Nos reunimos en Cuzco

In a rickety old bus, we entered Peru, with what felt like a thousand other tourists from Copacabana, Bolivia. We'd spent a few days on the spectacular salt flats (sorry, never got a chance to write about those, probably will post pics on FB), in the spectacular Sur Yungas where coca grows climbing on steep terraces and fills warehouses in bags all the way to the ceiling, the smell drifting out and encircling you as you walk by. After resting in a cush hostel in La Paz, cuddling up with a DVD player in our room and the nicest kitchen we've used since the farm, we headed to the border town of Copacabana, which straddles Lake Titicaca, famous for being 'the highest navigable lake in the world', though evidently this is disputed.

From Copacabana, we visited Isla del Sol, a spectacular island on the lake, and in Aymara culture, it is considered to be the birth of all life. You deserve to see photos of this too, the high open altiplano, the crops in pre-Incan terraces, the deep blue of the water. You'll have to wait as I've had a few hard drive issues (got a virus, lost a whole bunch of data, and am only giving supreme thanks that my photos from the trip were not in the mega-file that got erased), and it was hard to take care of them in Bolivia; just finally catching up on photo/memory card transfers.

Now we are in the capital of Inca territory, in the spectacular city of Cuzco, where many buildings rest upon ancient stone walls, where there are as many gringos as Peruanos, and the architecture is spectacular. Street vendors are more aggressive, approaching everyone with their artesanal goods. A woman sat next to me as I was journaling, trying to sell me a belt, weaving a new one to convince me. With the floods in Macchu Picchu and Aguas Calientes, residents here have suffered from the lack of tourism and therefore greater difficulty in attaining income. From what I heard much of the international media focused upon the plight of the tourists here, but the people have been much affected: some bridges have been rebuilt only recently, the competition in restaurants and accomodations was fierce, and the Peruvian government evidently did not handle the situation very well.

We've had the good fortune to reunite with friends and family here. Jameson's padre y hermano are here for a few days, and we've been having a great time catching up and sharing about our lives, over a few Pisco Sours, cuy (guinea pig), and alpaca. However, we passed on trying the goat's head (available in the market, as a whole head, or they will cut it in half for you). To give the Honeycutt clan a bit of bonding time during the days, Natalie enrolled in language school for a week and is enjoying improving her Spanish, thrilled at the increase in overall comprehension. Friends from Evergreen are also here, and we've been enjoying our time with them as well.

We watched a film called 'Mi Chacra' last night. It was about a campesino man, who also works as a porter on the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu. He had worked on the farm all his life; he tried to go to school but had to leave when he was 16 when his father got quite ill, and soon passed away. At this point he stayed with his family and assumed the work on the land. This is hard work: all by hand, without machinery, at high altitude. Upon raising his own son, he went in search for work so that he could try to provide more so that his son could obtain an education. Since he could not read or speak well, his options were limited. His work on the Inca Trail as a porter showed some pretty powerful differences between the native people and the tourists. The tourists carried light, half-full day packs and cameras while the porters' backpacks extended a couple of feet above their heads; he wore campesino sandals over the rough landscape; they served coffee and tea 'in tents'... at one point in the narrative he said something to the effect of, 'I am not like these people, they are educated, I have only my strength...' It was pretty powerful, especially as the end scenes depicting the harvest showed the donkeys with heavy loads, contrasting these animals as load-bearers with the workers on the trail. It was in Quechua, with Spanish subtitles, and produced by an American. The peruanos had some interesting comments afterwards, too.

We're not sure how long we'll be here, or where we are going next. Maybe Chachapoyas. If I get my photo thing figured out maybe I'll catch y'all up on some Bolivian adventures.