Cochas Gourd Carving

Mate burilado is one of the oldest continuous crafts in Peru - decorated gourds have been found in coastal sites four thousand years old - and Cochas Chico and Cochas Grande above Huancayo are where it is concentrated now. The gourds are grown on the coast, dried, then worked with a buril, a fine steel point, to incise lines, and burned with a smouldering stick of eucalyptus or quinual to shade the surface in browns and blacks; some are dyed. What makes the good pieces remarkable is the content: they carry continuous narrative scenes read in bands around the gourd - harvest, marriage, festivals, migration, sometimes political events - packed with tiny figures, telling a story rather than making a pattern. Families work at home and sell directly, and prices reflect the days of work in a detailed piece. The best carvers are known by name across Peru.

What you actually see

• The incising - fine steel points cutting line work into dried gourd skin.
• The burning - smouldering wood shading the surface in browns and blacks.
• The narratives - continuous scenes in bands, read around the gourd.
• The workshops - families working and selling from their own homes.

When to go

May to September. Two to three hours. Mornings are best for finding people at work. Colectivos run frequently from Huancayo.

Honest expectations

These are homes, not showrooms - knock and ask. Fine pieces are expensive because they take days; cheap gourds are correspondingly crude. Little English. At 3,600 metres, cold and steeply uphill from the city.

Nearby

Huancayo is below; Hualhuas and San Jerónimo are elsewhere in the valley.