Friday, October 16, 2009

First, Cusco.....

I dont really know how to begin to descibe this totally amazing little town and its surrounding areas...  but, as you know by now, I am going to give it a darn good try :)  I am just going to ramble as things come to mind - there are so many different aspects to this place and I really wish we had more place here.  There are the huge and very ornate churches, or Missions, as they are called, bells hang from many little turrets all over town, crosses stand erect on many buildings, old and new and also on many houses is a little statue thingymabob consisting of two bulls, a ladder and a cross.  this is all to do with the strength of the bull, the hope to climb to higher success, the ladder, and their religeon which is very often a mix of the Catholic and Inca religeons.  Many of the roads are built way back when the old buildings were built - sometimes in the early 1800's.  They are made from the stones of the mountains and are still in excellent shape - this is something everyone should do - no road repairs or potholes......sounds good to me.  These roads are mostly incredibly narrow - no, no, narrower than that even and have doors every few feet along the way.  Some lead to banks, shops, eateries, or simply lead way back to someones house.  The color is incredible and vibrant and the noise is constant - not too bad a noise at all - I quite like it...... horns honking, people talking louder than the others so that they can be heard, whistles being blown by frantic traffic cops with no chance at all of keeping any order.
 
Tonight on the way home, a cop told a car to stop and it did not, so he ran after it and made it stop by blowing that poor little whistle into another dimension!  Then he looked back at the mess he had just left, shrugged and waved his hands around in about 4 different ways indicating that we should all just keep on sorting out the traffic mess ourselves.  Even the driver of our van just burst out laughing!  Earlier we got into the most incredible traffic jam imaginable........  it was a small area that we were headed out of and other vehicles were coming in - all mixed in with huge tour busses, tiny three wheel taxis, ordinary cars and tour vans.... somehow, everyone managed to get totally locked up and even the locals stopped trying to sell their wares and just stood laughing along with all the rest of us.  After about 10 minutes, one car, somewhere where we could not see, moved and the puzzle started unlocking.
 
The houses are mostly adobe style houses, but none seem to be finished, all have numerous dogs hanging around them, at least two pigs, a donkey, llama and chickens and the ever present cow or bull too.  The houses are so often built with a comon wall and on the hills they are literally staggered up, seeming to be one on top of each other with a set of impossibly steep steps all the way to the top every now and again.  Washing hangs in the back yards and from some unfinished roof tops, creating a wonderful splash of color all over the place.   Outside many of these places are bicycles with a big enough basket to hold a complete fruit stall.....
 
As we were driven through the countryside, outside Cusco, we noticed that all the cows and bulls are tied up and have someone watching them.  Mostly these are the native women in their beautifully colored outfits.. the man of the house is out working so she takes care of the cows and that means sitting outside with them for hours while they graze. 
 
I realized tonight what it was about this place that I really liked..... in many ways the kids have the free style of upbringing that I had.  In no way did we grow up in the poverty of this area, but I am talking about the playing outside, the school uniforms, the common sense, the playing ball in the street, the cars honking their horns to get you out of the way as they come screaming down the road.  The ability to walk alone down the road - even after dark!  Many children, small ones, still walk around alone after dark without a problem, or so it seems.  I realize that it always looks better from the outside, but this freedom to be a kid is everywhere here!  Along with this comes the obvious chores so many of these kids are doing too - its all part of life as a family, a necessity in order to survive in these harsh conditions.
 
The markets we went to, both in Quito, Ecuador as well as the one yesterday, were not just markets for the tourists at all.  They were filled with things that are used every day by the locals, the colors as vibrant as those sold to the tourists and many very un-touristy things everywhere.  It was really lovely spending time away from the organized tourist places and tomorrow we are going to wander around town a bit more and explore some more of those fascinating little allieways all over the place.
 
This town has grabbed my attention in many ways..... it calls for a good long time to wander around, get to know the locals and a good black and white camera!  Its a town that has such lousy beer that you have to have two, just to make sure that it really is that bad.  It has water that is labelled 'sin gas' and 'con gas' and when I asked what the difference was, I was told that the one was on one side of the fridge and the other type on the other side. Ok then.  The bread is simply delicious and the fruit unbeatable - no guavas here though.  There are ''bicycle fruit stores" all along the roads in town and everywhere, where you can buy all sorts of fresh and simply delicious fruits and other things.  And on almost every corner is a magazine shop too that also carries sweets, chips and other stuff that we still have not figured out what it is.  It is a place that no matter where you look, there is almost too much to see to be able to take it all in at one look.  It's a place that has such an incredible mix of old and new, rich and abject poverty, color and adobe drab......and I love the adobe style. 
 
Oh, the doors of this place... and the balconies - everywhere!  The doors are sometimes huge, but with only a part of it actually opening, so it looks a bit like stepping into a storybook when you duck into one of these 'small doors'.  The balconies and odd and old windows have really captured my attention too.  The balconies are on almost every upstairs window or door and so often very ornate, all carved from wood and even on the poorest looking houses.  They just caught my eye. The window frames have also got so much character..  a cross of wood often squifly nailed over them to act as safety bars and all different from each other.  Can you tell that I like this place?
 
Most of the fields are plowed by two oxen and a hoe between them - or simply done by hand.  The hills are just too much at an angle to even allow for a tractor and even if they were flat, I dont think that most of these places could afford a tractor at all.  The most seen crops here are potatoes and maize.  There are a surprising number of different types of potatoes and we tasted abotu 7 of them yesterday at lunch.
 
Al Paca's and llama's are everywhere - some of them in back yards and others in areas where we as tourists can walk through, see and touch them and see the women actually weaving some of the works of art that we buy so casually at the markets.  Each weaver designs her own work and then puts it all together with natural dyes..... and it way outshines the synthetic stuff that is everywhere.  I fell in love with every piece of work I saw and would easily have taken them all home with us.. but we made some careful choices of old and new stuff and have a goodly selection.
 
The local people are very different from the tribal people..... well, they are not really tribal, just Inca, but also not pure Inca anymore apparently..  The local people are very much modernized and go about life in ways that are more familiar to us all.  The Incas dress in traditional clothing, look very austere and if you photograph them they will quickly hold out their hand and demand payment.  I took a photo of a very narrow alley way yesterday and only afterwards realized that there was a lady waaaaay at the other end - she was huffing and puffing her way to us with outstretched hand.  Their kids are totally beautiful and also dressed in the amazing fabric - especially the little girls - it pulls in a lot more money and even more when they carry tiny llamas with them to really tug at tourist heartstrings..the huge dark eyes of the kids hold so much laughter and mischief.. I would love to spend some time with them and a camera and a project.......
 
Cusco has become one of my favorite towns, despite the altitude, and I hope to come back here one day sometime.
 
Now, let me move on to Macchu Picchu and today........ in another email.
 
love and light
Annie
 

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