Vista Alegre

Where in the world do I currently live?

My final destination in Peru is Vista Alegre, a village on top of a mountain near the city of Ayacucho (10-min bus ride). I am not sure where the 'happy view' (vista alegre) is, but there is a mirador (panoramic viewpoint) where you can see all of Ayacucho, below. It is a lovely place for photo-taking, as you know how much I love taking photos :)

For me the main center of Vista Alegre is a large square-like clearing where the bus runs through. The clearing has a playground and soccer/basketball court. Eight different roads lead to and from the clearing. It is the closest thing to a town square here but the difference is that it is not paved (except for the basketball court). When cars and buses pass by it is best to cover your eyes and mouth. V. exciting stuff :p Only two of the eight roads leading to the clearing are paved. The bus uses both the paved and unpaved roads, as do the cars. The unpaved roads consist of brown dust and stones. Along with the poor-looking houses that surround it, what makes the area look like a recently abandoned warzone is that every few meters there is a hill of rocks about a meter high. Other than the rock hills rocks are everywhere else on the street as well. From the organization (or lack there of) of the road you wouldn't think that anyone lieves there. Also, not many people live in my street and they all work from dawn to dusk so most of te time 'my' street looks deserted. I love walking down it at 11am without a soul in sight, struttin' my stuff, I feel like reina de la calle (queen of the street)! And everyone knows how much I enjoy the feeling of power and hence, control :p

Back to the dusty/rocky roads. When I asked one of the locals if the roads were always so bad or if something happened to make them so bad, she said that before they were worse because they were covered in stones and it was like climbing and not walking and cars could not access it. Now, by moving the stones and rocks to the sides of the roads into piles, it is better. Talk about relativity. The piles are also used as locations to burn garbage since there is no garbage collection system in Vista Alegre (compost is divided and fed to the chickens, which many people seem to have. It seems to be the only meat people can afford here).

Given the poverty and road situation, surprisingly enough, cars are not a rarity. There are more then plenty driving around, unsettling the dust on the roads. Many also seem to be taxis. The driver vs. pedestrian relationship here is the same as in all of Peru. Pedestrians are honked at to move out of the way, but when there is a speedbump the driver literally stops the car to avoid damage - double shame!

Now, a number of random observations...

Vista Alegre has excellent streetlights. The roads are terrible but the streetlights are state of the art - you can see everything at night. It left me very impressed!

There are many stores that carry bread and the bare-necessieties, 40 products in total. It is interesting to notice what bare-necessities for them are. This includes the internet, since there is an internet cafe at every corner. Mostly used by kids who play games online. They can be so busy that there is no more space. On the main Vista Alegre road which you can walk in 10 minutes (it's uphill downhill) there are 6 internet cafes - amazing! Internet costs 1 sol for an hour.

The women that arrive to Vista Alegre by bus (meaning that they are closer to the city) all wear high heels. They wear platforms (stilettos would not survive a day here nor would its owner's feet) but I have a hard enough time walking over the rocks and through the uneveness of the road in sports shoes. I do not understand how it is feasible in terms of practicality or economics. What globalization and fashion has done to people!

The market of Carmen Alto (two streets away from where I live) sells smoothies but they use water and no ice so sometimes the smoothies are warm :) There is this lovely old lady that makes the juices for us, so we always go to her and we call her our juice mamita (all the women here are called 'mamitas' by men and by other women. Apart from 'gringa' and 'gringita', I have also been called 'mamita'. V. weird. But 'mamita' is better than being called 'gringa' because it's always in a condescending way, I feel.).

Next entry will be about my living quarters... prepare yourself! Yikes! :p

Ta-ta.

Spanish Phrase of the Entry: reina de la calle = queen of the street

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