South America I

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!Hola amigos!

I write from my home for a week, room 110 of La Casa de mi Abuela, in Arequipa, Peru. Arequipa is said to be the unofficial capital of Southern Peru. It is the second largest city, by a small margin, and it has a certain modern feel that did not exist in Cusco, and, from what I understand, certainly not in Lima. It is arid here. You can feel it in your skin and your nostrils. I have seen nary a cloud in, what, four or five days here. And at above 8,000 feet in altitude, the Sun shines strong. I can tell you this for sure: sunscreen works and you don’t need SPF1,000.

Daniel, Jeff, and I flew into Peru two weeks ago last night. Peru is on the West coast of South America. In fact, it is pretty much the most Western part of the continent, but it is actually just East of Florida. Going through Houston and spending a half a night in Lima resulted in a 26-hour trip where a direct flight from Tampa to Cusco would take five or six hours, I imagine. In any case, we took a cab to the closest hotel/hostel in Lima and had three lovely hours of sleep. This was the first of six of the next eight days when I would be waking up by 6AM! I am sure that the people at ASI find that hard to believe, but it’s true! Amazingly, I’m still on a pattern of waking up slightly before my 7AM alarm. This is vacation?!

Cusco is very touristy, but has many highlights. There are Inca ruins scattered around the city and even a few within the city limits. Qoricancha at Santo Domingo, a short walk from the city center, was the capital of the Inca Empire. Its architecture/art collection is overrated in my humble opinion, but it is fascinating as an illustration of the clash (and ultimate assimilation) of civilizations. After defeating the Inca (Quechuan for “emperor”) and his force of 80,000 with their own force of 185 (seriously, look it up - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cajamarca - guns, steel, and horses are powerful stuff), the Spanish took over the Empire. The walls of the temple of Qoricancha were literally covered in gold, and in the square outside, there were life-size solid gold statues of people and of animals. All of it was melted down and sent to Spain. Much like with the Pyramids, the scope of many of the construction in those days is almost unfathomable, as is the precision with which these massive stones, moved unimaginable distances, were cut and set. The Spanish tore the temples apart, breaking apart the stones and using the smaller pieces to build homes, businesses, and churches. Our guide on the Inca Trail was brutally racist against the Spanish! It was the first time I had met someone with that particular prejudice. At the end of his last big speech, he said, “When you leave the trail, I don’t want you to just remember the beautiful mountains and the beautiful ruins, I want you to remember the spirit of the Incas and their passion. Remember to love each other, and also to hate the Spanish.” He hated the Chileans as well, but I’m not sure why, and certainly not as much as he hated the Spanish. I’m not sure if I was the only American on the trip who was thinking that the natives of the Andes didn’t have it so bad, comparatively. Almost everyone in Peru has significant native blood, and there are millions of people who speak Quechua as their primary language. Some even still speak pre-Inca languages. No such luck for the natives of el Estados Unidos.

So the Inca Trail was very similar to what I expected, which is to say it was beautiful, fascinating, and very challenging. In fact, I got some mild altitude sickness during our days in Cusco, which is at about 11,000 feet. The Trail starts lower than Cusco, but the highest pass is over 14,000 feet. I have hiked in the mountains many times, but nothing quite like this. For that altitude and the lengths and angles of the inclines, I seriously over-packed. After the first “easy” day, I knew that I needed to drop some weight. I squeezed out half of my sunscreen and dry foot powder; I gave my Powerbars to the porters (they fed us like kings, I certainly didn’t need them), gave away an extra towel, and even cut the hardcover off of a book. I was desperate! I mean seriously desperate; it was a library book! I had figured that if these porters—these amazing porters—were taking the food, water, and tents, the hike couldn’t be too hard. As it turned out, virtually every other member of our group paid $50 extra for the porters to carry most of their remaining items for them. In any case, the combination of dumping some stuff, getting a full night’s sleep (had to wake up at 4 the first day of the hike), and a little acclimatization made the legendarily difficult second day, for me at least, quite a bit easier than the first. Also, the coca leaves. Coca tea (yes, that kind of coca) is very common here. It helps the body process oxygen somehow. On the hikes, you take it a step further than drinking coca tea. You wrap some coca leaves around a piece of clay and chew on it like gum or pack it in your cheek like a chaw. It makes a hell of a difference, and, thankfully, I have no need to worry about random drug tests in the immediate future which would be set off. ;-)

We returned to Cusco and had a hell of a party with our hiking group . The next morning, Jeff somehow made it to the airport, and Daniel and I had one more day to explore Cusco before taking a plane south to Arequipa. I took an immediate liking to Arequipa and besides that, “Are, quipa” is roughly translated as “Yes, stay” in Quechua, so I decided to settle down for a week and take Spanish classes. The classes are going nicely. Also, Daniel and I toured Colca Canyon, which is the second deepest canyon in the world; over twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Most of the canyon that we saw is populated, almost completely covered with terraces—it’s very beautiful. After lunch the first day, we took a short hike up to the canyon walls. To our complete surprise, we were led to an ancient open cemetery. The remains of dozens of ancient, bleached skeletons were in small structures built into the walls. Old baskets with femurs, spinal columns, and hips jutting out of them. Some of the skulls had even been elongated, which some of these cultures did to their babies by applying long-term constant pressure to the skull with blocks of wood. Our guide led us up there with very little commentary, and I heard nothing of the place in all the advertising for Colca Canyon tours.

At the far end of our Colca trip, we reached a deeper part of the canyon where condors rise up in the morning on thermals. They actually don’t fly—they only glide—and they are HUGE. We’re talking wingspans of up to 10 feet. There is a good crowd there to see them. We arrived at about a quarter after 8 and for 45 minutes watched them slowly ascend until finally they were just over us, perfectly graceful. They passed in front of and over us about a half dozen times before all flying off further down the canyon at the same moment—perfect showmen!

And now I finish the entry on a hammock in one of the courtyards of La Casa. It’s a beautiful night, I have a glass of wine, and plans to move on in about an hour. Tonight, I take an overnight bus to Nasca. I will spend one day there, then take another overnight bus back, then I’ll finish my week of Escuela Espanol. Nasca is something of a unique place in the world, and I look forward to telling you all about it soon.

Much love,
Greg
October 5, 2009

See these two web albums linked at the bottom of this page for many more pictures and commentary!

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