Holidays are wonderful things

Good afternoon to one and all, we have got through Christmas and are now on holidays until the New Year, which is excellent, however I should let you know how we got on at the Xmas fair. 

Santuranticuy is the artisan fair that is held every 24th of December in the main square of Cusco. We had our stand in Portal de Panes with our nice little green tent and our white regulation plastic on the roof. 

After a very early departure from the house at 5 am we got to the square, grabbed a couple of guys on their way home from the disco to assist us across the Plaza with our wares. We got set up and the first shift started at 7am, I was on that one. We did very well in the morning selling baskets and in the afternoon we managed to sell a lot of soap with the Ruda soap and choco chapstick being very popular. 

When I was off in the afternoon I spent a while wandering around the market but didn’t see much in the way of new stuff. 

We finally closed up shop at 7pm and headed home to pack and get ready to hit our friend house in Maras. This involved running down to the ridiculously busy super market and getting in a bus for the 90 min journey, fortunately he collected us from the road as we would have then had a 40 min walk in the dark. 

We arrived about 11pm just in time for some turkey and a glass of wine before bed. The following day we got up for breakfast of turkey, bacon, eggs, paneton and hot chocolate, with our friends god child, sister and parents, then as it was such a rainy day we went for a nap until later afternoon and then turkey soup before a different version of the Wizard of Oz, I enjoyed it, an early night and a late morning before we headed back over the hill to Cusco to do a little work pre New Year, get the house clean and tidy etc. 

Probably will not be blogging again until after the New Year so we at Tika Soap and Tika Trek would love to wish you all a very happy Hogmanay and a prosperous New Year.

www.tikatrek.com  www.tikasoapperu.com  

Its nearlyChristmas

Its raining today, seems we are entering into the rainy season, hope it is not too bad on the 24th when we are at the Christmas market. Fortunately we are now the proud owners of a tent to keep the rain off us.
Expect to see all sorts of gifts available in the market from models of the baby jesus for nativity scenes, lots of religious artefacts, candles, textiles and lots of different types of herbs and mosses that are brought down from the mountains to make the stable more life like.
In addition you can buy miature cars, houses, money, bank bonds and anything that you want in real life, these are meant to simbolise your intent.
Prior to that we have a traditional chocolatada which is were we will be heading off to a community to give gifts, paneton and of course hot chocolate which is a real part of the Christmas tradition here.
Here in Peru the ceñlebration of Christmas is normally at midnight on the 24th, people have hot chocolate and wafer biscuits and in some cases will have their turkey at this time.
We personally will be working on the 24th from 5am to about 7pm, we will take it in shifts, but honestly its always a fun day.
Think thats all, have a wonderful day.

Is it nearly Christmas?

So its been nearly 2 weeks since our last blog, its been a busy time with both ups and downs. It started with mass for our dear friend Miguel for his passing away. The mass was held in the beautiful church of La Recoleta and a few of us went out afterwards to just chat and talk.
This ended up with me meeting a lovely couple from Oz who were having difficulty in finding things to do in Cusco so this time we may be talking a little more about the agency side of things. Anyway we sent these nice people off to the valley of Lares to do some trekking visit Machu Picchu, go mountain biking, rafting and then on for 5 days in the jungle, excellent. They are having a lot of fun and have not even made it to one of my favourite lodges yet, tomorrow off they go.
Now what does this mean for me, well for the biking means making packed lunches, good job my orange cake is a winner. On the trekking means I have to find guide, cook, horses and transport fortunately it all worked out. On Machu Picchu invloves running about getting a guide, train tickets, hotel and entrance tickets, fortunately I got them tickets up to Huayna Picchu which is great as only 400 people a day can do that. For the jungle its organising their lodge trip, getting air tickets and printing off boarding passes. All done excellent. Today I can leave them at their hotel so they can take off tomorrow to Tambopata.
In addition we also went off to our friend Jeff.s house up in the hills near Maras, we always take the bus and get dropped off about 2 kms from his house where we trek round the fields. On arrival his lovely cook Gloria always has something yummy to eat and I always to dinner, so we had pizza for 6.
His house is looking great. the wall is nearly finished and the only thing that seems to be missing is hot water, well that and actual water, he collects lots of rain water and in the dry season has to get it trucked in. Had a wonderful nights sleep and we were back in Cusco for 10am the next morning. Unfortunately it took longer to actually get home as all the University students were protesting about the price of combi (bus) tickets going up, so basically most of the roads were shut and we had to go round and round to get home, with a slightly irate taxi driver.
Well I think that all for today, remember you can find us on www.tikatrek.com and www.tikasoapperu.com

Miguel Jove

So its been a week since my last blog and a lot has happened. I lost a dear friend in Miguel Jove, my adventure partner.

Over the last 10 years we have had a few different adventures one of my favourites being our crazy trip to the communities of Q'eros, where we walked about 8 hours a day to get from town to town, it was a truly amazing trip with Miguel, Roy senior, Roy junior and I. 

We received the sad news on Tuesday the 22nd of November and we had his wake in the South American Explorers club on Wednesday, there was a large turnout considering the last minuteness of the arrangements. 

It was a sad goodbye to a truly wonderful man, he will be truly missed. With love to Eli, Piero and Amaru. 

So we have our delicious salt soap made, it is beautifully pink as we used food dye and mixed up with the salt in a ziplock bag to give it a yummy pink colour.  The soap will be ready about the 9th of December just in time for our Christmas rush.

Salt soap

                                Chocolate soap

Salt soap

We also had some good news from the Choco Museo here in Cusco, they would like to order more of our scrumpcious chocolate chapstick as they have sold out already. Now getting this new order means a few different things, we have to get in touch with one of our vendors in Lima so that they will send us the different packaging that we require. This normally takes a couple of days, so maybe on Thurs we will be able to supply.
 
On a more personal note I have taken up a new sport. Fronton, played against a cement wall using a small very bouncy fast ball and a 327g wooden bat, you can either play on your own or with a partner. It is one way to keep fit and is very popular here in Peru, people play to an excellent level, I am however just learning and taking it a bit slower. It is a little like squash.

Today we will also be having a small party to celebrate the creation of our new company. We are now officially known as Inversiones Tika SRL and can operate nicely and legally and pay all our taxes like good citizens. So this afternoon its party time, also means we get an afternoon off.

For all your soap and trekking needs contact us via www.tikatrek.com or www.tikasoapperu.com

New tax number and Christmas soaps

As we approach Christmas time we have to get thinking about our special Christamas soaps, every year we go to the Christmas market and here is where we sell soaps we wouldn´t normally.
We normally sell quite a lot of rue soap "Ruda" in Peru, which is known here as being lucky. People have the plant in shops and use the water to clean the street to bring in sales.
At new year people like to bathe themselves with rue soap for business and prosperity for the new year, it is also the national herb of Lithuania.
So we will have rue soaps and we also do shaped soaps instead of our normal bars and we have a wonderful spray with lemon grass form Abancay.
We will of course be showcasing our fabulous choco, coffee and salt soaps so come on down and visit us ont he 24th of December ont he Inka Grill side of the Plaza de Armas.

We also have some very good news, we now have a tax file number which means very shortly we will be ready to start selling with our new name, we are just waiting for them to check our address. In the meanwhile we will be here doing what we do best, making soap.

Visit us at Pueblo Libertador B-5, 1st floor, Tel. 084 508745 or of course via www.tikasoapperu.com and www.tikatrek.com  

Today its soap time again, we are very busy at the moment so not much blogging going on, we are in the final throws of having our new company. We should have a RUC (tax file number today) and then in a few days we can print tax recipts and get a new bank account. Its all very exciting and a good time to get everything in order.
As soon as we get all that done I will be able to accept booking on the Tika Trek travel agency. On the agency front yesterday I got to learn about a new jungle lodge in Tambopata that I am hoping to visit in February. need to get that email sent off.
soap has been very busy at it is the time of year when the Inca Trail companies must pass the annual inspection to see if they are up to scratch. They check all their equipment, with part of this being biodegradeable soap and detergent. So with about 200 companies in Cusco getting inspected we have our work cut out.
In addition we are taking on a few more clients, Amistad Sagrada in Pisac, they help young kids and families and have a small store in the Pisac main square that helps fund their projects. We will also be getting new supplies out to one of our old clients the South American Explorers, you can get all our products here. See www.saexplorers.org

For all you soap and travel requirements have a look at www.tikatrek.com   www.tikasoapperu.com

Buses in Cusco

I thought today maybe I could talk about the crazy micro buses in Cusco. Its always a little stressful getting on and off the bus in Cusco, its not like the UK where the bus must come to a complete stop and then the doors open gently and you pay your ticket sit down and then the bus departs again. No here it is a whole different kettle of fish, bus sort of stops and you get on at great speed with man or woman saying sube sube (means get on) and they mean fast as soon as you have one foot on the step doors close and bus is off, you may or may not get a seat.
You also need to pay your ticket which is easy if you are at the front of the bus, if not you have to get through the people to pay and when its time to get off you better get off fast.
They also have time cards that the ticket man must run and get stamped. One other weird and I mean weird thing about the buses is that if its is 30 degrees outside people still do not open the windows, people here are extremely scared of wind and cold, no cold drinks as you will get a cold.
Today is also exciting as we will be delivering our first order of chocolate chapstick, yummy. Visit the Choco Museo in Cusco to buy them.

Paperwork and pink soap

So we are currently in the process of starting up a new company, we will be official in a few days. Everything takes a little longer here, however with the help of MYPES you can set up a company for a very small amount of cash.
instead of being needing the normal 1000 soles approx you can set up your company with the Micro y Pequeña empresa and it will cost you about 350 soles, and in reality doesnt take that long. So all going well we should be under a new company name very soon.
In addition we have been out getting our first clients for our chocolate products, we will be selling chocolate chapstick and soap in the very near future, go along to the Choco Museo in Cusco, Plaza Regocijo's and we have also been experimenting with our pink salt soap and we think it is going to be a big hit, soon to be available in Salineras.
For those of you that are going to be in Cusco over Christmas why dont you visit us at the Christmas fair, called Santurantikuy. The fair is on every year on the 24th of December in the Plaza de Armas (main square) of Cusco. you can try out our salt, chocolate and coffee soaps, first one to mention the blog gets a free sample.
Check us out on www.tikasoapperu.com and www.tikatrek.com

Chocolate soap

Since we are on a mission to make and commercialise chocolate soap here in Cusco we have been doing a bit of studying on the properties of different soaps.
For example chocolate soap has rejuvenating properties helping with the elasticity of the skin and stimulates the central nervous system and the antioxidants prevent premature aging. In addition it is also very hydrating.
Not only does it have all these wonderful benifits it smells fabulous and looks great.
In about 1 month from now you will be able to buy it from info@tikasoapperu.com

Cost 80g bar $2.50US.
160g bar $4.50US

Coffee soap helps energise you, can lift your mood and can help you get rid of cellulite, can I say anymore.  With coffee beans in the soap it also has wonderful exfoliating properties.
Cost 80g bar $2.50US
160g bar $4.50US

Salt Soap is both stimulating and smoothing and has great exfoliating properties, and of course we use the wonderful soap from Maras which has been handmined for at least the last 500years.
In addition salt soap can also help with psoriasis and eczema and will help relax muscles after a hard day.

Cost 80g bar $2.50US
160g bar $4.50US
info@tikasoapperu.com
www.tikasoapperu.com
www.tikatrek.com

Coffee, chocolate and salt soaps.

www.tikasoapperu.com and www.tikatrek.com are bringing you the next installment on the soap mission.
After waiting the weekend we could finally open our little test items that consisted of 6 different tests.
One chocolate with real chocolate, one coffee made with real coffee essence, and our salt experiments that consist of the following.
Straight table salt, less weighty, it is whiter than the other tests.
Mix Maras pink salt and table salt, also white in colour, a lot harder than the rest.
Ground pink Maras salt, my favourite out of all the salt soaps.
Fresh pink Maras salt, crumbles very easily, however makes a very pretty soap, time will be the real test.

So I think we will be advising our client of the findings and let him know what we have decided.
The chocolate and coffee soaps have turned out wonderfully they smell fabulous and have a decidedly softer feel about them.

In addition over the weekend we headed to our friends house which is very close to Maras, he has given us some clay from Maras to see what we can do with it.

First attempts say that this clay is excellent for exfoliating and also for removing impurities from the skin. We are also going to see if we can put some of the clay into a soap bar. Fun days to come.

Natural Loofah

After many years of searching, we are finally in possesion of Luffa Cylindrica a wonderful natural loofah from the jungle of Quillabamba, although does grow in Africa and Asia.
We are selling these in our shop at the price of 15 soles. Buy in conjunction with a nice 80g bar of soap for a nice gift.

NATURAL LOOFAH : LUFFA CYLINDRICA

Fair trade body loofah from the high jungle of Quillabamba. Direct from the farm to our shop. Great for the skin the exfoliating plant cleans up tired skin. Use with our soap and cream for best results.

Our products available at www.tikasoapperu.com

Our products

Natural soap created with olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil, distilled water and essential oils.

You pick which one you want and the size.
Prices

160g bar $4.00
80g bar $2.00
28g bar $1.50
15g bar $0.40 ideal for hotels.

The soaps are offered in the following fragrances.

Lavender
Lemon Grass
Lemon
Grapefruit
Wild Mint
Peppermint
Honey and Oats
Orange
Eucalyptus
Cinnamon
Patchouli

You pick which one you want and the size.
Cream

T'ika Soap - Cusco, PeruHand made luxurious body cream created using jojoba oil, cocoa butter, bees wax, aloe vera, distilled water, essential oil and grapefruit seed extract.
Prices

120g pot $10.00
60g pot $7.00
30g pot $3.00

Essential Oils

in 10ml presentation.
Prices

Lemon Grass $12.00
Thyme $12.00
Peruvian Wild Mint $15.00
Eucalyptus $12.00
Mint $10.00

T'ika Soap - Cusco, PeruShampoo
Prices

1 litre presentation $10.00

Conditioner
Prices

1 litre presentation $10.00

Oils

Pure Oils
Prices

Jojoba Oil 1 litre $30.00
Brazil Nut Oil 1 litre $25.00

Massage Oils
Prices

Jojoba with lemon grass $38.00
Jojoba with Lavander $38.00
Jojoba with Patchuli and Bergamot $40.00

Liquid Soap
T'ika Soap - Cusco, Peru

Delicious liquid soap perfect for travelling
Prices

Natural 1 litre $9.50
With essential oil $10.50

Washing Up Liquid
Prices

1 litre with lemon essential oil $10.50

OUR PRODUCTS : THE BEST PRODUCTS IN THE WORLD, CONTACT US FOR YOUR HOTEL, HOME OR AGENCY.

New soap

So today we have been on a mission to make some new types of soap.
The reason behind this is a new client of ours is opening a store in Salineras which is basically the ancient Inca salt mines that are in the Sacred Valley.
These salt mines are still handworked and produce a pink salt that is highly rich in minerals.


We have taken this salt and done a few different experiments that we will see how they come out in the next couple of days.
We have done one with the raw salt straight from the mine, another grinding this same salt, another with just table salt from a bag and then a last one with a mix of the original salt and table salt. Lets see which one is the favourite.
In addition we did another couple of little experiments today chocolate soap and coffee soap, I am personally very excited to see how these ones turn out as they looked and smelt great.
Keep tuning on for more soap.

Natural Body Butter

Luxurious body cream made from rich jojoba oil from the coast of Peru and cocoa butter its the only way to hydrate your skin.
With a secret blend of oils and the addition of some luscious essential oils you not only look great but smell fabulous.
With presentations of upto one litre this is the perfect cream for a relaxing massage as jojoba oil is the most like the natural ceramide in your skin.

Got a favourite essential oil we can create a cream for you. With clients asking for different aromas from lemon to pachouli to a summer blend or even spring. Let us make a cream to suit you.

NATURAL BODY CREAM : CHOOSE YOUR OWN AROMA.

Soap

Tika trek also brings you handmade soap. With soap for all skin types.
We make our delicious soap from cocunut oil, olive oil and palm oil from the jungle of Peru. Add a little essential oil, or maybe some honey and oats and you have a beautiful handmade product.
Our bars of soap are from 15g to 160g making it suitable for your hotel, business or your home.
We have some very exciting aromas, wildmint from the Andes, lemongrass from Abancay and eucalyptus from the Sacred Valley. We produce the oils ourselves.
In addition we have some more traditional aromas, orange, lemon and lavander,

We also produce honey and oats soap and a double milled soap specially for babies and sensitive skin. [www.tikasoapperu.com]
Contact us on info@tikasoapperu.com for more information.