Stranded in Qosqo (part 1 of 3)

This entry should be called “Peru, tierra de contradicciones, part 2”! I’m sure most of you are aware of the situation with the Amazon people by now, and how the roadblock at Bagua that put a damper on our plans to visit Chachapoyas escalated a few days ago into a tragedy that left 20 police officers dead and an untold number of Indigenous people dead and/or disappeared. At least the international attention this incident has garnered has meant that the nefarious government of Alan Garcia doesn’t have much choice but to put their plans to sell off the amazon resources to multinational interests on the back burner (at least for now). unfortunately, I just read in the news that Canada ratified the FTA with Peru without even mentioning the massacre in Bagua...As for our adventures, we will try to get caught up from where we left off, but it will have to come in three installments. First of all, we had a hard time leaving Huacachina partly because Mateo didn’t want to leave his little green bodyguard behind, and partly because we made friends with the people who run the hostal, who we sat around the campfire with after the disastrous game between Uruguay and Brazil, drinking delicious shots of pisco (which is nicer tan grappa, also made from grape skins – I think because the grapes here are super sweet, athough unfortunately so is the wine) and commiserating about futbol and politics. We managed to tear ourselves away the next day around noon. Stopping at the supermarket to get some supplies, we drove through the desert once again toward Nazca, where we paused briefly to get a rough idea of the lines at a lookout tower off the highway, which cuts right through one of the figures! The lines are totally amazing to us, still shrouded in complete mystery, although we weren’t willing or able to take a bumpy, dangerous and expensive flight over them. We kept driving on through the afternoon and evening, heading out of the desert and into the mountains. As the sun began to set, we were nowhere near a populated area, and had to drive through a couple of serious mountain passes (4,300 metres!) on some twisty and unkempt roads until we decided to stop for the night at a gas station in a nice little mountain town called Puquio. We had a fitful sleep, mostly because of the altitude and cold, but at least we got a really early start and were on the road again before 7 am. That day we drove for 12 hours, through more mountain passes and high altitude pampa nature reserve, were we saw wild vicunas and flamingos on these high altitude lakes, and many, many little traditional villages with people herding their alpacas and llamas. We also saw some amazing big rabbit-type creatures, grey with long ears and long, curved tails (someone told us they were related to chinchillas?) One thing that always makes us laugh since we've been in Peru is that, as we drive along, people are constantly sticking out their arms and trying to flag us down, because we look remarkably like the microbuses that people use to get around here. For hours we followed this beautiful blue river at the bottom of a canyon, passing town after town, until by mid-afternoon we started to go up again, and reached a town called Abancay at the foot of the mountains. Suddenly, the Westy went on strike and stopped moving completely. Uh-oh. Luckily we were right in front of a gas station, so we backed/pushed the Westy in and parked. Gustavo and Mateo flagged down a taxi driver (actually, he was right beside us washing his car) and asked him to take them to the nearest mechanic, which he did. In less than a half an hour, they were back in the taxi with the mechanic and he confirmed what we suspected the problem to be: the gas filter needed to be replaced. After all of this driving, and we had never even had it cleaned and it was completely filthy! Anyway, the mechanic fixed the problem (thank you Scott Lyons for suggesting that we take a spare one along!) and we were on our way again. After watching Abancay get smaller and smaller as we drove by it again and again on the spiraling road up the mountains, the snow peaked mountains started to appear: spectacular! Up and down, around and around, we reached Cusco by around 7 pm and looked for the camping place that had been recommended to us by the Dutch/German couple in the green westy. As we drove into Cusco (or Qos'qo, which means "navel of the earth") we marveled at the beauty of this city (an ancient Inka creation and taken over by the Spanish in 1533) at night. There is so much history here! This part of Peru is like one big archeological site and it is, accordingly, much cleaner and more touristy than the coast. The camping place is run by a Dutch couple and is located up on a hill, overlooking the city, right beside the Inka ruins of Saqsaywaman. After the Spanish took over the city of Cusco, which was planned to take the shape of a grand puma, they stole the huge rocks of the Inka stronghold of Saqsaywaman (which was the head of the puma) to build their own churches and homes (you can still see the rocks and other Inkan buildings in Cusco to this day). The name Saqsaywaman itself means “satisfied falcon” because after a huge battle, many bodies lay dead on the fields, attracting many condors. Battling a bit of altitude sickness, we spent our first day in Cusco exploring the Plaza de Armas and walking through the picturesque cobblestone streets. After two days of warm sunny days and near-freezing temperatures at night (and continued altitude issues) we decided to take off to the Sacred Valley and try to find our way to Machu Picchu. After getting everything all packed up and ready to go, Gustavo turned the keys in the ignition and…..it wouldn’t start! We thought it might have something to do with the gas filter, so once again Gustavo asked a taxi driver to take him to a mechanic who deals with VWs (there are a lot of them around here- both VWs and mechanics) who came and diagnosed that something was wrong with our gas pump. We had brought a spare one of those along as well, so Claudio called an electrician called Celex over to install it. Unfortunately, it turns out that the spare gas pump we brought from Canada was no good, so we had to order a new one from Lima. While we waited around, we walked into town regularly to take in the sights, including the Corpus Christi celebration, where Catholics from all over the area come to Cusco to pay tribute to their saints in a very colourful but strange and somber celebration in the Plaza de Armas. Even this traditional Catholic ritual is clearly inflected with pre-conquest symbolism however, as the scepter that the priest held up had a big golden sun on the end of it, and some of the floats dedicated to the saints had potatoes and corn sharing the places of honour! Many restaurants had displays in their front entrances of a typical dish during this time called Chiriuchu, which includes roasted chicken, cuy (which we still have not tried), dried alpaca meat, homemade cheese, a mint omelet and a hot red pepper on the top! The Corpus Christi celebrations felt a bit strange given the continuing history of colonization, but we are more excited about the Inti Raymi celebrations (Indigenous festival of the sun) on June 24, but hopefully we will be in Bolivia by then (where apparently instead of sacrificing a llama to the pachamama, they punch each other until they bleed into the earth!). In the end, Celex managed to fix our old fuel pump so that we could drive for a few days while we wait for the new one, so we decided to head off on our tour of the sacred valley and Machupicchu.
Este blog tendria que llamarse “Peru, tierra de contradiccones 2,” porque este lugar no deja de sorprendernos, en todo sentido. Como seguramente ya saben, el bloqueo que la gente del Amazonas hizo (y por lo cual no pudimos ir a Chachapoyas) escalo, y termino con 20 policias muertos y muchisimos indigenas muertos y/o desaparecidos (la gente dice que vieron helicopteros tirando cuerpos en los rios). Por lo menos la atencion internacional ha logrado que el gobierno ponga el freno en sus planes para explotar los recursos amazonicos; por lo menos por ahora...Ahora los indigenas de esta zona (al sur de Cusco) estan haciendo bloqueos en las carreteras tambien (con buena razon - el gobierno quiere privatizar el agua) y no sabemos como vamos a salir de aca para seguir a Bolivia. Pero vamos a preocuparnos de eso despues; por ahora, vamos a ver que hemos hecho en los ultimos dias. Creo que en el ultimo capitulo todavia estabamos en la Huacachina, y fue bastante dificil irse de ese oasis, ya que hicimos amigos con la gente del hostal Rocha despues de mirar el partido desastroso de Uruguay y Brazil y tomar unos piscos al lado del fuego. Tambien Mateo no queria dejar a su pequeño guardaespaldas verde, Chubby, pero logramos arrancar al final. El primer dia de viaje pasamos por mas disierto y las famosas lineas de Nazca, donde subimos a un mirador que habia al lado de la Panamericana. No se veian las formas tan bien como cuando subis en una avioneta (peligrosa y cara), pero fue suficiente para tener una idea de lo que son estas maravillosas y misteriosas lineas. Seguimos manejando toda la tarde y toda la noche, y el desierto se convirtio en montainas. Esa noche despues de pasar por una pampa de altura de 4,200 metros, dormimos en un pueblito que se llama Puquio. Al otro dia nos levantamos bien tempranito para empezar a manejar por montanias y unos valles preciosos, siguiendo un rio. Ese dia fue de 12 horas (ni siquiera paramos para comer, arreglandonos con lo que teniamos en la camioneta) en la pista hasta llegar a Cusco. En el viaje vimos vicunias, llamas, flamencos de altura, y mucha gente y pueblos tradicionales en las pampas de altura (a mas de 4,000 metros). Tambien vimos unos conejos medios raros con colas largas (dicen que son parientes de las chinchillas). Lo mas gracioso de manejar en Peru es que la gente siempre nos confunde con los micros que usan para viajar, y siempre nos tratan de parar, haciendo senias con la mano en el medio de la carretera! Llegando a Abancay de tarde y subiendo una cuesta, la camioneta de repente quedo parada. Dejo de funcionar sin previo aviso. La empujamos hasta una estacion de gasolina que (por suerte) estaba cerca. Sospechamos que era el filtro de gasolina, y Gustavo y Mateo fueron en un taxi hasta un mecanico y lo trajeron para cambiarlo (habiamos traido uno de repuesto de Canada). Depues de que lo cambiaron seguimos camino, subiendo la montania y viendo al pueblo cada vez mas chiquito hasta empezar a ver los nevados impresionantes de los Andes. Llegamos de noche a Cusco, y vimos las luces de la ciudad brillar en la noche. Lo primero que hicimos fue buscar a un camping de unos holandeses que queda arriba de un cerro con vista a la cuidad, al lado de las ruinas incas de Saqsaywaman. Despues de que los espanioles coparon la ciudad de Cusco (que los Incas hicieron en la forma de un puma) se robaron las rocas de este lugar (que era la cabeza del puma) para hacer sus iglesias y casas. El nombre Saqsaywaman quiere decir “halcon satisfecho,” recordado despues de una batalla famosa, cuando los condores comian a los muertos en el campo. Peleando contra el mal de altura (mas que nada Mateo y Gustavo), pasamos el primer dia en Cusco visitando la Plaza de Armas y caminando por las calles empedradas. Despues de dos dias soleados (pero congelantes en la noche), decidimos dar una vuelta por el Valle Sagrado y buscarle la vuelta para visitar Machu Pichu. Con todo listo y nosotros subiditos al carro, Gustavo puso las llaves en el arranque y….nada. no arrancaba. Pensamos que tenia que ver con lo del filtro de gasolina, asi que Gustavo se subio otra vez a un taxi para buscar un mecanico. Al final, Claudio decidio que pasaba algo con la bomba de gasolina, y llamo a un electricista, Celex, que vino a instalar la bomba que trajimos de Canada. Lamentablemente, esa bomba no funciono, y entonces tuvimos que mandar buscar una nueva de Lima. Atrapados en Cusco, y todavia sufriendo de la altura, salimos a dar vueltas por la ciudad. Justo en esos dias estaba la celebracion de Corpus Christi; cuando los Catolicos de esta zona vienen a Cusco a celebrar. Lo interesante es que hasta este ritual tan traditioncal tiene elementos pre-hispanicos: el baston que usa el cura tiene un sol dorado, simbolo importante para los Incas, y en los carros decorados y dedicados a los santos las papas y el maiz compartien el lugar de honor. Ese dia muchos restaurantes hacian un plato tipico llamado Chiriuchu que teiene cuy asado, pollo, carne de alpaca seca, queso, tortilla de hierba buena y un aji picante arriba de todo! Estas celebraciones catolicas fueron un poco raras, mas que nada por el ambiente de broca social que se vive ahora. En unos dias se va a celebrar Inti Raymi, que es el festival indigena del sol, pero quisieramos estar en Bolivia ya por ese entonces (donde en vez de sacrificar una llama se "revientan" entre ellos para darle la sangre a la Pachamama). Vamos a ver que pasa…. Lo bueno fue que, aunque la bomba que trajimos de repuesto no funciono, Celex pudo arreglar la que teniamos, asi que decidimos ir al Valle Sagrado y Machu Pichu por un par de dias mientras esperabamos la nueva desde Lima.