Both hostels should market themselves separately instead of totally depending on the agro-tourism package. Willaim’s hostel has been doing that but Eufracia’s lacking an independent promotion owing to her lack of computer proficiency.
d) Cards should be given to tourists so that they’ll be able to go back to the hostels at night by taking a motortaxi.
e) The hostel of Eufrasia should offer free classes in Quechua, music, dances, show cultural things like movies, books…etc, so as to offer a more complete cultural experience. She should also be more active in taking people around Tambo d’ Q’espiwanka since it’s a very accessible tourist attraction.
5. Chocolate: Regina Sanchez
Process:
- Grows pure cacao in the jungle of Quiabamba, 8 hours away from Urubamba
- Pure cacao: no milk is added in the process
- Toasts cacao for 40 minutes, peels off the skin, and then adds sugar while grinding
- Products are cooled in the refrigerator and are only sold in the store
Suggestions:
a) Wash utensils with purified water right in front of tourists
b) Close open bottles to curb the proliferation of flies
c) Serve chocolate or chocolate milk in the proposed Tienda in the center of Urubamba, with an emphasis on the natural fermentation and the absence of additives.
d) Clean off the areas near the house
e) Consider introducing more varieties of chocolate products – with raisins, peanuts…etc inside. Package and sell them in the proposed Tienda in Urubamba.
f) Allow tourists to personalize their chocolate by using sculpting pens or simply knifes.
6. Cuys: Josephina, Monica Penedes
Trivia:
- Cuys only sleep for 2-5 minutes each time, but take multiple naps
- Need to clean their cages every morning to ensure hygiene
- Cuys eat throughout the whole day, and often different plants have to be mixed to provide the most exhaustive nutrients
- Embryo – 1 week, Premiadas (the stage when cuys cannot be mixed with their parents and other kinds) -8/9 weeks, 2 weeks to be bred by mum, matured
- The pastures of plants used to feed cuys cannot be tramped by cats and dogs because they will contaminate the plants.
Comparison:
- Josephina’s place appeared to be tidier and more hygienic during the visit, but Monica’s place has more cuys and are more meticulously allocated according to their ages
- Both places need much clean-up before opening to tourists
- Josephina grows cuy food on her own, which adds to the visitation experience, and she’s very well-prepared to give presentation by showing all kinds of food that she uses to feed the cuys.
Suggestions:
a) Clean off areas need the cuys, ensure that all excrements are cleaned off before tourists come.
b) Monica should show a variety of cuy food like Josephina does
c) Label the cages/places that breed cuys: to ensure safe handling of cuys and provide more information for tourists
d) Try to let tourists embrace cuys in their hands: the housekeepers should take a more active and interactive role in ensuring participation
e) Show pictures of cuys of different ages in the house, with short explanations of its activities in each stage below the pictures.
7. Floriculture: Emilia, Hugo
Process:
- They sell flowers to shops in the markets at Urubamba, Cusco and Pisac in the morning.
- Best months are September – December, but since the supply is huge at that time, prices are usually lower
- Chrysanthemum is grown throughout the year
List of flowers found in Emilia’s place
1) Chrysanthemum
2) Delphine
3) Moraritas
4) Boton de Novio
5) Palta / Avocado
6) Gladiores (white, pink)
7) Chocosa
8) Gala: Lily
9) Lemon
10) Oregano
11) Caulo
12) Pastures for cuys and rabbits such as Alfafa
13) Ruda
14) Huacatay
15) Borro
16) Glavel
17) Roses
Suggestions:
a) Improve the currently marketing distribution. Explore new markets such as Yucay and Ollantaytambo to see if they can bargain for better selling prices. Explore new distribution channels such as hotels/shops/families instead of just the markets.
b) Need to ensure supply of flowers throughout the year. Grow crops and flowers that are available all the time, or grow a wider variety of flowers
c) Provide a list of flori-vocabulary, and ensures that the florists know the equivalents in English
d) Consider expanding the scope of products such as providing flower-herbal-tea
8. Tejidos: Rosalia
Process:
- She doesn’t sell her products in the market, and just does it when tourists comes to visit.
- Use wool of Alpaca, sheep or synthesized elements.
- Handicraft – more durable, warmer.
- The two-layer device that she uses can separate the wool better and allows the interchange of wool
Suggestions:
a) Immediately start distributing her products to the shop in Urubamba. In the long-term, also helps her export products to markets such as Chichero, Pisac and Ollantaytambo.
b) Create templates so that tourists can make one or two sews on the traditional device.
c) Give more context about the patterns that she designs
d) Can arrange with other places so that she can actually show her techniques in other places – for example, a traditional weaving school or another place where tourists will go.
9. Ceramics: Elisabeth Huaman and Alcione Torres
- Now the ceramics shops evidently depend very little on the proceeds from agrotourism – for their products are distributed in many places other than Urubamba as opposed to other services like chocolate and honey. This self-subsistence has, apparently, caused a much lower participation of the ceramic houses in agro-tourism matters.
- Chichubamba should therefore offer PERSONALIZED services: not just to allow tourists to see and buy products, but also allow them to create and design their own pieces under the guidance of ceramists
- Also in the long-term, ceramists should offer ceramic education to tourists
Suggestions:
a) Compare the prices with Pablo Seminario – ensure that the prices at Chichubamba are lower than the products sold in Seminario and other places that the ceramists distribute to.
b) Allow tourists to design on their own too – encourage personalization in Chichubamba sites, make sure that tourists get special pieces that they can’t buy in other markets or shops
c) Research more into the patterns – learn about the historical and cultural context of the designs
d) Try to turn the ceramic shops into ‘Incan ceramic schools’ – encourage tourists to come learn pottery in half a day and send their own pieces home after they are processed. In the long term, market this service outside of the whole agro-tourism package.
e) More promotion in the middle of Urubamba for the shops, through selling at the proposed shop and establishing more signs like Seminario’s
