Hey everybody,
Greetings from Francesco and Claudia's Home for Wayward Italian Volunteers. We've been using their Cusco home as our Peruvian home base for the last couple of weeks and will be here until our final few days in Peru. Francesco and Claudia have been working here with the Amici del Peru organization for the last few years and have housed many volunteers from different organizations on the bunk beds in the spare bedrooms. All I know is that it's only place I've been in weeks where I haven't had to eat rice and/or potatoes or drink instant coffee, it has a sometimes hot shower and a washing machine and simply for that... it is fantastic.
Stefano and I took Francesco's SUV for the weekend in order to travel several hours up into the Andes to visit Livitaca, the village where Stefano and Caterina have been living and volunteering since last December. It only has about 2000 inhabitants and is pretty much in the middle of nowhere up in the mountains, mostly farmers and herders with their families. Amici del Peru has been working in the area for several years on different projects from education to health to solar power. We arrived just in time for dinner at the comedor in the church where Charo the cook put me immediately to work peeling potatoes. A lot of the young guys that Stefano taught English live in a dormitory at the church so I met about ten of them. After a year of living there Stefano knows pretty much everybody, so I met most of the shopkeepers, every kid who lives at the church, a bunch of farmers and the mayor. Most people I've met in Peru give you a really limp handshake and don't look you in the eye when they meet you but the mayor was a notable exception. I've also found I have about a 33% success rate when cracking jokes in Spanish with Peruvian campesinos, and that's only after I specify that what I just said is a joke.
The next morning Ste and I, along with Rony, Gabriel and Nilo, took the 1982 Toyota Land Cruiser owned by Amici del Peru for a day trip first to climb the Kora, the highest mountain in the area at about 4200 meters, then to Cini Ciri, a pre-Inca burial site. Climbing a flight of stairs is tough at this altitude, at least that's what Ste and I thought until we went climbing with three guys from Livitaca, each of whom took turns climbing back down to where we were to make sure we weren't lost. They probably could've climbed the mountain six times in the time it took Ste and I to get up there. On top of the Kora there is an old dwelling that is uncertain whether it's Inca or pre-Inca but was probably used by someone as an outpost or as a location from which to communicate with the guardian spirits in the mountains. There were, of course, spectacular views of the valley at this height along with sightings of some condors and the ubiquitous llamas. Then we climbed back down and got to fix a flat tire on the Land Cruiser, or more like watch the younger guys fix a flat tire.
We then headed to the site of Cini Ciri, an old burial ground that has been freely accessible to the citizens of Livitaca... until now. A couple of months ago the government of Cusco decided to make Cini Ciri a protected area, which is great because people used to just come and pick up bones and pottery and generally have their way with a burial ground that is at least 800 years old. We had to sign in as visitors and were escorted by a guide from the University of Cusco who explained a lot of what they know and they don't know about the site. The mounds are still directly accessible in that you can walk right up to them and take pictures but they don't like you to move things around. They have to take a picture inventory of everything and in a few months will ship a lot of the remnants to the University for DNA analysis. Still... I mean... you're walking right among bones in the midst of a pre-Inca burial ground. It may be the only place in Peru where they allow you to do that. The mounds are made of adobe and those of nobility or the upper-class are painted in red and white. The dead were buried in baskets made of hay and dressed in clothes made of alpaca wool. Above each mound is a small hutch where they would light a lamp with oil made of animal fat after each burial as well as on subsequent occasions. There are probably a hundred or so mounds inside the cliff face lining both sides of the spectacular valley.
The rest of the time in Livitaca was basically spent cruising around or doing a whole lot of nothing, which Stefano explained to me is how they spent a lot of their year there. One thing we certainly didn't do over four days was take a shower, because when it's almost freezing *inside* the house and you only have cold water, you don't take showers. Besides, at this altitude... you don't sweat. We didn't even sweat climbing the Kora. Everything is dry, dusty and crackly, including us. The tomatoes are delicious, though.
After a couple of days back in Cusco we headed to a dramatically abrupt change in climate in Puerto Maldonado in the midst of the Peruvian part of the Amazon forest. Besides the 3000 meter drop in altitude there is the temperature adjustment to about 35 celsius with 98% humidity... a lot to take in after an overnight bus ride. Speaking of overnight bus rides, I took a half a sleeping pill after we left the bus terminal and everything after that is a little hazy. I remember the bus stewardess or bus attendant or whatever got on a microphone and said there was some kind of drawing for prizes happening which is not normal on a bus even in Peru, and she said something about being able to win bottles of water, or a mug or a kangaroo. I think she said kangaroo. Then she started calling out seat numbers and you could hear shuffling going on upstairs (it was a two-story bus). My recollection is a bit syrupy but I remember her saying that the final number was being called and it was asiento #50 and Stefano and Caterina look at me and I'm like "What?" and then I realize than I'm in asiento #50. So I groggily stand up and walk/crawl upstairs on a bus that is taking curves like an F1 racer and I see this attendant dressed in a bright red dress with a microphone handing me a ceramic mug and then saying in Spanish "Let's have some applause for... [looking at my ticket] David Bresci!" and I look around and the entire second story of the bus is filled with name-tag clad Jehovah's Witness missionaries applauding and staring at me. It was either a horrible nightmare or I was unknowingly dropped in the middle of a Terry Gilliam film. I swear that this happened. I have the mug.
Anyway... Puerto Maldonado. We spent four days guided by Victor, a native of the area, cruising the jungle around the Madre de Dios river in the east of Peru about three hours from Brazil. We stayed at the Monte Amazonica lodge which is home not only to tourists but to two parrots and three monkeys (Lalo, Bruno and Paco), all of whom immediately became friendly with Caterina. The first night we went on a boat ride to spot caiman alligators and capibara, the world's largest rodent. Our companions for the first couple of days were a Ukranian couple. She was nice, he was angry, they fought almost the entire time and they were constantly late. Stefano loved this. On the second day we headed for a hike and then a boat ride on Lake Sandoval in a protected natural reserve. The lake is home to caiman, piranhas, giant river otters, and various species of birds. There are also a huge number of beautifully colored insects, especially butterflies, all around the reserve. That afternoon while drinking a cold beer at another lodge we met La Loca, a tarantula-eating Coati that also likes cold beer.
I don't know why we decided to go visit the native community... as I mentioned in a previous post I normally hate this kind of shit... but maybe the positive outing to Amantani softened us up. Unfortunately, the visit to the Boras turned out to be the awkward, touristy, uncomfortable experience that Ste, Cate and I had been dreading. We boated out to a hovel of huts surrounded by a small field of corn and yucca and waited a few minutes for the small family of six to saunter out dressed in rags and feather head-dresses with painted faces. After a welcome and some half-hearted singing by the grandmother and her daughter, the grandfather proceeded to play a tune on a small flute. The poor old guy looked like he was about 120 years old. There were about three or four times when he was blowing into the flute where I thought he might keel over. There were a couple of other short demonstrations, shooting of bows and arrows, and then the hawking of trinkets, a few of which we felt obliged to buy. They also had a spider monkey... 2 Soles per photo. Anyhow, once that was over we had a nice, mellow kayak ride back to the lodge, then later that afternoon went for a canopy walk along a bridge set up between two trees atop the jungle. There were some fantastic views of the top of the jungle and we saw a colorful family of macaws fly by from a distance. That night Victor led us on a night walk behind the lodge where we saw several nocturnal insects, most notably a couple of families of tarantulas. They are just as creepy in person as you think they'd be.
Puerto Maldonado was a very different Peru from everything else that we'd seen. It was strangely reminiscent of SE Asia with the motorbikes and the tuk-tuks and the jungle vegetation and it was a very nice break from the dry altitude of the Andes. I'm back in Cusco now with Macchu Picchu and Lima on deck, then after that it's back home. Here are the pictures...
https://photos.app.goo.gl/LAKaoA5VKcvUyeCa8
Take 'er easy,
Dave
Greetings from Francesco and Claudia's Home for Wayward Italian Volunteers. We've been using their Cusco home as our Peruvian home base for the last couple of weeks and will be here until our final few days in Peru. Francesco and Claudia have been working here with the Amici del Peru organization for the last few years and have housed many volunteers from different organizations on the bunk beds in the spare bedrooms. All I know is that it's only place I've been in weeks where I haven't had to eat rice and/or potatoes or drink instant coffee, it has a sometimes hot shower and a washing machine and simply for that... it is fantastic.
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| Llamas! |
The next morning Ste and I, along with Rony, Gabriel and Nilo, took the 1982 Toyota Land Cruiser owned by Amici del Peru for a day trip first to climb the Kora, the highest mountain in the area at about 4200 meters, then to Cini Ciri, a pre-Inca burial site. Climbing a flight of stairs is tough at this altitude, at least that's what Ste and I thought until we went climbing with three guys from Livitaca, each of whom took turns climbing back down to where we were to make sure we weren't lost. They probably could've climbed the mountain six times in the time it took Ste and I to get up there. On top of the Kora there is an old dwelling that is uncertain whether it's Inca or pre-Inca but was probably used by someone as an outpost or as a location from which to communicate with the guardian spirits in the mountains. There were, of course, spectacular views of the valley at this height along with sightings of some condors and the ubiquitous llamas. Then we climbed back down and got to fix a flat tire on the Land Cruiser, or more like watch the younger guys fix a flat tire.
The rest of the time in Livitaca was basically spent cruising around or doing a whole lot of nothing, which Stefano explained to me is how they spent a lot of their year there. One thing we certainly didn't do over four days was take a shower, because when it's almost freezing *inside* the house and you only have cold water, you don't take showers. Besides, at this altitude... you don't sweat. We didn't even sweat climbing the Kora. Everything is dry, dusty and crackly, including us. The tomatoes are delicious, though.
After a couple of days back in Cusco we headed to a dramatically abrupt change in climate in Puerto Maldonado in the midst of the Peruvian part of the Amazon forest. Besides the 3000 meter drop in altitude there is the temperature adjustment to about 35 celsius with 98% humidity... a lot to take in after an overnight bus ride. Speaking of overnight bus rides, I took a half a sleeping pill after we left the bus terminal and everything after that is a little hazy. I remember the bus stewardess or bus attendant or whatever got on a microphone and said there was some kind of drawing for prizes happening which is not normal on a bus even in Peru, and she said something about being able to win bottles of water, or a mug or a kangaroo. I think she said kangaroo. Then she started calling out seat numbers and you could hear shuffling going on upstairs (it was a two-story bus). My recollection is a bit syrupy but I remember her saying that the final number was being called and it was asiento #50 and Stefano and Caterina look at me and I'm like "What?" and then I realize than I'm in asiento #50. So I groggily stand up and walk/crawl upstairs on a bus that is taking curves like an F1 racer and I see this attendant dressed in a bright red dress with a microphone handing me a ceramic mug and then saying in Spanish "Let's have some applause for... [looking at my ticket] David Bresci!" and I look around and the entire second story of the bus is filled with name-tag clad Jehovah's Witness missionaries applauding and staring at me. It was either a horrible nightmare or I was unknowingly dropped in the middle of a Terry Gilliam film. I swear that this happened. I have the mug.
 |
| Holding a gator |
 |
| Three monkeys |
Puerto Maldonado was a very different Peru from everything else that we'd seen. It was strangely reminiscent of SE Asia with the motorbikes and the tuk-tuks and the jungle vegetation and it was a very nice break from the dry altitude of the Andes. I'm back in Cusco now with Macchu Picchu and Lima on deck, then after that it's back home. Here are the pictures...
https://photos.app.goo.gl/LAKaoA5VKcvUyeCa8
Take 'er easy,
Dave
