El Hotel Libertador

Yesterday we received some great news. A local hotel, The Hotel Libertador, selected the Asociación de Artesanos Valle Sagrado to sell their products in their lobby! The contest began about a month ago, and after two rounds of tough competition, the artisans of Urubamba have won a great opportunity.
The largest problems with the association are the lack of organization and the inability to sell to tourists directly. This should help with both, because the good news provides something to rally around in addition to access to tourists.
What lies ahead is making sure the association is ready. But we have a lot of time, and we are all excited to finally have some good news!
Also, as promised, check out the pic of our new teacher doing what he does best during one of his classes with the association.

You´ve been doing WHAT?

Don´t worry loyal blog fans, Urubamba didn´t fall off the face of the Earth taking your beloved internet posts with it. It´s just been busy.
To start, new skill workshops have started with our new ¨profesor¨, Mauricio, from Cuzco. Right now the artisans are learning new techniques on sewing machines, and seem to be really enjoying it. Participation is higher than usual, and they really are making some great stuff. Today I caught the end of their class and they were finishing up making purses and sachels, products which are slightly different from those found in the surrounding markets (did someone say ¨diversification¨?).
This weekend also marked Urubamba´s 170th anniversary. Translation: festivals and parties for 4 days straight. Some artisans took advantage of the opportunity to sell their products in the plaza during the festivities. The others did what the rest of Urubamba did this weekend: dance, dance, dance.
And sorry there´s no pics with this post. If you´ve been following the blog (like I know you have been) you will know that Arnaud has left us. That means his fancy camera left us too. But have no worries, we´ll get some new stuff up here soon.

Good Bye

Today is my last day and it was a busy day, we visited two different artisans worshops to take pictures of their products. Ian and Daniel will update the blog very soon about that. I had good surprises this week, I received an inca neckless from Mario and a bracelet from Martina to thank me for my hard work! It was so nice from them and it touched me a lot! So Tomorrow I am flying back to Lima where I will do hang-gliding... yeah!!! This Experience in Urubamba has been very rewarding for me, it gave me the opportunity to realize the gap between a developing country such as Peru and the westernized world and to understand better what are the day-to-day problems of local people in Urubamba. Thank you all!

El Presidente

Today Ian, Pats and I were invited at Mario's home to take some pictures of his products. Mario produces silver based jewelry and sells his products to retailers in Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu. Mario is also the president of the association and expressed his doubts about the capacity of the association to take decisions together. For him the main issue is that one part of the artisans are just resellers and not producers therefore their interests does not match with the objectives of the association. At the end of our photos session we enjoyed a delicious lunch with Mario and his wife.

El Profesor

Today Daniel, Ian and I went to Alejandro's home to take pictures of his products. His nickname is "El Profesor" because he is teaching as well in a school in Urubamba. Alejandro produces ceramics but uses an other technique as Orlando which is called "Churros" and he uses a manual potter's wheel.

Alejandro is the owner of a family business called CERAMICAS VALLE SAGRADO. He is responsible for making the products and his wife take care of the artistic painting. He collaborates with tourism agency in Cusco that organize some visit of his workshop for tourists. Tourists have the opportunity to learn and to practice ceramics and then share a lunch prepared by Alejandro's

wife. This concept seem promising and it would be a good idea to encourage other artisans to do so. In addition Alejandro sells his products to companies in Cusco, Machu Picchu and Lima. Obviously his business seems well developed in comparison with other artisans. He told us that his main difficulty is the transport of raw materials from Cusco to Urubamba which is expensive because he does not have his own car and that expect from Nexos more promotion on internet.

Visit at Orlando's home

We decided to meet each artisan (if possible) at their home in order first to take pictures of their work but also to discuss with them about the organization of the association and about their opinion, doubts and suggestions they might have. These kind of informal meetings are very productive we think as the artisans can confide things that they might not be willing to say in front of everybody (for example during the association's meetings). Yesterday me met Orlando at his home to show us his ceramic's work. Orlando told us also about his concern of the association's future. According to Orlando some artisans are not enough involved in the association because they have other interests. Some artisans are not concern because they does not use the Urubamba Market to sell their products but prefer to have "una tienda" (shop) in Cusco or Pisac. Orlando told us as well about his lack of capital in order to develop his business (for example to travel and visit other "ferias" in Peru and abroad or to buy a larger quantity of raw materials) and his attempt to collaborate with other artisans. We were touched by Orlando's "desperate" speach as he is one of the artisans who is strongly motivated to fight in order improve his business. We took into consideration his opinion and we believe that the best solution would be to start to work only with motivated artisans. We are currently thinking about writing down "Nexos rules" and to work only with people who agree with those rules.

Public Registry

Last Sunday we discussed with Mario about the possibility to register the Association with a Public Registry, the association would appear more legitimate and credible. Mario is currently working on that.