Altitude is a funny thing. Of course, in my case I (Alastair) was so convinced I was going to suffer soroche that I started experiencing the symptoms before we´d even left the airport at Lima. Someone warned me that we should walk slowly once we got to Cusco, as if walking on the moon. I tried to imitate Neil Armstrong because it did actually feel like I was struggling through an alien atmosphere. Every step in Cusco may have been one small step for mankind, but it was a giant leap for me.
I was still a little spaced out with the altitude on the first morning, at the leader training workshop (see Graham´s blog), when I had to introduce us to a room full of people. I said, in impeccable Spanish: ´Let´s go! of London. I am editor of the publishings and Graham is the Internet.´ It´s a good job these situations bring out the best in my language skills.
Today was a full on day. We were given a whirlwind tour of the projects of Guaman Poma, an organisation that does social development work. First was a meeting with various mayors of the municipalities of the districts of the south Cusco valley. It just so happened that it was the last day of the San Jeronimo annual festival outside. We were taken to the church to see the statue of San Jeronimo the patron saint. Outside brass bands were playing dance tunes and the plaza smelled strongly of piss. Must have been some party the night before.
Then we went to visit a women´s organisation, then a market (where everything was on sale, especially the sort of offcuts from animals that are usually left by the mafia in people´s beds), then to the river where a bridge is being built and the river cleaned up, then to an irrigation project where we stood in a field, then to a restaurant where we met the leader of a marketing group, then we went and stood in a shed full of guinea pigs (a great delicacy in Peru, fortunately all we had to do was to look at them. One of them had evil red eyes). I think that was everything, before lunch. After lunch it started to rain and we went to see these restoration projects in old houses in the historic centre. We were taken inside several houses that Guaman Poma is helping to restore while people are still living in them. It was quite an eye opener to see how people live in these ramshackle old properties that they cannot afford to do up. Originally these houses would have been lived in by one family but now all the grown-up children and families have parcelled off parts of the house to live in, and you have maybe five or eight families living in a house originally intended for one, with no real sanitation facilities. The guy who showed us round, Jose, was very enthusiastic, showing us all sorts of architectural features - this door is from the sixteenth century, this wood used for the flooring is from a tree that no longer grows in the Cusco valley, this house would fall down if it was not for this metal pin in the wall here, just above the stove on the dirt floor of the kitchen three floors up, where the chicken lives, that´s the chicken that we just passed on the stairs, watch out because the archaelogists have dug a hole in that corner to see what the foundations are like, that´s an original Inca stone and those are some original Inca bones, these wall paintings found under the original plaster were probably painted by the first Spanish colonists because they show animals not indigenous to Peru, like dogs. These painted flowers were the 17th century equivalent of wallpaper. And look at this toilet that is shared by four families!
I think Jose could have spent all evening and night and half the next day showing us the houses that he is helping restore, but by then it was dark and cold and we had been on the road with Guaman Poma for 10 hours, so it was time to go back to the hotel and watch some football on telly. There are more than 70 channels on the TV in the hotel and it seems it is always possible to find a football match on at least one of them.
After that we went out for a meal. We did that typical vegetarian tourist thing of pounding round the streets in search of various vegetarian restaurants we had been told about, but which didn´t appear actually to exist. Ended up in a nice cafe patronised solely by gringos, but with a collection of magazines to peruse. One caught my eye, called Viajeros. I thought perhaps this might be a lifestyle magazine for people of my generation, and might have some useful tips to follow. It turned out instead to be about historic artefacts and other old stuff. There was too an article about a man who has set up a cycling lodge in the hills near Lima, in a place he discovered after knocking a young boy off his bike. Or at least that´s what I think happened, because the English version was a parallel translation done apparently by Babel Fish on a bad connection. However, there was an inspirational ending, which I intend to take to heart tonight when I finally make it to bed...
The dream of eternal rest became a reality cooed as we were by the river whisperings and the chiguancos and the torcaza´s purring.
Good night.
I was still a little spaced out with the altitude on the first morning, at the leader training workshop (see Graham´s blog), when I had to introduce us to a room full of people. I said, in impeccable Spanish: ´Let´s go! of London. I am editor of the publishings and Graham is the Internet.´ It´s a good job these situations bring out the best in my language skills.
Today was a full on day. We were given a whirlwind tour of the projects of Guaman Poma, an organisation that does social development work. First was a meeting with various mayors of the municipalities of the districts of the south Cusco valley. It just so happened that it was the last day of the San Jeronimo annual festival outside. We were taken to the church to see the statue of San Jeronimo the patron saint. Outside brass bands were playing dance tunes and the plaza smelled strongly of piss. Must have been some party the night before.
Then we went to visit a women´s organisation, then a market (where everything was on sale, especially the sort of offcuts from animals that are usually left by the mafia in people´s beds), then to the river where a bridge is being built and the river cleaned up, then to an irrigation project where we stood in a field, then to a restaurant where we met the leader of a marketing group, then we went and stood in a shed full of guinea pigs (a great delicacy in Peru, fortunately all we had to do was to look at them. One of them had evil red eyes). I think that was everything, before lunch. After lunch it started to rain and we went to see these restoration projects in old houses in the historic centre. We were taken inside several houses that Guaman Poma is helping to restore while people are still living in them. It was quite an eye opener to see how people live in these ramshackle old properties that they cannot afford to do up. Originally these houses would have been lived in by one family but now all the grown-up children and families have parcelled off parts of the house to live in, and you have maybe five or eight families living in a house originally intended for one, with no real sanitation facilities. The guy who showed us round, Jose, was very enthusiastic, showing us all sorts of architectural features - this door is from the sixteenth century, this wood used for the flooring is from a tree that no longer grows in the Cusco valley, this house would fall down if it was not for this metal pin in the wall here, just above the stove on the dirt floor of the kitchen three floors up, where the chicken lives, that´s the chicken that we just passed on the stairs, watch out because the archaelogists have dug a hole in that corner to see what the foundations are like, that´s an original Inca stone and those are some original Inca bones, these wall paintings found under the original plaster were probably painted by the first Spanish colonists because they show animals not indigenous to Peru, like dogs. These painted flowers were the 17th century equivalent of wallpaper. And look at this toilet that is shared by four families!
I think Jose could have spent all evening and night and half the next day showing us the houses that he is helping restore, but by then it was dark and cold and we had been on the road with Guaman Poma for 10 hours, so it was time to go back to the hotel and watch some football on telly. There are more than 70 channels on the TV in the hotel and it seems it is always possible to find a football match on at least one of them.
After that we went out for a meal. We did that typical vegetarian tourist thing of pounding round the streets in search of various vegetarian restaurants we had been told about, but which didn´t appear actually to exist. Ended up in a nice cafe patronised solely by gringos, but with a collection of magazines to peruse. One caught my eye, called Viajeros. I thought perhaps this might be a lifestyle magazine for people of my generation, and might have some useful tips to follow. It turned out instead to be about historic artefacts and other old stuff. There was too an article about a man who has set up a cycling lodge in the hills near Lima, in a place he discovered after knocking a young boy off his bike. Or at least that´s what I think happened, because the English version was a parallel translation done apparently by Babel Fish on a bad connection. However, there was an inspirational ending, which I intend to take to heart tonight when I finally make it to bed...
The dream of eternal rest became a reality cooed as we were by the river whisperings and the chiguancos and the torcaza´s purring.
Good night.
posted by Sol Oyuela at 7:25 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home