The River

Queomayo (pronounced khe-O-may-O), meaning Yellow River in the local Quechua language, is a small village of eight families, reached by taking a 4300m mountain pass. It is located outside of the small town if Santa Maria, which is outside the town of Urubamba, which is outside the city of Cuzco, Peru. In this village lives an English man with his Peruvian wife, who used to live in England together, their three and a half year old daughter and a Boxer dog called Nelson. After their daughter was born, the couple decided to return to Peru to start a new life for themselves and their daughter and to establish an organic self-sustainable farm.

They run their car on biodiesel they make themselves from used vegetable oil, use decomposing toilets and solar hot water. They farm mainly coffee beans, but also mangos, bananas, papaya, avocadoes, pineapples and some cocoa. The cocoa pods are picked from the trees, and the beans scooped into wooden crates for fermentation. They are then dried, roasted and pounded into delicious oily chocolaty goodness, then put into a cake (maybe with some fresh bananas from the tree) or hot chocolate. You might also want to wash it down with a glass of papaya and passion fruit juice from the garden. Avocadoes literally drop onto the outdoor table, and in peak season there are too many mangos to eat. Truly a land of plenty.

But not all is well in paradise. The jungle is an unforgiving mistress. In February of last year a landslide claimed the village’s primary school and much of the rest of the downtown area. Consequently, many of the families have moved to neighboring towns, and labour for the farm is hard to come by. In 1998 the river also claimed one of Peru’s few railway lines, which passed through the valley. All that remains is bent and rusted railing lying in the river bed and a few cement foundations for bridges. The nearby hot spring baths were also wiped out by a landside last year, and are currently being rebuilt. Herein lies the conflict: the heavy rain that provides the farm with its incredible productivity could also take it all away in a heartbeat.

Interestingly, this same river becomes the Amazon over 1000km away as the condor flies, or twice that following the river itself. Truly a mighty river. It can give life; and it can take it away.