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Published: October 22nd 2005
sweet sweet coca
Mike and i went to a market, and there was this lady with an enormous burlap sac full of coca leaves. Mike asked for one sol worth, or about 30 cents. He´s still working on that bag.Cuzco has been our home for two weeks now, through thick and thin. It is a muy fantastico place. The colonial/Incan hybrid architecture is truly staggering, and the setting is epic. The Incans were marvellous stonemasons, especially considering that they worked with nothing more than what is essentially iron ore. Using such dubious tools, they produced stone walls with no gaps or mortar - each stone is fitted perfectly. Their walls posses a chaotic beauty because all the stones are of an irregular shape and size, with some having as many as 22 sides. And then the Spanish came and killed everyone and tore down the palaces to make their Cathedrals… which are pretty nice themselves if you like that sort of thing (they're really nice, actually, and inside there is lots of gold and gory effigies of Jesus).
We were a little bored yesterday, so we decided, what the heck, to visit Machu Picchu. It was not bad. Our "6:15" train left at 9:30. Llama on the tracks. When we finally arrived, Kathleen and I determined from our studies that it was a sort of religious community built in the most unlikely place to more effectively worship
the sun-god. It certainly wasn't an agricultural community, I'll tell you that much. The terraced hills can't have fed more than ten people for a year and supposedly 1000 lived there. The stonemasonry there rivals anything we've seen in Cuzco in terms of chaoticness and workmanship. The scenery is OK too. But I fear that Machu Picchu only hints at the glory that would have been Cuzco, the Incan capital, before the Spanish got there.
But Cuzco is also a very touristy place - touts surround you on every corner trying to get you to go to movies or have your shoes shined. Touts from restaurants actually compete for you outside, which can result in free drinks or cheap set menus. Not bad, really. But it can get somewhat tiresome being approached to buy finger puppets ten times a day. And then there are the thieves… Bastards.
We took some Spanish lessons for a week. That was fun - I am thoroughly fluent now I can safely say. "¿Tiene un convertido para…. 220 V a 120 V, por favour?" "No viajo a Puerto Maldonado…. ¿Hablo inglese?" You get the picture. Our school was very
radio phone adventure
We were calling the reseach station were we´ll be volunteering (Picaflor). We had to go to a secret address in cuzco between 5.30 and 6pm. The lady had to yell alot into the radio to get anyone. It was most amusing. nice, and they served "coffee" every recess in little soft-plastic cups. The coffee here is terrible, by the way.
We didn't plan on staying so long, but then we got sick. First Kathleen was ill with nausea and a frightful headache, then me with a 24 hour fever followed by mucho el baño. We survived on chips and pop for a while (but don't worry Mum, now I'm eating well! Lots of guinea pig). There seems to one medicine here that everyone can agree on: "mate de coca". For a fever, for a headache, for polio - you name it, coca is the remedy. When I had a fever all the ladies who sell alpaca mittens and socks near our hostel where yelling "¡Mate de coca! ¡Mate de coca!" I tried it, and was not bad for a while admittedly, but no long term cure I tell you.
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Alyson
non-member comment
Mwahahaha
You guys make me laugh! Sounds like so much fun. I love that you were charging teenagers to have pictures taken with you, Kathleen. Bummer about your wallet though Mike. Hey Mike? I didn't know you had a thing for Llamas. One night at Kickboxing Adam (the teacher) was teasing a kid that he had a llama. It was funny.