One of the most incredible, amazing aspects of living in rural Peru is that if I walk 20 minutes in any direction, I find myself surrounded by nature. If I walk a little bit further, I stumble upon hidden oases, historical landmarks, and cultural treasures.
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Motupe, the next district over, where a Community Economic Development volunteer lives and is working to establish a tourism office in the municipality. Motupe has several gems of its own; a Sacred Cross kept on a hill except for when it’s paraded through Motupe and then Olmos, petroglyphs similar to the ones in Olmos, and a “Millennial Tree.”
On this trip, I hiked with this volunteer, another, and a slew of municipality workers to the “Millennial Tree,” which is an old, twisted Algarrobo tree, in the middle of a hidden forest. The goal of this specific trip was to map out and clean up the trail to the tree since the municipality hopes to promote tourism around it. We drove a bit, stopping to post directions for future visitors, before arriving at the beginning of our hike.
The hike itself didn’t take long, maybe 45 minutes. We weaved our way around the small trail, noting places for signage and soaking in the views. In order to get to the tree, hikers must cross a dry river bed, climb the incline of a hill, pass an area where cows graze, and step through a small stream. But, in the end, they’ll find this beautiful tree, truly a work of nature. Never before had I seen a tree, so twisted, mangled, yet living. It was as if new trees were growing out of the branches of the old.
The municipality of Motupe hopes to preserve this tree, and make it a touristic landmark. The volunteer is currently working to register the site with the country, then establish various measures to make the trek more enticing (a camping area along the way, picnic tables at the tree). Once the tree is registered with Peru, the national government will help with some of the costs and maintenance necessary to develop the site.
Tourism is a vital part of Peru’s economy, and there are many tourist sites off the beaten path. Hopefully this tree will become one of them, stimulating growth and development for the local community.
Brittany McGee 