Life in Ollanta

  Ollantaytambo, Sacred Valley, Peru
Saturday, June 28, 2008

So the last couple weeks of June were filled with lots of fun around Ollantaytambo.  My days were pretty occupied with miscellaneous half day hikes, Spanish lessons, volunteer work, hanging out with my family & doing whatever else fun came up in Ollanta. 

I went on a half day hike with a couple of the other volunteers to the salt mines nearby in Maras.  As I understand it (there was no official ´guide´ or anyone actually around when we went), the salt mines have been in use since Inca times and are currently in operation under a community cooperative-type structure.

salt mines

There are thousands of pools on the terraced mountain-side that are set up to harvest the salt from the salty mountain water source.  The pools are flooded and as the water evaporates, the salt is harvested.  It was a really striking visual; fascinating and creepy at the same time, particularly because it was completely isolated the afternoon that we went, with no one either working the mines nor any other spectators such as ourselves.

mmmmm salt

Spending time with my family continued to be enjoyable - & certainly more so as my Spanish improved a little bit.  I asked Ana Maria to teach me how to cook something one day, so we spent a morning making stuffed peppers.

the cuy in my kitchen

Hanging out in the kitchen all morning allowed me to snap some pictures of the cuy living large in the kitchen without feeling rude (please note, these are not the pictures of the cuy waiting too be cooked that are also a part of this entry, that was a different day).  Like a lot of good family dishes, it was a lot of work -- but delicious!  

grinding peanuts on cooking day with Ana Maria

our puppy & Abraghn -2 cuties!

Living with a family, I obviously have been blessed to experience cultural rituals that I would not otherwise get exposed to.  One cherished cooking/fiesta food ritual in the highlands that you can´t get in a restaurant is Pachamanca -- or cooking in an earth oven.  I have experienced the fruits of the oven -- which include seasoned cuy, chicken, pork, lamb, potatoes, lima beans & more seasoning --  twice now at two different fiestas.  It is quite an involved process.  To start, they dig a big hole & start a fire in it.  Once the fire gets going nice & strong, they start adding stones to the fire so they can get nice and hot.  After the fire burns for maybe 30-45 minutes, they put the fire out, pull some of the hot rocks off to the side & get the cooking going.  Layers of potatoes, meat, beans are placed in the óven´with hot rocks mixed in all around presumably to get everything nice & hot & cooked (undercooked meat in Peru = not bueno).  They cover it with various layers of freshly cut grass/greens, paper and plastic bags & then lots of dirt.  You would never know that it is an óven´unless you had seen it be assembled (of course, someone is always near it so some unsuspecting person does not step in your food).  After about 45 minutes, the meal is ready!  And it is really flavorful!  The cuy, while not yet on my top foods list, I have had from Pachamanca was much better than that I had in the Cusco restaurant.

Cuy! cooking Pachamanca (earth oven) on fiesta day

One of the days that my family prepared a Pachamanca was for Ollanta Rami. 

eating Pachamanca at the Ollanta fiesta

Ollanta Rami is Ollanta´s fiesta day that falls very close to the June 21 solstice, which is obviously the winter solstice here.  The solstice and celebrations dedicated to the following and appreciation of the sun appear to have a strong tie to Incan traditions and continue to be a big focus.  Intyi Rami, which happens in Cusco (the historic capital of the Incan Empire), is a huge fiesta and cultural celebration each year on June 24.  A big focus is the reenactment and dramatization presented in Cusco at the ruins of Sacsaywaman just above the city. 

Peruvian side note: I did go to Cusco for Intyi Rami.  Because you never can quite tell what time things happen in Peru since we are on South American pace of life (some say the show starts at 11, some say 1, some say 2...who knows), we got up early to get to the ruins for the show.  After waiting for about 5 hours, the show was getting started.  Unfortunately, some form of food poisoning from something I had the night before (una hamburgesa) was also in full swing.   I decided to head home when the internal dialogue I was having was to figure out how I would be able to vomit in this crowded hillside of Peruvians & tourists (think 4th of July on National Mall) without getting the vomit on anyone; yep, that is when it is time to go.  (Please note, I did have a strategy to use my hat to protect my neighbors.)  So while I made the effort, I did not get to see any of Intyi Rami, but I did get to participate in the Peruvian pastime of unhappy stomach.  On a more positive note, before the food poisoning, the night of the 23rd there was a huge parade & my language school got to participate.  So after seeing all of those parades all of the time in Cusco, we actually got to participate in one!

Ollanta Raymi - dramatization in the ruins

Back to Ollanta Rami, Ollanta´s celebration was similarly a huge fiesta (or at least huge for a town of about 8,000 people) and similarly included a dramatization of the forbidden love story of the daughter of the Incan chief Ollanta.  It was really fantastic to hundreds of youth filling all the terraces of the ruins dancing & acting out the story.

me dancing at Ollanta Raymi

Despite being presented in Quechua, I was able to follow along -- forbidden love is a pretty universal theme after all.  Besides the great theatre at the ruins, Ollanta Rami included what all great town fiestas do --- that is street food, beer gardens with TVs to watch sports & a street dance.  Sort of like the love story --- town fiesta is similarly a pretty universal theme!

dancing at the Ollanta Fiesta