Saturday September 5 to Sunday September 6 - Peru Week 3

Somewhat of a quiet weekend for me, my roommate was headed to Cusco with a buddy on Thursday so I was largely on my own this weekend. On Saturday I jumped onto one of the collective busses, which are large vans that drive up and down the roads, and headed to the Inca ruins at Pisac since I have not seen them yet. It was interesting driving across the countryside and through the various little towns of the Sacred Valley. The towns are dotted along the roadside and often have cows and donkeys tied up along the side of the road. Sadly the weather was not very good and after taking the bus into Pisac I arrived just in time for it to start drizzling. But I was there and no guarantee that the next day or weekend would be any better. Total cost of a one hour bus ride, 4 Soles or about $1.25.

Pisac itself is a modern tourist town, by Peru standards, and after walking around a bit I discovered that I needed to take a taxi up to the ruins, which runs 25 Soles in each direction, or about $8. That is not a lot of US dollars but considering what it cost to get to Pisac from Urubamba and that I can take a bus to Cusco from Urubamba, a 1-1/2 hour drive, for 6 Soles it seemed like a lot to me. But since I don’t have a good grasp of Spanish it was rather hard for me to talk to them about this and it was posted not something they made up on the spot, so I sucked it up and let them soak me. The driver spoke a little English and was nice and informed me that he would drop me off at the main entrance and I should walk around and meet him at a 2^nd place. Fine by me but it was drizzling steadily when he dropped me off and the clouds were totally covering the mountain where the ruins were so I was not all that excited about it when he told me the walk usually takes 1.5 to 2 hours to do.

 

Fortunately my rain coat fits over the backpack I was wearing so I was able to keep my stuff dry but I must have looked a bit funny with a hump on my back and the coat pulled as tight as it would go around me. But much better than the crappy plastic ponchos that were being sold for about 10 Soles each. They were not unlike what they sell at a baseball game and I saw many were torn on the tourists who were wearing them and not keeping them all that dry.

The ruins top sucked. It rained on me the entire time, I could not see very in the valley far due to the clouds, and the other tourists were walking so slowly in the rain I wanted to push them off the mountain side. I am not really a fast walker to begin with and these people were crawling around like it was some Halloween haunted house and they were waiting for an Inca warrior to jump out and chop them up with an axe. It was ridiculous and as soon as you got around one group another was in front of them.

Add to it the steady stream of muddy water pouring down the steps from above and I was not exactly excited with Pisac. I also only pulled my camera out one time when I was under a shelter just to prove I was there. The last thing I wanted to do was walk another hour or two on a trail in the rain to get to my cab but there was not a lot of other options for me. Unless I wanted to try and stow away on a tourist bus and I did think about this. As I was figuring out my options and I guess the Irish in me got up because I rather said fuck it and the Inca rain decided I was going to walk the trail out of spite. Perhaps the Inca rain god is a bit Irish too because as I did not get very far when the rain stopped completely and the sun came out! On top of that many of the tour buses with the painfully slow tourists I wanted to push over the edge had left. So other than a few other people, possibly also Irish, I had the place to myself as I walked the trail.

The trail itself hung onto the side of the mountain and lead to a cave tunnel and several other sets of ruins on the way to the second car park. These areas were much more interesting to visit and included a temple and a second city area below the top. I had a map that the cab driver gave me that showed the site and various areas, but like most things in Peru, maps and signs are not very good so it was hard to tell exactly where I was. But the guy told me up to two hours to walk it so I did not think much of it when an hour and a half later I was in a lower set of ruins and started to realize I had no idea where the lot was.

Around that time I also came around a corner to see an old Peruvian lady sitting on the ground selling tourist trinkets. I could not get by without her noticing me and I really did not want to buy anything but she put the hard sell on me and it had started to drizzle ever so slightly again. So I decided to buy one belt that was over priced at 15 Soles but she did not have change and kept putting the hard sell on me to buy two since she did not have change for the 50 I had. I am a sucker and finally gave in and let her soak me because I felt a bit bad she was sitting in the rain. She probably laughed at me all the way down.

Somewhere in there is an old woman dying to sell you a belt or some other Peruvian tourist chachkey

I kept following the trail and was wondering where the second lot was by the time I ran across somebody else and they had told me they were walking up from the bottom and I was already 2/3rds of the way down the mountain to Pisac. They had no idea where the lot was but it was not on the trail I was on so instead of finding my cab I ended up walking all the way down. At the very bottom it started to drizzle just a bit but by that time I was largely down anyway so no big deal.

Along the way the cab driver called my Peruvian phone several times and I think was annoyed with me but it was not exactly like I planned this. And he owed me 5 Soles from the trip up anyway so tough. I got his laminated map as a souvenir that I bet cost less than the 5 Soles. And the trail lead me out at the bottom of the hill where a market was so I was able to buy some souvenirs before hopping a collective bus on to Cusco for the night.

 

In Cusco I was a bit wet and cold and my feet hurt some from the unexpected hike so after checking into my hotel I took the first long hot shower I think I have had since July 4^th. It was so nice I had a hard time getting out and think I spend about 30 minutes under the water. That evening I mostly just took some pictures of Cusco at night and watched the second half of The Interview about killing Kim Jung Un with Seth Rogan and James Franco and the new Godzilla movie. Both were rather bad movies but they were in English and this was really the first TV I have watched since leaving South Africa four weeks earlier. The Interview was pretty stupid but it had its moments, Godzilla, don’t bother unless it is free and you have nothing to do.

Sunday I did a little shopping, bought some stuff for bug bites that has been helping clear up the spots on my legs, and visited a few museums in Cusco that are a part of the tourist ticket I bought at Pisac. Museums here are not quite what I expect in the US and they are typically very small and you could literally walk up and touch most things. But they also have an English translation most of the time so that is good.

I also had an absolutely huge breakfast with scrambled eggs, toast, bacon and sausage and most importantly, absolutely no corn! I am sick of corn as that seems to be in everything you eat here.

Peru's 220v Electric Showers

You know you are in a foreign country when there are electronic devices in the shower. One would think that water and electricity are not a good idea, even more so when you are talking about 220 volt. However, it is quite common in Peru for the hot water in the shower to be generated by an electric heater perched above your head. Almost every shower I have seen, including my host family, is set up this way with the possible exception of the hotel shower the very first night I arrived in Lima and the hotel I stay at in Cusco.

The shower head in my bathroom

I have not had any problems with mine but I have heard other volunteers report that they get shocked on occasion by theirs. One guy told me his arm was numb for 5 hours after getting shocked at the one in his host family house and that it is a bad idea to touch the shower head.

They also don’t work very well. Yes you get hot water if you let it trickle out of the shower head but the more you turn the water on the more the cold overpowers the electric motor. So at best I would say you get a luke warm shower.

Monday August 31 to Friday September 4 - Peru Week 3, Let Chaos Rule

So this week has been a total wild rollercoaster for me. Last week at General Ollanta was not so bad but this week has been a total madhouse and I have rather thought of the school as General Ollanta Institute for the Insane instead of a school. After I got out of class on Monday I actually had to go have a drink somewhere.

There is a 55^th anniversary of the school this week and they have been preparing for it, so I am hoping this is why it has been so crazy, but three out of four days this week the entire teaching staff has gone into meetings during the school day. This means that the only teacher/staff anywhere is me. Just picture what it would be like when you were in your high school if every single staff member left the students completely on their own in the school. Let’s just say not much learning has been going on and the inmates have been in charge.

I don’t know if this is normal in Peru for the teachers to have meetings during the school day and leave the kids 100% on their own in the school but I have been told that my school does not have the highest reputation in Urubamba.

Here is how my week went;

Monday – The day starts out quite normal, I am just tired from Machupicchu but in the afternoon my teacher leaves for a minute but never comes back. Total chaos breaks out in my classrooms and what is supposed to be the top class at the school just wanders around, eats, plays soccer in the classroom, some just leave. When I walk out and look around the school, every classroom is like this and I do not see a single staff member in sight. At the time I had no idea where any of them were but at the end of the day I grab my stuff and go home. Then I go grab a drink.

Tuesday – Starts out OK but in the 2^nd class of the morning my professor has to go to another staff meeting at 10:00. He was there at the start of class so it actually went OK this time and the students did their work until the 11:00 lunch break but I find out that the staff has more meetings in the afternoon and I am asked to teach the rest of the classes. OK but I might as well have tried to swim up Niagara Falls. I am the only teacher on the grounds and every class in the school looks to be in total chaos. Students are mostly outside playing soccer, eating ice cream, a few are getting friendly with one another in the stairwells, some of the guys are wrestling each other, talking, listening to music, and so on. Nobody is studying. This is pretty much how it went from 10:00 to 2:00.

Wednesday – Normal day as the teachers did not have any meetings until the end of the school day. We had a social at the Project’s Abroad office that afternoon and my supervisor is on vacation this week but I did say something to the staff during a check in interview. They seemed rather concerned about it and I am rather expecting to get a visit from my supervisor when she gets back from vacation.

Welcome back! This type of shit always would go on when I was not in the office so it is nice to know it is universal.

Thursday – It is a half day today as the students have the anniversary parade in the afternoon but I am not sure why they are bothering to have class. They would have been better off just working with the students on their dances for the parade. I only have two classes and the first is 4^th graders and they are pretty chill and talk to me, play cards in class, some are practicing their dances, listening to music, watching videos on the computer, etc. All and all it was like they were hanging out on a free period. The second class was 3^rd graders who are around 14-years-old and total chaos reigned. There was actually one girl who was trying to do the lesson plan but the rest, forget it. A couple of the guys had beer bottles and were pouring them on each other. At one point I told them enough and smelled it and it was just water but I am not 100% sure that was the entire time. I also got mobbed by some of the girls and guys who were asking me all sorts of questions about dancing and smoking pot. I was totally OK when noon hit and classes ended.

During all of this the students were totally nice so it was not like they were acting aggressive towards me or each other, it was just a free for all.

Me and two of the demons before the parade

 

Thursday afternoon was the parade which should have started at 4:00 but in Peruvian fashion really started at 4:45 instead. After the week I almost did not go but I am glad that I went as it was a total turnaround from the rest of the week and I rather enjoyed it. The kids were having fun, the staff was actually present and I got to walk through the streets of Urubamba with the students on their way to the Plaza de Armas where they were going to perform dances.

Class 3A and my teacher

While waiting to go to the plaza I hung out with the students and my teacher and we talked and took pictures. Several of my students were playing the parts of the demons. They were involved in all the 3^rd and 4^th grade dances and essentially their job was to act like chaos during the dances. They were well suited to this. Their job was to run up and down the other students; act silly; dance with each other, sometimes suggestively; and to toss firecrackers around in the dancers and even the parents who would walk through after their kids performed.

Enter the demons

But I will also say that these are the guys who totally stole the show and everybody watching totally got a kick out of then as they ran up and down during each of the dances. I am guessing that they had more fun than anybody else during the parade.

Each class, 1^st to 5^th grades groups A, B, C and D all had a dance number that they would do so this went on till around 9:00 pm. Starting with the school band and followed by the teachers, each class would come into the square and perform a 5-7 minute dance in front of the crowd before moving on for the next class. The mayor was up on the steps in front of the church announcing each of them as they came in and some of the students were next to him playing music for each class.

I almost did not go after the week I had but I am very glad that I did as it erased all the stuff that went on earlier in the week. Don’t get me wrong, I really don’t want another week like this, I mean holy fuck! But I had so much fun talking with the kids, walking the streets and watching the parade that it more or less put me at ease with the rest of the week. I just wish I had some idea what this was going ahead of time as I would have invited some of the other volunteers to watch. It was one of the most fun things that I have done so far in Urubamba.

I’ll close with some observations that you would never see in the United States with something like this.

1. You would never find the school abandoned of staff like I saw this week. At least I would hope not.
2. They never would have had kids throwing fireworks into the dancers like I saw, too many lawsuits just waiting to happen with that.
3. The parts of the demons would have been totally regulated by the school and would not have been anywhere near as much fun as it was here.
4. During one of the dances there were two 4^th grade kids with hair spray and lighters. Need I say more?
5. The parade floats where rather impressive and often rather simple too. Often in the U.S. I think there is this attempt to always out do the others and that was not really here. Rather refreshing.

Friday August 28 to Sunday August 30 - Peru Week 2 Machupicchu

This past weekend was my big Machupicchu trip, an item that has definitely been on my bucket list. And it was a very busy weekend of activities which accounts for the super long post. By the way, if you think I am spelling it wrong, I am not. Everything here is spelled one word, Machupicchu, so I don’t know where Machu Picchu as two words comes from but even my spell check thinks it is wrong as a single word.

The sun shining through the clouds as the sun comes up at Machupicchu

My roommate, Ian, planned the entire trip but then got very sick the week before and wound up in the local clinic in Cusco for two nights so he could not go. I feel kind of bad about it because he put in a lot of work organizing it and then could not go. On Thursday evening at 6:30 I set off for Cusco by bus, with Louis, who is another volunteer in Urubamba, and Liam, another volunteer working in a nearby town of Calca. The bus ride was the typical crazy Peruvian affair, packed with as many as the van could carry and the driver going as fast and as reckless as possible. The guy next to me smelled like he had now showered in a while but I don’t think that is out of the ordinary.

It was dark out when we left Urubamba and I think it is considered an insult to Peruvian drivers if they are passed so the object here is to get around everything on the road while simultaneously blocking any vehicle behind you from going by. The last time I went to Cusco there was an ambulance with lights going and everybody kept passing it, not something you see in the U.S. Blind corners also seem to be a great place to pass here. It is also quite normal to turn the high beams on as you are approaching a vehicle in the opposite direction or from behind and then turn them back down again once you are no longer blinding the other driver. Don’t ask me to explain it as it does not make much sense to me but on the road this sort of thing common in Peru.

Cusco at night

After we got into Cusco and dropped our bags, everybody ate and had a drink at of all places an Irish bar called Paddy Flaherty’s right off of the Plaza de Armas. Probably the only Irish bar in Peru and other than the wait staff there was not a single Peruvian in the place. Possibly the whitest place in Peru and just about everybody was wearing an alpaca sweater with Peruvian designs. But I do have to say that the “western food” there was quite good and the grilled ham and cheese sandwich hit the spot for me.

A side note on the Plaza de Armas, every town in Peru seems to have one. It is somewhat like the Peruvian version of Main Street. Every plaza has a large catholic church situated on one side of it and the teacher I work with here told that the Plaza de Armas is the place where disputes were decided, duel style. Hence the name. I guess the church is so that you can quickly pray for the looser.

The next morning the eight of us; Louis; Liam; Sophie; Romaine (pronounced ho-main); Joe; Severins; Hawkeye; and myself, set off by bus for the first part of our trip which was mountain biking.

For some framework, Ian is from Switzerland and is my roommate at the house. He is 24 and also works the teaching project at a different school. Louis is from Germany, 17-years-old and lives in Urubamba where he is doing the sports project until January. Liam is from Wales, not sure but think he is about 21 and is doing a sports project in Calca which sounds like Peruvian Siberia. Sophie is 18 and from Luxembourg and living in Urubamba working on the child care project for one more week before heading to the conservation project in the jungle. Romaine is from France and I think around 21. She is also living in Urubamba before heading home next week but I can’t recall what project she is on. Joe lives in Cusco where he is working on the medical project and is 21 or 22. Severins is also from Germany and living in Cusco taking Spanish before heading out to the archeology project for a few weeks. He is 24 or 25. Hawkeye is working in Pisak on a sports project and is from China. He does not speak any Spanish but can apparently kick the head of somebody 6’5” and is 20.

As the bikes were being loaded they looked OK as they were going onto the roof of our bus but sometimes looks can be deceiving. More on that later. The bus was two hours to Ollantaytambo where we took a snack break and then on to the top of a mountain called Abra Malaga. The road up was one of those crazy switchback roads you see on TV where you can look down the side and should the bus make a wrong turn, it is a long way from the bottom. I was not next to a window and could not look but it would not surprise me if there were hulks of wrecked vehicles below us. To make it more interesting there were convoys of semi-trucks going down as we were going up. I kept thinking that we may not go off the mountain but one of these trucks could 500 feet above us and come down and clobber us like a piano falling on the coyote in the road runner cartoons. Clearly this did not happen as I am typing this but if the road and the trucks were not enough, as we got closer to the top the clouds moved in and soon you could not see more than 15-20 feet away from our bus in any direction. Very surreal and a little bit unnerving at times. Often literally all you could see out the windows was white.

So we get to the top of this and unload our bikes and our guides start pulling out all this body armor to go with it and mine has red stuff on it that looks a little like dried blood. There are at least two other bike outfits on top with us and I have to say their equipment looked better than ours. They had full blown moto-cross helmets while we had a mix of bike helmets and what looked like bucket helmets for little kids. We also had these orange vests that looked like a life jacket from a distance. As for the bikes, they did not bring any spares and quickly our guide told us that his was broken so we would be biking down on our own. The brakes did not fully work on some of them and the rear wheel on my bike had a little bit of a wobble to it. The back tire also could have used some air.

The road down the mountain at the half way point

So the equipment was total sketch-ville, we are up in the clouds next to the road with the trucks and can’t see beyond 100 yards and we find out we are riding down on the street, not a dirt trail. Actually this was a good thing as I was a bit afraid of what a dirt trail was going to look like but at the same time, this is Peru and the drivers here are crazy impatient. Off we go, without our guide who is following behind us in the bus but it was not as bad as it sounds and the road was good and fairly easy to navigate. But there were numerous crosses set up on the side of the road where I am assuming it means the same as in the U.S. and somebody went off the side and plunged to their death. One spot had about 12 crosses, two huge ones and what I would guess was around 20-30 names.

Magic white cloud pony of Peru on the side of the road

The ride down was nice and I did enjoy it, however I probably would just choose another outfit the next time around. Except that I don’t know the name of the one we had so I could just as easily wind up with them again. But the views were great.

Half way down they had warned us at the bottom that we would need mosquito repellant but sadly, nobody said anything when I would have been able to buy some, so at the end we became mosquito lunch. I did not realize it at the time but in about 20 minutes I am guessing I collected around 100-150 bites on my legs. Since then I have been bathing in Benadryl for the itching and it looks like I have a case of the Chicken Pox. After a week it is still there but much better.

Sexy isn't it!

After loading up the bikes and equipment we took off for lunch and to switch to another bus to take us to a river rafting trip on the Urubamba River. I was a little skeptical of the rafting, especially after seeing the sketchy equipment and location once we got there. But I have to say it was actually really cool and other than Machupicchu, one of the highlights of the trip. We had some relatively minor rapids, class 3 at max, but enough to keep it interesting, the canyons we rafted through were cool, the water warmer than expected, and all and all it was a lot of fun. As darkness was starting to set in the entire area started to buzz with cicadas which were very loud. We got off just before darkness set in and that is probably a good thing. The drive to Santa Teresa, where we were staying that night, was in some ways better off taken in the dark when you can’t really see what is going on.

The road was dirt and gravel and scratched onto the side of the mountain. Often it was barely wide enough for two cars to pass and it was literally strait up on one side of the road and strait down to the river on the other. There was a full moon out so we could see enough to know that if you went off the side you were not going to land for at least 100 feet and possibly more. Fortunately there was not much in the way of traffic on the road and since I had no control over the situation I just sat back and enjoyed the moonlit view, hoping I would not get too close a look at it.

There was nothing between the dinky town we left after rafting and Santa Teresa but we came across at least three people walking along in the darkness. I have no idea where they could have been coming from or going to in the dark.

Santa Teresa is a very weird place and is a little town buried in the middle of the mountain jungle that probably would not exist except for the hikers who are going to Macchupicchu on the Inka Trail. It reminds me a little bit of the movie The Beach. Not that it is pretty like The Beach, it is not, a little trashy is more like it. But everybody there are westerners and mostly between the ages of 18 and 30 and the atmosphere there is drink and have sex, like the movie. There are some older people my age there too and plenty of Peruvian’s who are happy to take your money, which the drunken westerners happily hand over. The city is dumpy hostiles and bars/restaurants and the skyline is dominated by martini glass outlines in blue, red and green lights and overshadowed with a big illuminated cross on the mountain, floating above it all.

It is probably my age talking but the place we stayed was rather a dump and at 6:00 am the next morning the proprietor was knocking on our door to take away our room key?!?! There was one dirty bathroom to service our floor of six rooms with four people in each room. I did not shower that morning.

Our tour picked up more people here and most of our group had signed up to go zip lining in the valley that morning but Louis and I had decided we would hike the three hours to Aguas Calientes instead. In the morning we went to the zip line station with everybody else and were told to wait while they got everybody else ready and blared electronic music through an old beat box. Then as they were leaving we asked again about hiking and were again told we needed to wait. Then they all left and 40 minutes later we were still waiting. Everybody’s bags were there so we knew they had to come back, or at least somebody needed to pick them up, but it was somewhat annoying as they essentially dumped us there. Finally somebody did come by and told us we could hike if we wanted to but there was no trail, only a dirt road that we had to find on our own.

So we waited for everybody to come back. There were some hammocks at the site so we took a nap while the tour slid back and forth on the zip lines strung across the valley and above our heads.

After everybody returned we loaded up onto another bus, probably our 5^th or 6^th new bus in 24 hours. Every time we shifted to a new vehicle and driver so there were lots of opportunities to loose stuff and I felt a bit like we were being shuttled between “coyotes” in Mexico. Another dirt road and we got to the trailhead to Aguas Calientes where we would have lunch and hike the three hours into the town at the base of Machupicchu. The hike was really nice and ran along the railroad tracks of the train that takes people in and out. It was just as well we had not been able to hike in the morning as by the time we made it into Aguas Calientes my feet were pretty much done. The hike took us along a river through the valley that is dominated by jungle growth but has some small restaurants hidden in it. It is a little strange for me to see this in the jungle but everything about Machupicchu is set up to take tourist money, so in hind sight, restaurants buried in the jungle in the middle of the trail is not so weird.

Butterflies were everywhere, some as big as the palm of my hand

We got into Aguas Calientes as darkness was falling, got our hotel room, and the group headed out for dinner at one of the many restaurants in the area. I am happy to report that this hotel was nicer than in Santa Teresa and the restaurant much better too. We had a really good meal actually and it has been one of the nicest places I have eaten in Peru to date. Aguas Calientes reminds me a bit of Aspen Colorado actually. It is loaded with options for the wealthy tourists who come through it to have a meal, buy a souvenir, get a massage, have a drink, and so on. There even a Westin hotel.

Aguas Calientes

The next morning was a 4:00 am wake up to get on the trail by 4:30 so we could be at the bridge head to Machupicchu by 5:00 when they open. From there it is about a one hour climb strait up the mountain side in the jungle. My group pretty well broke up for the hike but I walked up with Sophie and Severins. We were all making the walk at about the same pace so it worked out well. The walk was tough but actually not as tough as climbing Table Mountain in Cape Town. Pretty much all stairs but the altitude is lower than Urubamba, so that was not as much a factor, but the air was humid and about 30 minutes into the hike we were all drenched. The path also crossed the roadway up for the busses in several spots and every time they would go by they would kick up lots of dirt and dust so we accumulated a level of grime on everything as well.

We started out in the dark and fortunately a few people brought lights. Lights, like the bug repellent, is another thing that nobody bothered to tell us to bring. It would have been real easy to fall on your face on the stairs so I am glad a few people at least had some foresight. After about 20 minutes of hiking up the morning light was just enough to just be able to see the stairs so the rest of the way was not so bad.

First look at Machupicchu as the sun was rising over the mountain range.

The thing about the hike was this, you start out at 4:30 in the morning to get up to the top by the time the sun actually rises over the mountain and this is about 45 minutes before the first bus starts to run. But by the time you get to the top the busses have shuttled around 500-1,000 people to the top before you and the line to get in is totally huge. It was totally aggravating to do the entire hike only to find a line 45 minutes long at the top. Fortunately our guide showed up and we snuck in to the front of the line with him so we did not have to wait the entire time. Normally I don’t like this but fuck that, we hiked up and these people lounged in a bus. We got into Machupicchu, hiked up some more steps and finally stopped at one of the agricultural terraces that overlook the site to start our tour of the site and watch the sun come up.

If you go to Machupicchu I would strongly suggest signing up for one of the tour groups as it makes a big difference. They walk you around and tell you about the different areas of the city and give the history of the place. Actually they give you the assumed history of the place as there are no written records about Machupicchu to tell anybody what they city was used for or even what the real name was. Machupicchu is the name given it by a German named Herman Gohring sometime around 1875. He ran across looking for the El Dorado city of gold but apparently the local Peruvians have known of its existence long before then.

The fact that nobody knows the real name or exactly what the city was used for did not stop our guide from providing his opinion on the site. He said the site was primarily a university and religious site for the Inka’s and a place for the Emperor to take a vacation. He also said that only the wealthy professors, students and religious figures lived there and all the workers lived at the base and walked up every day. It was kind of funny, he would tell us that nobody knows what the city is for but then essentially tell us he knows because of his Peruvian ancestors?

I will start with the bad about Machupicchu. The place has become a total tourist trap to get your money. You pay a lot to get there and once you do, they hit you up for all sorts of fees, like what the airlines in the U.S. do to you. For instance, the trip up is not included. You can walk or take the bus but if you take the bus it is $12 U.S. dollars in each direction, the U.S. dollar only. Also you had better have clean money with you as any tear or stain on the U.S. dollar and they refuse it. I mean any. Food cost twice as much, a bottle of water that is 3 Soles in Aguas Calientes (twice the cost as in Urubamba) cost around 6 Soles at Machupicchu, even the toilet cost you 1 Sole to use and there were no seats on the toilets in the men’s room. There is also a ton of people and at one point our guide said up to 6,000 people a day have visited Machupicchu. At $24 a round trip bus ride you do the math. The site is actually being damaged by all the heavy traffic and they have started scaling back the areas you are allowed to visit. I don’t think 6,000 were there the day I was but I would not be surprised if it was around 3,500. The place has been turned into a total tourist destination to the point that it is somewhat like Orlando.

But fortunately there is still more good than bad. Machupicchu itself is amazing to see and much larger than I had expected. There are some sensitive areas that you are not allowed to go to but for the most part you have the run of the place. There are also several hikes, some cost more money to go on of course, which you can take to eliminate the crowds who don’t get beyond the city itself. The views of the surrounding valley are breathtaking and it is amazing to think that you are walking in a place that was active in the 15th century.

North America has nowhere the length of history that you find in South America. Yea we had the Indians living in North America all along but they did not build anything like this. The main areas like the Guard Tower are always busy with people but there are also other areas that you can escape to that few people go to when visiting Machupicchu. We had all day, 10 hours, to go around and find them and at one point found a nice shady spot in the grass just below the village where Severins, Louis, Sophie, Romaine, Hawkeye and myself took a nap and enjoyed the view for about 2 hours. This was probably my favorite spot while visiting Machupicchu as it was peaceful and we were on the agricultural terrace under an overhang and could look out on the valley below. There were not a lot of people hiking to this spot and you could actually forget about all the other tourists above us.

Our nap place overlooking the valley. L-R: Romaine, Sophie, Louis, Severins. Not shown me and Hawkeye

Our view overlooking the valley from our nap place. We were on the side of a ledge but it was only a few feet down to the next terrace. Enough to hurt but not to kill you.

The agricultural terraces at the Guard House was another favorite spot of mine. One because this is the initial spot where you get to see the city but also because the view of everything is spectacular from there. Most of the pictures you see of the city are shot from this vantage point.

The city from the Guard Tower

Like I said we had around 10 hours at the city but by 8 hours I was “Machupicchued out” and hung out at one of the restaurants just outside the gates with Sophie and Severins until the rest were ready to go around 3:30. From here we could watch the crowds come and go to the bus, have something to eat and drink, and hang out with the dogs that liked to sleep under our table.

By the time we got back down to Aguas Calientes I was pretty well done but we still had 5 hours before our train left so I went on a hunt for a drugstore to buy stuff for my bug bites. For some reason they were all closed and after 45 minutes and the 4^th store I finally found a place open but did not have anything other than Vicks VapoRub. Not exactly what I had in mind but I was desperate and surprisingly it did work. My legs had a very cool feeling to them and it was just rather messy but the itching stopped.

I spent another four hours in a Mexican restaurant with Sophie, Romaine, Louis, and Hawkeye eating, drinking and playing Jenga and card games until it was finally time for us to catch our train. It was the last one out that night, our car was perhaps 20% occupied which was nice. But being away from the crowds was fine with me and I was just planning on sleeping anyway.

The trains in Peru are really nice by the way and Amtrack could learn a thing or two from them. I think I was in a 1^st class car as we had wait service that provided coffee, tea and snacks and I suspect some of the other cars did not have this. But each seat had a table and was quite roomy. However, also in Peruvian style the cars were designated A through G but they were not in order. It went something like A, B, D, E, C, G, I do not think there was an F.

Peru Rail going through the jungle the day before.

The train took us as far as Ollentatambo where at 11:00 pm we had to catch a bus the rest of the way back to Urubamba. I finally got in just after midnight and was very happy to see my bed but not so happy when the sun started coming through the window in the morning and I had to go to work.

All and all it was an exhausting three days but one I am very glad I did.

Monday August 24 to Thursday August 27 - Peru Week 2, Part 2

This has been one of mostly working in the mornings and hanging out at a local restaurant called Antojetos where I drink coffee and use their not so good wireless service, but at least they have one that I have access to and I can drink coffee while using it.

So I have class from Monday through Thursday where I help out with the English classes and it is interesting. As I mentioned before the classes vary quite a bit with some being very good and others on the edge of going out of control. This week was better, however, as I know a bit of what to expect now and can prepare for it in advance.

Students at my school are broken into ability levels, A – D with A being the most advanced students. Each class averages around 28-30 students but I have one or two that are larger. The students also always stay in one classroom and it is the teachers that move around. This is a little odd and leads to inefficiency in running classes as there are no clocks anywhere and the classes start immediately after one another. So when my first class ends at 9:30 the next one starts immediately at the same time but it will take 5 minutes or so to get from one place to another. Also it is easy to not get out on time but 5-10 minutes late to the next class as there are no clocks or bells. As such a class often is unattended for 10-20 minutes at a time.

All and all, they seem like pretty good kids but I don’t get the impression there is a lot of discipline or structure to some of their lives. They often talk out loud to one another in class and it is not uncommon for me to see them working on something totally unrelated or just zoning out in class. But there are also some kids who clearly are interested and trying to learn more too so I guess each class can be a bit of a paradox.

I get a lot of the male students asking me if I smoke pot and what I think of it. This has been a frequent question from some of my classes and frankly I am not sure where it comes from. I have smoked when I was in college but I don’t tell them that and frankly I have not cared to smoke for about 20 years now. Perhaps I just don’t recall how much of a preoccupation thinking about pot is for a high school student. As for the girls, it is a frequent question for them to ask me if I am married. Again I am not quite sure what triggers this, other than perhaps I am older than the typical volunteer. But often I have gotten this question multiple times in the same class.

I think the school tries to instill some discipline but it does not seem all that effective. Every morning this week they stand in the courtyard and get lectured about getting their shit together, my words. But for example, during one long speech about how they need to be on time the very first class afterwards at least ten students showed up 5-15 minutes late. It is a 1:30 walk from the courtyard to the classrooms.

I have also noticed the school is run with a military type theme to it. When they line up in the courtyard they are told to look toward the principal’s office and turn 90 degrees on command, they hold their arm out to space out, they are lined up by age or rank, and when the students move around in front of the teachers and other students for something they march in a goose step type fashion. There is also this loud speaker they use to talk to the students and play the national anthem while rising the flag of Peru. But it is tinny and squawks so you can barely understand what is being said through it. Reminds me of M.A.S.H. It strikes me that the harder the school tries to discipline the kids the more they move in the opposite direction and don’t take it very seriously.

I will simply say I am not sure what I think of this system but it could use some improvement.

My ability to communicate has greatly improved and it is still difficult but I find that I can actually have some simple conversations with my host family now and when talking to the students it is easier to explain what I am trying to say. So the trial by fire is helping to improve my Spanish speaking skills.

Not much else for me to report on for the work week other than on Wednesday we had a social meeting with other volunteers at Project’s Abroad which involved learning how to make pottery. It was cool and interesting and it gave me a chance to meet some of the other volunteers in the area. Unlike Cape Town, volunteers in Peru are scattered among the towns of Cusco, Urubamba, Pisak and one other tiny town I can’t recall the name of offhand.

Monday August 24 to Thursday August 27 - Peru Week 2 Part 1 - What Have I Learned So Far???

This this week is officially the half way point of my trip. I’ve another 3-1/2 weeks here in Peru before heading over to Europe for some vacation time for another 3 weeks. This trip has been in good part about self-discovery and I wish I could say that I have had an ah-ha moment and everything has become totally clear to me on what to do with the rest of my life. But so far I have not and I really don’t know what I want to do with myself when I return to Chicago. A part of me could easily go right back to what I was doing, at Bretford or some other place, yet another part of me remembers how twisted up I got and I can’t image doing that for another 25+ years. Perhaps the trick is knowing how not to get twisted up with whatever you do and the skill is recognizing when it is going on and heading it off early.

Here is some of what I have learned so far, it is nothing all that deep.

1)      Botswana – I don’t care for manual labor. Mentally I am OK with it and think there is something respectable and “manly” about putting in the work compared to sitting at a desk. But physically my body won’t take it. Perhaps if I did it for six months I would be accustomed to it but that six months would be very painful.

2)      Botswana – I am not a tree hugger. I like the wilderness and wild animals and want to protect them but I am nowhere near as into it as some of the people I met in Botswana. Not that there is anything wrong with it, the world needs people like that and I support it, I just am not that far to the left. Perhaps too spoiled by age and “civilization”. I thought the owner was a bit of a hypocrite talking about how horrible the rich Americans and Europeans are to the 3^rd world and the planet yet she is buying up a big part of Botswana and fencing it off with her neighbors as a preserve not allowing the locals to visit or use it without their permission. Yes, it is to preserve the area but also for her enjoyment of the space and she makes money off it. Perhaps she is not rich by American or European standards but in comparison to the locals, she is loaded. It seems to me she is just a local version of what she does not like about the Americans and Europeans. Perhaps the lesson is that it is human nature to take advantage and use things and other people. Perhaps that is not a good thing but it is a part of human nature and I think the goal is it needs to be kept in check. The good news is humans are capable of doing that, sometimes it just takes social media to do it.

3)      South Africa – The beach/surfing life agrees with me. I have to say that I dug working on the beach and the pace that went with it and could easily see myself living in Muisenberg South Africa. Perhaps it makes sense as the Outer Banks of North Carolina is one of my favorite places. In part because of the trips we took there as a kid but also I just like the lifestyle.

4)      South Africa – I also like doing something that feels like it is improving the lives of somebody else. The surf project in South Africa really centered on providing options and a release to people in trouble or less fortunate than I, and in a sense giving them what I am giving myself with this trip.

5)      South Africa & Peru – I like to eat healthy. I don’t care to shop at Whole Foods because it is absurd how much they charge and I really don’t like it that much to dedicate so much of a paycheck to that. Nor do I really need to have my meet and produce come from a farm that I know and can trace the cow from. All fine but I feel like I can eat just as healthy from the Jewel and Trader Joe’s. But I do like to eat healthier than the countries I have visited. I ordered a salad once for lunch in South Africa and they looked at me like I was queer (not intended as an insult.) So I do not need to have meat at every meal and as “the meal.” I also need less starchy stuff. It has only been two weeks in Peru but they eat potatoes, rice and/or bread with every single meal, sometimes as the meal. All well and good but I would put on a ton of weight if I ate like this all the time.

6)      South Africa & Peru – I am rich by most standards in the world. And for my friends you are too. You may not think you are but you should count yourself lucky to live in either the United States, Canada or Europe where you enjoy a much higher standard of living than many people in other parts of the world do. There is a reason that so many people try to go to the United States or Europe and that is because the standard of living is much better and the opportunities much greater. So the next time I or you feel like you are poor and life sucks, perhaps it is good to remember that there are a whole lot of people out there who would trade places with you in a heartbeat. There are always people who have more money, things or opportunities than you do, but none the less as an American, Canadian or European we are still very lucky by birth. It is not something to be ashamed of, any more than being born in a place where the living is not so good, but it is good to keep it in perspective.

7)      South Africa & Peru – The people I have met have been very open armed and generous with me. Granted my host families get money to house me from Project’s Abroad but they have been very willing to help and always wanting to know if everything was alright and if there was anything more they could do for me. They share their booze, would feed me until I burst if I let them, invite me to their family parties, and so on. This is not a part of their agreement with Projects Abroad and they don’t have to do this. I’ve grown conscious that I am very well off in their eyes yet, they don’t hesitate to share what they have with me. It is a good example to learn from.

8)      South Africa & Peru – Tolerance is another thing that I am leaning. There are a lot of people in the world that do not think the same way as I do and just because they don’t think the same way does not make them bad people or even wrong, they just have a different opinion. For all of you who hate Nancy Pellosi or Ted Cruze, go for it, they both drive me nuts and I think they are both crazy. I do not feel either one of them are part of the normal world but the political one. But I notice a lot of what I call “hate the haters” posts on Facebook about how terrible this person is or how horrible society is to one group or another and how these people are crazy, stupid, racist, even evil Nazis. Let’s use the dentist and who killed the lion as an extreme example. People hate this person and propose doing all sorts of horrible things to him because he did something horrible to a lion. It was wrong in my opinion and he should not have done it but often the conversation is not always rational but often just hateful. How is giving this guy and his family, whom you don’t know a thing about, death threats. How does that make you anything but a total hypocrite? It is wrong to do it to a lion but perfectly OK to do it to his entire family? I don't like hunting if you don't eat what you kill but for some this is a normal way of life. My point is this, somebody may not agree with you and their opinion may be even offensive, but that does not automatically qualify them as an evil person comparable to Nazis. Perhaps they just don’t understand something in the same way you do and perhaps you don’t understand their point of view either. Another example is I have met people on my trip who do not think positive things about Americans but talking to them about it often leads me to believe they don't have the full story and I may not have seen it from their point of view before. So having a little patience with people who don’t see things the same way you do is a good thing. Listening before hurtling the insults is also a good thing. Another way to think of it, when a homeless person gets insulting with me because I don’t want to give them any money it does not make me see their need or point of view any clearer. If anything, I will not listen to them and walk away even faster and be even less tolerant when somebody else needs something next time.

I have also learned a bit more of what I miss so far.

1. Friends and Family – I miss them and it will be good to see them again. However I’ll add that via the internet and telephone I am able to keep up with much of it as well or in some cases better than when I was living in Chicago. But perhaps there is a lesson here too that it is important to do a better job of this when I am not traveling.
2. Driving – I miss driving my car, both the crappy VW that I hate and the Buick which I love.
3. Biking – I miss biking along Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. However I do not miss the 3^rd year of construction Chicago has been doing on the bike trails. How is it possible to pave an interstate faster than Chicago can fix and pave a one lane wide bike trail.
4. Healthy Foods – As I mentioned I miss being able to eat healthier, fruits and vegetables as a part of one’s diet is not the norm in South Africa and especially Peru. I’ll add a note that this probably has as much to do with the cost of importing them as anything else and I am lucky to be an American where we can import them from every corner of the planet and sell them at the Jewel.
5. Unhealthy Foods – I miss hamburgers, hotdogs and pizza. And Mexican food, I miss that too. I can get some of this stuff in South Africa and Peru but it is not the same thing.
6. American Style Coffee – It takes a bad rap but I miss drinking coffee at a coffee shop. It can be Starbucks, Peet’s, whatever. In South Africa they put so much milk in their coffee I would more call it drinking milk. In Peru they look at me like I am weird when I ask for milk for my coffee. I don’t know what coffee in Europe will hold for me yet but they really hate coffee in America so I am guessing it won’t be what I miss.
7. Putting Toilet Paper In The Toilet – You can’t do that in Peru due to the size of the pipes. Thank God my ancestors decided the new world would be a good place to go in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. I am hoping they don’t have the toilets that shoot water up your ass once I get over to Eastern Europe!

Saturday August 22 to Sunday August 23 - Peru

Not much goes on during the week other than working and the weekends and work week have a fairly different flavor to them right now so I’m breaking at least this posting up into the week days and weekends.

After going to Moray on Friday I had to buy a tourist ticket, which included multiple archeological sites and it was good for only two days. So on Saturday I took the short bus ride over to Ollantaytambo before heading into Cusco for the evening.

Ollantaytambo is one of the better sites to visit in the area around Urubamba and I suspect is one of the main stops for tourists on their way to or from Machu Picchu. The train goes right through Ollantaytambo and the city clearly was prepared for tourists. The main square reminds me of the tourist area of Cusco but on a much smaller scale. They have lots of western places, coffee shops, pizza parlors, etc. And unlike in Urubamba, credit cards are readily accepted. They even have a Kwik-E-Mart!

I did not want to spring for the guided tour so I’m figuring out the place largely on my own and sure I am missing something so Wikipedia can provide you with a better explanation of the site. It is where I got most of my info from.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ollantaytambo

The ruins of Ollantaytambo were built in the middle 15^th century by Emperor Pachacuti as a royal estate. The site includes a series of agricultural terraces, store houses that were built up on the side of the mountains, and a Sun Temple at the top. There were also military barracks at the site but it was primarily used for agricultural and religious purposes. During the Spanish conquest of South America, Ollantaytambo was used as a line of defense by the retreating Inca and as a result the Sun Temple was never finished before they abandoned the site. Very cool to visit and climbing the stairs to the top was probably a very good warm up for Machu Picchu, which I am planning on visiting the next weekend.

After visiting for a few hours I headed out to Cusco for the remainder of the weekend to hang out in the city. I did not get into Cusco until late in the afternoon on Saturday and never did anything that evening other than hang out in the hotel and grab some dinner. Craving pizza as I have not had any since early or mid-June. It was not bad but I’m still craving an actual pizza.

 

On Sunday I went to an art museum and otherwise just did some shopping and spent too much money on myself. On top of that I somehow lost a pair of pants I had just purchased in South Africa, so now I need to go spend more on myself to replace them. Don’t ask how you lose a pair of pants when walking around a city, I will just say that I was not wearing them when they went missing but I did have pants on.

 

Cusco has about half a million people living in it and is the center of tourism in this part of the country. If you are going to Machu Picchu the route goes through Cusco. The central part of the city is geared to tourists and there is a big shopping district around the Plaza de Armas, which is the main square. Every city I have been to seems to be constructed with a main square or park, a central Catholic Church and shopping district. This is true of Cusco, Urubamba, Moray and Ollantaytambo thus far. I spent most of my time last weekend simply walking around Cusco’s narrow streets. Narrow accurately describes some of the streets where are really only wide enough for a car to get down. There are sidewalks but sometimes they are only about 6” wide.

After spending what was probably too much money on myself, buying an alpaca sweater, new larger back pack so I can carry this stuff on the plane, and a few things I picked up in Ollantaytambo, I decided it would be best to get back to Urubamba where I could not buy all this stuff. Additionally my host family, the Ramirez’s, where having a birthday party that evening which I had been invited to.

The language barrier made it a little hard to hang out at the party and my roommate/translator got sick and left early, but I hung out for a while drinking beer and eating Peruvian food. Food which included ginny pig and fish eggs, I have to say neither of which I really liked. They had plenty of big beers and coke in the tall glass bottles, of which I had several of both. But Monday is a school day so I cut it early.