LIVING THE HIGH LIFE ..... OVER 3,700 METRES OF IT!

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This comes to you from The Blue House, set high up in the San Blas area which is a really nice part of Cusco, with a stunning view over the city. I'll be here until the 5th April, when I fly to Quito, Ecuador. I’m not going anywhere else in Peru because I love it here.
And with my daily morning Spanish Lessons and afternoon Volunteer work at the orphanage from 3 to 7pm (also 5 days per week) I am trying to work out how to also fit in the 4 day Machu Picchu walk and visit the various ancient sites just outside of Cusco city before I move on.
A lot of the younger ones here keep telling me that I “must visit Bolivia, the Salt Mines, Lake Titicaca, Pisac, Arrequipa and Aguas Calientes, etc, etc, etc!!! Sure, I’d like to go to all these places, but time, money and other considerations keep getting in the way and when they have me thinking “Yes, I have to visit them, because I may never see them otherwise”, I remind myself that my two MUSTS from way back, were to see the Moorish parts of Spain and to walk the Machu Picchu Inca Trail and I have done one and will walk the Machu Picchu Trek on 25th April. Not everyone is so fortunate in their lives.

My host family are really nice people - and there are a lot of them! Most of the family and extended family have their own small homes in the family compound which is the normal arrangement here in Peru. Only a few of the family live outside. Everyone takes it in turns to keep the Guest House clean and tidy and organize the breakfast, shopping etc. They are all extremely helpful, in the Peruvian way which often means ‘mañana’, but one becomes accustomed to this. I've have invited to two family functions, both of which I have really enjoyed.
The first one was two Sundays ago and was a family cultural fiesta (Quechua Indian) celebration on the local square in front of Casa Azul. It has a magnificent view out over most of Cusco and most tourists manage to find their way up here sooner or later just to enjoy it.
As the celebration was set for 12noon I wandered down but none of the family was to be seen. However, there had sprung up overnight, a very tall Eucalyptus tree which wasn’t there the day before! And it had been decorated with coloured ribbons, balloons and various household utensils - a bright blue fly swat, a red plastic colander, a green bucket and a nylon spatula, all tied to various tree branches. And if you think that’s funny, you should see their version of a traditional Xmas tree and decorations!! The tree had been CUT DOWN and carried by the male members of the family for 3 hours from further out in the hills, for this particular occasion. They had dug a great hole in the middle of what is essentially public parkland, planted and then decorated it. Over the course of the afternoon, various family members in full Peruvian traditional costume, wandered in and the tourists who had come for the view, stayed to watch the celebrations as well.
There was Chicha, a maize beer brewed by Mamicita in a huge plastic garbage bin kept especially for this occasion. Absolutely disgusting as far as I’m concerned, and my lot went surreptitiously over the high stone wall behind me, after I had let them see me take the first sip with obvious enjoyment. The food was handed out in relays by family members, also a bit dubious looking, but the 2 local dogs sitting at my feet were well content with their windfall. The dancing went on almost without interruption. We all had coloured confetti sprinkled over us and were wrapped in the rainbow coloured ribbons. I was towed into the moving circle of dancers. There hadn't been any rain for a few days, and because the ground is natural earth, my shoes and lower legs were soon covered in the fine brown dust stirred up by the numerous dancing feet. It was also very hot (we are so close to the equator here) and I underestimated the sun, getting a strong dose of sunburn on my face and neck. (Have you ever had the skin over and under your eyes peeling after a few days: It’s very sore, and a bloody nuisance!)
All in all, a great afternoon’s entertainment. And the postscript? By the next morning there wasn’t a sign of the Eucalypt tree or it’s decorations and the ribbons, plastic drink cups, etc which had been strewn around the ground had also disappeared. The family had all gotten up early and cleaned up, which is not usual here in Peru. The ecological and environmental message is only just starting to appear in the public domain.

The second celebration I was invited to was also a Peruvian custom. The children here don’t have their hair cut until their 2nd or 3rd birthday. Then at a family gathering, the person who has been chosen to be the “Patron” (we say a Godparent), cuts a lock of hair, and lays it on a tray. Then everyone else in turn also cuts a lock from the child’s hair. The family and guests are then invited to place money on the tray. This money is meant for the child’s future education and if anything were to happen to the child’s parents, the Patron would take him/her into the family house to raise as his own.
This little boy was so good, he never murmured when all these strange people started cutting his hair, which had never before in his life been cut. After this, the celebrations started in earnest, with a traditional BBQ and lots of Chicha being passed around, as well as some red wine. We had Salsa music in the background a view of the Andes mountsins, and after the food had all disappeared, the whole family and a lot of the guests went down onto the small grassy area behind the house to play Pelota. This is a soccer ball and the Peruvians have invented a variety of games that can be played with a multitude of people on the field!! Even the dogs joined in, that is when they weren’t chasing the sheep which were being taken home to the local barns for the night.
After all the activity, there was an enormous Apple Cake and of course, more Chicha. It was about 5pm when we started on our way home, which meant winding our way down from the heights along a road which was completely covered in inches of brown mud, because it had rained all of the night before. It’s a real art to pick a path through the mud here, because you never know which part of the road is a pothole with 12” of mud into which shoes love to disappear, or the usual 2” thick covering. In search of a taxi to take us home, we passed by a large field (also all mud) where other families were having their fiestas. There was loud music, dancing (or rather squelching) in the mud and a lot of bogged small cars. And I thought the dry dust of last week’s fiesta was a bit offputting.! Nobody seems to mind here though, it’s all in a day’s fun and games.

Have been following the weather in Western Australia and see that you have been having really hot weather, so hope you are managing to keep cool with air-conditioning. I, on the other hand, am walking around like a well rugged up llama. The only things missing are the small rainbow-coloured wool tassels in my ears. It’s really cold up here in the mountains. An example of how cold it is at the moment? Yesterday in the kitchen, there was a glass of water with an ice block in it, sitting on top of the fridge. Why would anyone need an iceblock up here in the winter? I've no idea, but it was there still at dinner time and the ice block was still intact! And we always have afternoon rains (sometimes all night and morning as well). The last few days, the rain has started rattling down after lunch, and it’s been accompanied by really large hailstones. Yesterday, I walked downtown to go to South American Explorer’s Club and halfway there, it started to pound down. In a few moments, the streets were a deluge of muddy water rushing down on either side of the cobblestone street and at least 18 inches deep. There were 3 workmen sheltering under the eaves, across the road from where I was hiding from the rain. They had been doing some repair work on the outside plaster walls and had amassed a great pile of plaster and stone rubble on the footpath. One of them had the great idea of shoveling all the rubbish into the fast flowing water and the others joined in with great gusto. Within a few minutes, the water had taken it all further downstream into the street drain which promptly blocked up and a great geyser of water started shooting up into the air to add to the mass already covering the road.
Meanwhile, upstream I could see the owners of the small food cart which sells water (of course) and snacks. They were still sitting out under the deluge beside their cart. They each had large pieces of plastic sheeting covering their heads and bodies, but their sandal-clad feet stuck out from under the plastic and were very wet.

The South American Explorers Club is a great organization to belong to and members can get all the latest info. re the local customs, travel and tours, banking, the safest ATM’s, the honest and not so honest money changers, where to go to safely transfer photos onto CD’s, volunteer opportunities in and around Cusco, the best cafe's/restaurants and which is the best hairdresser to go to. Really worth the membership! It is staffed by volunteers from all over the world, who come here seeking information, advice and use of the clubrooms and end up volunteering whatever time they can spare. There is a regular program of activities which change every month - including salsa and yoga classes, local wine tasting nights and cultural talks for professors at the Universities about the Inca history, and local dance displays. Plus a roof-top drop-in centre for travelers to have a cuppa, a chat and exchange travel experiences. It’s like a home-away-from-home which is rather comforting, especially when everything is so different here.

So now it's Saturday morning here. For once the sun is shining brilliantly and the clouds are white (not the usual grey) so maybe I'll take a walk through them and and include a couple of flights of stairs along the way! Got to get in training for my 4 day Inca Trek to Machu Picchu.

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