Agua caliente, porfavor!
Trip Start
Oct 08, 2007
1
98
110
Trip End
Dec 16, 2008
Cuzco,
Peru
Thursday, July 24, 2008
My host family greets me with a hug, a chocolate cake and mete de coca (coca tea). I love this place already. My room on the second floor has two walls of windows, like a corner office in New York, except the view is over the neighbors. There is a happy face sticker with marijuana shaped eyes on one of the windows and two sets of curtains are hanging on the sides - one of translucent chiffon and another of thick dark green fabric. There is a bed and a desk, and a set of open shelves. After eight months of solid travel, I'm finally at a place where I will stay for more than a week, or at least that's the plan. Excited, I arrange all my belongings on the shelves, but they still look empty and lonely. It is a bright day outside. I close the curtains and go to bed. I've been traveling for two nights and one day. I am tired and slightly breathless. My heart is pounding to make up for the oxygen deficient air. Cuzco is at an elevation of 3,300m.
In the afternoon I walk around Plaza de Armas - smack on the overly touristy center of town. It is pretty, although not as colorful as I imagined it to be. The churches and cathedrals surrounding the plaza are of that same earthy color as the mountains around town. I walk through the Plaza, taking mental note of what would be the best time to come and take my postcard perfect pictures. That is, of course, if I manage to charge my camera. The greatest tragedy of the intrepid traveler has hit me - I'm left without a camera. In the foothills of Machu Picchu, the numero uno tourist attraction in South America, I am left without a camera.
I walk up the narrow streets northwest of the Plaza, occasionally taking a break to catch my breath. Considering my stellar lungs performance in Nepal and Tibet, I really didn't think I would have a problem with the altitude here. You never know with those things I guess. I hear a brass band music coming from behind the top of the street. In a few minutes I see the lead participants of a religious procession carrying a large statue of Virgin Merry. Men and women in dark suits march with religious flags. Behind them follow nuns in chocolate colored outfits, each carrying white flower in hand. Behind them, adolescent boys in white carry a heavy cross. Yet behind them is soaring a tree-meter tall statue of the Virgin, elaborately dressed in silk and adjourned with a crown. The brass band is at the very end. Someone is firing firecrackers, but I can't see who. What an incredible sight this is. I stop out of respect and observe the procession. I try to take it all in, as if I am observing a medieval painting. Then I look closer in the details and notice that the men in suits that are carrying the statue are struggling under the weight. Their faces are stern. I look at the others and realize that every face in the procession is serious, tense and carved with pure devotion. I feel overwhelmed. Never religious, never needing to worship, I can't cease to be fascinated by the devotion of others. It is incredible how this town can be both so touristy and so spiritual, all at the same street.
My landlady, who by the way is the sweetest person and a patisserie chef by trade, told me at lunch the other day that Cuzco is overrun by mystical tourists, because it is believed to be one of the seventh energy points in South America. The fist two are in Chile, the third is in Cuzco, then two in Ecuador, one in Colombia, and one in Venezuela. That's why Cuzco is called "The belly of the World". Interesting, but ....hang on a minute. Have I not heard that one before? Wasn't there a marvel that Bulgaria is one of the most important energy points on Earth? Wasn't that believed to be true just around the time both inflation and unemployment were well into the double digits? Why is it that when the economics fail, the land that is low on prosperity becomes high on energy? I have never heard anyone in the "first world" indulging in thoughts about living in a high energy spot. And Peru is poor. Everyone would tell you that - from the taxi driver to the teacher in the language school. The politicians are corrupt, the prices are high, the salaries are low and there is no change in sight... because that's how it's always been. Why are people so blind sighted? Why do they choose to believe they live in a special cosmic place, when there is no hot water in the taps? Is this attitude the result or the reason for the state of affairs?
At nigh temperature in Cuzco drops significantly. There is no heating at home. There is no heating anywhere really. Electricity is expensive and alpaca sweaters are cheap. So I'm sitting here on the belly on the World, freezing my ass off, contemplating if I should really be staying for two weeks. I should know better by now. There is no perfect place - if it's not the weather, it's the mosquitoes, if it's not the mosquitoes, it's the food, if it's not the food, it's the people, if it's not the people it's the weather... The problem of course extends beyond my frozen fingers. In my world, the cold always brings a sense of finality - the end of something. The end of my eight month long summer vacation for example. What a depressing thought.
***
WORLD CHANGE STARTS WITH EDUCATED CHILDREN! Give a girl the life long gift of education! Support my appeal 100 GIRLS BACK TO SCHOOL! Donate at: www.justgiving.com/100GirlsBackToSchool
Hugs & Kisses, Vik
