Random Events of August

The final weekend of July in Chaclacayo.

August is the month where things transition back to normal. July, the patriotic month of winter vacation, departed and Carted started 2nd grade with his new teacher. Traffic is all snarled again and September holds no big plans for us. But in many small things, our lives here continue to be interesting.

Santa Rosa de Lima...on the 200 sole bill that doesn't
really seem to circulate.

The Hogar where we go out and visit the kids continues to be a big part of our weekends. Recently, it was the holiday for Santa Rosa de Lima, the first South American saint, in which people traditionally go to her home in Lima and throw wishes into her well. The Hogar kids were all invited to a rich lady's house in Chaclacayo for a lunch and play. The kids love the lunch and, even better, love the giant trampoline and little wading pools the lady sets up. I noticed a couple of the long-term volunteers savoring a rare can of beer. Victor, 13yrs old, sat happily in a tiny wading pool for over an hour...like a pigeon in a bath. Even though the hostess suffers Parkinson's tremors, she insisted on doling out the ice cream afterwards.

Archery

In a strange moment that day, as we were on the van heading over to the lunch, we saw Jimena out on the sidewalk, not coming with us. Oh, said the doctor, she is going home today. We struggled to the window for a futile farewell wave as the van drove off. Jimena was one of the very special ones, a handful, a pain in the ass sometimes, but energetic and engaged and loving despite being a 9yr old covered in burn scars and a fused hand. I know we should be happy, she is going back to her family, her treatment is going well. Blah blah blah. Just this last week we learned that Jenny is going home soon...she is the cerebral palsy girl in the wheelchair in the first photo up top. This feels a little different...we are certain that going back to Jenny's family simply means she will be parked in a corner and ignored. We could be wrong, but we've met the mother and I doubt we are wrong.

Other little things: Marcela, Carter's Spanish tutor, rewarded him with an Archery class...one that I was able to take part in as well. The lovely little fruit aguaymanto has come into season just in time for me to experiment with pisco infusions. These infusions are great in a couple of the signature Peruvian cocktails: the pisco sour (1pt lime, 1pt simple syrup, 1 egg white, 3pt pisco, shake with ice, dash of bitters) and the chilcano (pisco & ginger ale & a bit of lime).

Jennifer and I went late one night to Brisas de Titicaca, a exhibition dancehall that alternates displays of traditional Peruvian dances with opening the floor for guests to dance. Jen and I had a hard time finding it, a few times incorrectly turning down the dark street where hookers were loitering in their skimpy dress. The native costumes in the hall, though, were fun to see. Brightly colored, modeled from different regions, with accompanying group dances. Also, I have mentioned the marinera before, the dance where a barefoot lady twirls her handkerchief and the man twirls his sombrero. Finally I got to see it. It was elegant, as expected, but also athletic and subtly erotic in the same way that the Argentine tango is. The footwork is forceful and the dancers circle around each other like cranes doing a mating dance, but then quietly come together and hide behind the hat for a beat or two.

Marinera

We had met up with Sanjay and Garima. They are in their final months in Lima as Sanjay prepares to take over the Country Director position in Mozambique. The new Country Director is coming in from his post in Ecuador and we hear good things about him.

We also went to a circus. Apparently, winter is circus time in Lima. We went with several people from Peace Corps to a special charity show in which all proceeds and the performance are all donated to a local child-welfare organization. A street-wise priest runs a program in one of the poorest areas out on the outskirts of town. Many of the kids from the neighborhood attended as well and we were amused to overhear "Mirá, gringos!" and watch as Carter's fair curls earned him a few new girlfriends. Central Lima is so cosmopolitan and the conquistador blood still so in evidence that gringos like us don't usually garner more than a glance or two. The show was good, intimate, with acrobatics and trapeze and horses and clowns. At the end, the performers all came out for a farewell and a speech about the charity. One of the acrobats, dressed for her role as a tough, scowling gladiator broke down weeping and kind of hid behind the others. I guess there is some overlap between what the kids in this program experience on the streets and what Peruvian circus performers experience. 

Finally, I posted this on Facebook, but for those of you who haven't seen it, here is a picture of Carter's note from when he and a school friend had to apologize to each other.

Everybody loves their mummy

Black & White Ball (and other social engagements)
Friday was a full day. Our niece and nephew, Dominick and Nicole, plus Carter and I went out to Chaclacayo to the Peace Corps training center. The most recent group of trainees were being sworn in and it is fun to see their excitement: they've been assigned their sites and the whole experience is clearly becoming real for them. Jen and I also get the privilege of seeing volunteers later, at the end of their term, and seeing how they change. So I know that 2 years from now, these new volunteers will be talking about their joys and tribulations (learning the local dance, connecting with the village kids, sampling local cuisine like fried guinea pig brains, pooping in the bushes with makeshift toilet paper, etc etc). Jen deals with her fair share of crises, so ceremonies like this swearing-in are feel-good events.

By good fortune, the training center just happens to be in the same town as the Hogar we visit. So after the reception, we take our niece and nephew over to meet some of the kids we know. Being their on a Friday evening is different: Jen helps with homework while I pitch in around the dinner time with bathroom trips and toothbrushes, mostly for those with limited mobility. There are volunteer tutors and I see that the kids get some computer time. There is even one who is watching an anime cartoon and Dominick and him have a brief anime-geek moment, even if they can't speak each other's language. [As an aside, Dominick researched and found a local mini-mall that specializes in anime...and when I took him there last week, he almost peed himself he was so excited by the 15 stores all focused on anime and video games merchandise.] Anyway, the kid at the Hogar quickly hid the cartoon because the Doctor came down for dinner and does not allow the computers to be used for stuff like that.

We got home at 9pm, but our Friday was not over. Jen and I had tickets to join several people from the office at a "Black and White Ball", all to celebrate Marcela's birthday (Marcela works in the office and also tutors Carter Spanish 2X per week in our home). Since Peruvian nightlife doesn't really get going until 11pm, we had plenty of time to don our B&W attire and still be some of the first guests to arrive. The venue served ice and mixers, but we all came with coolers to prepare cocktails and snacks. Something fabulous about Peruvians is that no dance floor stays lonely for very long. The mix of music would swing around through American 80s music, Latin dance-pop, and traditional oldies from the Andes or the Amazon. Also, the soundtrack to Grease. Peruvians love the movie Grease (though here the cable guide calls it "Vaselina"). Anyway...we didn't get home until 3:30am.

Skull from the burial area, still with jawbone, skin & hair

Cerro de Oro UNCOVERED
I have written in the past about the Huari ruins and burial grounds we have visited a few times (click here). After struggling out of bed Saturday morning, we took Dominick and Nicole and headed south of Lima to the site where we met up with Greg "Goyo" Plimpton, one of the few silver-haired Peace Corps volunteers. Dominick and Nicole were treated to the obligatory walk through the grave-robbed area, with the millions of bones and skulls and artifacts. In addition to the broken pottery, twine and woven fragments, Nicole and I each found a weaving shuttle, and I found an almost complete cotton tunic. But then Goyo walked us over to the archeological dig. It was his energy and bullheadedness that finally brought an

Goyo, at the dig

The mummy's tomb.

archeological team to the area and the results are amazing. To his surprise, the team completely ignored the burial area, useless to them I suppose, and started literally brushing sand away in an blank spot of earth. But they knew what they were doing, they uncovered the outlines of walls, then painstakingly dug down to reveal the whole buildings and even some walls still plastered smooth. Then, incredibly, they realized one wall was hollow and broke through to uncover a tomb with a fully intact mummy and several artifacts. And then, they found another one! The mummies have been taken to Lima for analysis. The artifacts include a heavy bronze knife (curved), a sculpted jug, some kind of complex decorative weaving...all seeing the light of day for the first time in 1000yrs. This stuff was all gone by the time we visited (these artifact photos are from Goyo), but it was great to see the site and to know it is being properly appreciated in at least a small way. Peru has tons of mummies, so this won't make the news probably, but to me it feels personal and amazing. I hope Goyo knows what a cool thing he's done.

Paracas / Islas Ballestas
Afterwards, we continued south to Paracas...also something I have written up previously (same link as above). It was chilly, but the kids and I played table fusbol and we all wandered around the beach. The boat trip out to the Islas Ballestas on Sunday morning was the same as before...dolphins, sealions, penguins, millions of cormorants, boobies, Inca Terns, etc etc. By the time we got back to shore midday it was beautiful out, so we ran back to the hotel for a swim and some lounging around. Then, on our way out of town, we stopped at a little lunch stand in the village so Jen and I could share a mixed cebiche and a mixed fried seafood. It had fish, octopus, shrimp...and then as we left we noticed that sea turtle was on the menu too. We really hope we didn't eat turtle by mistake, but there were some unidentified things in our mixto.

Anyway, it is Tuesday as I write this and I just dropped off Dominick and Nicole for their long flight back to Portland, OR.

P.S. Yesterday, Carter advanced a belt level in taekwan-do.









Below are some extra photos:

Intricate woven object from the tomb.
What is it?!

The bronze knife and other stuff.

Coool animal ceramic...but what animal?

The weaver's shuttle from the burial area

Plenty of donkeys in the area.

Jennifer schooling the new generation.

Machu Picchu

There are some things that are touristy for a good reason: Yosemite, Alcatraz, etc. Machu Picchu is a phenomenal experience, something that all the tourism can't diminish. Our morning train crossed the high-altitude farmlands outside of Cusco, over 3 hours wending its way downhill and into the steep ravines where the Andes begin to meet the jungle. The train was a "Vistadome", with windows in the ceiling and very comfortable. The route through the Sacred Valley is chock full of Inca sites, but from the train we saw adobe homes and donkeys and fields full of birds. We are already talking about returning to the area, it needs a week to do it justice. Eventually the hills sharpened up and the Urubamba River canyon closed in. After passing Ollantaytambo, one of the last stands for the Inca, the cloud forest ecosystem grew up around us. There is much foliage, granite cliff faces are peppered with basketball-sized epiphytes (plants who do not need soil to survive) while many trees are host to large epiphytes with big red flowering stalks. Looking up through the ceiling windows, we caught site of the snowy crag that is Mount Veronica, and looking down we begin to see ancient Inca terraces and structures built up the steep slopes and along the river. At one short stop, a little old lady ran up with a bouquet of local flowers (orchids, lilies, etc) and Jen ran out and bought them for a dollar. The lady suddenly had to scamper off the tracks of the train from the opposite direction, then stood laughing and blowing us kisses.

Putucusi hike

Aguas Calientes is the little tourist town down below the Machu Picchu ruins, named for local hotsprings. The streets are lined with restaurants and stores for travelers, with hawkers who don't quite realize how off-putting their constant calls are: "Pizza! Very good! Meester, pizza, you try!" Our little hotel was perfectly clean and comfortable, but nothing special. Part of the view was the soaring cliffs, but part was a tangle of stairways and wires and the neighbors laundry room. Everybody but Dominick headed out for a hike up Putucusi (Happy Mountain), the peak opposite Machu Picchu. We were unprepared for the steepness and were surprised to find that a good distance of the trail was wooden ladders. Carter loved climbing the ladders, though of course Jen and I could imagine the headlines if something awful happened to him: "World's Worst Parents Allow 7yr Old On Cliff Ladders." In the end, we did not make it all the way to the top because the clouds threatened rain and the idea of backing down slick ladders was unappealing. Still, it was really fun.

Aguas Calientes

Dominick and Nicole pretty much slept from the afternoon into the night, so that left Jen, Carter, Mariza and I to a mediocre, overpriced dinner at the hotel restaurant. The barker/maitre'd/bartender/chef was a gregarious guy, but his repeated statements that the place was "3-Star" did not make it so. We were abed soon in order to be up and out by 5am to catch the bus up to the ruins. The line was already a few blocks long, so we were grateful when a woman came up the line selling coffee, strong and dark as you wish. Once the buses started moving, it was clear that the operation was as swift and organized as the Berlin Airlift. After another line at the entrance to the ruins, we hired a guide and went on in.

The ruins

There is too much about the ruins itself to lay out here. There is plenty to marvel at in terms of engineering and ingenuity (water from 2km away! masonry so finely matched that the seams are hard to see!). The insight into the culture and beliefs is also compelling, with stones set as sun dials or to mirror the exact ridgeline of the local mountains, windows set to align with the solstice, and areas for worship, agriculture, fabrication and both a tony part of town and a middle-class neighborhood. Machu Picchu was clearly a significant hub, but perhaps not as significant as a handful of other sites nearby: Ollantaytambo fortress, or Vilcabamba, the final holdout of the Inca, or their capital of Cusco, of course.

Looking past the farm terraces, up to the
peak of Machu Picchu Mountain

After a couple hours at the ruins, and after our bag lunch, some of us headed up Machu Picchu Mountain. There is a small peak rising above the ruins (Wayna Picchu), with ruins atop that people hike up to, but our route was much less traveled (perhaps because it is a steep, 1800ft climb up a lot of stone stairs). Carter was by far the youngest on the trail and the subject of endless commentary by our fellow hikers, and our niece Nicole muscled through it too. They were troopers and seemed unfazed by the sharp incline or the sheer drops, though we were all pretty pooped in the end. From the top we could see down to the ruins and the local river canyon, folded upon itself like origami. The descent was perhaps more agonizing than the ascent, but eventually we met up with Dominick and Mariza and caught the bus down to town.


The hotel was very decent about giving us a room to shower in even though we had checked out. Plus, we had plenty of time for a lunch by the river in Aguas Calientes, so we were clean, happy and tired when we caught our late-afternoon train back to Cusco.

Here are some extra photos:

On the trail up Machu Picchu Mountain

Peak of Machu Picchu Mountain, with ruins below

 

 

Nicole atop Machu Picchu Mt., with
Putucusi & Aguas Calientes below.

Along the tracks.