| The journey home |
[Apr. 24th, 2006|10:19 am] |
The complete inability to get any work down out here drove us to leave to Lima a day early. The comforts of the city were calling and Chris was getting bogged down as much by looming assigments as by the mud that sucked our boots off our feet with every step.
The cabin style accommodations were actually pretty nice for what they were and the place was growing on us.. well me anyways.. I think him too. With the rainy season flooding much of the surrounding areas there wasn't much else we had left to do. I did want to go see the native tribe that lived nearby, but that's about it.
Trying to leave early was an ordeal that almost didn't happen. The supposed lack of phones and need to depend on the staff (who doesn't want to lose your 300 dollars a day when you cut out early) to do all your arranging for you is not a good combination. They told us that they communicated with the airport who told them the flights were booked solid so we couldn't leave. We managed to sweet talk our guide from the night before into letting us borrow the satillite internet for a little bit and Chris bought a ticket on the very flight they told us was sold out.
After some disputes with the staff we hopped on the boat and headed back to town. We stopped at a butterfly farm where we had a great time taking pictures of catepillars and butterflies of all types. We even got to watch a butterfly emerge from its cacoon.
By the end of the afternoon we were settling into a large American hotel in Mira Flores (the nicest part of Lima) and enjoying all the associated room service. |
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| In to the woods |
[Apr. 23rd, 2006|09:32 am] |
So last night we settled in to our new locale. It actually wouldn't be bad if we were told we were in for rustic cabin style camping. But at 300 US dollars per night and resort style pictures we felt misled.
We ate a great dinner of Amazon catfish steamed inside bamboo filled with vegetables and sealed with banana leaves, all cooked over a campfire that attracted every macaw within smell range.
We went on a tour of the jungle surrounding the site. We walked past the "ant tree of death" which is so full of kamakazi fire ants (with a three-foot jumping range)and their poison that the tree is completely free of any growths (bromeliads, ferns, lichins, etc) and nothing grows period within three feet of the tree. Apparently the ants complete cut the inside of the tree hollow so they can feel the vibrations in the air or ground with anything comes near the tree. If you get close they jump from every branch until youre covered and die. Don't lean on this one.
Then we saw the world's largest spider, the size of a dinner plate. And multiple tarantula holes, which I recognized (and could now identify.. eww) from the fist size holes that lined the walkway to our cabin. Apparently they are empty because the rainy season floods the tarantulas out. That only made me feel better for a second, until I realized that moving to higher and drier ground would lead them right to our rooms.
There were giant butterflies and standing water to treck through. Trees with roots as big as a house, and leaf cutter ants hauling away foliage to grow mushrooms in their spit farm. (the ants cut up the leaves and bring them back to their hole where they chew them. The leaves act like sponges and hold their spit which provides a great place for a special fungus to grow which is their primary food source)
All of this wildlife was awesome, and the guide kept emphasizing how close it was as if it was something special to this hotel to be so near the forest. It was great to see tons of wildlife while youre roaming the premises.. but it was a constant reminder how unprotected we were.
In the morning we ate fresh fruit and drank starfruit juice, which became Chris's favorite. We saw many agouti's (large rodents that look like giant tail-less squirrles)scavanging for nuts and a small fawn wandering around. A blue hawk landing right in front of Chris on the way back from eating. And a tucan hopped around behind the kitchen. Blue and Scarlet macaws hung out in the trees all day with all kinds of other tropical birds and funny fruit.
Later in the day we took a dug out canoe down the river to a lake the animals use as a watering hole. We say caimen (like aligators), sea otters, red howler monkies, wolf spiders, all types of birds, fruit bats (that looked like little packets attached to the side of a tree), all types of butterflies and dragon flies, turtles, and more. We even saw a sloth sleeping in a tree.
We ended up on another bank where we explored the canopy in terraces that liked the treetops. We went bird watching from 150 feet off the ground. Chris wanted to throw me off of there for making him go, but I think in the end he liked it... sorta. Indiana Jones style swinging rope bridges that sway and bounce as you walk so high you can't see the ground really isn't for everyone. |
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| Welcome to the Jungle |
[Apr. 22nd, 2006|08:42 am] |
Our flight out of Cuzco retraced the steps of our trip. We flew back to Arequipa where we could see the sky filled with smoke from the recently erupted volcano. Then, on the way to Puerto Maldonado, we flew over Puno -- the carnival capital of Peru-- Lake Titicaca and the floating islands (which are huge mats of woven reeds and straws that are so sturdy people build their huts and live permanantly on these rafts)-- and then, without warning, just on the other side of Lake Titicaca we start losing altitude. There was nothing but mountain range and farmers' fields in sight. A stop over wasn't listed any where and we were going down fast. The plane was small but we had not encountered much turbulence, the electricity had not faltered. Chris and I looked at each other with the fear of two people who knew they were preparing for an emergency landing in the middle of no where on the side of a mountain.
The flight attendants were walking up and down the isles but seemed calm themselves, as you would expect them to be. The captain came over the loud speaker to announce we were preparing to land. However, instead of the usual three languages they recite, he spoke only in spanish. The other passengers seemed unusually unaffected. Either they had no idea what was going on or this type of thing was so common it didn't elicit a response. I couldn't help but think about the plane crash that occured in the Peruvian Andes just before I arrived in Peru. The plane was larger than this one by quite a bit, so about 75% of the passengers lived... but my mind was on the 44 people that died. Luckily, other than no apparent runway we seemed to be descending smoothly and easily towards the ground.
Just before Chris and I began to say our prayers a tiny airport appeared out of no where. The landing strip wasn't more than a dirt path through a cow pasture, but this was a totally functioning facility. In fact, as it seems, this airport was a planned, yet unannounced, stop at Lake Titicaca/Puno airport. We both breathed a heavy sigh of relief and felt a little silly to have been as worried as we had been. I prefer flying when ALL stops are announced a head of time and printed on your boarding pass. This was normal.. That is why no one else looked concerned.
We finally made it to Puerto Maldonado airport, which was an open air building made of thatched roofs and bamboo. There was a main section where baggage claim and a few small vendors sold jungle necessities. That part had corregated metal sheeting for walls that could be raised and lowered as needed. We grabed our bags, some brazil nuts, a spare flash light, and hopped on a jungled-up vehicle that was halfway between a wagon and a golf cart to take us to the river's edge.
We loaded our belongings on a small wooden boat with a thatch roof and a make-shift motor fashioned from a lawn mower engine and a home-made propeller that looked like an egg beater. The boat rocked heavily every time someone moved. We had to carefully arrange our luggage and ourselves to distribute the weight evenly. We road along for 45 minutes down the brown Amazon river, murkied by the rainy season and the snow melt.
Finally we pulled to the bank where an opening (that looked like a mudslide more than an intentional path) lead to our...hotel? if you can call it that. A few peices of cut wood were laid in the mud to serve as stepping stones and a two by four connected the boat to the shore. With our backpacks on and luggage in hand we tried to ease our way across the balance beams one at a time. If we waivered even slightly the murky, piranha-filled Amazon river or knee-deep black mud waited to greet us. I took my chances with the mud.
We came to our resort that resembled the Swiss Family Robinson's tree house had it fallen from the tree. We waited in a central meeting area to receive our knee-high mud boots and a breifing on the dangers of the local wildlife. Moral of the story, don't go out after dark and dump all your food products now because the only protection this place could afford you is a whistle and a bucket of sand. No telephones, no electricity, no nothing to save you if you get in trouble...now sign this waiver.
We were told before we got there, by our travel agent, there was electricity for two hours a day and that there were telephones. Not really the case. The kitchen had electricity two hours a day, so if you wanted to leave your valuable cameras and laptops with the bartender he could disappear into a backroom full of kitchen staff and watch it for you. And the "telephones" were walky talkies the staff had to communicated amoungst themselves. Although they did hide a short wave radio some where which they used to call the boat from town to come take people to the airport.
The place was a village of cabins connected by a spiderweb of walkways fashioned from tree-trunk cross-sections. We lived in the middle nearest the river. It was a nice view, but the room was anything but what we had expected. The pictures showed a disney-resort style cabina with mood lighting, plaster walls with jungley bamboo accents, a decorative canopy revealing a bed with an explorer's hat and a rustic map. The pictures looked romantic but what we got was romanticized. Our room was in fact bamboo walls with large gaps between the planks which let a great breeze in, but every rat, spider, and giant cockroach too. The beds were fully enclosed with mosquito nets with strict instructions to keep them tucked in all the way around on all sides all the time. The bathroom was a dark enclosure also of the same gapped bamboo, COLD water, and a nice window about midsection high that let everyone walking by (the construction crew and workmen that stayed 24/7) see straight in to the shower which had no curtain. The room had no lock on the door to protect your belongings, our light came from three leaky karosene lamps that we were told to leave outside (near our saftey bucket of sand)so we didn't burn the place down. And to top it off, our only protection against jaguars and anacondas, our whistle, was missing. |
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| Machu Picchu Day 2 - a stairway to heaven |
[Apr. 19th, 2006|11:15 am] |
Our hotel wasn't as nice as the pictures. It was really more of a hostel. No air conditioner, no view (despite 360 degree windows-- all we saw were sick dogs on the roof and construction) but we did get the penthouse suite... despite being away from other people we were still woken up by the early morning construction and the loud rooster crows from the rooftop roost below. So we didn't get much sleep and the shower had no door, but the place was clean and the room was big and private.. so it all worked out.
We decided to return to Machu Picchu and climb the adjacent mountain Wayna Picchu before the mists came in and rain threatened in the afternoon. It was a little unnerving when we arrived at the entrance of the trail and saw that there was a sign in place where they took down your information and a discription of what you looked like and your clothes, then stamped your hand with the time you went up the mountain -- in case you went missing or didn't come back when they closed. We climbed down Machu Picchu, across the valley, and up the 8000 feet to Wayna Picchu on stairs carved by the Incas into the stone of the mountain. I suppose it was easy in the way of mountain climbing, since there were stairs -- albeit slippery stairs with moss and slime from the mist and the little streams, and stairs on the edge of the mountain over looking doom with no rails to speak of, occasional ropes which you used to lift yourself up when the steps were half your height -- i don't know how the incans did this climb in flip flops when they were half as tall as I am.. the stairs must have been up to their neck. It was steep and the air was thin so we had to stop often.
After ascending thousands of stairs, crawling through a cave on our hands an knees (Chris thought he was going to get stuck, the hole was made for Incas.. not for 6 foot plus Canadian guys), pulling ourselves up a rope, and climbing a ladder... we were at the top. There was a surprising number of swarming bugs at the top, although the rest of the ascent had been relatively bug free. The view was AMAZING!! We could see the Sacred Valley and all of Machu Picchu, the Sun Tower on the Mountain behind Machu Picchu, the Sacred River... there were ruins at the top of the mountain we were on to explore, and even a cave with further ruins about 2 hours further along a trail that divereged down the mountain. Unfortunately the mists were already coming since it was so hot out. We were looking down on the fog before we knew it so we decided to head back while we could still see the trail. It took us about 2 hours.
When we returned to the hotel the front of the newspaper displayed a huge picture of a volcanic explosion in Arequipa. The whole town was being evacuated. It apparently happened the day after we left. Good thing we got out when we did.. We were originally scheduled to be there an extra day but we ended up cutting it out due to a transportation conflict. Someone was looking out for us, thats for sure. We did get some cool pictures of the smoking volcano when we flew over it to Cusco the day before the explosion tho. |
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| Machu Picchu Day 1 |
[Apr. 18th, 2006|10:52 am] |
We had paid extra for the luxury train but having been up since 5 AM .. again.. made it hard to stay awake on the 5 hour ride (that was supposed to take 3.. opps). I fell asleep after about 10 minutes when the train broke down. We were awake here and there long enough to get some good pictures of some cool scenery on the way. We saw the begining of the Inca trail with hikers along the river (and Peruvians carrying their bags -- some way to hike!) a waterfall from the side of the mountain, big rapids in the sacred river with some rafters braving the rocks, huts made of reeds, and a few scattered Incan ruins along the mountains.
We arrived around 10:30 and took a bus the rest of the way to the Ruins. The train was origionally built to go all the way from Cusco to the valley behind Machu Picchu. It was in 1911 while building the track that an explorer/anthropologist Dr. Brigham from Yale University discovered Machu Picchu. (He later became governer of CT) Yale actually has most of the originally discovered artifacts from the site. When the new route of the train was finished a landslide following an earthquake destroyed the rest of the track and it has not been built back since.
When we first looked at the ruins it was apparent that the construction was very different than from the other ruins we looked at. There were some sections that were similar, the same even, but most were very different. Anthropologists believe that three cultures inhabited Machu Picchu at different times - the Incas being the last. The city was under construction for over 300 years and was never finished. It is an entirely self-sufficient city with farms, homes for peasants, store houses, homes for priests and kings, temples, and various other dwellings. Apparently the Incas at Machu Picchu got word that the Spanish had invaded Cuzco so they loaded up their belongings and headed into the jungle after burning the place to the ground. As a consequence there are very few artifacts left (especially in Peru since most are at Yale.. the subject of a current law suit by the gov't of Peru against the university).
Our tour guide again found animals in the walls. I was disappointed in her abilities a guide.. frankly she lied a lot. She said things like the Incas lived until they were 95 and that they were 6 feet tall. They were 5 feet tall and lived until they were 40. But you can't take away the pride of the people. I saw her embellishments as indications of the culture of Peru. They really believe the Incas were superhuman. In a way they were. You can't be too disappointed when you go on a cultural trip and find the current culture interfering with the facts. Thats why you have to be skeptical of everything you hear. Hooray anthropology degree.
The mountains go together to form a perfect face looking up towards the sky. This face is called the angel of the mountain by the locals. It was difficult to find the right location to stand to get a perfect picture. We have several of our own photos where you can sorta make it out, but I downloaded one that is excellent. A young british tourist showed it to me when we were forced to share a table for lunch. At least they were all freindly people we sat with : ) No one knows if its a natural phenomenon or if the Incas carved it. It's almost too perfect to not be man made.
We returned to town in the evening and went to the hot springs to recover from the days step aerobics. The springs were in a beautiful jungle setting but the water was a cloudy green. It was no where near as nice as the springs at Colca. I wouldn't have gotten in that smelly water if I hadn't paid for it. But apparently its just a result of the sulfer content in this part of the mountain. It didn't turn out to be so bad. |
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| Cuzco |
[Apr. 17th, 2006|03:12 pm] |
We left early this morning for Cuzco. I have to say we haven't done much yet. We went to the square for lunch. There is noticably more income in this area. It's the most highly visited tourist location in South America. The lush green mountains and slanted mexican tile roofs (the first time in Peru the locals have roofs)indicate this area gets frequent rainfall.
The architecture is gorgeous, though decidedly more Spanish. The altitude is much higher so we have been using today to adapt, again. The slopes of the mountain and the low oxygen make it hard just to walk from the square to the hotel. A couple hours of wandering is all we could do for the day.
In short, Day 1 in Cuzco demonstrated our severe lack of altitude coping skills. Tons of free coca tea is the only way to get over the headache and fatigue. But day 2 started off much better. We caught a bus to the Sacred Valley. The Sacred River changed its name three times: The incas named it, the spanish mispronounced it (giving it its second name), and then the Americans couldn't remember the word for it (thus naming it for its quality as Sacred). The Tourist name stuck.
We continued up to the top of the Andes mountains. We went to a living museum that was an alpaca petting zoo. We learned about the different species and were able to feed them alfalfa. We saw the wool spun into thread by hand, dyed by vegetables in a boiling pot, and get woven on looms they made between their feet. It takes two years for an alpaca to regrow its coat so we were also able to see them at various stages in the regrowing process. The incas must first ask the permission of the animals to take their fur, the vegetables to take their dye, and the earth to pick the vegetables. It's a cool idea to be so close to nature.
The intricate patterns these people wove were very different than the ones turned out for low quality tourist consumption. The traditional patterns looked like the ones in museums. They were however hundreds of dollars each, some into the thousands. They also made skins and furs that were very soft and expensive. I missed the high quality craftmenship of artisans, so much of that is lost in commercialization.
We progressed on to Pisaq market. It was similar in set up to the one in Arequipa but it streched on for miles. We got lost in there.. literally. They had a wonderful assortment of natural rocks and fossils. I could have easily gone broke. They also had cheaper reproductions of the peices I described in the museum. Something disturbing though, there were tables and tables of peices of gold and silver artifacts robbed from the sacrificial mummies. I recognized statuettes and shroud pins from the exposure I had to Incan sacrificial burial practices. Seeing those thousand-year-old artifacts for pennies was hard to resist - owning a peice of cultural history like that! man, could you imagine? However, I got a little sick to my stomach thinking about the massive looting and grave robbing that must have occured to produce such plentiful artifacts. I had flashbacks to our time in Paracas with bodies smashed everywhere. Blatant disrespect for history and culture is not something I wanted to support. Not to mention the idea of getting caught by the environmental and archeological police in the airport. Not only does having something like that cost you a ton in fines, but it can get you shut away in a Peruvian prison for who knows how long.
Another table had origional oil paintings by the Spanish from when they first arrived in Peru 3-500 years ago. Again they were being sold for 20 dollars, but they held the markings of being ripped from their frames. These paintings had been stolen by Peruvians who sacked Spanish churches between the revolution and today. Not something I'd get caught with.
After Pisaq market we went to eat lunch at a plantation, however at 30 bucks a plate Chris and I decided to wait. We examined the beautful landscaping, walked in the garden, and sat by the river. Somehow we managed to be one of the few whose tour did not include this lunch and we werent carrying 100 soles each to cover it (especially after Pisaq). I didn't feel right about eating at a buffet that served sushi with no air conditioning.
We then went to the ruins to climb 300 stairs. The construction was astonishing. In order to get everthing perfect the Incas made clay modles to scale for every structure. These modles included the proper angles and sizes to cut each hand carved stone. Some of these stones weighed between 40 and 250 tons! many of them had more than 11 angles on just one face. Since they used no mortar to hold the stones in place, engineers and architects designed anti-earthquake arrangements for these stones to reinforce each other through their puzzle-like structure. Occasionally they were built to interlock with U shapes cut out on the inside so that when two stones were placed side-by-side and hot gold was poured in it formed a staple that pulled the stones closer together. Other times they cut a peg and hole joint into the stones.
The architects instructed the stone masons using this modle to bring in each stone one at a time from the quarry. The amazing thing is that the quarry is 2 mountains away, but few mistakes were ever made. It took teams of 200 people swapping every 3 minutes to pull just one stone 100 meters at a time. The Incas carved a ramp down one mountain and up the other. They paved the ramp with river stones that they brought from far away to serve as barings. Then they coated it all in lubricant they made from limes, dust, and cactus juice so the rocks would slide. They perfected the shape of the stone at the site, polishing each to a machined perfect surface. The edges and angles were so sharp they looked laser cut. Each stone took more than 1 month to cut, polish, and move into place. It is no wonder each of these temples took centuries to build.
The total distance from the quarry to the temple is 30,000 feet! and half of that is almost straight up. They did not pay any of the workers as their society was more communal. They believed that each person must work together to make a community the same way each stone worked together to create an almost indestructable fortress. Again before they could begine to build they had to ask permission of the earth to build, then to the quarry to mine, then to the plants and animals for each thing they needed to use. For everything they took they had to give something back. They believed that nature would strike them down if they were disrespectful and did not conduct these important ceremonies. When Spain asked the Incas what people were made to do, the Incas responded "people exist to take care of the creators creations" which to me is a pretty good way to look at things.
Supposedly the incas also incorperated the shapes of important animals in the lay out of the stones in the walls of the buildings. I'm not sure if they really did (some actually did look like snakes, alpacas, etc) or if it was just the proud peruvians looking for shapes in the clouds. Apparently, this site incorperated many symbols in the wall, but also was layed out in the image of a sitting alpaca (a fertility image) while the city of Cuzco itself is said to be in the shape of a puma (god of the earth). After resting often, we were on top of the Andes looking down.
We then took a bus to the highest point of the Andes (that we would see on our trip) where we had a wonderful panoramic view of the snowy mountains and quilt-like farming hills. Yellow wheat, green alfalfa, and purple flowers were the fields that made up the squares.
At night we went to the square to catch dinner (another pizza - Chris seems to trust those) and to the internet cafe so he could work. Tomorrow we have to get up at 5:30 to go on a city tour. We are having a wonderful time and I can't wait for more. |
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| City Tour |
[Apr. 17th, 2006|09:51 am] |
Ok, so today was full of mixed feelings. We got a call at 5AM to let us know our tour began at 2PM...who would do that?
Our city tour began at an old Incan sacred temple. This palace had small temples for the sun, the moon, the stars, thunder, lightening, and rainbows. Sounds like a box of lucky charms. When the Spanish came they believed this temple was for pagan devil worship. So they began to destroy it one giant brick at a time. They knocked down the temple of the sun and built a church on top of it using the Incan stone bricks from the fallen walls. The rest of the temple was converted into a monestary. Stucco arches were side by side with Machu Picchu -esque stone walls. They plastered over most the walls and painted frescos on top. Some of the ceilings were beautifully designed -- although we only got to see them when we wandered away from the group. For some reason our tour guide wanted to show us what he liked instead of what we wanted to see. After a few days of seeing ruin after ruin I had already heard the spiel about the flawless seams and perfectly cut stones a million times. I wanted to look at some of the Spanish influence and talk about the clash of cultures, but he thought anything Spanish was an abomination and not worth our time. The refusal to accept the Spanish culture of Peru is common throughout. Most still feel that they are Incans (despite that most of them have Spanish blood) and view Spain as a country of destroyers. Reflecting back to my first encounters with Intervida (the Spainish volunteer group in Horacio Zeballos sent to smooth over centuries long bad blood) it seemed that no where in Peru was exempt from the contempt towards Spain for actions committed hundreds of years ago. (sounds a little familiar...)Over all the tour seemed very rushed. There were beautiful Spanish paintings in solid gold intricate frames that we weren't allowed to photograph or look at.
In addition to the information about Incan building which we already discussed he added: there are several methods of joining the stones that the incans employed. The interlocking stones are reinforced by peg and hole joints or "staples" created by carving a circular or t-shaped trench into the edges of two adjacent stones then pouring in molten metal. When the metal cools it contracts pulling the stones closer together.
However, we did see some new and interesting Incan peices. There was a solid gold relief that the Incans had made to depict important people, animals, and crops. The relief is all that remains of the huge gold and silver gardens that used to abound inside the temple. The walls of the acre-sized temples were guilded with gold encircling life-sized statues of cheifs and alpacas all solid gold. When the Spanish invaded they tore the gold off the walls and melted down the statues, converting it all to gold coin and shipping it back to Spain. It's no wonder the people here feel so strongly towards the Spanish. We looked inside the Cathedral built of the incan stone - which undoubtedly the Spanish forced Incan workers to tear down their own temple and construct the church from the ruins. Much of the gold that did not go to Spain was turned into alters and statues used to convert Incans. The total worth of the gold stolen from Peru from just this location was estimated (by our tour guide.. who is inevitably biased) to be 100 1000 billion dollars -- who knows what that meant... but I take it to mean a lot. The "trillion" dollars in losses is why Peru still thinks Spain is to blame for their poverty.
Inside the church we weren't allowed to take any pictures - which is really a shame. Of course, leave it to me to come home and scour the internet for the pictures from rule-breakers. So now I do have images : ) There were 22 tons of silver used to make the alter and acessaries. Gold covered the walls. Jewled and crystal chandaliers adorned every room. Religious figures made of gold and coated in riches, each saint in velvet garmets, bright gems, gold thread... A hand carved two story choir with ornate seats and two pipe organs. Between the saints and apostles were incan fertility symbols hidden in the design by the incans that were commissioned to do the work. A large painting depicted faniciful animals that were half horse half llama (the incan idea of a camel when described by a Spaniard who commissioned the painting to someone who had never seen a camel) Another room, locked and hidden from view except through cracks in the wood, was the "monster" -- a large pearl surrounded by 40 kilos (88 pounds) of gold. They parade it around in a solid silver reproduction volkswagen beetle. I don't know why they decided to make a car our of solid silver, much less a beetle.. but hey... how else are you going to carry a nearly 100 pound pearl?
There apparently used to be a painting above the door that depicted St. Joseph leading the Spanish into battle against the Incas and the Conquistadors slaughtering the Incan leaders, but last year the President of Peru came to visit and had the painting replaced by a landscape. However, the painting of the last supper with Jesus eating Cuy is still there. I guess thats what Peruvians would eat if it was their last supper.
We spent 45 minutes insude the church but we could have stayed all day to look at the details.
Afterwards we drove into the tops of the mountains. We stopped for 10 minutes at some ruinis that were built around a natural cave. The temperature insude the cave is 1 degree Celcius all year round. (although it didn't feel that cold to me until I touched the rock "alter") There is a large flat alter carved from the stone inside the cave that is used as a refridgerator for potatos. There is a plant that grows nearby that serves to help people with altitutde sickeness (when you smell it -- its refreshing like a lemon mint) and serves as a preservative for food if the bottom of the cave is lined with it. Apparently food stored in this cave is freeze dried by natured.
Finally we reached Sacsahwoyman (pronounced sexy woman by some)which is said to be an Incan fort. There were many different styles of construction here. Everthing was built in a very large oversized scale. It reminded me of playing Big World on super mario 3. No one is sure why the fort was built this way. Some speculate it was to appear as tho giants lived there, others believe it is to accomodate large weapons (although none were ever found). The outer wall is zig zag - which some think is a tribute to lightening, but others think represents the teeth of the puma since Cusco is layed out in the shape of a Puma with Sacsahwoyman near the head. The guide pointed out rock formations in the walls that looked like animals. The only one that really looked like a clear animal to me was the platypus. However, Incas live in Peru and platypus live in Australia - the guide seemed to think this indicated some contact between the two contries -- I think that means we have been looking at stones too long : )
I have heard many arguements for contact between the Chinese and the Incas. The tour guide pointed out many of these similarities. The languages use similar words to mean the same thing, they have very similar names, and the appearances of the people are also strikingly similar. However, this is the first indication of any contact with Australia - not all together impossible.. just skeptical.
On the way home we stopped at a shop that sold alpacan clothing. we learned how to tell the difference between fake alpaca, alpaca blends, and pure alpaca. We also distinguished between grades of fur and species of alpaca. Chris even bought a sweater (which was good since I had stolen his back in the cave and hadn't given it back) The baby alpaca is the finest type and has a soft, greasy (lanolin) feel. -- perhaps silky is a better word : ) As the sun went down the weather got increasingly colder and windy.
For dinner we went to an "expensive" restaurant. To say that we spent the most here than at any restaurant we ate at would be an understatement. We spent 10 times more on dinner here than anywhere else.. which amounted to 100 soles.. or 30 dollar for the two of us.. after tax and tip -- not bad huh? I ate roast cuy -- like in the last supper -- I couldn't resist trying the whole roast guinea pig. Although when they brought it back I had to have the waiter cut it up and remove the head and organs so Chris didn't have to have it staring at him from across the table. Chris ordered chicken breast - simple, safe. |
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| Easter |
[Apr. 16th, 2006|03:07 pm] |
We spent Easter recouperating from our long first day. We were having trouble adapting to the altitude and were worn out. We went downtown again to pick up some souvineers and then returned to our movie watching at the house. We found a really good tv channel that boadcast American movies in english with spanish subtitles. We saw Scary Movie, Speed, Antz, the Incredibles, a Steve Martin movie, and a James Bond all on the same channel. After dinner we decided to go to the mall for some pizza hut to get Chris some American food again. He was equally astonished at the small size of their "medium" which hardly compares to our personal pan.
In my absence the family had acquired a computer and internet in the room we stayed in, so Chris was able to get work done. All in all it was a very relaxing time. |
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| Arequipa and the devil's monastery |
[Apr. 14th, 2006|10:09 am] |
Our night bus was an hour and a half late in arriving and an hour later still in driving. Mau - my house brother from Arequipa - had called the station at 5:30 to check on our bus since were were supposed to be arriving at 6:00. They told him we were running lute but the didn't tell him how late. He waited at the station from 6:30 until 8:30 for us to arrive.
The night bus was more comfortable than the other busses - it had large seats that fully reclined like a lazy boy. The full moon provided som very picturesque scenery that I wish I could have been more awake for. Unfortunately we didn't have a camera that could take good night shots from a moving bus (if there is such a camera!) - the mountains and valleys were blue in the light and the rivers sparkled with the full moon framed by two volcanoes.
At the house we arrived just in time for breakfast with the 10 germans that were there now. I recognized many of them from Lima. Chris got extensive practice in his german speaking skills. I finally had the tables turned on me - while the whole trip I had been translating spanish for him, this time he was translating for me. It was the first time in the trip I couldn't understand a word of what was going on : )
After breakfast I took Chris downtown to show him the square and the cathedral. We also had a chance to do a little souvineer shopping and to visit the San Francisco church to see the easter display. The display was simple: purple sheets covered all the pictures of Jesus to represent him being in the tomb until Sunday when the sheets would be removed. There were lots of beautiful flowers lining the pews though. We saw a room where bishops met to convert Incas to catholicism. The walls were lined with step by step paintings full of gore and blood showing the various stages of mutilation refered to as the passion of Christ. The entrance had two statues of Jesus carrying the cross, equally gory for travel purposes. It seems the Spanish had the idea of using Jesus's death to inspire relgious reform long before Mel Gibson did. The tour guide emphasized that Jesus suffered so much that the Incas felt bad for him and then decided to be catholic...that wasn't the best explanation of conversion I have heard but it could be true, plenty of people convert for the wrong reasons.
The Mary statue was a large 3 or 4 foot porceline doll with peruvian style dress and more indiginous features. Apparently this helped turn the Incas into christians and accounts for why "Chapi Virgen" is still the most popular representation of Mary in Peru. She had a whole room dedicated to her dresses for each season, ceremonial capes and crowns. They were beautiful velvet and silk gowns with gold threads and precious jewels. One of them was so adorned it weighed 35 pounds. Each was a differnt color for the different times of year.
There was a church library that held books (a very large number of the medical nature) in more than 6 languages (but mostly latin). The books were 300-500 years old and still in their orginal sheepskin leather bindings. There was no protection for these books, no temperature control, no velvet rope, no glass cover. The tour guide would have let me touch them if I wanted. I couldn't imagine what a wealth of knowledge was in that room rotting away.
we returned to the house for lunch. After lunch we traveled back to the main square to go to Santa Catalina Monastery. This monastery had 3 historical periods: strict adherence to the rules (purity), rapid rebellion (corruption - "the vanity"), and a new role as an orphanage (the expulsion).
In the beginning the monastery was small and the nuns had many rules. First they could have no contact with the outside world including their families. They could never be seen or heard from. Even inside the walls they couldn't speak to each other. They had to spend 8 to 9 hours a day praying silently. They were allowed to walk in the garden or to cook when they werent praying. Each nun had a separate room called a cell. She was allowed to bring only 25 items with her and to acquire no more during the rest of her life. Two of these items had to be habits and two more had to be matresses (one for herself and the other for the hospital). The bible, a writing desk, a sewing table, needle and thread, ect made up the other items. All the nuns had to stay from entry until death like this unless they were banished for breaking the rules. The Pope, Bishop, or Mother Superior could banish the nuns. They would be excommunicated from the church and looked down upon from society -- ultimately rejected by their family and run out of town. The only time they could even have their picture painted was after they were dead. They couldn't even leave once they were dead. The infermary had a crematorium for the sick and the rest were buried in a grave yard inside the monastery. (all convents here are called monasteries even though nuns live there instead of monks) The nuns lived until almost 80 because of their seculsion, work-free life, and good health care. They lived more than twice as long as people outside the monastery. Santa Catalina went on this way until 50 years after Peruvian independence.
After Peru became independent from Spain a women's movement started. Young women wanted to marry for love instead of for politics. The refusal of many women to comply with their parents' arranged marriages resulted in many getting sent to the nunnery. So that the young girls wouldn't get banished from the monastery and bring more shame to their family, the wealth parents would make huge donations to the monastery. They would often send lavish gifts, gold, jewels, chinese pottery -- some parents even began building their daughters large houses inside Santa Catalina. Eventually this went on until all the cells were abandoned in favor of a village of homes. A huge garden was built so that the women could have a place to grow and harvest all the crops they needed. A bakery was built so that they could cook for the now large number of nuns - pasteries and breads. Eventually the girls began to bring whatever they wanted with them to make life inside the convent so good that they wouldn't want to leave and they wouldn't miss the life or the boy they left outside. They spoke as much as they wanted, stopped praying, and even played music on an english piano with ivory keys. There was a massive system of flowing water for showers an laundry. Eventually the girls got tired of doing work so even african slaves were brought in to help them. The nuns began spending more time playing music and baking cookies which they ended up selling to make money to buy gold for profit. The convent was now a self-suffcient town inside a town.
Eventually the parents began sending girls as young as 5 to the convent -- but this time for a different reason. Since marriage for love became such am important part of life in peru they still wanted to maintain some of their traditional values. Many parents feared their daughters wouldn't stay honorable -- a Spanish custom that was brought to Peru was meant to ensure the honor of the daughters. The first night after a marriage the couple sleeps on bridal sheets. Once they consumate the marriage the sheets are hung from the balcony for the town to see. If there is blood then the girl was chaste until marriage and the town rejoices, if there is not - shame is brought on to her, her family, and her husband. She is kicked out of town and her husband can not remarry. An added incentive to remain chaste is the practice invented by the grooms to ensure they wouldn't be embarassed. The family of the bride would get great gifts and monetary rewards if the girl turned out to be honorable on the day of the sheet revealing. Of course, an easy way to ensure the girl is honorable and that her family will get a big pay off from the future husband is to put her in a secluded convent from the age of 5 until 15 (marrying age) so that she won't have the opportunity to see a man. Through a new form of bribery the nuns could be bought out of the nunnery when they turned 15.
Many of the inca men (who did not believe in this practice and did not convert to christianity) were recruited as construction workers for the wealthy families building inside the monastery during this period of massive expansion. Making fun of the practices of the mestizos (half-peruvian, half spanish inhabitants -- and/or trying to undermine the influence of the Spaniards) the construction workers incorperated many phalic references in their construction. Fountains, spicots, drains, and rain gutters - anything they worked on was intended to expose the girls at an early age to the male form. It has even been rumored that afrodisiacs were planted in the garden to influence the women. Their success is unknown.
The bakery had an access door to the outside where goods were picked up for selling. While it is not known if the nuns went in and out - others did come in. The door was intended to be a drop off for supplies so it was separated from the rest of the convent by a wall. The wall had two windows which had double wooden screens on them so they provided no view of the outside or the person on the otherside but they did provide the ability to talk through. There was a turnstyle for the supplies so the nuns didn't accidentally touch the hand of the delivery person. Mother superior was suposed to monitor the transaction to ensure that no contraband was being transported into the convent and to make sure the talk was minimal and only of the buisness nature. (This wall was apparently built before there was a bakery and was meant for delivery of neccessary goods; there is one like it on the other side for delieveries from the adjacent street -- of course, by the time there was a bakery there was no need for the watchful eye of Mother Superior because everything was so corrupt)
Later, part of the wall was knocked down. The turnstyle and windows still exist, but the inner convent is no longer separated from the door to the outside. The garden was extended so the nuns potentially could have left as they pleased, although there is no evidence they did. However, the turnstyle was being used for another purpose. Girls who had children out of wedlock would run into the convent at night and put their baby in the turnstyle. They design of the windows and the remaining wall ensured that the identity of the mother was unknown. This is how the nunnery became an orphanage.
More years passed before the Bishop got word of what was happening inside the monestary here. He planned a visit to the convent. He noted that the women were having sleep overs and talked as much as they wanted - enraged by the abandonment of vows he cast out all the "nuns". The convent was then closed until it was reopened as the tourist destination it is today. The nuns moved away and formed their own town where their decendents still live.
The locals are trying to bring back the idea of purity to Santa Catalina by cannonizing one of the original nuns from the early period. Apparently she was 70 when she bacame completely paralyzed. It was said that for the next 10 years until he death she would go into deep trances during which she'd talk to God. When she died her body was not preserved by any special means, but when it was exhumed by a Bishop she appeared like a wax figure. The bishop said it looked as though she had died yesterday even though it had been 100 years; he also noted the room smelled with the most pungent aroma of roses from the moment her body was put inside it. This phenomenon of supple skin and pleasant smell long after death is known as "incorruptability" and was authorized by the late Pope John Paul II (the saint-maker) as a miracle to count towards one of the 3 needed for sainthood. It is well-documented around the world as there are many nuns that became saints known as the incorruptables. Since then many tourists have claimed to have been miraculously healed after walking through her cell. A man who's cancer was healed left his shirt there as a tribute. An Irish man also claimed a miracle. When his pictures were developed from inside the room a large green glowing crucifix was in front of the door where his friend was supposed to be. They don't have a copy of the picture but the do have the man's hat. None of these "miracles" have been confirmed, so they are still waiting on two to be approved so she can earn her sainthood. |
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| Nazca - Close Encounters of the Ancient Kind |
[Apr. 13th, 2006|08:49 am] |
By the time we arrived in Nazca we were pretty tired. We got up early in the morning to go to the overflight airport - an airport for personal planes near the Nazca lines. We watched another documentary about the possible origins of the lines. This one went into all the personal detail of the life of Maria, the german woman who made her life's work at Nazca. She came over as a graduate student and wrote papers about the scattered patterns she found all around the lines. She walked through the desert alone for days looking for more lines. The only way she could see them was to carry a ladder every where she went. She'd climb to the top and look around in the area she suspected lines to be. She could only get an idea of the image by elevating herself. She theorized that the lines were meant to be processed around in a type of ceremonial parade. They were continuous and of equal width throughout; broken pottery shards were found on either side of the lines. Incas traditionally smashed plates and jugs as sacrifices and walk for days depending on what they were asking of the gods. The lines here have often been compared to imaginary lines of Chi in China.
Maria moved to Nazca after graduating and used what little money she had to buy a car to allow her better travel though the desert. She'd make a tent out of a tarp, her car door, and her ladder so that she could sleep in the desert (as she didn't have a house). Eventually she held a part time job cleaning bathrooms and made enough money to buy a small apartment (a one-room no water no electricity box is more like it).
Anthropologists later coordinated with archeologists working nearby ruins to determine that ther was a 40 year drought at the time the Nazca lines were built. "Inca 5" was the name of this period of history. Inca descendants today still believe that rain comes from the tears of the mountain god that cries for the desperatation of the desert people. (The only water that ever reaches these people is snow melt from the tops of the mountains during the months where rain falls on the top of selected mountains)The rivers frequently dry up during the dry season (which lasts most of the year). The longer the drought, the more desparate the pleas to the god (the people wail and cry out of thirst and hunger and fear that the rain will not come, wars often break out over what little water is left...). This extremely tumultous behavior is said to have been at its peak during Inca 5.
Teams with topographical maps of Nazca and a small plane to circle the lines noticed that the animal figures were in places that get little wind and no rain so that the figures will last for thousands of years with very little erosion. Furthermore, the "laser" lines (or straight energy lines as they are believed to be) seemed to converge on little hills. Large trapezoids are carved in the flat places between the hills, suspected to represent valleys between mountains. In fact, the lines seem to be a minature topographical map with all the lines pointing towards little hills that represent real mountains that are a source of water for the Nazcan people. The large lines and triangles carved behind the hills point from the minature hill to the mountain it represents.
After two hours we were able to go in a small cessna to see the lines for ourselves. The pilot made tight circles at high bank to the left a few times and the to the right to give photo opportunities and sick stomachs to the two of us on each side of the plane. 45 minutes of spinning and mid-day heat building up inside the cramped stuffy cabin was enough to make me look foward to landing. Just when I couldn't take it anymore we landed and the pilot opened the window letting in air and relief. I did have a great time seeing all the lines despite being a little uncomfortable.
Chris and I had enough adventuring for the short time we had been in Peru so we spent the rest of the day relaxing and catching up on sleep in preparation for our 10 hour overnight bus ride to Arequipa. We did however manage to catch a glimpse of an easter procession while we were having dinner. There were huge lines of people carrying pictures of Mary and Jesus and floats of the Passion and everyone was holding candles. |
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