Corpus Christi Cuzqueño

Corpus Christi Cuzqueño at the Plaza de Armas

On the next day we did the whole long journey back to Cusco. First walking through the jungle towards the hydropower plant, enjoying last views of the ruins. Then riding the bus again over that crazy road, the mountain pass and up to the high planes of Cusco. Because there had been several construction sites on the way it took us the whole day and when we finally reached Cusco it was almost midnight. At the end we found a deep and quiet sleep there in a hostel. The following day - our last in Cusco - the Feast of Corpus Christi took place. Cusco is famous for the celebration of this feast which here is based on Inca traditions mixed with Spanish Catholic rites. The whole plaza de armas is a huge single crowd through which countless huge statues of saints are carried by numerous man on their sholders. Each saint is accompanied by it´s own band which members as well as the bearers of the statue wear their specific costumes. The whole procession is accompanied by jugglers, dancers and all kind of costumed people. The most demanded spectator perches are the small balconies of the cafes and restaurants around the square which are full of locals as well as tourists. Around plaza de armas the folk fair goes on more profanely with bands playing in the streets in between huge beer tents. Their they sell beer in crates and chiriuchu a cold plate especially served on that occasion that contains guinea pig, chicken, sausage, cheese, tortillas, maize, spawn and algae . Here people  eat, drink and celebrate until the whole town seems to be drunk. It is a good spectacle to watch and we joined the crowed the whole day together with Luchin and Susan again. We also used the day for shopping, buying some souvenirs, delicious Peruvian organic coffee (which is also offered now in our cafeteria) and some things for our shop in Pucón. We said farewell to the navel of the Incan world and in the evening took a bus back to Arequipa. This time we had a real kind of horror trip. Leaving the bus terminal the bus crashed into the exit gate that way that it took the driver half an hour to get it free again. Until we finally came on the road, not feeling very confidently about the skills of the driver now, almost one hour had passed by. During the journey it came out that the bus did not have a functioning heating. Driving at an altitude of about 4000 m.a.s.l. over the high plateau this caused temperatures close to the freezing point inside the bus and a thick layer of ice on the inside of it’s windows. For sure you could not even think about sleeping there and even Peruvian passengers who already had brought their own blankets were complaining to the conductor who could not do anything neither. Best of all was, when I complained on the arrival in Arequipa I was just told that this was normal due to the low temperatures on the altiplano during night journeys. Fortunately Inés stopped me from causing a massacre right over there at the bus terminal.

The last day in Arequipa we spent strolling around the city, buying more souvenirs and being a little sad that our great journey already should come to an end. But in Pucón the kids and the cafeteria are waiting for us, why we went back there as fast as possible just spending one more night in Santiago before we took the bus back home.

It was a great time in Perú and for sure not the last time we have visited this amazing country. But now the daily routine is waiting for us and we are looking forward to our first winter season with our own busine

Machu Picchu

The Classic Photograph

From the hydropower plant it is an amazing two hours walk along a railway track in the valley of the river Urubamba to the village of Machu Picchu. The path leads through dense jungle of huge trees with parrots sitting on it, banana plants, lianas and we even saw an intensely green coloured snake. Climate here is very different from the highlands of Cusco already reminding you of the not so far amazon rainforest. It is warm and humid. During the walk you have lovely views of the river, sometimes flowing silently besides you, other times roaring down heavy, steep rapids breaking the calmness of the place with its noise. All is embedded in between steep mountains covered by that evergreen forest. That way you are almost surrounding the ruins of Machu Picchu, which are enthrowned majestically on the mountains in a sinuosity of the valley. During the walk you have first visits of ancient agricultural terraces and houses high up on the hills which already give you an imagination of the uniqueness of that place. It is a really divine and magic way to approach that unbelievable place.

Finally we reached the village at dusk quite exhausted but happy after the long, crazy bus ride and the following walk. Machu Picchu Village or Aguas Calientes as it is called due to the existing thermal baths is one of the the most touristy spots I have ever seen. It is a small village pinched in between the steeply rising mountains of the valley Urubamba. There are a post office, the railway station, a handicrafts market, the mentioned hot springs and apart from that nothing more than hotels, hostels and restaurants. There does not seem to exist a single building which does not serve for touristy purposes. Although it is quite weird and the village obviously just exists because of the close ruins it is not really an unfriendly place. Maybe because there are no big blocks of hotels existing just because there would be no place for building them. Besides there is no motorized traffic in the village apart from the transfer buses to the ruins which run on the only road to which Machu Picchu is connected. The only way to get there if not walking from the hydropower plant is by train. For lack of place the railway runs right through the village so that tourists in the outdoor dining areas of the restaurants are dining on the railway platform. So all in all it is a funny, lively settlement where you are reminded of the ruins and the Inca culture everywhere. The walls of all restaurants and hostels are full  with pictures of Machu Picchu, on the small main square is a fountain with a huge statue of Pachacútec, the ninth Inca, and the small steep alleys have all Quechua names.

We moved into our hostel, had dinner in a restaurant where we were informed about the next day´s tour to the ruins and soon went to bed to find a very uneasy sleep because the whole night a TV was running at full volume somewhere in the hostel.

The next day we stood up at 5 am to take the first bus up to the ruins which leaves the village at 5:30 am. We preferred to take the bus compared to walking up over more than 2500 steps which is the other possibility to get to the ruins from the village. At dawn we entered the site and already the first sight of it took our breath. We had a very informative and interesting guided tour for about two hours and then had the rest of the day to explore the ruins on our own. Well what can I tell you? The magnificence, uniqueness, powerfulness and magic of the place is beyond words. The whole complex is widespread on a mountain ridge in between the mountains of Machu Picchu (old mountain) and Huayna Picchu (young mountain). During the guided tour the sun was rising and submerged first the mountains and then the whole site in golden morning light. Deep down in the valley the river Urubamba is roaring and to all cardinal points you have breathtaking views of the Andes. The town itself was divided in two parts: the agricultural one with all the terraces and the habitational one with a huge central square, living quarters, temples, granaries and an observatory for astronomic research in which the Incas were quite experts. The whole town is connected to an incredibly elaborated system of irrigation and drinking water channels, that collect the water for the whole city at the base of mountain Machu Picchu. Unfortunately we could not climb none of the two mountains what for you would have to buy an extra ticket which were already sold out. But I made a small walk to the so called “Inca Bridge” a small bridge that is part of a path leading south from the ruins crossing the vertical western escarpment of mountain Machu Picchu in a breathtaking way. Over this bridge the town, whose construction then not had been terminated, was evacuated when the news of the conquest of Cusco by the Spanish reached the area. The Inca did not want the town to be conquested as well. That is why it is so well preserved, with the centuries was overgrown by the jungle and not rediscovered until 1911.

Now I could write pages about the magnificence of the place and all the impressions I had but none of it could reflect the deep admiration I felt. I just can tell you that Machu Picchu definitely is one of the places one should have seen in his life. Although it is so touristy and visited by thousands of tourists everyday it did not loose any of its magic. If you want to know more about it you will simply have to come here and see it with your own eyes.

Anyway after having spent hours in the ruins, including almost getting lost a few times, we went back to the village by bus, took a rest and went to the hot springs to relax our tired extremities. I do neither know how many kilometres we had walked nor how many difference in altitude we had covered during the day but our muscles definitely could use a relaxation. The hot springs of Aguas Calientes are at the edge of town in a small creek surrounded by jungle just a ten minutes walk from the centre. They have some 70´s style tiled pools and a nice cafeteria and bar, where from you can order drinks just beconning to the waiter by raising your hand. He brings the drinks to the pool where you can enjoy them soaking in the warm water. That was a perfect ending of that incredible day. We just had dinner after it and fell to bed where again we could not sleep that well this time because people were shouting the whole night all over the building.

The Sacred Valley of the Incas

On the Way to Urubamba

After a few days in Cusco we started to the highlight of our journey: the forgotten Inca town of Machu Picchu. To honour the mystic and uniqueness of the place we took our time for it. The first day we started with Luchin and his girlfriend Susan to the Valley of the Urubamba river, generally known as the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Already the sixty something kilometres journey to the small town of the same name as the river is an adventure. You start from Cusco already at an altitude of about 3300 meters climbing up on the altiplano at about 4000 m.a.s.l. The tremendously scenic road winds in uncountable curves over the rugged high plateau which is covered by meadows, maize fields, eucalypt trees and lagoons in between which small villages with clay houses tiled with red bricks are dotted. Eventually a huge Andes range of impressive glacier covered peaks appears on the horizon covering it in its entity when coming closer. Just before you think to crash into the enormous peaks the plateau suddenly steeply falls down to the sacred valley and the town of Urubamba. From there we went a few kilometres on until we reached the small village where Luchin´s family run a small, nice restaurant which is specialized in guinea pigs and chicha the maize beer of the Incas which nowadays is Peru´s most famous drink, apart from pisco and Inca Kola. The latter is a bright yellow lemonade with an incredibly chemical taste of bubblegum. Nevertheless it is one of the few local drinks in the world which in it´s country sells even better than Coca Cola. (Which is why Coca Cola bought half of the company decades ago.)

So here in the lovely garden of that restaurant we were hearty welcomed by Luchin´s mother as well as numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. And it was time to try one of Peru´s best known delicacy: guinea pig. It was accompanied by potatoes (for sure), a noodle casserole and home made chicha with strawberries. It is definitely a good meat, low fat, tasty, just many bones for that amount of meat. We also were introduced into the secrets of chicha production and guinea pig breeding. After this tasty, hearty and interesting visit we went on to the village of Ollantaytambo half an hour downriver. This is an ancient Inca settlement what for the streets are narrow and cobbled. Small one floored clay houses are built on the fundament of Inca walls and in the village itself and on the steep slopes of the surrounding mountains everything is full with Inca ruins. You can find a bridge, an archway, a castle, temples, granaries and the impressive rests of many more buildings. We walked around the village a while before Luchin and Susan went back to Luchin´s family. Inés and I searched for a hostel and then kept on exploring town. As it came out the whole village was at a bull fight on a field at the edge of the settlement. There was an atmosphere like at a folk festival with musicians playing, traditionally dressed women selling food, children playing around and people exchanging news of the day or discussing about the bull fights. All around the place there may have been about thirty bulls awaiting their turn while always two of them did a fight inside a circle of people. It occurred that some now and then an escaping bull run straight through the crowd causing fleeing people all over the field.

When the spectacle turned to an end Inés and I took some drinks on the roof terrace of a friendly bar. While wondering about all the great things we had lived today people and bulls started to go home from the arena. Crowds of people came by, the bands playing and mainly young boys of up to not more than 15 years leading the immense bulls each one of may have weighed almost a ton through the narrow streets of the village in between cars, tourists, handicraft shops and street cafes as if the animals were small dogs. Full of impressions I fell into a deep dreamless sleep this night.

Early the next morning I stood up to walk to some of the close ruins. I climbed the steep path and enjoyed the perfectly constructed buildings, amazing views of the village and the surrounding mountains and the sunrise with a morning joint. Sitting there below some ancient granaries overlooking the sacred valley I felt a deep admiration for that incredible mountain people of the Inca.

Later in the morning a small bus picked us up to bring us to a hydroelectric plant from where we would have to walk to Machu Picchu. The bus ride was the next incredibly impressive adventure. A few kilometres after Ollantaytambo the road leaves the Urubamba valley winding up in various hairpin turns to a mountain pass at an altitude of 4300 m.a.s.l. just to fall down on it´s other side to the Urubamba valley again which over there has an altitude of just 1200 m.a.s.l. Driving over the pass the landscape changes drastically. While going up you drive through a dry valley with mainly grass covered mountains around and trees just next to the water streams. We passed by as close as we never did before huge glaciers and rocky giants of almost 6000 metres of altitude next to the pass, just to descend after it into an evergreen valley of jungle forest where bananas, coffee and cocoa are growing. All few kilometres you can see archeological sites of Inca ruins up to the most incredible altitudes where still today people are living in lonesome settlements. When we reached the river Urubamba again at the village of Santa Maria I was already totally stunned by these truly unbelievable landscapes, but there was still more to come. From Santa Maria the bus took a single track gravel road upriver again. Soon the valley formed a deep narrow gorge where the road was adventurously constructed into the almost vertical walls of the canyon about 300 metres above the riverbed. Inés who was sitting next to the driver almost died of fear on that part of the journey. After quite some time on that suicidal road ( with an even more suicidal driver) when I already started to think where the hell we are going to, we reached the village of Santa Teresa which appeared after a curve right out of nowhere at a place where the valley suddenly broadened again. From Santa Teresa where we used the lunch break not only to fill our stomachs but even to relief from the death ride we had been through the road went on - less frightening now but not less amazing - along the river Urubamba which seems to angrily run down here in between and around rocks as high as apartment buildings maybe 15 kilometres until we finally reached the hydroelectric plant where this amazing bus ride ended.

At the Navel of the World

From Arequipa we went to Cusco the ancient capital of the Inca empire and according to their point of view the navel of the world. (Cosquo as the town is called in Quechua means navel.) The journey started with a surprise. We boarded the bus in the evening prepared for a overnight journey. Once we occupied our seats a man came and asked us for our tickets. We showed them to him but he kept insisting on a "boleto de embarque" - an embarkation card which we obviously could not show. The man got angry and we had to leave the bus again. Having no idea what is going on we followed him quite astonished and confused. As it emerged when leaving from any train, bus or air terminal in Peru you have to buy an embarkation card as kind of tax to use the transportation premises which of nobody had told us. It would be the duty of the conductor to control the payment of that which in our case was not done so we could enter the bus without having paid the embarkation card. So at the end the unkind man apologized to us but a big discussion with the responsable employees of the bus company followed which took almost an hour. Finally the bus could leave and definitely a little relieved we started our journey to the navel of the world.

We came there early at the next morning and immediately liked the place. Cusco is situated in a basin at an altitude of more than 3.300 m.a.s.l. surrounded by scenic mountains that reach more than 4.000 m and are vegetated by grass and only a few mainly eucalyptus trees. We found a nice hostel, checked in, took a rest to relax from the overnight bus ride which is not as comfortable here as in Chile because roads are partially in quite bad conditions and leading in many curves up and down over the altiplano. Then we started to explore town. Cusco is very hilly with almost no plain street or square. Because the colonial town is built on top of the ruins of the Inca town you see many typical Spanish colonial buildings constructed on basements of Inca walls. Highlight of  the latter is a huge 12-angled stone in the fundament of a wall which is that well arranged that you can't even put a needle in between it and the neighbouring stones. The roads  are very small, many of them too narrow for cars because the Incas did not know the wheel. Apart many of them are very steep or even constructed as staircases. As in any Spanish colonial town there are churches and monasteries at almost every corner. There is an artist's quarter where many painters, goldsmiths, tailors and other artisans from all over the world have their workshops and you can find a lot of cosy art cafes and stylish restaurants with fusion cuisine from all continents.

The next days we kept exploring the town and its surroundings. There is a huge market where you can find everything from restaurants with typical Peruvian kitchen, vegetables, fruits, cheese, meat, handicrafts, flowers, herbs, clothes and  even strange things like coca flour, dried lamb foetuses for ceremonial purposes or stalls where they sell tobacco, ayuhasca, san pedro cactus and other hallucinogen plants which here are legal due to their traditional use as ceremonial plants by the indigenous people. These holy ceremonies are even offered here to tourists. 

One day we did a horse ride to some close Inca ruins. It brought us to the ruins of Saqsaywaman, a kind of holiday retreat for the Inca just out of downtown and another archaeological site called Point X because it is still not known what it was used for. There are the ruins of some houses around a small hill which is burred completely by many caves and subterranean corridors which you can explore. Then we rode to a ceremonial cave where you can find images of the Inca trilogy of condor, puma and snake, representing the three worlds in which the Incas believed, caved out of the rock.

Finally we celebrated Inés' birthday in Cusco together with local friends. They showed us Cusco's nightlife which is quite entertaining. There are many bars and discotheques where are all kinds of music are played. Either live on stage or played by Djs you can here everything from rock with traditional Andean elements over salsa to nowadays chart hits. What they have in common is a very unique mixed crowd of tourists, local people, youngsters and even elderly people dancing to the salsa rhytms.

So Cusco is definitely a nice, interesting place with a mystic, historical touch on the one hand and an international one on the other hand. A place where you can breathe the spirit of tha ancient Inca empire at every corner and this spirit is still alife.

Vacations

One of the Numerous Kitchens in Santa Catalina Monastery

Finally Inès came to Arequipa. I stopped working. (As I mentioned before there had never been that much work so it doesn't really matter.) Now we are enjoying more than two weeks of holidays. We never had so much time together without any responsibility or work to do, so we are really enjoying having just time for ourselves and nothing else to do. I picked her up at the airport and the last days we made tourist program in Arequipa. I showed her round town, we visited some churches and old colonial houses and the nice quarters of Cayma and Yanahuara. The highlights for sure were on the one hand the visit of the museum of "Juanita". She is something like the Peruvian version of "Oetzi", that corpse of a primeval hunter that was found on a glacier next to the Austrian-Italian border somewhen in the nineties of the last century. About the same time - in 1995 - archaeologists discovered the corpse of an Inca girl that was uncovered from the eternal ice of the glacier on top of Ampato Mountain in the Arequipa region due to the eruption of a nearby volcano. Conserved in the ice for about 500 years it is the best preserved precolombian corpse ever found. Because Incas did not mummify "Juanita" still has all her internal organs and bodily fluids as well as hair, nails and teeth. Just her face which seemed to having been outside of the ice is dehydrated. Nevertheless her discovery was an archeological sensation and the first years after it "Juanita" spent in various cientifical laboratories in Peru and the United States. There it was found out that she has been an about thirteen years old girl that was offered to the gods. In further expeditions to Ampato Mountain two more sacrified youngsters were found but none of them as well conserved as "Juanita". Finally she found her last resting place in her own museum in Arequipa together with burial objects found on the three burial sites. You can view her there laid out in an vitreous freezer of Japanese origin where she is conserved under the exactly same conditions that had maintained her in such a good shape for centuries under the ice of Ampato Mountain. It is a little scary experience seeing her there but as well it is amazing in which good state her body  still is and the guides of the museum recall the last months of her life and what is known and was found out about it in such a formidable way (even for children which of had been some in our tour) that you really feel sent back into this time and taking part of the whole holy precedure yourself. It really awaked my interest in this ancient fascinating culture of the Incas.

The other highlight was the monastery of Santa Catalina. It is a huge building complex right in the city centre covering a whole block of houses with an area of more than 20.000 sqm. What it makes it that interesting is the fact that for 391 years from its foundation until it`s opening to the public in 1970 it was totally concluded from the outside world. Nuns who entered it not even left after their death but where buried within the monastery`s walls on it`s private cemetery. So a city within the city came into being. There are squares, alleys which have their own names, various kitchens, baths, a laundry, kitchen gardens and the cemetary. So the monastery existed almost self-sustaining. The only contact the nuns had with the outer world was via so called "locutorios". That have been small rooms with wooden lattices in the windows through which one could talk to someone outside. Because the whole monastery is surrounded by a high wall you forget about the hectic city life outside when you are in not hearing any of the city`s sounds. We spent more than four hours exploring this fascinating place which in some parts reminds you of  the set of a historic movie. You really feel the spirit of the ancient life in a monastery strolling around through the small alleys and it is full of fantastic photo motives. I have never ever seen something comparable so far.

Apart from that Inès and I enjoyed Peruvian kitchen trying out all kind of food you would not get in other places like alpaca meat or so called pre-Inca-cuisine which are mainly stews of fish or alpaca with potatoes and maize quite strangely but tastily spiced. so our holidays are also a culinary delight.

Because we really got fascinated of the Inca culture by the visit of "Juanita" our next stop will bring us to Cusco, the old capital of the Inca empire and Machu Picchu the most famous of their archeological sites.

A big Party and Some Funny Facts

One of the last weekends I had been to a good party with my colleagues. It took place in a huge bamboo covered hall which housed various restaurants and bars the funniest of which was called "Mister Fish - Cevicheria, Bar & lo que quieres que sea" (Mister Fish - Cevicheria, Bar & whatever you want it to be). Outside there was a big grassy terrace which of you had a wonderful view over nocturnal Arequipa. Inside in the center of the hall was a kind of stage where first really cool skate, BMX and slackline performances took place. Later on that was the huge dancefloor where the whole crowd danced to the tunes of a good local live band followed by an awesome DJ-team which rocked the place until early morning. It was a great night out including everything you could wish: a fascinating location, action, big tunes, cheap drinks and an incredible number of beautiful girls as almost everywhere here. Once more I came back home to the hostel at dawn.

When not partying I am still on the river either working or for example moving some rocks which had been lying in the line of a tricky rapid as we did last week. And I am still wondering and keep on smiling about Peruvian idiosyncrasies. For example Peruvians have a weakness for fireworks. You can see and hear them daily somewhere over the town. Seems like locals are celebrating almost everything with fireworks and various times I have seen big bamboo constructions assembled with fire works waiting to be sparked on a public square or in a backyard.

Female Peruvians are definitely keen on nail polish. Before coming here I did not know in which variety of colours nail varnishes do exist. And normally it doesn´t remain with just one colour. You see purple hearts on red nails, yellow cats on green ones, black flashes on blue ones and so on. Even elderly women with colourful painted nails are a common sight.

The garbage collection truck drives around town playing loud music or announcing garbage collecting tips over speakers. So everybody knows when to put out the rubbish bags on the street to be collected and indeed when the car is coming all doors open and people deliver their waste to the garbage truck.The range of music played varies from Peruvian classics like "El Condor Pasa" to Mozart.

Sometimes I pass by small shops which sell mostly kitschy things of Chinese origin - all for just one Nuevo Sol. For some reason all these shops are promoted by a kind of mountebank. A man who in florid phrases loudly announces to the public via a microphone which sensational products they offer. Considering the real value, usefulness and quality of the offered products an almost surreal kind of publicity that always makes me smile.

So daily there are still new things to discover and wonder about which doesn´t ever let the place become boring.

More City Walks and a Competition

At the Kayak Race

I keep strolling through town regularly if I do not have to work. Each of this walks offers me more insights into city life and I get to know  the surroundings better each time. As I realized meanwhile Arequipa is full of churches and monasteries. Finding them in almost any block of the old town makes the city appear like an South American Salzburg. Nowhere else I have seen such a concentration of religious buildings so far. Once I entered a quarter where these churches and monasteries interestingly alternated with dubious bars and drinking holes and so called restaurants with blackened shop windows towards the street. I do not really want to know what is going on behind them. Quite a frequent sight on the pavements over there where nuns and prostitutes. While it was quite obvious who are the nuns it took me a while to realize who are the prostitutes. They are just standing around amongst the public crowd adressing possible clients passing by with half whispered invitations to go with them. It was quite interesting to see this weird mixture but I also know that I will avoid this neighbourhood during nighttime and drink my beers somewhere else.

In sharp contrast to that just around the corner I found a maternity clinic with uncountable centres of prenatal diagnosis as well as  shops of baby clothes and nappies opposite the road. Here the crowd on the street were mainly pregnant women, happily smiling new grandparents with bouquets in their arms and young jubilant couples with new born babies on their arms. Almost all of the babies for any reason had pink woollen hats on their heads. Maybe they were given to them by the clinic. Anyway this road may be Arequipas happiest place where indeed everybody walking around seems to be smiling, laughing and celebrating.

Behind that quarter I discovered a big commercial district spanning over a couple of city blocks. Most of them entirely have been markets with small shops along even smaller hallways selling everything from computers over shoes to toys. As I realized each block or part of it had its own purpose. Half a block you could only find shoe shops, then a couple of hallways had only aquarium and fish to sell while in the rest of the block you just found sexy underwear. The next block was full with computer shops, followed by a part where just costumes and baby clothes had been sold and so on. It was quite strange to walk through this corridors where a continuous stimulus satiation prevailed that just was changing all few meters. Out on the streets sweets and different fast food was sold by uncountable stalls leaving the air with an incredible mixture of smells. I have seen quite some markets in various countries but can´t remeber any being so extensive like this one here.

Yesterday finally a Kayak competiton took place on Chili River. Arequipa is one of the few places in the world where such an event can take place on a natural river right in the centre of a town of this size which makes it predestined to hold it here. The race was organized by the company I am working for. I surely did not participate because I do not kayak but nevertheless helped in the organisation, made safety for the sportsmen and took pictures. The event was quite a success, all participants enjoyed it and about 500 spectators watched the activity from the shores and the two bridges the kayak slalom took place in between. At the end all were happy and we celebrated the success first with a BBQ in the deposit and then with a night out in town. This was a good fun and took until early morning. So today I am happy but quite tired and for sure will go to bed soon to rejuvenate for the work of the next days.