A Shared Interest in Handicrafts in Peru

A DIARY OF A TRIP TO CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA FOR PATRICIA ALEXANDER, ELISABETH WILSON AND HUGO VILLELA

By Elisabeth Wilson

Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 October 2008

Well, Patricia and Elisabeth are finally off on their virginal visit to South America. Following some of the usual trials and tribulations involved with traveling these days (and some very new ones!), both we AND our luggage arrived safely, if battered, in Lima for the first week of our trip.

Although obviously tired, we were greeted by a lovely smiling, and holiday-rested, face – that of Hugo Villela, our representative in Costa Rica who has also been looking after our interests in South America. Hugo was on hand to get us safely to our hotel in the Miraflores district which he did admirably.

The traffic and driving in Peru is nearly as bad as in Nairobi! The really worrying thing is that the main stream of traffic must give way to those wishing to cross its path. This makes for some interesting situations I can tell you! Another interesting fact is that there are no drains on the streets as it apparently never rains here. If it ever does, they are in big trouble!

As is usually the case on these trips, there was little time for the wicked and we were soon out for lunch with FLO Liaison Officer, Ines Mendoza, who has been based in Costa Rica for the past 11 years but who is actually Peruvian. She does however consider herself to be ‘Tica’ which is an endearing term for a Costa Rican. (This is a bit like someone saying that they are an ‘adopted Geordie’).

In the afternoon we headed off to our first producer meeting, albeit belatedly! We visited with the team at Allpa, a handicraft buyer stocking thousands of products including ceramics, jewelery and textiles. These are purchased from all over Peru and sold for export to northern buyers, most of whom are already known to SI. As with most people here, these producers were far from being unaffected by the guerrilla warfare of the 1980s but life appears to be much calmer these days.

Allpa are looking to move premises as they have outgrown their current site and simply can’t ‘tack on’ any more sections! They have already purchased the land and they have some blueprints for the development so we will be interested to learn how this project progresses.

In the evening, we went briefly to Kennedy Park in Miraflores for a swift bite to eat but ended up enjoying a small handicraft market and buying some interesting gifts! Enough said! It was then back to the hotel for some much needed rest.