Cuzco and Machu Picchu

We have been in Cuzco for about two and a half weeks, living with a Peruvian family and taking Spanish classes here. It has been a nice change of pace to be in one spot for an extended amount of time, getting into a routine (2 weeks is the longest we have stayed put, since December) and challenging our minds a bit. The school we went to is called Excel, and is a well organized, tightly run place. We really liked our teacher, Lyda, and her teaching style. She pushed us, but not too hard. We have learned to speak in their 2 past tenses (preterite and imperfect) as well as the future tense. When we arrived we spoke solely in the present tense for everything. We also learned commands, which will be especially useful when we are teaching in Cajamarca. The school had a few excursions, so that we could use Spanish in the "real world". We went to an Inca museum one day, which was great but all we did was listen. One day we went into the campo (countryside) and made hornos (ovens) out of dirt and cooked potatoes underground. Unfortunately, ours was the worst one and it fell apart. And one day, to our chagrin we had to sing a song in Spanish in front of the school. While Drew had the job of yelling out "Vamanos!" at the beginning of the song, I revealed my unknown talent of playing air guitar in front of a crowd of bored students. We also spent an evening learning to salsa dance (Drew was indulging me), but couldn't get past the first spin move for the life of us. Besides learning Spanish, we learned that we are not talented singers or dancers, and lucky for you we don't have pictures.

Besides school, we have been living with a Peruvian family here. The father, Julio Ceasar is a Cardiologist and the mother stays at home. We haven't seen much of the mother because she has been in Lima with her sick father. There is also a housekeeper, Fortunata, who cooks and cleans with her two sons. The family also has an adopted 7 year old daughter named Liliana who we talk to and play with quite a bit. Besides the family, there are 6 other students living there, so the house is always lively and interesting. The experience has been comfortable and easy, a good balance between having our own space and having time with the family and students. We practiced our Spanish and ate well, and it was actually really nice to live in a real home and not eat in restaurants (which have proven to be dangerous in Peru).

Cuzco has been very festive and colorful during our stay. It is a beautiful town in many ways, with many churches and small cobblestone streets winding up the hills. All the houses seem to be the color of the earth, and looking out across the city you see a sea of adobe-colored homes, strewn with colorful laundry hanging outside. The people are a mix of indigenous and Spanish, and many women still wear the traditional clothing of the area; big skirts, round top hats, and always carrying a colorful satchel (or a child) on their backs. The city has been getting ready for their biggest festival of the year for winter solstice, Inti Raymi (celebrated on June 24). Everyday there seems to be activity in the center of town. A few times we have stumbled upon huge dancing parades, where groups of students are dressed in traditional clothes and dancing in the streets. The colors are amazing, so bright and vivid, and combined with the music, it feels like a true cultural experience. The festivities are part of their tradition done for themselves, not for the tourists. We also saw a huge float parade, with enormous sculptures of different people, animals, and other things (including Shrek). All this has added to our experience here in Cuzco, which has felt very vibrant and interesting.

The flip side of Cuzco is the traffic, the constant noise, and the smell of urine. Cars have the right of way (not the pedestrians) and it is a free for all. Imagine a line of grid-locked traffic, all honking their horns, and you'll have a good sense of the traffic here. Even though the traffic is bad, I think the drivers have a clue about what they are doing. The pedestrians on the other hand, are completely clueless, always walking out in front of you or stopping mid stride. Cuzco is a busy city and you have to be very careful with your belongings. Cuzco has the highest theft rate in all of Peru, but luckily there is little violent crime. We have gotten used to most of these things though, and it doesn't phase us anymore, we walk around people, we've stopped feeling alarmed when a car squeals by inches from our feet, we hold tightly to our possessions, and the urine, well I don't think you ever get used to that.

The highlight of our time here was visiting Machu Picchu. It is hard to explain the feeling that comes over you as you climb the stairs and get your first view over Machu Picchu, it is absolutely incredible. The site itself is amazing, but the landscape surrounding it makes the whole place feel very mystical and surreal. The ecosystem is a cloud forest, and the mountains are green with vegetation. There are tropical flowers, and butterflies and birds flying around. Unfortunately the most numerous animal is that of the human species. I would be lying if I said this didn't take away from the experience. You would be sitting there gazing out across the years, at a civilization of incredible power and mystery, and a large Texan woman with burnt cheeks and a big hat with "Machu Picchu" written across the front, would step in front of you scream at her husband and ruin the moment. It was impossible to get away from the other people and have a moment to ourselves. But alas, we are tourists too and we had to accept the fact that Machu Picchu comes as a package deal which includes Texans.


The history of Machu Picchu is very interesting. The Inca believed they were the first people, born from the Sun. They built Machu Picchu as the last of many sites along the sacred valley and it is full of the symbolism and spirituality of the Inca. They worshiped nature- the sun, moon, stars, the mountains, and the animals. All of this is apparent in the construction of Machu Picchu, where you see the shapes of animals in the rocks, sun dials made out of carved stones, and their own representations of the mountains. What is really amazing, is how they built this city right out of the side of a very steep mountainside. The Inca are known for their architectural design, it is an art. Their construction is flawless- huge rocks, cut at different angles and rubbed smooth so that they fit perfectly together, almost seamless. There is no need for cement, because the blocks are like a puzzle, all holding the others together. You see these things and begin to understand their society. You can imagine people living there, working there, and you understand that the Incas who populated Machu Picchu were highly intelligent, strong, and spiritual. We learned that the society always took care of each other. If one woman lost her husband and had kids to feed, others would help her. Nobody would go hungry. In Quechua (the language of the Inca), there is no word for possession or ownership, because everything is shared. In a way, it is an idealistic way of life. The height of the Inca Empire only lasted a little over 100 years, but their decedents are a large part of the Peruvian life today. The history and culture is intricately woven in today's society.




We climbed up Wayna Picchu, shown in the background of the classical view of Machu Picchu. They only let 400 people climb this each day, and we were lucky to get the chance. It was a steep climb, but gave us views over the site. Supposedly, MP looks like an upside down condor from this view, but I couldn't quite make it out, can you? We found a small area to ourselves and had lunch overlooking Machu Picchu and the surrounding mountains and meandering river below. We had a scary descent down the slippery, steep stairs but made it out alive.


We also had the chance to visit some other Inca sites near Cuzco. One place in town is called Qoricancha, and is interesting because it is an Inca site that was covered by a Spanish church. In 1950 there was a huge earthquake that destroyed the church, but Qoricancha was unharmed. Today both structures are there, reflecting both cultures. We spent our last Saturday walking to four sites, but two stood out. One called Qenqo was a strange place of carved tunnels and underground tombs. The other called Sacsayhuaman (pronounced like "Sexy Woman") is a large site with enormous rocks, again perfectly cut and fit together. It is hard to imagine the Inca creating these places with man-power alone!

Now we have made it to Lima, the capital city of Peru. We are staying with Norma's sister and husband here (whose parents we stayed with in Bolivia). We head north in a few days, for some beach time and then to meet Kelly and Skyler in Cajamarca to make our next ebook! Give us a shout out if you are still with us, we love your comments!

Love, Erin

Our Final Frontier

We´ve reached Peru, the last country on our itinerary before heading back stateside. We´re in the city of Cuzco which has about 400,000 people and will be our base of operations for the next few weeks. Cuzco is the main jumping off point for Machu Piccu and the Sacred Valley which contains a number of Incan historical sites that we hope to explore while we´re here. We start two weeks of Spanish classes on Monday. The lessons will be the two of us with one instructor so we should learn alot and hopefully move our local language skills a step or two forward. Tomorrow we start a two-week homestay with a Peruvian family. The family consists of a couple and three godchildren. The husband is a cardiologist, and the wife is a teacher and housewife. There are two boys - ages 25 and 18 - and one girl - age 6. We´re really looking forward to the opportunity to improve our Spanish in a focused environment as well as immerse ourselves in the home of a Peruvian family and get to know what their lives are like.

Cuzco from above Barrio San Blas

We are also looking forward to just being in one spot for a while, me especially. I´ve had two bouts of GI illness in the last week, and Erin has had one. We´ve also travelled quite a long distance from southern Argentina all the way to Peru via some long bus rides. The truth is that it has taken it out of us a bit. It´s been a long road, and we need some R&R. We´re thinking that Cuzco will be a good haven for that so that we can recuperate and get revved back up for the final month and half of our travels here. I know it´s a unique opportunity to be here with so much time so I´m eager to be in good shape to take advantage.

Isla del Sol with Cordillera Real in background

Before arriving in Peru, we spent our final days in Cocacabana, Bolivia, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The lake is a monstrously big, deep blue, high-altitude lake. It´s over 3,000 square miles in size - up to 120 miles wide and 50 miles long - and resides at 12,000 feet in altitude. The lake is sacred to many of the native Quechua and Aymara people of the area, and the Isla del Sol is an island on the lake that was the place of origin for man according to the Incan creation myth. We visited Isla del Sol on a day trip and walked its length from north to south, about a 3-hour hike. It´s a charming island that features three different villages as well as Incan and pre-Incan ruins. Perhaps the best things about it, though, are the relative peace and quiet that it offers and the majestic mountain views to the Cordillera Real (Royal Range) to the west. We haven´t had many opportunities to get out and hike and relax of late so it was a welcome day for us.

The locals on Isla del Sol

As this is an impromptu post, I don´t have our photos with us but will post them soon. We should also be able to share some photos of our new home and temporary family as well. And all of you anonymous readers out there, drop us a line and let us know what´s new in your neck of the woods...your nape of the way...where you live. We´d love to hear from you!

Adios!
Drew

Bolivia

We have left Argentina and entered the world of Bolivia. We spent our final week in Argentina in a wonderful city called, Salta, and it was everything we love about cities. It was clean, safe, beautiful, and surrounded by outstanding landscape. We didn't expect this gem in Northern Argentina, and found ourselves pleasantly surprised. The city was full of green plazas where there is always activity, but they also serve as a peaceful refuge. The plazas were surrounded by trees covered in oranges (they tasted awful) and open air restaurants, similar to a European city. The architecture around the city was really outstanding, especially the pink cathedrals with their gaudy interior.


The highlight of Salta was when we took a one day tour to the outlying countryside. We stopped at small villages and strolled along cobblestone streets. Men and women in indigenous clothes sold handicrafts in all sorts of colors.

We stopped by an old archaeological site, and learned about the rich history of the area. There were many indigenous tribes before the Incas, and they too fought the Spanish to keep their territory. One funny story I recall is of a chief who dressed up the cacti in the area to look like soldiers, and when the Spanish saw how many people they would have to fight, they retreated. We also got to see the beautiful landscape, which is a dry and arid desert, cut by canyons with multi-colored layers of rock. One area called the Painter's Palate Mountain had 10 different colors in the rocks! It was a colorful day and we wished we had more time to explore the area, but alas, we were off to Bolivia.


We spent two hot, sticky, terrible days in the border towns between Argentina and Bolivia. When we crossed the border between Aguas Blancas on the Argentinean side to Bermejo on the Bolivian side, we were struck right away by the differences. First of all, we had to cross a river and when we got into Bolivia, there was no sign of a custom's office or anyone checking passports. We had to take a taxi for a few kilometers to get to an indiscriminate office, where we paid our $100 for a visa. They have specific rules in place for Americans because we have our own rules for them when they come to the US, but they don't seem to be very worried about their border control.

After a long day of getting our visa and traveling north, we finally got to Tarija. We decided to go there because our friend Norma's family lives there. She is Bolivian, but now lives in the US. She lived with Jabe and Julie (my nanny family) for awhile, where I met her, and their family visited Tarija for her recent wedding- that's the connection. As soon as we got to Norma's parent's house, her mother Ana came out to greet us. She is a lovely woman and straight away cooked up a feast for us. It was just the beginning of many huge meals cooked by Ana.


We spent five days in Tarija. Norma's father, Justino, gave us tours of the surrounding campo (countryside) and we spent time exploring the city itself. But the best part of our stay there was simply spending time with a Bolivian family. They were tremendously generous, especially with the meals they cooked. We had many traditional dishes, as well as two parillas (barbecues), one of fish and one of several meats. We ate like you do during the holidays - too much! We also had the opportunity to go to the campesino (farmer's) market with Ana- a crazy, crowded place. We went to a part where they sell thousands of fish (all the same kind), but somehow she knew exactly what she was looking for. Once we bought our fish, we took them to a different area where they scale and gut them. Scales were flying, music was playing, and it was busy, stinky, and rich in experience. It was a taste of the local culture that we likely would not have seen on our own.

We spent our meal times conversing in Spanish, which was great practice for us. We could understand most of what was said, and even had in depth conversations about things like politics. Bolivia is the poorest of the South American countries, and there is a large divide between the haves and have-nots. The president, Evo Morales, is also a topic of heated discussions. He supports the rural, indigenous population (60% of the people), and wants a more socialized government. The working class, business owners and land owners, feel that their livelihood is in jeopardy and have many opinions about the current government. Much of the wealth lies in the lowlands, Tarija and Santa Cruz, and there is talk about these places separating from Bolivia to become autonomous. And all this we learned in Spanish!

Ana and Justino treated us like family, which is really nice after ten months on the road. We felt loved and pampered the whole time, and we had the chance to relax in the comforts of a home. We got to see Norma's entire wedding video, including the ceremony and the hours of dancing that followed. It was great to be able to see Pascal and Sabine dancing alongside a group of Bolivians- Pascal has some moves! We left Tarija in an emotional farewell, like we had known each other a lifetime.


We spent 18 painful hours on a bus to La Paz. Within hours I felt the change of altitude, the bus was freezing cold, and there was an infant crying every 10 minutes throughout the entire night. We got to La Paz, red-eyed and weary, but soon made it to the house of our new friends, Claudine and Wes, who are good friends with Ben and Casey.

They have a beautiful, 3-bedroom apartment on the 16th floor of a building, with great views of the city. They are both archaeology students here, studying a nearby site called Tiahuanaku. They opened their home to us, and we've been indulging in western delights, like blueberry pancakes, movies, and internet.

La Paz is a very interesting city. First of all, it is at about 13,000 ft in elevation and sits in a bowl surrounded by a high plain and mountains. When you look around, even amongst the buildings, you see homes in the hills rising above the city. La Paz has a large population of indigenous people, so it is colorful and vibrant, and it feels exotic even just walking down the street. It is loud and busy and there is a lot of poverty, but I am really enjoying the richness of the culture and the unique setting of La Paz.

We spent the last two days in Tiahuanaku with Claudine and Wes. It felt good to get out of the city and into the countryside. The site itself is really cool, and dates back to 500 A.D. (before the Incas).
It was amazing to be able to walk through the area with Claudine and Wes, since they are experts. We learned so much about the history of Tiahuanaku, and how the people might have lived. They built large tiered structures, with sunken courtyards in the center. There seems to be symbolism in almost every detail, and is designed based on the natural world around them. The sun, water, earth, animals, and people all are interconnected, and you see this in their artwork. See saw intricate rock carvings, painted pottery, and shaped metal. My two favorite parts of Tiahuanaku were huge monoliths of humans with carvings all over their bodies, and also a sunken courtyard with carved heads popping out of the walls. Another amazing aspect of the area, is that different people lived there for thousands of years. So you see evidence of the ancient Tiahuanaku culture that built these sites, and Incan ruins built on top of them. When the Spaniards came, they used the stones to build the church that exists in the town today. Many parts of the new town are built out of the ruins and you see the Tiahuanaku rocks in the buildings throughout the village. Also, there are pieces of pottery and bones scattered everywhere you look, because people continually lived there and dug up the earth to build new places. It was a fascinating visit, thanks to our personal tour guides!

Finally, some pictures of the local people, taken at the market in the town of Tiahuanaku. This morning we`re off for Lake Titicaca for two days and then on to Cuzco, Peru, which will be our home for the next few weeks. We plan to take Spanish classes there while also exploring the surrounding area and Inca ruins, including Machu Piccu.

Erin