Newsletter: Peru Part II, Thu, 8 Jul 1999
Velomad
After leaving Cuenca, where our last update came from, we visited
Vilcabamba - a wonderful ride (40km downhill!) along a ridge into the
valley. Vilcabamba itself wasn't much but the surrounding area was
gorgeous & we found accommodation in a tree house by the river about 4
km out of town.
Normally such accommodation would be outside our budget but because of
the devaluation of the Sucre (6400 sucres per US dollar when we entered
but when we left 3 months later it was 15000 per dollar!), it was
incredibly cheap as they hadn't raised their prices in line with the
dropping sucre. They were the only people who hadn't - even the price
of an egg had doubled. When I questioned the price I was told that the
dollar had risen. What need exactly does a chicken have for dollars?
was my question.
They also had the best shower we had had in months -certainly the best
in Equador & maybe the best in South America so far. It was a real gas
hot water heater. Not the normal electric ones with the electric shock
wires hanging out waiting to get you. For those not in the know, these
showers are a special delight as you have to turn the tap on so low,
you only get the smallest trickle of hot water out of them & normally
it's not worth the effort. To get a decent trickle means adding lots of
cold water hereby defeating the purpose totally. We were warned that in
Equador that when the hotels claim to have hot water they are normally
exaggerating. When questioned as to whether the water is hot, they will
nod their heads enthusiastically & claim it is hot enough to burn. What
they really mean by "burn" is an ice burn!
Then, deciding we didn't want to return on the same route (bad luck to
travel the same road twice right? (especially when the return is
uphill!)), we set off on a dirt road for El Tambo. After 30 km of a
beautiful but hellish road (aren't they always?) we stopped at a house
to eat some lunch. The women enquired as to what we were doing & when
we replied that we were heading for El Tambo, they shook their heads &
told us it was impassable. This cleared up what the Tractor driver 2km
down the road had meant when he waved dramatically as we edged through
a pile of mud past him. It also explained why we hadn't seen a single
vehicle since departing Vilcabamba. The men returned from their work &
confirmed what the women had said. The only option was to return back -
it was only one road - but we couldn't bear the thought of struggling
back. So we continued on & sure enough their warnings were correct.
There had been a huge landslide & it actually took us 15 minutes of
scrambling around on dirt to locate where the other side of the road
was. But that's the advantage of bikes - pushing & shoving the bikes
one by one we managed to get them across & continue on the road which
returned to its normal muddy, jolting, bone-rattling norm.
But it was all made up by the road to Macara which was mostly paved
(bar about 30km of the usual mud) but as we had been told it would be
closer to 90km we were delighted. But we made a mistake on entering
Macara. Someone we were chatting to said he was visiting his brother &
we could probably camp the night in his garden. His brother agreed &
was very nice but as the night entered turned into a religious fanatic.
No offence to all our devote friends but this guy wouldn't give us a
moments peace & spent hours preaching to us, nearly having a fit when
ever we said anything normal like we met in a disco (Yep music was
EVIL), Richard was a wine sommelier (ALCOHOL!!!!!!).We tried
retaliating with things like Jesus turned water into wine & what about
all the religious hymns etc but to no avail. His brother eventually
admitted he'd done it as a joke on us when we snuck around the back
for a fag, feeling like naughty school kids!
------
A few weeks later:
We're in Lima at the mo. Nice to be in a big city again but already
missing the mountains. We've been Peru for 6 weeks now - wow it goes
fast. It's weird as we can't remember what our impressions of Peru were
before coming here. Whilst in Equador we thought about it, but it was
difficult to get a real picture as our expectations were so coloured by
the other Latin American countries we'd visited. We remember how
different Mexico was from our expectations - that's not it - more that
it had so much more diversity than we had envisaged. But after
travelling in Latin American countries for 1 & a half years it's
difficult to recall what we expected Peru to be like before we left
England. Probably the biggest surprise was the extent of its deserts.
We entered Peru via the Macara / La Tina border. Immediately we were
harassed by calls of "Mister" -certainly makes a change from "Gringo"
but just as unpleasant. On spying a bike shop with MISTER signs all
over it I asked if that was the reason everyone called us "Mister",
hoping that maybe this was their version of ciclista. But I just
received a sullen "No that's what we call you people here". Richard
countered acted for a while with "Monsieur" & "Sir" but to no avail.
The 1st hamlet we stopped in was Suyo - a very friendly place where
even the dogs didn't bother to lift their heads as we passed. They
continued to doze on the chair or next to the cat & chicken as the case
was! After our ordeals with the dogs of Equador this was a pleasant
surprise. To be honest we've had very few cases of dogs chasing us
since reaching Peru - a definite plus for the country!
We went to a great festival - Qoyllur Riti (yes there are various
spelling before everyone replies!) The festival is set in the ice
ringed Sinakara Valley which is pretty uninhabited - except by the
alpacas! We caught a Kombi there at about 10 at night arriving well
shook up about 3 in the morning, gasping most of the way as the Kombi
was packed full of the local Indians. (It always amazes me how even
when we haven't showered for 5 days & sweat all day while cycling
&are totally rank & these people always smell worse than us!) We were
worried as we'd been told the festival finished that morning but we
were there for the final showdown. After a couple of hours climbing up
to the glacier we found ourselves surrounded by stalls selling trinkets
- many people grasping fake$100 notes, toy trucks (lorries in
English!), little toy shops & houses. They believe that if they buy
these toys they'll receive the real thing within the year. (though I
read somewhere you had to attend for 3years running for this to come
true). At one point a man approached Richard & I & greeted us as
Consuls from Europe. We explained that no, we were mere tourists -
nothing to with the Embassy. But he insisted & asked us to give him a
visa entering our respective countries. We started writing in the toy
passports he had, keeping an eye on our bags. To be honest we thought
it was some kind of scam to distract us & then pick pocket us or
something. But then more people saw what was happening & started
thrusting similar passports at us. We then realised that this was all
part of the wish factor, like they bought toyshops hoping to get the
real thing - they all wanted visas to Europe (and the States though we
refused to complete those!)& getting us to sign in the passport was the
closest thing they could get to the real thing!
In a swirl of smoke & music, 100´s of Naciones came charging down from
the glacier (pilgrimage groups with a ritual leader, dancers & the non
dancing tourage), each with their own icon of Señor de Qoyllur Rit´i
to be blessed - the majority either Qollas (Aymaras) or Chunchos
(ancestors of the Quechua of the Cuscoregion.) The customs were
fantastic & they all looked like they were having great fun. Each
nation had a few Ukuku dancers in their woollen masks & shaggy coats.
The Ukuku represents the Andean bear & the dancers dance ritual combats
whipping each others legs. One beckoned at me o take my hat off - not
realizing that this was a sign of disrespect I refused - was he crazy-
it was freezing! I thought I was being singled out as a tourist (of
which there were surprisingly few) but then realized that they would
quite happily knock the hats off the locals too so as the sun was out
by this stage & acquiesced. These "bears" had so much life- if was
difficult to believe that as the full moon had risen the previous night
they had set off on an all night march up to the glacier & across the
mountains. The Ukuku is considered a threshold being, creature of dawn
& dusk whose habitat is the precarious edge between the 2 worlds (real
& fantasy), half human, half savage (a product of a woman & bear) & is
a sort of policeman, clown & trickster all rolled into one!
The best thing was that no one seemed to be drinking (as many of our
friends already know it's sometimes difficult to find non drunken
natives on festival days.) & for a change these people were proud
&happily cheered us taking photos - quite a change as these people
rarely want photos taken & if they do they want money for it. A woman
came up & insisted I try her hat on - and no she wasn't trying to
sell it to me - it was just for fun. To be honest this was a vast
contrast to a festival we went to in Bolivia where everyone was
completely plastered & it was very much little groups of Indians, other
Bolivians & the foreigners.
Okay that's all for our latest update.
Ciao for Now
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Stani & Richard