This blog and more photos are available on my website https://heatherjasper.com/brazil/salvador-pelourinho Pelourinho means “whipping post” in remembrance of the cruelty of slavery, which built the city. It has been a rich city for hundreds of years precisely because of the slaves used to work the sugar cane fields and build the city. It’s a violent and tragic history, but one that city residents don’t want forgotten. Despite the heavy history, the neighborhood today is full of joyful music, fabulous restaurants, and engaging museums. It also boasts the best spots to watch the sunset in Salvador. For cultural events, don’t miss the Balé Folclorico da Bahia. There are regular performances three evenings a week and a few times a year are larger performances. Check their website for scheduled performances. Salvador is ... read more

Read my article about Choquequirao on Matador Network ! The most important things to know about Choquequirao are that it is much bigger than Machu Picchu and that the trail to get there is very steep and has significant elevation change. (This blog and many more photos are on my website https://heatherjasper.com ). The Choquequirao ruins are all of the things you want in an archeological site: beautiful, mysterious, extensive, unique, fascinating, etc. They have been classified successively as a fortress, a ceremonial center, a city and the last residence of the Inca. In my opinion, the most important aspect is that they were never discovered by the Spanish during the decades of conquest. I was very disappointed to hear from local families that they have be... read more

After writing for almost a year about other people having Covid, I now have the opportunity to give a first person account of having Covid in Cusco. Thankfully, I had a very mild case. I had a fever for two days and a slight cough the third day after the fever was gone. Unfortunately, the person who brought it to my home was so sick that I had to play nurse for about a week, before a family member could come get him. I’ve done the contact tracing, which goes from my houseguest-turned-patient to his family, who live in a small town in the Sacred Valley. When I first realized that this was probably Covid, I found a list online of places in Cusco that supposedly can test for Covid. Of the 57 places listed, I ... read more

Sunday, 20 December, 2020 Hatun Q’ero is about a six hour drive from Cusco, which is why we asked the mayor of Paucartambo to send transportation that could pick us up at 5am. The night before he had sent a large truck to pick up twenty desks which were generously donated by the school where Henry’s sister teaches. Of course, the school has been closed all year due to the pandemic, so nobody has gotten to use these desks in 2020. All of the villages of the Q’ero Nation are part of the district of Paucartambo. Last Sunday, Sofia, who works in the Paucartambo’s mayor’s office, organized everything for our visit to Japu. Unfortunately, she was not available this weekend and we didn’t have anybody like her to help everything go according to plan. We were ... read more

Sunday, 6 December, 2020 Yesterday was amazing, but I am so exhausted by all of the travel. The farther out the villages are, the more they need help, so I’m bracing myself for a December full of twisty mountain roads that make me carsick. It’s certainly worth a little discomfort on my part to be able to reach families who need so much. Not only are the communities farthest from Cusco lacking in basic communication and medical care, they also don’t have any way to get to a town where they could buy basic necessities or try to get medical care. The pandemic is far from over and I am always impressed when we go somewhere that doesn’t have any Covid cases in the area. They really are staying isolated and I really want them to ... read more