Where Are Steven and Laurie?
Peru, 17 November 2008 - 17 March 2009
Steven and Laurie in Peru, 2007
Cusco, Peru, February 2009
2 March 2009
Afton, Virginia, USADear family and friends,
Everyone is packed up and ready to start home. Ron flies out of Sao Paulo tomorrow (Tuesday 3 March), arriving in DC late tomorrow evening, and Steven and Laurie fly from Cusco to Lima tomorrow, then home to Eugene, Oregon, on 5 March. I think all three of them will be glad to be home, and I am certainly looking forward to having Ron back.
Steven and Laurie report below on one final stove project they managed to squeeze in during their last week.
Love to all,
Ellen
Steven's message, with comments from Laurie:One Last Project
Cusco, Peru
28 February 2009Here I am at the internet café, Laurie is pre-packing staff. (From Laurie: YIKES, I cannot believe how much shit i have!!) It's Saturday. Last Monday I tried to go visit the Cusquena brewery. As I walked around it trying to find the visitors' entrance I realized it was HUGE. First I found the truck/loading entrance but the guards wouldn't let me in. Finally, after circling an area that was maybe 6-8 city blocks, I found the visitors' entrance. Unfortunately, they wanted me to make an appointment and told me that photos were strictly prohibited. So I gave up. Sorry, brewer friends! Please note that Cusquena is the only Peruvian beer that follows the German Reinheitsgebot, the beer purity law that allows only barley, hops, water, and other natural ingredients like fruit flavors, spices, whatever. They have cheaper beers here, but they are vile hangover-inducing swill. There is a "craft beer" that they brew here in Cusco, but I tried it last time we were here and was not impressed.
On Monday night our friend Carlos came over, he postponed his work trip to Australia because he ran into some woman from Singapore who is financing a big project in a village called T'astayoc up above Ollantaytambo. As we talked, it became clear that he needed some help with the stove for the kitchen they were building. When it is a whole kitchen they call it a comedore. The stove needed to be double size, so we couldn't just give him our plans. We decided to hire Tomas to come up there, and made plans to meet up early in the morning on Friday, come up to the village, and document the building process with photos (which we hadn't had the opportunity to do yet).
Tuesday I was taking laundry to our lavenderia and walking through the plaza when I encountered Laurie's old friend Oscar. I was delighted because he sells bootleg pisco which is exponentially better than the stuff you can buy in stores or bars. We had thought he was out of town in Ica, the part of Peru where the best pisco and wine is made. And we had run out of the bottle from last time. So I bought one full bottle to mail home and one half bottle for our last week. We went to his house and he poured it out for us out of a 5-gallon jug, into recycled bottles. (From Laurie: one would be amazed at how a room can turn into a real home here. people live so much simpler than we do.) I had some trepidation about mailing it because it was totally bootleg, no label on the bottle and no receipt. But the woman at the post office didn't care as long as I paid the staggering sum of $40 to mail a package slightly over 1 kilo. Needless to say, it will be saved for special occasions. I've never tasted anything like it.
On Wednesday we had to go out to C'orao to see if Tomas could do this crazy stove thing we had decided on with Carlos. When we arrived bright and early at the Puputi station they told us there were no buses to Pisac that day?!? What the hell?!?! We got into a taxi with 3 other people and quickly learned that there was a strike on. The background here is that for at least two months there has been a major controversy brewing because of a border dispute between two regions of the Cusco Department (departments are like our states, regions are the next biggest entity and then provinces which are like counties, kind of, except regions are in between). Apparently the border between Calca and La Convencion has been redrawn for some reason, putting two and a half provinces that had been in Calca into the jurisdiction of La Convencion, and resulting in 29 schools being transferred. The Calca folks (Calqueños) are PISSED about this, and we can understand why. Not only the schools and students, but all the jobs and state money that come with them are being transferred.
Our time in C'orao was uneventful, Tomas agreed to do the T'astayoc trip and we also stopped by to see MaFre who had just had her eye operated on with money donated by Laurie and my mom. She was going to lose her vision otherwise and she is too smart to have that happen. Plus, we really like her and her family. So there she was, all bandaged up. Her brothers, who are 6, 7, and 10, all kept poking into the room and it was obvious they cared a lot. The middle one, Lenny, had a Pikachu doll and played with it in a most adorable fashion. Her folks boiled us up some fresh corn and it was delicious. We discovered that the doctors had, um, neglected to give her pain meds so we grumbled our way across the street to the Centro De Salud to buy ibuprofen.
On our way back, oh shit, here come the Calqueños! They were marching on Cusco in a huge procession of buses and cars and combis, all flying the blue and white Calca flag. We later learned there were around 8,000 of them. We gave MaFre her meds and caught a taxi back to Cusco.
When we approached the city, the Calqueños' plan became apparent. They had blockaded the entire road up above Cusco heading to Pisac and Calca.The taxi had to stop, but we were able to walk through down the hill with no problem, it was a one-way blockade. We had to laugh as we saw several doomed tourist buses optimistically heading up the hill past us as we came down. Calca isn't a tourist town and is proud of it. Later that day the main body of Calqueños came down and marched on the central plaza and the Municipal Palace. They also blockaded intersections in the streets. The next day, we read the same typical foam-at-the-mouth bullshit that you would have read in US papers about a boisterous protest. OH MY GOD SOMEBODY BROKE A WINDOW!!! Violencia injustificable!!! For a protest of 8,000 it was really quite calm from our point of view. The next day, Thursday, they called off their "huelga indefinida" (strike with no ending point), the roads returned to normal, and the relevant authorities agreed to hold talks between the two regions. I really don't see how Calca can prevent this though, as Laurie noted it seemed more like a face-saving exercise to me - letting people know that Calca can't be pushed around without a fight.
The rest of the day was uneventful although I must note that Laurie made some really really good pork chops for dinner, which we had been planning for a week or more. (From Laurie: What fun to buy pork chops at San Pedro market! huge sides of pork hanging from hooks, pigs' heads prominently displayed. and women swinging cleavers like no tomorrow. i got two big thick chops!)
On Friday we were up at 5 AM. Carlos had told us about a street where there were cheap buses directly to Ollantaytambo, and he was right. Ten soles! We rode with three nuns and some other guys while the driver played a gruesome selection of the worst romantic ballads that the 80s had to offer. You know its bad when Foreigner's "Waiting For A Girl Like You" represents a distinct uptick in quality. In the plaza at Ollantaytambo we met Carlos' "chauffeur" (i.e. friend with car) and Tomas showed up a little later. The chofer tied the double-size chimney on top, and up we went. And up, and up. This was new scenery to me and it was stunning. Native forests, cataracts rushing down steep mountain slopes, up into the clouds we went. At the very peak, we arrived at T'astayoc, which tops out at 4200 meters. From there it is downhill to the jungles of Quillabamba.
We met up with Carlos' dad, Ismael, also his dad's 2nd wife and two daughters who we were previously unaware of (Laurie has known the whole other side of the family, mom and five sons, for years now). They had finished a wide variety of impressive projects including a big greenhouse (too cold for vegetables otherwise) and solar powered lighting. About 75 people live there, and there are 30 kids. The houses are made of STONES, with thatch roofs. (Comment from Laurie: these places are freezing cold at night! and as noted below they do not have the adobe we are accustomed to seeing everywhere else. the roofs are thatched with Paja.) I started taking pictures, and we will have them up on the Flickr site later tonight or tomorrow. Unfortunately, Laurie almost immediately became very sick with soroche (the Quechua word for altitude sickness). We hadn't thought 13,000 feet would be much different from 11,000 feet, but we were very wrong. Within half an hour she was vomiting with a splitting headache (soroche causes edema, actual swelling of the brain, and you can die from it further up than where we were). So I alternated between taking photos and massaging her head. (Comment from Laurie. soroche is horrible. i have been told your body puts off less important functions when there isn't enough O2 to the vital organs. and the stomach is apparently less vital! so hours later after eating one can vomit and have it appear completely undigested. so, yeah i thought about the wonders of that as i laid on the floor where Ismael sleeps wishing i could be part of the fun. but in truth it was a big hassle and a lot of jimmy-rigging as there wasn't enough adobe and the work space was full of others plastering. however as always Tomas came through smiling.) There were a bunch of other guys working on the comedore while Tomas built the stove, I'm pretty sure some of them weren't from there. For lunch we were served a delicious soup of quinoa and alpaca meat, plus strong black coffee with sugar.
Carlos had mentioned earlier that he would be up to get us around 3 in the afternoon, and Laurie was ready to go by 1:30. Tomas, however, needed more time to complete the stove because Carlos had drastically underestimated the amount of available adobe (we needed 40, they had 15 plus a bunch of broken pieces). As a result Tomas had to improvise and change the model to accommodate that. Ismael promised us that Carlos would be there to get us by 4 or 4:30. At 4:30, Tomas finished the stove and cleaned up. Laurie was still very sick. We walked up to the road to wait. (From Laurie: due to the walking, i started vomiting again, this time amazed that the quinoa was still intact!) We kept waiting. Once it hit 5 PM, the sun went behind the mountain and the rain kicked in. We had no gear at all for spending the night. We started trying to flag down cars and trucks, all of which refused to stop. If it had been a real emergency somebody could have died. Laurie vomited some more and was reduced to tears. Finally at 6 PM Carlos showed up with his friend and the car. Laurie is still pissed at him, he really didn't acknowledge that there was any breach of contract or problem. (From Laurie: I think he was playing soccer!) By the time we got back to Ollantaytambo it was pitch black and too late for Tomas' bus home. We took him to Cusco with us on an empty tourist bus, and put him up at our house.
This morning we went out to Mandorani to say goodbye. There was a little party with cuy, potatoes, and orange soda. We also said goodbye to Andres, MaFre was in Cusco so we assume she is recovering just fine.
Laurie has just informed me that we have run out of room to pack stuff and are going to have to start triage. (Comment from Laurie: I bought things today from three of my godchildren's families to sell for them at home. hence, one problem. the other? those wonderful rubber boots of ours. I think we should just leave them here with the stuff we are storing at Rosanna's. we'll sure need them! and otherwise i am just a hoarder, i guess.) We have leftover soup for dinner tonight, and if we are really lucky the crepe place will be open and we can have dessert crepes. It is like winter at the beach here, the absolute bottom point of tourism. The tour and restaurant hawkers sometimes walk a block to try and catch us. They are invariably disappointed. Fortunately Los Perros reopened after being closed for most of the month, so we plan on having a last meal there on Monday night before we head to Lima.
And a final word from Laurie on 1 March:well good god, we are packed. a horrendous nightmare thanks to my buying at the last minute weavings from three of the families of my god children. i located a scale that we could weigh the most likely culprit suitcase of being overweight, ie., mine. so we flew through the house packing stuff we intend on storing with a friend here after getting everything else rammed into suitcases and backpacks. much is up for donation as well at a party we are having tomorrow night to say good bye to a few friends. i am hoping all things end up with homes and if not they will go out on the street to someone who likely needs them more than i. our last chore is to get the stuff we are storing to our friend rosanna, and get my 90$ owed to me by our landlord which is annoyingly like pulling teeth. always "manaña, manaña..." it is sadly our experience of trying to get back money owed to us from folks here.
so we leave tuesday for lima and will spend the afternoon with friends of mine from Trujillo who will meet us for lunch. our flight out of peru is 1:40 AM on the 5th. aargh. we plan on taking a little something to make us sleepy so to survive the following day that will take us from LA to Seattle and then back down to arriving in Eugene at 5:30 PM. see y'all soon!
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Last updated: 11 April 2009
