Email: Leslie McKnelly

Greetings from Peru!

I’ve now been serving as a YAV (Young Adult Volunteer) for four months. I started out in Lima, and things didn’t exactly go according to plan. Fortunately, I was invited to go and serve in Huancavelica with ATIYPAQ. ATIYPAQ is a non-profit organization and member of the Red Uniendo Manos (RUMP) that works in the poorest province of Peru, Huancavelica. They have projects ranging from constructing dairy plants to alpaca and llama vaccination campaigns, and they’ve included me!

Most of the ATIYPAQ people travel from project to project on a dirt bike. My first month here I always traveled with Angelica, the head of the organization, and we went by car. On our journeys to the campo (countryside) I was always amazed at the ferocity of the country dogs. I’ve seen dogs chase cars my whole life, but high in the Andes, they don’t want to chase the car, they want to eat it! I cringe inwardly each time they lunge for the tires, fearful of that tell-tale crunch. Thus far there has been no crunch, but I was recently told to take boiled potatoes with me to one particular pueblo. “You have to have something to feed the dogs if you want to get out of the car, or they will attack you and the owners do nothing to stop them!” So I always have a few scraps of food somewhere on my person when we head into the campo. And it has paid off, I haven’t been bitten yet.

I have always been a dog lover, and seeing this kind of behavior out of “man’s best friend” always bothers me. But it didn’t scare me until I went with Henry, a member of ATIYPAQ, to check on some alpaca herds on the dirt bike.

If I thought the dogs went crazy over chasing cars, I was mistaken because they go completely bonkers over chasing dirt bikes. I don’t know why the crazy country dogs never crossed my mind as I mounted the dirt bike for the first time. It never occurred to me that out of all the travel problems in Peru the main road hazard would be dogs. To get to the alpaca pastures you have to ride for about an hour and a half—up to about 18,000 feet on switchback dirt roads that might or might not be washed out.

As Henry and I started the first ascent, he told me to be ready, and made a kicking motion with his foot. Being ignorant of dirt bikes, I had no idea what this meant. Did he need help balancing on turns? Was the dirt bike not powerful enough to get us up the hills? I was dumbfounded by his instructions, I had no idea what he meant, and it wasn’t because of a language barrier, it was because of my motorcycle ignorance, or so I thought!

Once we got outside of town we started climbing the first series of switchbacks. I was holding on tight, trying to take in all the sights, sounds, and smells, when I saw a pastora (Quechua shepherd) knitting amongst her sheep with her dogs lying at her feet. I noted that the dogs were watching us intensely, but I didn’t really think anything of it as I was currently overwhelmed with simply riding a dirt bike in Peru. As we rounded the first curve of the next set of switchbacks, I saw the same dogs waiting for us. Henry made his kicking motion again, and this time I understood! I was supposed to kick the dogs away from the bike! Luckily, my helmet blocked my periphery so I couldn’t actually see how close the dogs were to biting my legs, but I waved my feet just as Henry had shown me, praying I wouldn’t fall off the back of the bike in the process! Being a total animal lover, I also prayed that my feet wouldn’t make any actual contact with the crazy, growling, and barking dogs.

As Henry gunned the bike through the pack of dogs, their barking and growling subsided, and I thought we’d made it through safely. However, when we rounded the next curve, there they were again. Henry told me once again to swing my legs and hold on. So the crazy swinging legs ensued once again as I held on for dear life and prayed I wouldn’t’ get bitten. The same pack of dogs followed us up six switchback turns before giving up and going back to their pastora.

And so went our ride to the alpaca pastures. It was a series of steep, dirt switchbacks, each guarded closely by its own pack of dogs, all wanting to eat the motorcycle and its riders very badly.

After an hour and a half on dog watch from the back of a dirt bike, I was relieved to arrive at the pastures and have our meeting with the alpaqueros (alpaca herders). Our meeting was successful: the alpaqueros all agreed to do a vaccination campaign on their animals so they will live longer and have more offspring. We scheduled return trips first to help shear the alpacas and then to begin the vaccinations. After four hours in the very crisp Andean air, Henry and I once again mounted the dirt bike, now nicknamed el Fabuloso, to head back to the city. This time I was slightly more prepared to fight off the dirt-bike-eating dogs, and since I was more adept at riding on the back of the bike, Henry went faster so the dogs couldn’t keep up with us as well.

All in all, my first venture into the campo was exciting and terrifying. Henry told me that I rode the bike better than any “gringo” before, man or woman, which is a huge compliment here. We are heading back to start shearing the yearling alpacas and take their wool to market this week, and we will begin the vaccination campaign after the New Year. I will also begin teaching ESL classes in January, as I am really just a language teacher!

I want to thank you all for your support and prayers in my ministry and expeditions in Peru. For more up-to-date stories, pictures, and videos, visit my blog.

Feliz Navidad,