invited us for a romp around the campo in his 1980 Toyota Land Cruiser last Sunday. We enthusiastically accepted his gracious offer and met him and his friend Alex in the San Blas Plaza at 9AM.
Jean Jacques named his antique vehicle El Ganso (The Goose), because of its remarkable resemblance to the color of goose poop. El Ganso is beautifully preserved, and fit six of us (plus Q'ori the golden retriever) in relative comfort, considering the vehicle was designed for safaris and enduring rhinoceros attacks. Lucky Krista got to sit in the front with JJ the whole day, while I was relegated to the rear where I was able to experience, firsthand, just how much the science of motor vehicle suspension has advanced in the last thirty years.
The first part of the day was an all pavement jaunt to the town of Huarocondo, about an hour away. Jean Jacques, if you haven't guessed, is originally from France. He has a restaurant in El Centro Tinku that has some of the most creative, delicious, and beautifully presented food in Cusco. A day spent with JJ will have at least some focus on food, and the the town of Huarocondo is famous for its tamales and Lechon, a baked concoction that resembles a cross between fried pork rinds and pulled pork. Pigs are roasted in an oven until the meat is falling off the bone, and then hacked up and served in rough, juicy bits covered in crispy skin [thanks for the clarification Jean Jacques!]. In combination with my olive tamale, it tasted pretty darn good.
From Huarocondo we headed down, down, down towards the sacred valley on a dirt track that we had seen a month ago from the train back from Machu Picchu. One of the many things that I adore about trains is their inability to negotiate steep grades, forcing them to go meandering through the landscape in search of navigable terrain. The canyon that the train tracks ascend is as narrow as it is visually stunning. Cliffs of red and brown are punctuated by patches of brilliant green vegetation and cactus beginning to bloom with red and yellow flowers. The Toyota performed flawlessly, aside from the fact that the interior ceiling could have used some more padding. This road was no place for wimpy cars.
Jean Jacques was taking us to a little known ruin that is in its infancy of rediscovery. We parked the car and walked 1/4 of a mile along the Machu Picchu railroad tracks until we came to the stairs in the picture above. The ruins are in and around a cave that looks rather ordinary from below. As we approached the entrance to the cave we could see some roughly hewn niches in the stone walls on either side, with a mound of amorphous granite partially blocking the entrance. As we made our way past the block of bedrock and around to its back side, our breath was taken away by what we saw.
A three-part ceremonial altar looked out from the mouth of the cave at the sheer cliffs across the valley. The quality of the stone work was tremendously refined and detailed. And as a bonus, my three girls fit perfectly into the niches.
Another huge niche and shelf were carved, as if by lasers, into the west wall of the cave.
Mommy, or mummy?
Our host Jean Jacques, Q'Ori and Sophia.
JJ and Q at the base of the cliffs above the cave.
A flower at the mouth of the cave.
After an hour or so around the ruins we reboarded El Ganso for the ride down to Ollantaytambo for lunch. Hearts Cafe is the personal project of a retired British nutiritionist who donates all of her profits to rural communities in the area. As a bonus to the philanthropic mission of her enterprise, the food at Hearts Cafe happens to be really delicious too.
On the way back to town we stopped at a gorgeous piece of land that JJ has bought and hopes to build on soon. It sits just above the Urubamba valley floor in a tiny community at the foot of a ridge topped with jagged spires. The terrain here is spectacular and the scale is hard to fathom. The photograph below was taken from an elevation of 8000 feet, and the peaks above are close to 16,000 feet.
We were all pretty tired by the time we were heading back to the city, but nothing says it better than the look on the faces Sophia and Q'ori...
We were treated to a beautiful, dark sky as we crested the pass back into Cusco. We had luckily dodged the rain and only felt the first few drops on our head as we stuck the key in the front door of our house. It's amazing to think that such extraordinary sites like the cave are so close to the city where we live. JJ told me I could ride my bike on the same road we took following the train tracks from Cusco, arriving in around four hours in Ollantaytambo. I can't wait to give it a try.
The sun heated up our glass house in a hurry this morning, and we hit the ground running, like little bits of popcorn launching out of our husks.
I was dispatched to the market known as El Molino to buy a bed frame for Sophia and get the zippers fixed on a duffel bag and a cello case. I also planned to check out the indoor marketplace that apparently had some great stuff...
Step one: bed purchase. Along the railroad tracks outside the market, at least a hundred furniture vendors line up with their wares every Saturday. I was able to find a bed frame for 80 soles ($25) pretty quickly. I helped the casera take it apart and bundle it up for me to throw in a taxi when I was done with the rest of my purchases.
Step two: zipper repair. I found an old man in a tin shed surrounded by piles of dilapidated footwear. He was able to fix the zipper on our duffel bag and on Sophia's cello case in ten minutes for a grand total of 3 soles. That's one dollar.
Step three: a tour of El Molino. Thank goodness I only had 150 soles on me is all I can say. Cameras, clothing, toys, speakers, and... DVDs. I managed to buy the entire oeuvre of the Sopranos for less than a tank of gas. I also picked up the second season of True Blood (we just finished the first) and Arrested Development. Woohoo! Our evenings will be a bit more fun and decidedly less productive as we move forward here in Cusco.
I put Sophia's bed together as soon As I got home and she slept almost all night in her own bed! We tried out the room up on the third floor and it was lovely. This house is leaps and bounds ahead of our old place and really feels like a home.
In the afternoon we dropped off Isabel at her orchestra practice and we three headed off to a Hanukkah party! Our friend Heather who works at Sophia's school is Jewish and decided to do a little latkes and dreidle fest. It was wonderful to see the kids having such a good time as they played dreidle, ate latkes, and listened to Heather read picture books about the holiday. We said the prayers as the children lit the candles at sunset. As we left to pick up Isabel the stars were the brightest I have seen since arriving in Peru.
Sorry no photos but here's a little more on our new place and life in Cusco...
Isabel loves having her own room with a huge built in closet. One-third of the closet is dresser: she spread her clothes into all 8 drawers, making sure that everything was folded neatly. (She only has two pair of pants that fit, but somehow she is making use of all the drawers.) One-third of the closet is a desk with shelves above—so she set up her books, homeschooling, and art stuff out of you-know-who’s reach. The final third is a place for hanging clothes, which she is kindly sharing with the rest of us because this is the only closet in the house. Isabel has been enjoying her privacy: reading in the mornings when she wakes up and at night before bed, watching the dvds she likes, listening to her ipod, and loving the view out her huge window.
Sophia has been actually pretty psyched about the new place too. She had a couple hard days when we packed and then did the majority of unpacking. Last weekend we bought her lovely a little table with a round wood top and black metal legs for her to do her “school work” and artwork. Sophia has all of a sudden started drawing actual people, and flowers, and butterflies! She still does “abstract” art as well but it is pretty cool to see those figures emerge with eyes and hands and smiles and, of course, hair. We have to buy a bed frame for her this weekend to get her mattress off the ground, but that will be pretty straight-forward. Her room doesn’t have a dresser or anything so I bought little three-tiered crates for her clothes at “Plasticos 2000.” The crates are a lovely pink and lavender—and the previous tenants left a number of under the bed plastic bins—these are now filled with her toys. Easy access.
Lawrence and I have been enjoying watching dvds on a couch in a living room, instead of on our hard wooden chairs in the laudry room as we did on our other apartment. We bought a relatively inexpensive couch at an open air market. The most recent dvd experience has been “True Blood” an HBO series about vampires—is it ironic that the dvd was left behind by the missionary tenants before us? Anyway, the couch isn’t comfortable enough that one can really cuddle up on it, but it is great to be able to enjoy a little down time once the kids are in bed without worrying about waking them.
The move was really pretty easy. It is amazing, though, how much one can accumulate in a relatively short time. We went from eight suitcases to…uh oh, beds and mattresses and pots and pans and food. Packing up is never easy, but we did have a lot of help with the actual physical moving. A couple weeks before our move, Lawr and David noticed a guy with a truck, helping other people move. We hired him and two helpers. They carried everything down from our third floor apartment to the truck; after a short 5 minute drive up a hill and around the corner, the guys then carried everything out of the truck, up about 50 stairs to our “street” (no cars can pass along this narrow walkway) and then about a block or so to our new apartment. All for 50 soles—total. That’s less than $30, and we paid the cargadores (the two guys who actually carry the stuff) double. Watching those guys run up and down the stairs, bent over lugging huge loads, was pretty humbling and pretty eye-opening: The class differences between us (the North Americans), the driver/owner of the truck (who hung out at the truck, not carrying anything), and the cargadores are stark.
We are hoping that we’ll be able to sell the refrigerator and stove, tables, beds, couch, etc. etc. etc. at the end of April. What we don’t sell, we’ll donate. Last night I came across a list that my dad sent maybe a year or two ago—it’s a “manage your life” list (see below). Among the 26 ideas listed is the reminder to distinguish between “necessities,” “conveniences,” and “other” (when buying things.) Our little family has a much greater ability for buying “conveniences” and “other” than most Peruvians. Case in point, part of the reason we haven’t moved up to the third floor yet is that I have been really wanting a more comfortable mattress. We haven’t wanted to go through the hassle of moving the bed we already have up the stairs, if all we are going to do is move it down again. But I have been trying to do some research and haven’t had extra time to go mattress shopping…and well, now that I am thinking about this, it seems as though a new mattress is not really a necessity at all. I DID however go out and by a couple strands of Christmas lights and some ornaments this afternoon. The girls and I decorated the kitchen with lights, hung ornaments on the jade tree, and made paper snowflakes. I guess that counts and “other,” and it was well worth it!
The other piece of advice from the list that struck me this time is “put your kids to work”—give them some purpose in the family, some responsibilities and independence. We have never given the kids formal jobs or chores—both girls help out (usually) willingly when we ask, but sometimes we don’t ask before just doing it ourselves (and/or becoming frustrated). Thinking about it in terms of what we see every day here in Peru, it is more clear how keeping our kids as “kids” (less independent, less adult) is a privilege--but not necessarily something that is in their best interests. We don’t see many people on the street begging here, as Isabel and I did years ago in Bolivia, but we do see a lot if kids working. Kids who are 8 or 10 years old sell candy or postcards, shine shoes, watch their siblings, work as domestic servants. Some of the girls I’m beginning to know (at the homes I’m working in) are moms by the time they are 12 or 15. Many many of these kids have too much responsibility too soon, of course. But I suspect that people here also have a really different understanding of childhood. Not all of these kids are living in poverty, but there’s no getting around the necessity of their work to their families and to their own sense of themselves. Maybe we’ll manage to create a sense of family work/responsibility that is slightly more organized while we are here in Peru and carry it back with us to Maine.
Now it’s late and I’ve stayed up way too long writing this blog. I have no clear idea of how to end it, other than to say that our life here is pretty amazing even with glitches and annoyances (including those that are self-imposed). We have much to be thankful for, including spending more time with each other. And should anyone wish to visit and stay with us, we have plenty of space (and that new mattress might even get bumped up from “other” to “necessity,” or at least “convenience.”)
26 THINGS YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW TO MANAGE YOUR LIFE
1. SET A GOAL TO CUT YOUR EXPENSES by some concrete number—10%, 20%, 30%, even 50%, and set up a plan to do it. Reducing costs is the fastest way to increase your income–faster than making more money.
2. LOOK AT CASH YOU ARE WASTING without enjoying its benefits, such as lights that get left on, computers that stay on day and night, "phantom loads," like microwave clocks that use more energy than the microwave. If you get to know your electrical meter, and record the setting before and after you shut off those phantom loads,you'll have concrete proof that you are saving money.
3. Set up a THREE TIER SYSTEM for purchases: a) necessities; b) conveniences; and c) other. Put everything you buy in one of these categories for a week, and examine the list. For example, if you buy clothing, you might have bought socks and new fancy shoes. While most people would put the socks under "a" or "b," most of us would consider the fancy shoes "other" unless they are a necessity for work. The Great Spending Contraction has begun. Get far enough ahead of it, that you aren't bit in the behind.
4. Consider BUYING FOOD IN ITS MOST BASIC FORM, and in bulk. For example,
instead of buying Pancake mix, buy the flour, shortening, and leavening. This, alone, will not only improve your diet, but cost you a fraction of what the prepared mix would cost. Anything that the "Generals" prepare, (General Foods, General Mills, etc) they CHARGE YOU for the privilege.
5. SIMPLIFY. Examine each purchase, and ask yourself whether some other item would do the job equally well. Consumerism produces specialized products that increase demand. The more specialized, the easier it is to charge consumers a premium price for it. Shaving cream, instead of a good lathering soap. Window cleaner instead of vinegar. Do a bit of research and find out how your ancestors lived without most of the products under your sink or among your toiletries. Then, pare it down, and buy it in bulk.
6. SEEK OUT QUALITY. Seek out highly durable, long-lasting products that may cost more, but are well made and will last a long time. You may find out that the cheaper versions can't be replaced easily, when they wear out. Buy now for the long term, and not on price alone. I'm finding better quality items being replaced by cheaply made products at the same price. Buy the quality stuff while you can still find it, and make sure it fits Tier A. (See #3)
7. Switch over to a CASH ECONOMY. Just do it. Start out deciding how much money you usually spend using credit cards and checks, and take out that amount in cash for a week, two weeks, a month. If you and your family members spend through it before that period is over, stay home and stop spending, until the next period starts. Consumer research has shown that moving to a cash economy, consumers spend on average 20-25% less than if they used a credit card. Use that research to benefit YOU. Get into the habit of using currency, not plastic.
8. GET THE ENTIRE FAMILY INVOLVED in cutting back Tier "B" and "C" spending. If you've set a goal of reducing expenses by 20%, make that across the board, and involve the kids. If this means cutting back on extra lessons, dances, mall trips, etc, give your children a say in which things are cut out or reduced. If you are sincere about your own cutbacks, your children will respect and adjust their expectations as well. If you say you are cutting back, but then buy something in the "C" category, you've lost your credibility and you'll have a family mutiny on your hands. Discuss, as a family, all of your expenses based on these categories, and try to reach agreement, so there are no surprises.
9. Chart out your life travels in terms of MILES, instead of minutes, and then figure out how you can travel those miles in ways other than those using fossil fuel. When someone says "That's 30 minutes away…" get used to asking "Is that walking, biking, or traveling by car?" It is a psychological shift that we all need to make.
10. Learn how to STAY HOME. It sounds funny to some, but for many people, "home" has become a "pit stop" to refuel (eat, sleep) before we head out again. Learning how to stay home might mean resolving the conflicts you have with your significant other. It might mean having higher expectations for better behavior from your children.
11. SLOW DOWN, relax more, and look for ways of improving your home surroundings. I don't mean a new sofa. I'm talking about cleaning up that harrowing trip from one room to another because you keep tripping over the rug that sticks up, or putting up heavier curtains in the winter so the room stays warmer, or creating a better area to read, or listen to music, free of distractions. It might mean moving your most used kitchen utensils in a convenient place, so it's easier to cook. Tell yourself "Home is where I'm going to be spending most of my time," and check out your emotional reaction. If it's panic or dread, try to figure out why, and do something about it.
12. "GET REAL" with the people you live with or love. Unfinished business, unspoken animosity, curt and angry exchanges not only make it unpleasant to be at home, it actually impacts your health. Bad marriages wreck good health. Come clean and own up to your own unhappiness, and try to own up to your contribution to the situation. The average troubled couple waits seven years before they seek out help, and often the problems by that point are well-entrenched. Try to fix it yourself, but if it doesn't work, seek out a trained listener.
13. PUT YOUR KIDS TO WORK. Too many children have very little real "purpose" in family life, and this is a bizarre turn of events in the history of human-kind. If your kids seem focused on their own self-interests, ask yourself to what extent you've expected them to take in interest in things greater than their own amusements. If you can't really say "Boy, I'm really glad I have my son/daughter to take care of X, so I don't have to do it…" you've forgotten how to teach them skills like taking responsibility, being reliable, and the "quid pro quo" of living with people. Your future son- or daughter- in-law will curse you.
14. SHUT OFF THE CHATTER from the computer/Internet/television/cable/ telephone/cell phone/pager/Blackberry/fax machine for some period each day and make a space for you to be with those you love, uninterrupted. Make it a revered time when the most important people in the world are sitting with you, paying attention to each other, talking sincerely, relaxing together. Expect severe resistance and techno-withdrawal. Make this revered time long enough to allow for the "hyperactive" withdrawal to subside, and a sense of quietude to permeate the house. Keep it going (as an "experiment" if you must) for at least a month, and open up discussion about what kinds of things you could do, as a family or as individuals, that would be satisfying or fun without using electricity.
15. SERIOUSLY WEIGH WORKING OVERTIME against using this time to create a more sustainable lifestyle. We are used to thinking about making money as the number one priority, but maybe its time to seriously question this assumption. If some crisis should happen tomorrow, just how prepared are you? Have you put up food? Created a garden of some type? Gotten to know your neighbors well enough to ask for (or offer) favors? Connected with religious or civic organizations offering you a wider circle of support? Resolved your marital troubles? Learned to really enjoy your kids? No doubt, cash is important, but time is our most precious commodity. Consider its use very carefully.
16. Imagine a VISION for a future you'd be willing to live in. You know that line about how humans can't live without hope? (I know, some of you don't believe in that word, so let's use the word "vision.") The happiest families have a vision of what they are living and working for. This vision sustains them in times of trouble. Go ahead. Imagine the worst. Then, visualize how you can live a satisfying life through the worst of it, and what will make it worthwhile. (Hint: if you don't imagine good friends and family, live music, simple foods etc, it probably looks overly dreary…) Write about it in a story, with you as the hero, draw it in a picture, sing it in a song. Make it real.
17. MAKE LISTS and MARK ACHIEVEMENTS. Most of us are overly optimistic about what can be accomplished in a year, but underestimate what can be accomplished in ten years. See the broader plan, and pick several projects to start on (that's right, several…). Do something on each one every day, or make it okay to focus on one for a while, until you tire of it, and then shift to another one.
18. Keep the LONGER VISION in mind, and understand how the interim is likely to play out, based on that vision. Give yourself the space to make decisions now that you know will not ultimately be your future course of action. To make sure you are heading in the right direction, ask yourself: "Is this moving me toward greater self-sufficiency?" "If I am using fossil fuel to accomplish this goal now, is this in service of my learning some greater skill, that I can later apply, to accomplished the goal without those inputs?" For example, if you know nothing about carpentry, power tools can make learning about wood a great deal easier. Once you are comfortable with putting things together, you can later apply those skills when using hand tools. A recumbent bike with a "power assist" can get you out there and riding that bike, so you get into better shape to later ride it without the assistance.
19. Understand how the "herd mentality" is likely to impact you, and try to GET OUT AHEAD OF THE CROWD, instead of being trampled underneath it.
20. PROTECT YOUR MENTAL HEALTH as closely as you do your physical health. Depression, paranoia, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, abandonment, verbal abuse, compulsive behaviors like overeating, gambling, cyber-sex, anonymous sex etc. are all common reactions to stressful times. Keep a tight grip on the loose reins of that mind of yours, and listen to other people who tell you they are worried about you and the way you are behaving. Find people, ideally true friends and family, to talk to about the pressures and ruminations you have—your deepest fears. If you need help, get it now, and make sure that help includes tangible ways for you to handle that stress better in the future. Talk about your mother only if it helps you understand how to live a more productive life TODAY and gets you moving in the direction you claim to want to go in. Make it okay to schedule "mental health" days..you know, those days when you are just taking time off from work to smell the roses, sleep late, schedule a 'melt down,' or otherwise live life.
21. Learn the difference between "HEALTHY PLEASURES" and ones that will burn out your neurochemistry and destroy your health. Most of us exaggerate our habitual way of being when under pressure, based on our personalities. For some of us, we'll withdraw from other people and become isolated. For others, we throw ourselves into projects that make other people the focus, and ignore our own wellbeing. Some of us become instantly "action oriented" to manage our anxiety, without stopping to consider the purpose or goal of our actions. Others become immobilized, unable to make the simplest decisions, lest they turn out to be the wrong ones. Some become more self-centered, while others stop considering their own needs at all. Still others become dominated by destructive emotions and stop thinking clearly. Too much intellectualizing is the direction others take, and this allows very little room for emotional expression or sympathetic connection with ourselves or others.
This is what makes giving "general advice" like "express your emotions" or "focus inward" so risky. Know in which direction to tend to err, and interrupt the pattern before it goes to extreme. Include people in your life that "balance out" those tendencies. If you are a "worry wart," connect with someone who's more carefree. If you tend to intellectualize, find an improvisational theater group. If you dramatize everything, befriend someone closer to a "brain" who "thinks" as a first response. And be prepared to be possibly annoyed by the personality difference.
22. Care for something NON-HUMAN. Eighty-five percent of us already do, whether it's wild birds, squirrels, gold fish, a dog, cat or livestock. Caring for someone (or something) else is good for our mental and physical health. We're likely to live longer through a life-threatening disease if we do. Spend time watching or interacting with this non-human, and access another part of your consciousness—perhaps and older, deeper part, and try to relax while you're doing it.
23. LIMIT THE 'BAD NEWS.' If you find yourself checking the news more than once a day, give it a break, for your own sake. Take a "news holiday" once in a while. Go be around something beautiful, like art or nature.
24. Make a list of the 'TWENTY THINGS YOU LOVE TO DO', and post it where you'll see it every day. Write down, next to the item, when is the last time you did it, and whether you want to do it more (M) or less (L) often. Write down if it was something either parent did (P), and whether you'll still be able to do it at 85 (85). If it costs money to do it, put a dollar sign ($) next to it. If you need to do it with a friend (F) or special friend (SP) note that. Now, rank-order them, just for fun. EXAMPLE:
Item Last time? More/Less? Parents? 85? Cost? Friend/SP? Rank?
SING…TODAY.. M…………Mom.….85…0…… NA………....1.
25. DON'T TRY TO CHANGE THE WORLD. Try just impacting your tiny corner of it. Make your street a nicer place. Plant a few fruit or nut trees. Join a neighborhood group. Expand your community food pantry. Get a regular "rent party" together and pass the hat for those who have lost their job or have unpaid medical bills. Next week, that person might be you. Pick up the garbage you come across, even if it isn't yours. Remember that the world is bigger than you are, and that you don't own the Earth or the things in it, you are a part of the Earth, and are owned by it.
26. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. Just because people usually list 25 things, be different. List 26. Don't follow the crowd, walk ahead of it. If they start following you, you're a leader. If they don't, you are ahead of your time or you are going in the wrong direction. In either case, enjoy the walk, and break your own rules once in a while.
Well, we went and did it. We actually found a *house* here in Cusco for rent, and eight days ago we moved into it. Sort of.
Our previous apartment was really small and had but one bathroom. The house we rented has two bathrooms with bathtubs (Sophia nearly fell to her knees with joy when she saw them), three bedrooms, a gigantic kitchen by Cusquenan standards, and three levels. The stairs are encased in glass and from the top offer an extraordinary view. That's the good part.
The bad part is that the previous tenants discovered a leak in the third floor bathroom while moving out. On the day we took possession of the place the third floor bathroom was literally ripped to pieces. The toilet was teetering uneasily in the bath tub, most of the tiles on the floor were torn up, the wall and wood flooring in the bedroom were soaking wet and stained, and it smelled like raw sewage. It kind of felt like we were back on Green Street dealing with one calamity or another, except we didn't own this mess. It was not possible to move into the third bedroom, so we shacked up with Sophia downstairs.
The previous owners used a handyman who they adored, and he had begun to repair the mess when, out of the blue, he lost consciousness at home one morning for over three hours. His name is Francisco and he is only 32 years old. He awoke with both fists swinging and ran out into the street in his pajamas with no memory of what had happened or even who his wife and children were. Needless to say, the proper functioning of our second bathroom was not high on his list of priorities. So we waited a few days and finally told the landlords that we would not pay rent until it was fixed. We figured they would find another guy to the job, but instead they forced Francisco to come. He showed up literally minutes after we told the landlords about the situation with a tired and sad look on his face.
We felt absolutely awful.
He told us that he had spent the entire day after his episode in the hospital where they took x-rays, checked him over and declared with authority that he was the victim of witchcraft. I, personally, have never received that diagnosis from a physician.
In any case, Francisco got right to work and had most of the bathroom put back together in about six hours. Amazingly, when we awoke the next morning, water was streaming out of the toilet inlet hose onto the newly re-tiled floor. Francisco couldn't return for another 24 hours to fix it, so we wadded up some towels to catch the water, and eventually fix it he did.
We also had to buy a stove and refrigerator for the house. The house is in the pre-colonial neighborhood of San Blas, so everything is squeezed tightly together. Our house is on a pedestrian walkway (or trash-strewn dirt alley if you prefer) above another pedestrian walkway called Tanda Pata. We have to climb 62 steps and walk about a hundred yards to get to our door. The men carrying the appliances to our house were not psyched to have been chosen for this detail.
The very first morning after sleeping in our new house, we woke up to the bass-heavy, pounding beat of Reggaeton from the neighbors across the way. A colorful collection of dreadlocked teenagers lives there in a kind of boarding house that is also owned by our landlords. They were playing drinking games and dancing at 7 am. As you can see from the photos our house is made of glass, so we can hear everything. Poor Isabel had to stick foam earplugs in her ears to try and concentrate on her work. This scene was repeated on the following Sunday at 6 am. Happily, I watched as the landlady went over in her nightgown to bang on their door. It's been pretty quiet since then. I have been working hard to think of something clever to say about people living in glass houses, but no luck as of yet.
We are getting ready to pack up for our trip to Bolivia. It feels funny to be leaving just after moving, but we will have a lovely place to move back into. Once we are back some time in January, we will be staying put for five full months. Hooray!
For the seasoned world traveler (read: Didi), being in the Sacred Valley of Peru and not visiting Machu Picchu is like going to Paris and shielding your eyes from the view of the Eiffel Tower. So Didi made it clear that this was a trip we would all be doing together during her visit.
Machu Picchu is not an easy site to get to. This probably has everything to do with the reason it was re-discovered in such great shape... the Spanish never found it. Since it is so remote, there are but two ways to get there: walk four days on the Inca trail (the way I always imagined getting to Machu Picchu), or ride a train to the town of Aguas Calientes and ride in a diesel bus up a narrow dirt road to the foot of the ruins. Since we had such a short period of time we had to go by train.
The atmosphere around Machu Picchu was more reminiscent of Epcot Center than the Amazon Basin. Just as I feared. It was a kind of tourist purgatory overflowing with trinket shops and beer gardens squeezed between the near vertical walls of the Urubamba River canyon. After such an inauspicious approach I was prepared to be disappointed by the ruins.
I was wrong.
No words or images can do justice to the feeling of standing on the ridge of Machu Picchu, catapulted as it is, thousands of feet above the tight oxbow of the Urubamba river that surrounds it on three sides like a moat. I won't attempt to share my shallow knowledge of the site and its construction here -- you'd be better served to read a book -- but I will post images with some semblance of captions.
The train pulling out of Urubamba
Pedro, superguide, was by mom's side every step of the way.
The quintessential view of Machu Picchu. If you turn your head 90˚ to the right, you will see the profile of a face formed by Huayna Picchu, the ridge behind the ruins. Coincidence? I think not.
The wall that knocked Hiram Bingham's socks off.
Double doorway near the Temple of the Sun. Notice the two different types of stone work -- the left side was part of a dwelling while the right was part of a holy temple. Also notice the anti-seismic angles of the door frame.
Two examples of the extraordinarily organic architecture used by the Inca, seamlessly incorporating the granite bedrock into their constructions.
Detail of the head of a condor carved into the bedrock above, and its outstretched "wings" below.
To the Inca the condor was a totem that helped souls bridge the gap from the world of the living to the realm of the Gods.
Steep terraces blanket the flanks of the ridge on all sides. Even though they look uniform, beneath the surface each of these terraces has three distinct layers for optimum irrigation and growing conditions. The first layer is gravel, next is sand, and the last layer is rich mud hauled up from the banks of the Urubamba river. It is difficult to imagine how much work and skill it must have taken to etch these earthworks into the steep granite cliffs.
Our friendly steward whips up the best Picso Sour in Peru (really!) while we head back to Cusco on the "Vista Dome" train.
The four hour ride from Aguas Calientes was broken up by a few traditional dance presentations and,
I kid you not, a fashion show of alpaca outerwear, complete with a pumping euro-techno soundtrack, modeled by the stewards and stewardesses who prepared our drinks.
Brother David trying valiantly to block out Didi's dramatic oral reading of "The Madoff Chronicles" as we steam through the Andes on the train back to Cusco.
UNESCO has placed Machu Picchu on the list of most endangered archeological sights, and I can see why. The Peruvian government has a curious habit of reconstructing ruins to make them look nicer, but in their fervor for tidiness they are likely erasing important information that could fill in the gaps of the stories of the people who made them. Additionally, the town of Aguas Calientes (whose name is now being changed to El Pueblo de Machu Picchu) is poorly equipped and situated for the hordes who come to see the place. The glory of Machu Picchu's location, preservation, and history are nearly equaled by the grotesque nature of the tourist circus surrounding it. There are some measures being taken to better preserve the ruins in their original state, and the number of visitors is limited per day, so not all the news is bad.
Even after having said all that, I was so amazed by the place that (perhaps a bit selfishly...) I can't wait to get back to it. Being there is such an astounding experience that I encourage all of you reading this to do the same.
My brother David and I decided to head to the town of Pisac last week. The town itself is famous for its enormous and bustling crafts market, but it also abuts the Inca ruins that share the same name. We had heard that the ruins were big, much bigger in fact than those at Machu Picchu, and we thought we would have a look. My friend Jean-Jacques Decoster gave me a copy of a great little Cusco guidebook written by local expat Peter Frost which outlines a five hour hike along a ridge adjacent to the ruins. We decided to give this one a try as it promised amazing views of the ruins from above.
We started by walking right out of the center of town at 3000 meters and began gaining altitude rapidly on the steep cobblestone walkway. The paving soon gave way to dirt trails switchbacking from one end of the narrow valley to the other. When we came to a "T" we knew to go left even though this sent us up and away from the ruins.
Cactus in bloom with the town of Pisac around 700 feet below us.
We ascended the headwall of the narrow valley only to find ourselves in a new drainage, filled with a dense stand of eucalyptus trees. After climbing up to around 3400 meters David suggested we climb up and out of this wooded valley back toward the direction of the ruins. This was a great call. As we topped out on the grassy field above, we caught our first view of the ruins, and it was staggering.
Along a sharp, exposed ridge sat building upon building, rising up from its spine. Almost every low-angled flank of the ridge was covered in a vast array of agricultural terraces that from our vantage point, resembled the layers of cardboard used by architects to represent topography on their models.
As we came closer to the ruins we were cliffed out and resumed heading uphill along the edge of the precipice. At around 3600 meters we came to a trail that descended a lower angle section of the cliff and we made our way to a valley floor.
We ran into six boys sitting on a rock here, dressed in their school uniforms. We struck up a conversation with them and found out that they have no high school in their tiny town up in the mountains, so they make the trek to Pisac each day for their education. Neither David nor I could believe it when they told us it takes three hours to walk down to school every day, and four hours to walk back up. Yes math fans, that equals seven hours of walking every day just to get to school.
And look at how smiley they are! They do the walk all year long, sometimes in rain and freezing temperatures, wearing nothing but sandals made of old tires on their feet.
After saying goodbye to our new friends we headed for the ruins. The small valley we exited to gain the saddle where the ruins begin is also the terminus of a spring pouring out of the mountainside, and into a series of carved basins. Climbing along the ridge top we came to the first set of buildings. Some of these were accessible via steep stone stairs while others required a trip up a homespun ladder.
We attempted to continue along the knife edge of the ridge, but were stopped by a cliff. Descending toward the more "touristy" trail, a thin thread of a path caught my eye heading back up toward the high line. We followed it and after a little third class scramble it deposited us back on the spine of the ridge.
I have always been partial to ridges. According to French mountain guides there is no safer place to be in the alpine environment. Nothing is going to fall on you from above and you have a commanding view of the terrain you are traveling through. Ridges are also preferable to drainages because they are comparatively dry and unvegetated. This ridge walk began characteristically fun and airy, but it quickly became tense and hairy.
After a pleasant trail of loam snaking its way in and around the rock outcroppings dotting the ridge crest, we were presented with an ancient staircase. The stairs descended at a very steep angle to a 90˚ turn that if you missed, would send you flying off a 500 foot cliff to the valley below. I was taking enormously deep breaths to keep my heart rate from reaching its maximum cadence as I approached the scary turn. To my amazement, in front of me was a slit of a tunnel cutting 100 feet through the core of the mountain.
After regaining our composure we continued along the ridge trail which soon finished with a 50 foot 3rd class scramble to get to the easier trail below.
We later found out that by traversing this ridge we had walked along one of the least adulterated Inca trails in the region. I couldn't stop thinking about what it must have been like to build this thing. It was an extraordinary experience to encounter the ruins this way, no doubt enhanced by the moderate level of adrenaline coursing through our veins.
Once back on terra-firma we made our way from the residential sector to the religious center of Pisac. The stone work on holy buildings is astonishing. The lines are clean, joints are perfect, and the structures are more or less intact nearly 600 years after having been built.
As the sun was setting we continued to make our way back down to the valley floor, 1500 feet below us. The ridge continued, as did the ancient buildings. The photo below shows the former hospital of Pisac.
The location of Pisac on the crest of a ridge began to get me thinking. I have spent a fair amount of time walking about in the mountains, and a key element I always look for in a campsite is access to water. I also prefer a campsite with the best possible view. I look around and make sure that I will not be overly exposed to any objective hazards like falling rocks, dead trees, or floods. If I were living hundreds of years ago and was looking for an ideal place to build a dwelling, the ridge at Pisac would have been at the top of my list. Not only would it have met my modern backpacking standards, it would also have been nearly impossible for marauders to invade. Add to this the incredible earthworks that the Inca were able to accomplish in the form of agricultural terraces and you have a grand slam. The settlement at Pisac was as much a work of art as it was a self sustaining city perched on a knifes-edge ridge soaring thousands of feet above the fertile valley floor of the Urubamba River.
We reached the main plaza just at dusk. Our easy walk had turned into more of an adventure than we had planned on, and the warm glow of the businesses in town was a welcome sight. We quickly found a cab back to Urubamba and during lulls in the conversation hung our heads out of the open windows as we drove through the pitch black night.
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