Alive and well in Cusco again :)

Buenos Dias a todos!

I’m so sorry I have not written anything for over a week!   I was at home sick last Monday through Wednesday.  I made the mistake of eating at the market on Sunday and I had a salad… obviously a poor choice so early in my travels.  I had an antibiotic from my Dr. at home that I took so that helped immensely.  Haydee was also very mother-like and made me chicken broth soup with rice for several days and made sure I drank plenty of coca tea.  I was so thankful to be sick in a home with a mother to take care of me instead of alone in a hostel room with no food!  I slept a lot, and recovered quickly.

Tuesday and Wednesday last week were nice quiet days in the city.  There were strikes on all of the transportation lines: buses, cars, taxis, and trains.  There is an issue with a neighboring district, Arequipa, and a small town in between that region and Cusco.  Apparently this small town has access to water that Arequipa wants.  They want to divert all of that water via hydroelectric plant into their district.  Cusco does not agree with this and is trying to protect the rights of the small town and their access to that water.  I don’t really understand what that has to do with the transportation systems, but hey, there was a strike for two days and the streets were remarkably different and I thought it was interesting.  Nobody went to work or school, so everyone was out and about, walking around, playing and having a good time.  In the main plaza, of course, there were many protests and lots of police but nothing was violent or crazy, it was just a lot of really loud people with strong opinions.  And honestly, every city needs a few good groups of highly opinionated people to keep things changing for the better.

Thursday of last week was Student’s Day, so many school were having field trips or parties or other special activities to celebrate.  At Yanapay, Yuri decided to have an outing for the volunteers.  We were going to take a daylong trip around the district of Cusco to see a few neighboring towns and interesting sites.  Originally, a bunch of us were going to ride on scooters and a few others would take a van.  However, we decided it was too cold and would be cheaper to all ride in a van.  Yuri still took his scooter, but he ended up riding in the truck after it got dark.

 

Left to right: Ellen, Diana (front), Maren, and Sam

 

The two adorable blonde girls were visiting Cusco with their mom and dad.  The whole family is from Utah but they are living in Costa Rica for a year, just for fun!  Emily is in front, Marie in the back, and a volunteer from Hungary behind them.  You can see Yuri on his scooter through the window.

 

Me and Emily.  She is such a doll.  And she has her own blog!  www.emilyinthejungle.com 

The first stop we made that day was to a small town called Tipón, which used to be an agricultural city.  It is a beautiful site of terraces and aqueducts high up in the mountains with a few ruins of houses and buildings.  It is sad, though, because it was still used for farming as recently as the 1980’s.  The government decided to shut it down temporarily and use the money it took to keep it running to develop more around the Sacred Valley (i.e. Machu Picchu).  Obviously, they were never able to farm on the land again and now it is just another tourist site to visit.  It was very beautiful, and quite tranquil, but it would have been fantastic to see it used the way it was meant to.

Next we went up to a church, Señor de Huanca, which had very nice views of the valley below.  The church itself was rather unremarkable, but it was interesting to see how many local Peruvians came to visit the church, leave offerings in miniature stones houses, and bless their cars with Sprite (not kidding!).  They would decorate the cars as well in order to have a safe year of driving.

 

Beautiful view of the valley below the church.

 

This was an interesting find in the church: to me it looked like Jesus was drowning in the money, being suffocated by commercialism in a way.  I think it is really meant to be offerings (it is fake money) but still it really took me by surprise.

 

And here is a car that has been decorated and blessed with Sprite.

 

A rock house that once had offerings and candles burning.

 

Mmm delicious guinea pig!  (Not really, I didn't try it but I had to pretend!)

After leaving the church we drove to Pisac to stop for lunch.  We were all very hungry.  Yuri knew of a very old place with delicious food.  It was very cute, and certainly tasted great!  Plus there were some adorable little birds just hanging out in the garden with us while we ate, serenading us pleasantly.

 

Our last stop of the day was definitely my favorite.  It is called Moray, and it was an Inca "experimental agriculture site."  Or something like that.  It was basically used to determine which types of crops grew best at which altitudes and under what circumstances.  I don't know how they did it, but it was very interesting to see.  The sun was just starting to set as well and the landscape around us was gorgeous.  

 

The concentric circles were fascinating to see from above.  A few of us wanted to go all the way down though and see how it felt being at the bottom.

 

Me and the beautiful mountains, just before we descended into the ruins.

 

Maren, Ellen and Diana.

 

The steps were tricky!  They were just bigger rocks sticking out from the side of the wall, spaced rather far apart and down quite a ways.

 

For some reason, the minute I stepped down into the very bottom level I had the strangest urge to go and lie down in the middle of the circle.  I can't tell you how suddenly that feeling came upon me and I didn't stop to think for a second.  I ran to the middle, dropped all my stuff, and said to the others, "I know this sounds strange but I just have to lie down in the middle here."  OH  MY GOODNESS am I thankful that I did.  I cannot describe the peace that came over me as soon as I lay down.  The sky was a clear, beautiful blue, and I could just see the tops of the mountains in a circle surrounding me.  I felt like I was in the center of the universe.  It was so relaxing, rejuvenating, and peaceful.  I quickly said to the others, "You have to try this, it's amazing!"  Diana joined me, then Ellen after hearing Diana exclaim her amazement.  Then Maren and Sam joined, and Brandon and Alexandros and maybe a few others.  I didn't sit up for at least thirty minutes I think, and I could have stayed there much longer.  As we all lay there our energy increase and we talked freely of life and the universe and just laughed and laughed.  It was such a wonderful experience and I will never forget it. 

The four that originally made the circle: clockwise from left, Diana, Me, Maren and Ellen.

It turns out that a few days later Diana was talking to someone who told her that it was an ancient practice and remedy to lay in the center of the circles of Moray to re-energize the spirit and calm the soul.  I am so glad that whatever energy was in the circle that night decided to call to me and invite me to join in and experience that tradition.

I will write more tonight or tomorrow!  I still have to write about my weekend journey to Choquequirao.  Thanks for reading and keeping in touch with me :)

Love, love, love,

Maia Jo