Peru: A Travelog In Letters

Hi Michelle,

Yep, I arrived in Cusco yesterday and settled into a cozy room at the Hostal Familiar. Today is a beautiful day here, bright mountain sunshine with big puffy white clouds that leap down at you. Tomorrow I´m renting a dirt bike from the boys at Inca Motors, right accross from my hostal for a return trip down the Sacred Valley, to Ollantaytambo and back. This morning as I walked down Calle Saphi, I was reminded of why I love this place - the scent of wood smoke, beautiful textiles hanging outside the artesana shops, pan pipe music drifting through the air. Climbing up through the San Blas district was a pleasure. You would love it, it´s full of quaint little one of a kind craft and indigenous shops surrounded by old Inca walls. Bought a little bag of coca leaves for my morning chew. It´s cool, your whole mouth goes numb and then you get a nice stimulating lift that lasts for hours. Just what you need to accend some of steep streets here! I´ll be heading back to Machu Picchu next week. Also next week will be the Cusco Carnival, when dozens of dance troups come down to the main square in full native dress and put on an amazing performance of dancing and music. Then, on to Bolivia. Well, time to do a little more exploring. Keep in touch Michelle.....wish you were here....

Love-


Hi Michelle,

Seems like some of my emails are not getting through. I sent you one yesterday entitled Greetings From Ollantaytambo but it´s not in my Sent Folder. Did you get it? Anyway, at the risk of repeating myself, took the Sacred Valley tour on the back of a 250cc little dirt bke monster through landscapes of indescribable beauty. The mountain peaks were wreathed in mist and diffuse sunlight. The air was filled with the scent of sage and euculyptus. Made it all the way to Ollantaytambo, a very special place. The ruins are spectacular and the native people there live simple lives within walls of ancient Inca stonework; a near perfect conjunction of Heaven, Earth, and Man. As I climbed up out of the Urabamba Valley, I caught glimpses of beautiful snow and glacier capped mountain peaks. I stopped to take pictures of a young shepard boy tending his flock while cradling a new born lamb in his arms. Scenes like this and more, like the Indian boy by the side of the road with a sparrow hawk perched on his head, an old woman making supplications to the sky, farmers leading their pack animals across the road. You have to pay attention, they sometimes have a quaint disregard for oncoming traffic! The town of Maras is pretty cool, made almost entirely of mudbrick and straw, sort of like the old waddle and daub villages of the American Southwest. Never did find the Moray ruins, so I´m heading back on Tuesday, then back to Machu Picchu on Weds. - Thurs. Sunday is a quiet day here in Cusco. Think I´ll wander around San Blas, the artists district.

Have great weekend Michelle, and keep in touch.....

Hi Michelle,

I'm back in my favorite tourist dive, (Aguas Calientes) gateway to Machu Picchu. Spent a wonderous day discovering interesting niches I'd missesd before, like the secret passageway behind the Temple of the Condor that leads up to a higher tier of the ruins. It was all very enjoyable although MP is becoming less of a mystical experience and more of a drag dealing with the tourist mobs. They swarm about like ants chattering nonsense and leaving litter everywhere. What the Spanish failed to destroy will not survive rampent capitalism and and just plain old fashioned hucksterism I'm afraid. And Aguas Caliente is the tourist sucker capital of South America, if not the world. Everything is over priced and false gold glitters everywhere. So tomorrow will be my sixth and final visit to MP. I come away with wonderful memories and pictures but a sense of sorrow at how the ruins are being desecrated. It is disheartening to smell the stench of urine in some of the old stone chambers and see cigerette butts and spilled ice cream lying about. How can you take a picture of the famous Intiwantani with tourist morons reaching out and receiving ¨sacred energy¨ with their camcorders and expensive jewelry hanging aroudtheir necks? Sorry if I sound bummed out. Machu Pichhu is still and amazing place to visit. Just don't come any time during the tourist season.

Love- Mike

P.S. Cool bonus from today's visit: everytime I close my eyes, I see visions of MP-like ancient ruins; towering walls, secret old stone stairways, ancient stone chambers, immense mountains with bridges that lead from peak to peak, almost like hashhish dream hallucination. It induces a kind of wonder and serenity being lost here in the real world....

Hi Michelle,

Sorry if my last post sounded so negative. You go through a lot of conflicting emotions when you travel.You're right about attitude of course. I'm back in Cusco.Yesterday, I was up early for the first bus to MP and was one of the first to enter. I found a nice little spot atop a stone stairway and watched the sun come up over the ruins as it has for hundreds of years. A single shaft of light came down through the distant peaks and slowly turned the old stonework an incandescent bronze, then the whole place lit up up like a glowing ember. Really nice and there was hardly another soul about. Made up for previous day's feelings of discouragement. So I wandered around with no particular destination. Shot two rolls of infra-red B&W photos of the ruins from a spectacular vantage point. Hope at least a few of them come out. I left as the mongrel tourist crowds began pouring in for the day, with good feelings and gratitude for having been able to come here for the past three years.

On Tuesday, took my third trip up the Sacred Valley on a sleek new Honda Falcon. Outside of Maras, shared lunch with a family of Campesino sheep herders in the shadow of immense glacier covered peaks. We ate chocla, big steamed corn kearnels and drank chicha, corn beer. They were so gracious! I took lots of pictures. So lots of good things are happening but it takes time to absorb it all! So I'm here for few more days, then off to Bolivia, a whole new travel experience. Haven't had much time to post to the travel blog; I'll add something in a few days. Congrats on your first ceramic piece! Throwing clay is a very satisfying activity. You should see some of the stuff here, thrown and hand built, very beautiful.

It's a bright sunny day here. Time to wander....:-)

Love-Miguel

Hi Michelle,

Arrived in La Paz this afternoon from Cusco on a rickety old 727 but the views were awesome - the most rugged and mountainous terrain I've ever seen with hidden alpine lakes and deep valleys and all the colors of the earth imaginable. Flew over Lake Titicaca and then swooped down between snow capped mountains into La Paz, one of the most amazing places to land an airliner I've ever seen! Having been pre-acclimated to the altitude in Cusco, I experienced hardly any problems here, which is 13,000 ft.above sea level. La Paz is huge and utterly chaotic. The crush of people and traffic is just a bit overwhelming at first. You just plunge in and make the best of it. I am now getting my bearings, having got a room at the Hostal Republica. I wandered through the crowds and reached Calle Sarangama, location of the famous Witch's Market and other interesting sights. Tomorrow, more explorations and I'll let you know my impressions....

Love - Miguel


Hi Michelle,

Did I say I had escaped the plague of altitude sickness? Ah, foolish Gringo! Woke up Weds. morning and the Soroche hit me really hard. Fatigue! Nausea! Diarrhea! Headache! All the garden variety symptons but it laid me up for an entire day. It was probably time for a rest after two weeks of non-stop travel. I'm better now after lots of coca tea, which really does work. Still no appitite though. Haven't eaten in nearly 48 hrs. but I feel much better. La Paz is beyond funky. The area around Calle Sarangama and Calle Linares is a feast of beautiful artesanas. Bolivian hippys spread their hand made wares on the sidewalk and they are beautiful and unique. At night, the Plaza San Francisco is transformed into a phantasmogora of clowns, jesters, witch doctors, fire eaters and fortune tellers. Quite a show, much like the Jemma el Fna in Marrakech. You see persons from every walk of Bolivian society, from well dressed business men to little old Indian women wrapped in blankets. The Mercado Negro is one of the most colorful indigenous markets I've ever seen. What photos you could take, but you can't! They just won't allow it and if you try, they pelt you with rotton vegetables! Better to put the camara away. I hope to be off to Coroico in a few days, a cloud city just outside La Paz. Hey, look forward to seeing you in just over a week and it will be great to see Kim and Mark. Give them my best. We can go down to 49 W. St. for dinner and live jazz...think I'll go out and try and eat a full meal. My appitite is coming back and that's a good sign...!

Love-Miguel

Hi Michelle,

Returning stateside early tomorrow morning. The last few days have been slow and meditative, letting everything sink in. It's a good way to end a trip abroad. I have lots of new pictures, journal entries, and things to think about - a rich mix. Life at 13,000 ft. has definitely been an experience - your heart beats differently, you breath differently, you walk and think differently. The air is exremely dry and the sunlight intense. My lips are chapped and bleeding, my throat is sore and my vocal cords feel like saw dust. I can barely speak above a wisper. Ah! the joys of travel! As usual, one trip lays the foundation for the next.

See you in a few days!

---

---