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Published: March 28th 2010
GODPARENTS Once Again
"OUR" new team poses with their honourary godparents prior to the start of the matchGODPARENTS AGAIN
You may be wondering what happened to the GOD CAR we wrote about in an early blog. We’re afraid the news hasn’t been good- right off the bat, the young fellow who drove the car for its blessing in the mountains and who was to be the taxi's driver, became drunk one night, had his driver's license stolen, and quit answering his cell phone.
So, Bad News #1- No driver!
Bad News #2- the car was then out of commission waiting for an expensive part.
Eventually two new drivers, including a first cousin, were lined up and the taxi was back on the road -thankfully, because without revenue the parking and loan interest costs were painful. However, the first cousin's assurances that he was a competent driver were ill-founded...hence...
Bad News #3- He managed to wrap our god car around a lamp post in town, resulting in no damage to himself but 3000 soles ($1000) in damage to the car and much grief for the partnership (our house attendant Juanita, her brother Juan and their niece Gretel) trying to improve their standard living with a taxi on the side.
One headache after another
EFRAIN Plots Strategy
Although only 30'ish, Efrain exudes confidence not only in coaching the team but also in his neighbourhood where he seems to be the unelected leader. and it now sounds like after only 2 months, our god car will be sold in Lima when the current license runs out and the bank loan can be paid off at a loss to the partnership of about 3000 soles. The good news is that the car that was "beyond repair" was able to ferry us out to a football game in the neighbouring countryside of Cachimayo last Sunday.
The football (or soccer) game was between our housekeeper/friend Efrain’s team and another team in the men’s league. This is serious soccer, fast-paced with good skills and much passion ... but fair play and no yellow or red cards needed ...
AND because we know you were wondering, this is also where we gained godparent status for our second time in our 3 short months in Cusco.
GODFATHER PART II
After discussion with the team prior to the start of the match, Efrain walked over to our location sitting on a berm of grass with the other spectators. He then earnestly said to us that the team had talked the matter over, and would we be willing to take on the role of Godparents for the team?
BLUE Tarp Covers Spot Where Home Previously Sat
Rains were too much for this adobe home...hopefully our eating and drinking will have helped in raising enough funds to rebuild For our second time, we were caught off guard, but quickly recovered and answered yes to the request.
We got up and wandered over to where the team of about 17 players in street clothes stood in a large circle and were introduced by Efrain who solemnly thanked us for becoming a part of the organization. We were then asked if we would like to say a few words (in Spanish, of course). Larry started in enthusiastically with words of thanks and encouragement before he quickly realized he didn’t quite have the vocabulary to complete his train of thought...he paused... and as all the players’ eyes bored in on him, Maureen quickly jumped in to rescue him with a few short words to happily finish the oration.The players smiled and clapped...whew!
Efrain handed each of us plastic bags containing team shirts, shorts, and socks and asked us to pass them on to the players with a couple of words of encouragement to each. So, we went around the circle handing out the fresh clean uniforms, shook hands, or exchanged cheek busses. Team pictures were taken with the happy new Godparents included and then the game was underway.
Homeless Ladies Prepare Fundraising Meal
Pork, chicken, potatoes and corn cooked over a fire. Maybe our encouragements helped because they played an inspired match of high quality football and emerged the 1-0 winners, despite playing on a fairly rough grassy field covered with ankle breaking holes and liberal amounts of cow and sheep droppings for added excitement and the possibility of slipping at a critical moment. Instead of bringing water to the game, at halftime, a lady with a bucket of mate (vegetable/fruit infusion) offered team members a drink of her reddish liquid from one of her two glasses as she passed among the players relaxing on the field. Then she picked up her bucket and went over to supply the other team - hopefully without any team secrets!
After the match, we all (the whole family of 13 including us, and 15 with the two drivers) returned to the family neighbourhood in our god car and another taxi. A fundraising meal was being held across the street by a family whose home had been damaged in the rains of the previous weeks. The dirt roadside had a collection of mismatched tables and chairs set out, some with cover from rain and shine. To one side a wood fire was layered over with
blackened pots and huge fry pans filled with potatoes, hunks of pork (chicherrones), chicken, and fresh corn cobs cooking. The wafting smell of all this food primed stomachs made hungry by cheering or playing football.
Part of the local tradition and custom we've discovered is for the local men (and often women too) to sit in a circle with one drinking glass and a few large-sized bottles of the regional cerveza (beer). The first hombre fills the glass, tips it in each person's direction, calls out a "Salud" to each before quickly tilting the beverage to his mouth and emptying the glass. Turning the glass over and giving it a shake to empty any foam remaining, he/she passes the glass to the person on his right and the tradition is repeated, passing from one person to the next in an unending fashion. Conversation ensues and the voices grow ever louder as the number of bottles emptied increases.
Drinking large amounts of alcohol at the best of times is not one of Larry's strengths, and his tolerance was definitely not enhanced by high altitudes where the effect of alcohol is multiplied ... 7 or 8 large bottles shared and
Amauta School Group en Route to Taray
A busload of blankets, food supplies and clothes to help out devastated village Larry was conversing and laughing in his most fluent Spanish ever (or so it seemed in his mind!). The locals made the outsider gringos most welcome, but Larry recognized that if he was to make it home that day on his own two feet, they had better head back soon ... "adios"es were called out and home they went for Larry to sleep off his newly-enhanced Spanish skills! Maureen promises to supervise the cameraderie more closely next time.
TARAY
As noted on a number of occasions previously, rain damage has been particularly severe in the Cusco region this year, and so a couple of weekends ago, we headed off with a group of 22 teachers, administrators, and students from our school to the local pueblo of Taray (population- about 300). Taray had been particularly hard hit by torrential rains and 90%!o(MISSING)f the houses had been damaged or destroyed by flooding; in addition 15 people died in the floods or in the ensuing rescue efforts.
In the week previous there had been a number of fundraising events at the school to raise money for food and supplies for us to take in aid of the village. We
headed off in a bus early Sunday morning with a load with blankets, rice, sugar, canned milk, pasta, cookies, oatmeal, tupperware, and used clothing.
On arrival, we discovered that the three main buildings unscathed by the floods were the local Catholic church, and the two houses that make up the small outreach school of our Spanish school, Amauta. Students can opt to spend a week of their time at the school learning spanish at this lovely, idyllic setting in the Sacred Valley. The school, though, is now uninhabitable because both water and electricity have been cut off with the surrounding damage.
The main areas of the town were either levelled completely, or houses partially collapsed. We exited the bus and carried the supplies in our arms and on our backs over muddy, soggy hillocks to where the school buildings sat. Local villagers sitting outside appeared clean and healthy and have been based at a school in the neighbouring village of Pisac. Ironically, it too was heavily damaged in the January rains that caused Machu Picchu to close.
Once all the supplies were unloaded many of us set to the task of filling small bags with portions of
rice, pasta, and the other items to hand out to each village family. Other team members were busily occupied starting fires and setting cookpots out and then filling the pots with water hauled in, cut vegetables, a complete spectrum of chicken parts, and any various foodstuffs needed to make giant pots of soup and spaghetti to provide the 300 villagers with a hot lunch.
After a couple of hours of preparation on a beautiful, warm sunny day (which seemed a bit surreal given the rain damage), the gates to the front of the school were opened and the locals lined up to come in. Fresh new tupperware containers with lids were handed to each person, and they then stepped forward to the large pots resting over hot coals where a team member scooped a ladle of hot soup into their tupperware. The villagers each quietly found a shady spot to sit on the ground in the large gardens surrounding the school building and sipped their soup from the containers - oops, without spoons.
Once all had been served, a megaphone announcement was made that they could all now come back for a serving of spaghetti and sauce. A
furious great rush forward was quickly re-organized into an orderly line and once again, a ladle-full of hot food, this time spaghetti, was placed in each container and a bun handed to each person. Sitting quietly with their meal, the spaghetti was enjoyed - again without utensils other than fingers.
After the pasta round, the Amauta team formed an assembly line, and family representatives were filtered down the line where they were handed: a bag of non-perishable foods, then a blanket, and finally clothing for each family member. The team tidied up the grounds, snacked on the small amount of spaghetti left, and boarded the bus back home. We made one last stop along the highway for a look down upon Taray and then we merrily dodged mini rock slides all the way home to Cusco.
AREQUIPA and COLCA CANYON
An overnight bus journey of 8 hours to the south took us to Arequipa (population 600,000), a city about two times the size of Cusco and in a much drier region of the country. The main reason for the journey was to get to the Colca Canyon- home of the Condor- the second deepest canyon in the
world and reputed to be twice the depth of the U.S.A.'s Grand Canyon.
The bus alone was an experience. We chose
Cruz del Sur bus lines because they emphasize safety both on the road and within the bus. The buses are two storeys high, have a security screen when you check in, video footage that is taken of you when you are seated (for security purposes), two drivers that trade off every four hours, an alcohol screen for drivers, and 24 hour monitoring of speed and location of all buses. As we pulled out of the rather decrepit station, it felt if we were taxiing in a plane. There is an attendant who turns on the safety video, passes out the sandwich snack, serves a beverage and then calls Bingo. Yes
Bingo! in Spanish. The girl beside us from Belgium was one of four winners vying for a return ticket ... which she didn't need because she was on her final leg to Lima with a flight back to Europe. The seats reclined somewhat but were too short for Larry ... thankfully we were in the front seats and could put our feet up on the window for more
space. Oh yes, the movie was
Pelham 123 with John Travolta and Denzel Washington... in Spanish.
We found Arequipa to be very dry with miles and miles of nothing but rock hillsides which we assumed was from the myriad of volcanoes in the region. The city itself sits in the lee of two large volcanoes and many of Arequipa's buildings are made from the white volcanic stone, hence the "White City" as a moniker. However, the tour guide confided that the high number of light-skinned Spaniards settling in this area many years ago was also a reason for the name. The city seemed cleaner than Cusco and more modern ... we had pizza at a restaurant with a
computer generated bill! We only had three hours to wander in Arequipa itself but we enjoyed the central square, or Plaza de Armas and a walking mall that featured some interesting architecture.
The trip from Arequipa west and north to the Colca Canyon took us over a mountain pass at 4800m. We were given coca leaves to chew, told to breathe deeply, and sent out to shop at a "mirador" above the clouds close to the mountain peaks where the
Amazon River starts. We then travelled across an ancient volcano crater and then down, down, down, down into Chivay, a small town and headquarters for the trips into the Colca Canyon. We passed through high wind-swept valleys with nary a tree or shrub but when water coursed down the hillside or collected in a mossy bog, there were large herds of alpacas and llamas. Nearby every herd, way out in the middle of nowhere, there would be a llama ranch complete with a holding pen fenced in with ... rocks, and a little adobe/rock house. The rancher or a child could be seen out amongst the herd ... a tad tedious you might think but perhaps a chance to knit or carve for the local vendadores .... or maybe we missed the ear buds and the ipod.
After a night in Chivay complete with a visit to a hot springs, supper with ethnic dancing, and a real shower with volume and hot water, we arose early for a 0600h departure. The journey out to the condor sighting part of the Colca Canyon wound along a river that dropped further and further below us,
directly below us, as we progressed.
Agricultural Terraces
Between town of Chivay and Colca Canyon There were many vistas of pre-Inca terraces and lovely green farmlands reaching down to the river. We stopped at the requisite Catholic churches, pretty much guaranteed to be built on top of an Incan temple, and were greeted by ethnic dancers at 0700h!, locals with giant birds of prey to sit on your shoulder (for a picture and a few soles), and all manner of handicrafts.
The tour arrived at the Cruz del Condor viewpoint at 0830h. We spent the next 1.5 hours hiking around the rim of the canyon marvelling at the landscape while waiting for the condors to catch the updrafts from the bottom of the canyon and soar within a heart beat of our bodies.
Larry spotted three condors flying slowly back and forth at the bottom of the cliffs, but with our depth of field, quite honestly they could have been seagulls. We took pictures (surprised?) with thoughts of enlarging the birds to verify "condors" but the pictures didn't yield the desired results. It seems that many of the local condors go to the coast at that time of year and the stragglers left behind to entertain the tourists were characteristically slow to get
One of the buffet luncheons in Chivay.
Many delicious choices and sometimes we weren't sure of what. Desserts in Peru are simple because ovens are few and far between - pudding, fruit salad, and jello. going. At 1000h we dutifully climbed back aboard our bus and left the viewpoint without that
National Geographic moment of a magnificent condor soaring just overhead in perfect definition.
Oh well, the buffet lunches in Chivay coming and going were well worth the trip, as was the vast and varied countryside, the llamas and alpaca and vicuna herds, the flamingos Larry spotted high in the Andes, and the Giant Hummingbird we spotted at the Hot Springs. We took another overnight bus from Arequipa back to Cusco and with a three hour delay due to fog, slush and snow we arrived back in town too late for our first Spanish class Monday morning but happy with our explorations.
Stayed tuned for the wonders of Lake Titicaca and the tales of our volunteer work at Madre Teresa de Calcutta daycare.
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rolande
non-member comment
Wonderful to hear from you. You two are very funny and great story tellers!