Cusco

We are spending our last day in Cusco today and are feeling a little blue about leaving. We are staying in a wonderful hostel called Hostal Marani. It is run by a Dutch woman and proceeds from the business are channelled into a foundation that assist women and children in highland communities. They build schools and hospitals and help promote the textile trade all in an attempt to make highland communities more self-sufficient so that they don´t have to come down the mountains to live in shanty towns outside of Cusco and Lima. And to top it all off, the rooms are clean and confortable, cheap (35 US a night for a double, i.e., we are paying 17US each), great service, a warm and comfortable small restaurant, a sun-drenched courtyard to hang out in, and it´s in the San Blas district which is the artist quarter here. So, if you are planning a trip to Cusco, check them out on the web. We love the place.

What we don´t love here is difficulty with money. It´s hard to find shops that have change and no one will accept dollar bills that have any creases or minor tears. Everyone srutinizes the bills you give them, dollars or soles, and claim that the banks will charge them fees to accept dollar bills that are not pristine. I have to bring some of my dollars back home because no one here will accept them.

Tomorrow a huge transportation strike is planned and Mariana and I are hoping that taxi drivers will be working so we can get to the airport. If we do manage to get to the airport here, who knows what will happen in Lima. We found a hostel in the Miraflores area of Lima that has airport pickup, so maybe all will be well. Ojala.
More from Lima.

Back in Cusco

Yesterday we bade farewell to our family in Ollanta and had a beautiful drive through the Sacred Valley back to Cusco. We are taking care of a few things here and heading to Lima on Tuesday morning where we will be visiting relatives and taking care of some paperwork for the land that Mariana´s family has in Lima. Since the weather is horrendous in Lima this time of year, actually most of the year, it will be fine sitting around and talking to people. I am also looking forward to going to some good museums there.

It´s nice to be back in Cusco and have the amenities we appreciate in developed countries, like hot water and indoor bathrooms. Our Ollanta family consists of three poeople - Petronila (72), Rene (47) and little Rafeala (11). Petronila is a bundle of energy, always in constant motion, running rather than walking. She cooks for the family, does the laundry and other household chores and has a little stand at the Plazaleta crafts market around the corner from the house which she seems to enjoy for the social interaction as she rarely makes more than a few dollars. Rene says she sells things to cheaply and the other vendors còmplain about her all the time but since she is hard of hearing, she isn´t aware of the gossip. Rene is a primary school teacher and also a drama coach for a local drama group. She takes care of the family financially, on a limited salary. Rafaela is in the 6th grade and was a promising student of Rene´s a few years ago. Apparently her family couldn´t afford to keep her in school so Rene is sponsoring her education. She also keeps Petronila company and helps with household chores...a lot. Mariana and I sprung her from work duty a lot while we were there and she loved walking around town with us, going with me to meetings and appointments, and sitting in the plaza cafes drinking Inca colas. We both really enjoyed getting to know this family, and even the dogs ran down the street to welcome us home.

More later

Working and Living in Ollantaytambo

Just like home I get up around 6 a.m., have a quick breakfast and I´m off to work. Doing photography as a job has its drawbacks. I have to take pictures under difficult lighting conditions and there is the constant pressure to take interesting shots of difficult subjects. I am almost tired of taking photos now. However, I have a good assignment - photos of volunteers at their worksites and homestays. Two new photo volunteers have been assigned to walk the trails in the surrounding mountains and take nature shots...two activities that I deplore, so I am lucky. Truthfully, I enjoy going to the schools and health clinics and talking with the staff at both. It´s been very interesting and I have learned a lot about like in the Andes...a hard life to be sure.

Last weekend Mariana and I went to Machu Pichu. We took the early morning train at 5:00, so we got there early before the great rush of tourists arrived. It is truly a magnificent site, much deserving of it´s recent inclusion in the Seven Wonders of the World. The entire city was made of rock and the quaries were thousands of feet below the city. I read that at one point, a river obstructed the worker´s path and so they diverted the river around the rocks that they had collected at the bank to avoid having to carry the rocks through water. The bus ride up the Machi Pichu was terrifying (gravel roads, no side rails, and high, high, high), but the views of the mountains were possibly the most spectacular that I have ever seen.

Ollantaytambo is also a rock city, thousands of years old. However, because the train to Machu Pichu stops here, it is overun by tourism. The railroad is privately owned I hear and they don´t funnel any money into Ollanta for infrastructure development, so it´s all overwhelming for everyone. Many of the people who now live in the city are former peasants who sold their land and now sell crafts in town. It seems at times like a huge craft market. There are groups in town who are working on sustainable tourism projects, but I´m not sure how successful they will be given the big money to be made here by the train and bus companies. I enjoy walking around in the early morning before the crafts shops open and the giant tour buses arrive.

Well, I´m off to work at the elementary school in town. More on all that and my host family later.

First week in Ollantaytambo comes to a close

Time is flying by here now that I am back in work mode. I finished the health clinics this week and will start on the schools next week. I am photographing volunteers at their worksites for Awamaki (in case you have just tuned in). I was very impressed with the rural health clinic I went to yesterday. The clinic is staffed by two nurses and doctors from Ollantataytabmo and other larger towns come for one or two days a week. Also the dentist comes once a week. The sixth grade class at the local primary school came to see the dentist (each week a different class comes) and they were a pretty roudy little group. There were only a few patients so we went with one of the nurses to the local high school to pass out plastic canisters for students to cough in to check for TB as one classmate has come down with it. We also stayed at a parents meeting at the high school where a pyschologist from Ollantaytambo came to give a talk on domestic violence. The auditotirum was packed and he seemed to be an engaging speaker as there were many moments when the hall broke out in laughter. He spoke mostly in Quechua but from the little bit he did in Spanish it seems like a very good presentation. Then a dentists from a bigger town nearby, Urubamaba, gave a presntation on dental hygiene. This clinic seems to do a lot around preventative medicine which is really important in this poor community.

Tomorrow I am going up the the weaving community high in the mountains (12000 feet they tell me). This is the main project of Awamaki, supporting weavers and helping them develop products that will bring in more funds, the value-added concept. Then Sunday I am going to Machu Pichu...finally. It´s been a dream for many years to see this place, now officially one of the wonders of the world.

I forgot to put some photos on my thumb drive from the batch I unloaded on the Awamaki computer. I will try to remember to do that next week.

Cheers!

On the Job in Ollantaytambo

I started working this morning at the main health clinic here in town. Two volunteers from Awamaki are working there as medical assistants. One young man is a premed student and the other is in medical school now. I photographed and filmed them at work all morning. They seem to be a real help to the understaffed clinic and both are dedicated, kind people. Tomorrow I go to another health clinic outside of town to film-photograph two other volunteers.

There is a major transportation strike scheduled for Monday, so I am going to go to Machu Pichu on Sunday before all the action starts. The strike is in support of the struggle for land rights in the Amazon. Hopefully it will be over, or at least suspended, by the time Mariana and I head back to Cusco a week from this Sunday.

My homestay is great. I live with Petronilla, a grandmother of 72, her daught Rene who is a primary school teacher and drama coach, and a charming little girl they have taken in, Rafaella. I have three meals a day with them and have learned a lot about the joys and struggles of life here in Ollantaytambo and Peru. Petronilla is a fabulous cook which makes the homestay extra special!

It´s near lunch time so I will end here though there is still a lot to talk about.

At home in Ollantaytambo

Mariana and I arrived in Ollantaytambo after a wonderful drive through the Sacred Valley. The trip took two hours from Cusco. This town is an ancient Inca village with cobblestone streets, narrow alleys, and spectacular views of snow covered peaks. I am living with a grandmother at the edge of town. My room is on the second floor, up a spiral staircase. The bathroom is on the first floor out in the yard. Should be an interesting stay. The organization that I am volunteering with is called Awamaki. They have a number of volunteer projects at schools and clinics and they also are working to revitalize Quechua textile weaving. My assignment is to take photos of the volunteers at their homestays and at their worksites, daily life in Ollantaytambo, and some photos of the weaving project. It´s a good thing that I had a week to rest up in Cusco because as of tomorrow my schedule could get very hectic as there are at least 20 volunteers here. I´ll be travelling around the area as well because some of the work sites are in other towns and small villages. Hopefully, I will be able to upload some photos to this blog soon.

Mariana found a great hostel for $3 a night. She´s on the top floor with wonderful views of the mountains and there is a charming courtyard to relax in with the family that runs the hostel. She´s quite pleased with her accomodations and we both are in love with this village. The only drawback is that there are a lot of tourists here right now because it´s on the way to Machu Pichu. But one doesn´t need to complain.
Ciao

Saludos de Cusco

Mariana and I have been in Cusco for nearly a week. I got sick the day we arrived and spent a day and half in bed. I let my guard down and ate some raw vegetables...a definite no-no when travelling in developing countries. I am almost fully recuperated now though and am being very, very cautious with regard to my diet.

Cusco is a beatiful ancient city with lovely colonial and Inca architecture. It reminds be of the medina´s in Morocco a little. A lot has been going on here politicaly and culturally. I´m sure everyone has heard about the troubles in the Peruvian Amazon brought about by the Peruvian Congresses´ decision to hand over indigenous lands to multinational corporations for oil exploration. People have been killed in the Amazon and there are solidarity demonstrations all over the country, including Cusco of course. The protests here, as in most other cities in Peru, have been peaceful, but the population here is really agitated. There are also protests near Cusco over water rights and we have heard rumors that Machu Pichu may close. Two weeks ago protestors blocked the main road to Machu Pichu and shut down travel there. Mariana and I will be leaving tomorrow for Ollantaytambo where I will be working. It´s on the road the Machu Pichu,so it will be interesting to hear from the residents there what´s going on up here in the Andes.

July 24th is the winter solstice here, called Inti Raymi, and Cusco is gearing up for a major celebration. We won´t be here unfortunately, but I imagine there will be festivities in our village as well. Every day in the Plaza de Armas (the center of Cusco) there are processions and other cultural activities; in fact, there is a major dancing festival going on right now. July seems to be festivities month here. The mayor of Cusco actually asked the leaders of the social movements here to not spoil the fun of this month with protest marchers. Guess how they responded.

Hopefully the village of Ollantaytambo has an Internet cafe so I can send dispatches from there. Hasta luego.