Pacha Mama 101

Of course, I´m behind in posting. I´ve been a little bit busy but wanted to take a moment to fill in the blanks before I forget all the unique people and intricacies that I have come across over the last few days.

On Wed. we left Cusco to explore the Sacred Valley. When I say explore, please don´t take that too seriously. Because we´re on a tour our ¨exploration¨ tended to be quite scheduled and organized. It was really amazing none-the-less. The views from the road alone were breathtaking. Everywhere you look there are beautiful mountain scenes, fields that look like patchwork, golden terraces built into the mountainsides and snow capped mountains in the distance. Occasionally we stopped to take pictures and soak in the scenery. At these stopping points/look-outs, there were always local people there with their children all dressed up in costume and their llamas waiting for the gringos to take their picture for a few soles.

Along the way we stopped at a GAP project supporting the local people (women weave all day while the men are employed as porters for the trail), the Incan ruins of Pisac (saw an Incan cemetary where mummies were laid to rest along with their mummified puppy friends in little holes carved out of a cliff), a pottery shop (horribly touristy with pottery that looked like it was made by kindergarteners), and a local chicha establishment (chicha is fermented corn beer that the locals drink in giant glasses while discussing current events each evening. The smell alone is hard to stomach). The highlight of the day was arriving in Ollantaytambo where we took in more impressive ruins and the fascinating little pueblo.

Ollantaytambo is a small town in the mountains; a portion of which is built on original Incan foundations. Even though it is a gathering place for travelers hitting the Inca Trail, if you head away from the main square you can see a glimpse of what life is like for the local people. I was lucky enough to spend some time doing this and interacting with a few of the local people not entrenched in the tourist business. This is the first place I´ve ever traveled that I really get the feeling that the way of life here is truly lost in time. So many of the indiginous people here really do things they way they´ve been done for hundreds of years despite the fact that they have tourists outside their door everyday. So much of Latin American culture is heavily influenced by Spanish conquest or US interests but here it seems that they are able to tune much of it out and continue their own way of life.

One of my favorite memories of this trip will be playing hopscotch in the square with the local girls. I couldn´t tell which they were laughing harder at....my Spanish or my hopscotch skills.