There
are a few interesting characteristics that set Callanca apart from the thousands of
other small villages in the Lambayeque Region. Take the shape of the town for
instance. Its physical dimensions are 6 miles long by 200 feet wide. There are no
side streets and only one row of houses bordering each side of the road. Behind
the houses are farmland and garden plots. The larger agricultural plots are
devoted to sugar cane which is pretty much the standard crop in the entire
region. In the gardens are lettuce, corn, carrots, and tomatoes. Bordering the
gardens are fruit trees bearing bananas, avocado, guanabana, mamey, maracuya,
ciruela and others.
Adjacent
to the gardens are animal pens. It seems as if every house has a collection of
pigs, chicken and ducks, and goats. If you’ve never been around pens of goats
when they all decide to start baaing….well, the volume and intensity can be a
bit unnerving for a first-time experience. There will also be a burro to pull
carts and carry things.
Another
characteristic distinguishing Callanca is the inordinate amount of restaurants.
Peruvians refer to them as “restaurantes turisticos”. They are not the typical one room four table restaurants
found in most small villages. These are outdoor restaurants usually occupying a
large space with the grounds containing a profusion of colorful plants and
trees. Tables, chairs and other hardware are constructed of bamboo…the usual
theme for these types of restaurants. Callanca’s “restaurantes turisticos” are numerous
and successful, attracting many customers from larger near-by cities,
especially on weekends.
What
accounts for the success of these restaurants in a town that has nothing else
to offer? Locals and customers will tell you one of the reasons is the wide variety
of fresh vegetables organically grown. Another reason is the variety of delicious
juices home-made locally. A third reason, and the locals are careful to stress this,
is that the poultry and animals are fed garden crops – not garbage as is done
in other towns. We did not eat at a restaurant during our recent visit. We ate instead
at the home of Elio and Paula in celebration of Paula’s birthday.
In
a way Elio is also an identifying feature of Callanca. Elio is a baker. He has
been a baker since age 10. His father, grandfather and great grandfather were
bakers, also in Callanca and within a stone’s throw of the present location.
Elio’s specialty is empanadas, though he will make any pastry asked for if
ingredients are available. An empanada is stuffed bread with a small amount of
sugar on top. It can be stuffed with anything bakeable but locals mostly prefer
no stuffing at all, in which case it called an “empanada de aire.” 
Elio
helped his father build this oven in 1954. For fuel he burns bamboo and pine
branches. I don’t know what temperature it reaches or maintains and neither
does he. For Elio the entire baking process is done by look and feel. The
outside of the oven is cool to the touch.
Elio’s
custom is to bank the fire to the left and place two trays…no more and no less,
of empanadas to the right. He will occasionally stick his hand into the oven to
check the temperature, but his indication that the empanadas are ready to come
out is when they’ve risen to the right height and the sugar has melted and
browned to the proper color; a process I timed at 5 minutes.
We
ate empanadas right out of the oven, and then sat down to a delicious meal of arroz
con pato. And, as is the Peruvian custom, ate a second meal an hour later (pavo
con garbanzo) accompanied by wine and more empanadas.
Elio
gets up at 4:00am every day and begins baking. When he’s finished and his
cooling racks are full – around 1:00 in the afternoon he will put the baked
goods into several large baskets and place the baskets on the rear of his
tricycle. He will travel the same route he’s ridden for the last 50 years in
Callanca, stopping occasionally to blow a distinctive 3-notes on his whistle to
alert his customers. He will return home several hours later with an empty
basket and requests for specialty baked goods.
Elio
will be the last baker in the family line. He has two sons living and working
in Spain and another in Lima. Of his three daughters one is in Argentina and
another in Lima. Only Juanita remains and she is happily married and busy in
Chiclayo, with no desire to bake commercially. Elio says he is happy for his
sons. They are doing well and regularly send money to contribute to the house.
His children point out to him that he no longer needs to work and should slow
down but Elio won’t hear of it. He says “This is what I do…this is who I am…this
is what I like.” He wants to continue baking until he “can’t do it anymore.” I’m
sure the people of Callanca would support that.
