Just for the next few weeks, I have put a file on my World web site (which has a limit of 100 meg, which I'm nearly at). The file is a (very amateurish!) movie I've made that combines video and music that are both directly "of" a very special place: El Condor Pasa (The Condor Pass), a small recreational park about a 90 minute drive on an incredibly dusty but even more incredibly scenic dirt road along Colca Canyon, through two tunnels, from Chibay. Elevation of the park is 13,000 feet.
At the park, the elevation of the river in the canyon is about 10,000 feet. The tops of the surrounding peaks are nearly 20,000 feet. Thus the canyon is nearly two miles deep. Colca Canyon persists with such dimensions for over 50 miles - the world's deepest, and one of its longest, canyons. I have seen Colorado's "Grand" Canyon, and can say with authority that Peru's Colca Canyon makes it look like some logger dragged his axe for a little while.
The video is of the largest-winged birds in the world: Andean Condors - wingspread up to 10 feet - soaring at the Pass.
Peru is like Equador in that even in tourist gathering spots, there are relatively few signs, fences, or other devices to keep careless people from getting hurt or killed. I perched on a rock, in a place from which a fall would definitely have been fatal, to get the video. Panning to follow Condors flying overhead, while perched on said rock, in the wind, was a bit shaky... but I got 10 (fragmented) minutes of incredible video. A little over 2 minutes are included here.
The music is from a song named after the park, written in 1913 by a Peruvian composer based on Peruvian folk tunes, in this case performed by an Andean band named K'Ayataki that we heard in a pedestrian alley in Arequipa.
Wikipedia has the history of the song. You will find the melody very familiar from 1970. However, in the Peruvian cities we visited one still hears it frequently today.
With no further ado, here is the link:
El Condor Pasa, the movie.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
no screwups no cry
Our trip home went flawlessly. Ariel was happily admiring some improvements made in her apartment by 2 pm, and Lisa and I were happily admiring the progress of my garden by 5 pm. WBZ kept us out of the crash-related backup on 128 - try that in Peru!
OK, there was a tiny bit of a flaw: there was a short delay in Atlanta because Logan was fogged in. Nothing to get one's shorts in a bunch about. And I had the classic "share part of your seat with an obese American" experience for 3 hours. I chose to find it educational.
Our luggage arrived in good shape. We had a very pleasant Haitian taxi driver on our way to Brighton. After dropping off Ariel, Lisa and I tried a few decent local sources (Concord, Acton) and given our Peruvian education, we determined that decent ingredients for a foodie lifestyle are not quite what they should be (yet) in the U.S. Pastene and Goya are your best friends for beans, and that's just sad. OTOH the computer connectivity here kicks serious ass. :-)
Not to mention American keyboards. And Oh BABY did I miss my Mac!
- Gary
OK, there was a tiny bit of a flaw: there was a short delay in Atlanta because Logan was fogged in. Nothing to get one's shorts in a bunch about. And I had the classic "share part of your seat with an obese American" experience for 3 hours. I chose to find it educational.
Our luggage arrived in good shape. We had a very pleasant Haitian taxi driver on our way to Brighton. After dropping off Ariel, Lisa and I tried a few decent local sources (Concord, Acton) and given our Peruvian education, we determined that decent ingredients for a foodie lifestyle are not quite what they should be (yet) in the U.S. Pastene and Goya are your best friends for beans, and that's just sad. OTOH the computer connectivity here kicks serious ass. :-)
Not to mention American keyboards. And Oh BABY did I miss my Mac!
- Gary
Monday, August 6, 2007
Three From Peru
Ariel, Lisa, and I are awaiting a taxi to the airport. In about 3.5 hours, we expect to be aloft enroute to Atlanta. Peru has been fascinating.
Our love and thanks to all who commented, called, emailed, and helped.
- Gary
Our love and thanks to all who commented, called, emailed, and helped.
- Gary
Adios Peru; Full Circle
Lisa here. We are on our final hours of our stay in Peru and I just wanted to leave one last post.
When Kate and I arrived three weeks ago, the first thing on our agenda was to visit CPAL, a private, oral school for the Deaf in Lima. We met with the principal and some of the teachers, but as with all good planning, we did not plan well enough. We chose to come to Peru since we wanted to connect with a school for the Deaf in a S. American country and we knew that our summers translate into their winters, so school would be in session here. What we failed to find out was when they were on winter break, which as luck would have it, coincided with our time in Lima. So while we were able to meet with the director of the school, we were unable to see any classes or meet with any students. However, upon checking further, we found out that their school vacation ended last Friday and their first day back in school was today. While Kate would not be here, I made an appointment and was welcomed back to the school today to meet the students and see some classes that were in session.
As Kate and I mentioned in one of our first posts after we visited another school for the Deaf here, kids will be kids and Deaf kids will be Deaf kids no matter where they are in the world. In this same vein, schools will be schools no matter where they are in the world. The first day after vacation is usually filled with what did you do on your vacation stories, and today was no exception. The problem here was, for some odd reason, the 3 classes we (my daughter and I) spent the most time in, the discussion revolved around food, and eating cuy in particular. If you look back at the original pictures posted by Kate way back in May, you might have noticed two animals pictured, an alpaca and my pet guinnea pig. Cuy is Spanish for guinea pig, need I say more?
The visit went well though and I'm hoping that the two schools might create an international connection that will grow over the years. At this point, I want to thank all of you who have taken the time to read and comment on our posts. By keeping this blog it has helped me reflect on the trip, the people we met, and the places we visited. It was truly an experience I will never forgot. And finally, I here, and Kate back home in the states, want to thank Fund for Teachers for granting us the opportunity to revive, learn and grow in Peru.
When Kate and I arrived three weeks ago, the first thing on our agenda was to visit CPAL, a private, oral school for the Deaf in Lima. We met with the principal and some of the teachers, but as with all good planning, we did not plan well enough. We chose to come to Peru since we wanted to connect with a school for the Deaf in a S. American country and we knew that our summers translate into their winters, so school would be in session here. What we failed to find out was when they were on winter break, which as luck would have it, coincided with our time in Lima. So while we were able to meet with the director of the school, we were unable to see any classes or meet with any students. However, upon checking further, we found out that their school vacation ended last Friday and their first day back in school was today. While Kate would not be here, I made an appointment and was welcomed back to the school today to meet the students and see some classes that were in session.
As Kate and I mentioned in one of our first posts after we visited another school for the Deaf here, kids will be kids and Deaf kids will be Deaf kids no matter where they are in the world. In this same vein, schools will be schools no matter where they are in the world. The first day after vacation is usually filled with what did you do on your vacation stories, and today was no exception. The problem here was, for some odd reason, the 3 classes we (my daughter and I) spent the most time in, the discussion revolved around food, and eating cuy in particular. If you look back at the original pictures posted by Kate way back in May, you might have noticed two animals pictured, an alpaca and my pet guinnea pig. Cuy is Spanish for guinea pig, need I say more?
The visit went well though and I'm hoping that the two schools might create an international connection that will grow over the years. At this point, I want to thank all of you who have taken the time to read and comment on our posts. By keeping this blog it has helped me reflect on the trip, the people we met, and the places we visited. It was truly an experience I will never forgot. And finally, I here, and Kate back home in the states, want to thank Fund for Teachers for granting us the opportunity to revive, learn and grow in Peru.
cops will be cops
So far we've seen exactly one sign in Peru that tries to reduce the noise: there's a sign a couple blocks from this hostal that says (translated) "No honking". It has a picture of a trumpet in a crossed circle.
Directly downstream from this sign, a local cop stopped a bus full of people. In the 2-lane road, he stood blocking one lane and the bus took up the other. It was almost exactly 5 pm; traffic was at its raucous height. Completely ignoring the bedlam he was creating, he demanded to see the bus driver's papers.
So Peruvian drivers did what Peruvian drivers do when confronted with an obstacle to forward progress. They blew their horns. In what was maybe the only no-horn-blowing district in the country. In full view of a cop who was in the act of demonstrating that he was quite willing to inconvenience any and every one in his defense of the letter of the law.
We did not stay to watch how this situation was resolved, but I will say that as we walked toward the hostal, the honking abruptly stopped.
- Gary
Directly downstream from this sign, a local cop stopped a bus full of people. In the 2-lane road, he stood blocking one lane and the bus took up the other. It was almost exactly 5 pm; traffic was at its raucous height. Completely ignoring the bedlam he was creating, he demanded to see the bus driver's papers.
So Peruvian drivers did what Peruvian drivers do when confronted with an obstacle to forward progress. They blew their horns. In what was maybe the only no-horn-blowing district in the country. In full view of a cop who was in the act of demonstrating that he was quite willing to inconvenience any and every one in his defense of the letter of the law.
We did not stay to watch how this situation was resolved, but I will say that as we walked toward the hostal, the honking abruptly stopped.
- Gary
Eating in Peru
(This entry is dedicated to Amy ;-)
Peruvian restaurants and service are vastly better than I expected... and generally as good as my favorite U.S. restaurants. As I mentioned in another post, service is much better. I´ve been able to put my finger on the difference over the last few days: wait staff know the ingredients and flexibility of the dishes, rather than needing to "ask the kitchen" about these issues (or worse yet, making something up when they don´t know). Even if they don´t really speak English, they know enough English food words to handle most questions.
I don´t have time now for complete detail, but one good example of Peruvian cuisine is that you can always get a healthful and satisifactory lunch by ordering "ensalada mixto" ' - a mixed salad. The worst one I had was yesterday, and it was quite good: tomato, cucumber, and avocado slices artfully arranged over fresh lettuce, with olive oil and a light vinegrette dressing (made of white wine vinegar, lemon, and black pepper) on the side. (This for $4 US at a rooftop restaurant in Arequipa with spectacular views of the surrounding snow-capped peaks as well as the street below - at which an Andean folk quartet was busking. When they heard me applauding after a number, the leader came up and sold us a CD!).
A more typical mixed salad would not include lettuce, but would have fresh peas, carrots, string beans, and other vegetables that in the U.S. are more typically served cooked.
Garlic and the onion family are used in specific Peruvian entrees, but they are not gratuitously thrown into everything else, so I did not find it hard to avoid them. I even got to have some dishes which in the U.S. are always "poisoned" for me: tomato soup, asparagus soup, and - believe it or not - potato salad, which was absolutely wonderful. Peruvians are rightfully proud of their several hundred local varieties of potato. They also don´t put onion in their mayonaise.
Their scale of "spicy hot" corresponds to one-pepper status in the U.S., though. They have hot peppers, but they use them very sparingly, even when asked to use "mucho".
Lisa and Ariel are back from visiting a school, so it´s time to go find some lunch. Yum!
- Gary
Peruvian restaurants and service are vastly better than I expected... and generally as good as my favorite U.S. restaurants. As I mentioned in another post, service is much better. I´ve been able to put my finger on the difference over the last few days: wait staff know the ingredients and flexibility of the dishes, rather than needing to "ask the kitchen" about these issues (or worse yet, making something up when they don´t know). Even if they don´t really speak English, they know enough English food words to handle most questions.
I don´t have time now for complete detail, but one good example of Peruvian cuisine is that you can always get a healthful and satisifactory lunch by ordering "ensalada mixto" ' - a mixed salad. The worst one I had was yesterday, and it was quite good: tomato, cucumber, and avocado slices artfully arranged over fresh lettuce, with olive oil and a light vinegrette dressing (made of white wine vinegar, lemon, and black pepper) on the side. (This for $4 US at a rooftop restaurant in Arequipa with spectacular views of the surrounding snow-capped peaks as well as the street below - at which an Andean folk quartet was busking. When they heard me applauding after a number, the leader came up and sold us a CD!).
A more typical mixed salad would not include lettuce, but would have fresh peas, carrots, string beans, and other vegetables that in the U.S. are more typically served cooked.
Garlic and the onion family are used in specific Peruvian entrees, but they are not gratuitously thrown into everything else, so I did not find it hard to avoid them. I even got to have some dishes which in the U.S. are always "poisoned" for me: tomato soup, asparagus soup, and - believe it or not - potato salad, which was absolutely wonderful. Peruvians are rightfully proud of their several hundred local varieties of potato. They also don´t put onion in their mayonaise.
Their scale of "spicy hot" corresponds to one-pepper status in the U.S., though. They have hot peppers, but they use them very sparingly, even when asked to use "mucho".
Lisa and Ariel are back from visiting a school, so it´s time to go find some lunch. Yum!
- Gary
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Colca Canyon, back to Lima
Hola. Lisa here. Just a quick update on our whereabouts and what we´ve been up to since Kate left.
It´s Sunday now and we have just one day left here. After spending Thursday and Thursday night in beautiful, SUNNY & WARM Arequipa, we headed off for an overnight going to the Colca Canyon. I believe Gary and I posted various observations about what we encountered thru Friday evening.
On Saturday morning, we got up very early for a two hour drive on a road that would be unfit for covered wagons, to see the condors flying around C0lca Canyon. They are quite impressive although Gary spent much of time time grumbling about the dusty roads (I had to agree). Ariel thought it was amazing and thought we were just being curmudgeons! I took lots of still pics and Gary had fun using the digital camcorder. They were quite a sight and we will post pics once we get home and get some sleep.
While I did enjoy seeing the birds and the beauty of the canyon, the second deepest in the world, I much preferred watching other events pass us by -- cars having to stop and wait for a herd of cows, donkeys, sheep, goats or alpaca cross the road. We also stopped on our way back to Arequipa for lunch and bumped into another group of foreign Deaf tourists in the restaurant. While we didn´t really have time to chat, we did find out that they were from Spain and were out there on vacation.
I´m going to get some shut-eye so I´ll be wide-eyed and alert for my visit back to the school tomorrow morning. Gary is still wrestling with the other computer here in the room and I´m going to turn this one over to him. I´m not sure if I´ll have time to post again before we leave tomorrow night, but if not, I´ll be back from home and will continue to add pics and more comments from this incredible trip!
It´s Sunday now and we have just one day left here. After spending Thursday and Thursday night in beautiful, SUNNY & WARM Arequipa, we headed off for an overnight going to the Colca Canyon. I believe Gary and I posted various observations about what we encountered thru Friday evening.
On Saturday morning, we got up very early for a two hour drive on a road that would be unfit for covered wagons, to see the condors flying around C0lca Canyon. They are quite impressive although Gary spent much of time time grumbling about the dusty roads (I had to agree). Ariel thought it was amazing and thought we were just being curmudgeons! I took lots of still pics and Gary had fun using the digital camcorder. They were quite a sight and we will post pics once we get home and get some sleep.
While I did enjoy seeing the birds and the beauty of the canyon, the second deepest in the world, I much preferred watching other events pass us by -- cars having to stop and wait for a herd of cows, donkeys, sheep, goats or alpaca cross the road. We also stopped on our way back to Arequipa for lunch and bumped into another group of foreign Deaf tourists in the restaurant. While we didn´t really have time to chat, we did find out that they were from Spain and were out there on vacation.
I´m going to get some shut-eye so I´ll be wide-eyed and alert for my visit back to the school tomorrow morning. Gary is still wrestling with the other computer here in the room and I´m going to turn this one over to him. I´m not sure if I´ll have time to post again before we leave tomorrow night, but if not, I´ll be back from home and will continue to add pics and more comments from this incredible trip!
July 30th - The Road to Puno
On July 30th we all boarded a First Class tour bus to take the trek down to Puno, the location of Lake Titicaca. Here are some images of what we saw along the way.
Quite coincidentally, the road to Puno is home to the Qewar
Social Project Workshop, which produces dolls. Lisa has purchased some of these dolls during her travels in Vermont. Now she has seen them up close and personal in Peru. Ask her to tell you the full story sometime!
Our photo in the sidebar shows one of the "pigs" (guinea) who are lucky enough to live with Lisa and Gary. The guinea pigs shown here, or "cuy" as they are called in Peru, are being raised to eventually grace someone's plate. The idea that we keep them as "mascots" (read as, "pets") is quite hilarious to the Peruvians we met.
Our lunch-time entertainment. Both the music and food were quite tasty. Even more welcome was the sunshine and warmth!
Quite coincidentally, the road to Puno is home to the Qewar
Social Project Workshop, which produces dolls. Lisa has purchased some of these dolls during her travels in Vermont. Now she has seen them up close and personal in Peru. Ask her to tell you the full story sometime!
Our photo in the sidebar shows one of the "pigs" (guinea) who are lucky enough to live with Lisa and Gary. The guinea pigs shown here, or "cuy" as they are called in Peru, are being raised to eventually grace someone's plate. The idea that we keep them as "mascots" (read as, "pets") is quite hilarious to the Peruvians we met.
Our lunch-time entertainment. Both the music and food were quite tasty. Even more welcome was the sunshine and warmth!
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Images from Lake Titicaca
Here are some images taken when Lisa, Gary, and Ariel were at Lake Titicaca. Unfortunately I was in bed, most likely watching an old episode of Law and Order at this time.Hopefully one of the LGA crew will be able to add subtitles with information about these pictures.
ps - No, I didn't import this image upside-down, the man is holding the poster of the lake the wrong way. *The reason he is holding it this way is to show the puma shape of the lake. "Titicaca" actually means, grey puma.
**Stars indicate information added on Sunday, August 5th after receiving more information from Lisa and Gary.
The lake, right side up.
Working on the reed islands.
One of the reed boats.
Another reed boat.
Gary and Ariel eating something... maybe something related to the reeds? *Indeed, reeds are not just for living on and building, but for eating. The inside is soft, with a mild taste.
Friday, August 3, 2007
A Few Pictures Before Bed
Fund for Teachers at is one of the Seven Wonders... Or rather, Fund for Teachers AT one of the new Seven Wonders of the World! Thanks to FFT we were able to make it all the way to Machu Picchu! Please note if you click on the pictures, you will be able to see them in a larger view in a separate window.
This is a picture of the llamas that carried our things along the Lares trek. It was taken on the first day, July 26th.
Here is a picture with Gary, Ariel, and Lisa with the aforementioned llamas; this was our last day, the 28th.
This and that
Lisa here. Kate, I´m glad to hear you made it home in one piece and can´t wait to hear the rest of your adventures on your way home. I just hope they do not rise above the adventure we had getting you to the airport in Juliaca.
I´m not sure what I last emailed about and since every time you try to go from one page on a blog to another it literally takes about five minutes, please forgive me if I repeat myself.
We arrived in Arequipa mid-day yesterday and checked into our hostal, La Hostal de Mi Abuela. It is truly a spectacular place. It´s the first place we have had with a bathtub and I got to soak my weary feet. Hot water is abundant. There is a pool, pingpong table, and some other game things. It is really hard to explain the richness of the place, but I will try with this example. When we arrived it was the first time we were able to wear shorts and sleeveless tops. We went across the courtyard to have an al fresco lunch overlooking the pool with people sunning themselves in bikinis, parakeets chirping in cages sprinkled around the courtyard, ¨wild¨birds twittering about, feeling hot for once, and looking just past the pool to the snowcapped mountains. Arequipa feels like a richer modern city but with colonial buildings housing hostals, restaurants and shops. We got a recommendation to go to El Turko Restaurante, we went there and the food was great.
Today we headed out on a tour, The Colca Canyon tour, which includes various stops along the way. I believe Gary wrote about his impressions of Chivay so I won´t go into physical descriptions anymore. While Gary was posting to the blog, Ariel and I went out to the market to scout out things to buy. The town is a lot less touristy than others we´ve been in and were happy to be able to go and actually look at something and not be accosted by the owner about buying everything she has in her space. There were the typical young girls parading around town with their baby alpacas or llamas for us to photograph for 1 sole and lots of places to buy wonderful looking fresh fruits which we did not buy because we could not wash them properly.
After an hour of shopping around and Gary blogging, we headed up to the hot springs and went into the thermal baths. I really do wish I could connect my camera and download the picture that could not be described in a thousand words. Picture a descent sized rectangular pool being fed water from the thermal spring. Inside the pool were people floating, sitting, swimming and generally just enjoying the heat. Outside of the pool were people walking around with hats, gloves and heavy jackets. The in-the-pool crowd was very comfortable and I´m sure the out-of-the-pool crowd was too. There were lockers on opposite sides of the pool to put belongings in and cliffs and mountains as a backdrop. Then, the clincher was a woman in full traditional dress of the area making her way around the pool taking drink orders from people in the pool and then delivering them. Incan ingenuity? It´s not a thousand words, but you will just have to wait for the picture.
We´re off to dinner now. Till next time,
Lisa
I´m not sure what I last emailed about and since every time you try to go from one page on a blog to another it literally takes about five minutes, please forgive me if I repeat myself.
We arrived in Arequipa mid-day yesterday and checked into our hostal, La Hostal de Mi Abuela. It is truly a spectacular place. It´s the first place we have had with a bathtub and I got to soak my weary feet. Hot water is abundant. There is a pool, pingpong table, and some other game things. It is really hard to explain the richness of the place, but I will try with this example. When we arrived it was the first time we were able to wear shorts and sleeveless tops. We went across the courtyard to have an al fresco lunch overlooking the pool with people sunning themselves in bikinis, parakeets chirping in cages sprinkled around the courtyard, ¨wild¨birds twittering about, feeling hot for once, and looking just past the pool to the snowcapped mountains. Arequipa feels like a richer modern city but with colonial buildings housing hostals, restaurants and shops. We got a recommendation to go to El Turko Restaurante, we went there and the food was great.
Today we headed out on a tour, The Colca Canyon tour, which includes various stops along the way. I believe Gary wrote about his impressions of Chivay so I won´t go into physical descriptions anymore. While Gary was posting to the blog, Ariel and I went out to the market to scout out things to buy. The town is a lot less touristy than others we´ve been in and were happy to be able to go and actually look at something and not be accosted by the owner about buying everything she has in her space. There were the typical young girls parading around town with their baby alpacas or llamas for us to photograph for 1 sole and lots of places to buy wonderful looking fresh fruits which we did not buy because we could not wash them properly.
After an hour of shopping around and Gary blogging, we headed up to the hot springs and went into the thermal baths. I really do wish I could connect my camera and download the picture that could not be described in a thousand words. Picture a descent sized rectangular pool being fed water from the thermal spring. Inside the pool were people floating, sitting, swimming and generally just enjoying the heat. Outside of the pool were people walking around with hats, gloves and heavy jackets. The in-the-pool crowd was very comfortable and I´m sure the out-of-the-pool crowd was too. There were lockers on opposite sides of the pool to put belongings in and cliffs and mountains as a backdrop. Then, the clincher was a woman in full traditional dress of the area making her way around the pool taking drink orders from people in the pool and then delivering them. Incan ingenuity? It´s not a thousand words, but you will just have to wait for the picture.
We´re off to dinner now. Till next time,
Lisa
Hey, It's Good to Be Back Home Again...
Kate here... here being in Boston. I made it back safe and sound after many hours of travel. Later I will post about the journey home and begin to add pictures to the blog. However, first it's time for a shower and some water that doesn't come from a bottle!
Cough, choke, Chivay!
We are in Chivay, the capital city of Cuylloma province... and you never saw such a mess. I am going to attempt to do what I begged Kate and Lisa to do when they were here and I was still back in the states: describe impressions. Here goes.
This region is a dusty, desert-y place: you can write in the grit over which the mouse is expected to glide, and it´s everywhere that hasn´t been mopped recently. It´s a laser-based mouse; a ball-based one simply wouldn´t work. The dust is a half inch deep alongside the roads. It looks as though it hasn´t rained here since they declared independence many decades ago. Actually it´s very different in the wet season, but right now it´s the dry season and this town takes dry to an extreme you have to experience to believe.
This internet cafe is a noisy place: 4 urchins are crowded around a PC monitor, playing a game and laughing, whistling, clapping and stomping uproariously, as an ignored soccer game blasts on a TV 4 feet behind them. Louder still, the street-facing outside (brick) wall of the floor above me is being removed by a man on a rickety scaffold wielding a hammer and a determined expression.
This internet cafe is also a contradictory place: a hide-the-minimum Brittany Spears poster shares wall space with a sign that says ¡Alto! La pornographica no esta permitda en este local. Other interesting wall decor includes a sign saying ZONA SEGURA EN CASO DE SISMOS. Scant relief, considering the maniacal demolitionist above my head.
This valley (part of Colca Canyon) is a stunning place, surrounded by mountains within a mile that are a mile higher than I... and higher ones still, capped by snow, behind the closer ones.
This is an exciting place: as we descended through the pass and down the switchback to get to town, we passed bicyclists (mostly teenaged tourists) doing upwards of 35 mph inches from the ragged, bumpy edge of the road, the shoulder of which is no wider than my own, contains boulders and weeds, and terminates in a sheer drop of hundreds - sometimes thousands - of feet. Helmets here are just a fashion statement.
This is a Peruvian place:
- sheep, llamas, and alpacas on leashes accompany their owners who are selling handcrafts in the main square
- no matter where we eat, restaurant staff understand vegetarianism and food sensitivities expressed in halting Spanish far better than most American waitstaff seem to understand same with no language barrier
- everyone is friendly and polite - as long as they aren´t driving a car. I´m not a bad writer, but I don´t know where to start to communicate the difference between South and North American driving. Suffice it to say that in the U.S., normal Peruvian driving would be labelled road rage and result in loss of license if not incarceration. You know how in the U.S. when you start to cross a street, if there is a car coming hundreds of feet away, you can hear it decelerate? In South America (or at least every city I´ve visited in Ecuador and Peru), all cars are either accelerating, or braking and honking because another vehicle is blocking their path. Pedestrians may or may not get a honk, but they definitely do not get any deceleration. Incidently pedestrians include herds of sheep, goats, or alpaca being guided by very old or very young people, sometimes accompanied by dogs.
Lisa and Ariel have come to take me to the hot springs. Perhaps those will not be too dusty!
Hasta luego.
- Gary
This region is a dusty, desert-y place: you can write in the grit over which the mouse is expected to glide, and it´s everywhere that hasn´t been mopped recently. It´s a laser-based mouse; a ball-based one simply wouldn´t work. The dust is a half inch deep alongside the roads. It looks as though it hasn´t rained here since they declared independence many decades ago. Actually it´s very different in the wet season, but right now it´s the dry season and this town takes dry to an extreme you have to experience to believe.
This internet cafe is a noisy place: 4 urchins are crowded around a PC monitor, playing a game and laughing, whistling, clapping and stomping uproariously, as an ignored soccer game blasts on a TV 4 feet behind them. Louder still, the street-facing outside (brick) wall of the floor above me is being removed by a man on a rickety scaffold wielding a hammer and a determined expression.
This internet cafe is also a contradictory place: a hide-the-minimum Brittany Spears poster shares wall space with a sign that says ¡Alto! La pornographica no esta permitda en este local. Other interesting wall decor includes a sign saying ZONA SEGURA EN CASO DE SISMOS. Scant relief, considering the maniacal demolitionist above my head.
This valley (part of Colca Canyon) is a stunning place, surrounded by mountains within a mile that are a mile higher than I... and higher ones still, capped by snow, behind the closer ones.
This is an exciting place: as we descended through the pass and down the switchback to get to town, we passed bicyclists (mostly teenaged tourists) doing upwards of 35 mph inches from the ragged, bumpy edge of the road, the shoulder of which is no wider than my own, contains boulders and weeds, and terminates in a sheer drop of hundreds - sometimes thousands - of feet. Helmets here are just a fashion statement.
This is a Peruvian place:
- sheep, llamas, and alpacas on leashes accompany their owners who are selling handcrafts in the main square
- no matter where we eat, restaurant staff understand vegetarianism and food sensitivities expressed in halting Spanish far better than most American waitstaff seem to understand same with no language barrier
- everyone is friendly and polite - as long as they aren´t driving a car. I´m not a bad writer, but I don´t know where to start to communicate the difference between South and North American driving. Suffice it to say that in the U.S., normal Peruvian driving would be labelled road rage and result in loss of license if not incarceration. You know how in the U.S. when you start to cross a street, if there is a car coming hundreds of feet away, you can hear it decelerate? In South America (or at least every city I´ve visited in Ecuador and Peru), all cars are either accelerating, or braking and honking because another vehicle is blocking their path. Pedestrians may or may not get a honk, but they definitely do not get any deceleration. Incidently pedestrians include herds of sheep, goats, or alpaca being guided by very old or very young people, sometimes accompanied by dogs.
Lisa and Ariel have come to take me to the hot springs. Perhaps those will not be too dusty!
Hasta luego.
- Gary
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Arequipa
Lisa here. Our trip to Arequipa was quite breath-taking. I finally got to see my first vicuñas in the wild and they are truly elegant looking. We also went to an Alpaca Museum to learn all about the history and processing of fiber from the four SA camelids. I got to feel my first vicuña swatch and would have paid decent money for it, however could in no way afford a small scarf made of it. We´re off for two days tomorrow morning to Colca Canyon and more vicuña spotting. Will write more when we get back. Thanks for all comments--
Lisa (with G and A) correcting my spelling on a keyboard that feels like someone spilled Elmer's glue on it.
Lisa (with G and A) correcting my spelling on a keyboard that feels like someone spilled Elmer's glue on it.
A quick post
Hello all! Kate here - after two days in bed I'm feeling better in time to leave. :) Anyway, we're all about to head out of Puno and for me it's on to Lima and then home. For Lisa, Gary and Ariel, it's on to Arequipa.
This morning we ran into Jack and Judith at breakfast. There's nothing like a little ASL to catch your eye early in the morning! Lisa had seen them the other night, but never got around to finding out where they were staying. I guess great minds think alike... or at least so do Fodor's and Lonely Planet.
The van to spirit us away from Puno should be arriving momentarily, so I better go. More when I get to Lima this afternoon!
This morning we ran into Jack and Judith at breakfast. There's nothing like a little ASL to catch your eye early in the morning! Lisa had seen them the other night, but never got around to finding out where they were staying. I guess great minds think alike... or at least so do Fodor's and Lonely Planet.
The van to spirit us away from Puno should be arriving momentarily, so I better go. More when I get to Lima this afternoon!
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Lake Titicaca
Hi there. Lisa here (Kate is still not feeling great and it chlling out in her hotel room.) I thought I was being so good yesterday by writing in my journal on the way back from the islands we visited on Lake Titicaca so I would have something to refer to in this post, but I left my journal at the hotel, so I´ll attempt to summarize and fill in missing info later.
First, some facts. As most of us know from going to elementary schools in the US, Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world. 60% of the lake is in Peru and the other 40% is in Bolivia. The name translates into Titi meaning puma and caca meaning grey. The English translation obviously is a subject of more chuckles than the true meaning of the name. Our guide Carlos also told us that the 60% Peruvian part is the puma (titi) and the 40% Bolivian part is the caca (grey). I suspect he was just being nationalistic.
The first island we went to, about 15 minutes offshore, was one of the Uros floating islands. The inhabitants there were Uros and their language was the third national language after Spanish and Quecha. The name of the language is Aymara. The islands are made from reeds and walking around on them is really cool, totally squishy deep pile carpet. All of their homes, boats, etc are also made from the reeds. Since I left my journal at the hotel, perhaps Gary will add a comment on the nitty gritty of the construction of things there. Each island is inhabited by one or two extended families. It takes about a year to build the island and once completed, it lasts about 40 years. The Uros people have lived there for centuries, trying to remove themselves from other indigineous groups that were not so peaceful. Their average lifespan is about 100 to 110 years, attributed to the fact that they eat right, exercise naturally due to things they must do every day, and are stressed about little. Children go to primary school on one of the bigger floating islands and if they want to continue their education have to go to the mainland. We were there at about 9:00 in the morning and saw some traditional row boats full of children rowing themselves to school, or at least that is what we could come up with as an explanation. I wish I were able to post some of the pictures here now, but I´m going to give Kate the CD we made and hopefully she´ll put some on the blog when she gets back to Boston..
From there, we went on one of their totally cool reed constructed boats and floated over to another of the Uros islands. I would pay big money just to be allowed to be rowed around on that boat for a day (a week, a month, a year?) -- it was that incredibly comfortable. It was somewhat cool outside yesterday (it is winter here), but the sun was shining brightly and I couldn´t imagine a better way to spend some (or all?) of my time. Once we got to the next island, we walked around for a bit, and then went back on the little tour motor boat for a two-hour ride to Isla Taquile.
Unlike the floating islands, this is a real one and was much farther out on main part of the lake. The inhabitants here are Quechua and speak limited Spanish. Once we arrived, we were met with the challenge of ascending about 500 or so primitive ¨steps¨ to get to our destination. Along the way, we were accosted, in a positive way, by young girls wanting to sell us woven bracelets similar to friendship bracelets, but more intricate. The were one Sole, about 33 cents each. By the time I left the island, I was adorned with about 5 of them. With one group of three girls, I took their picture and then told them I would buy one bracelet from each, and the sly first girl sold me one, then surrepticiously went to the back of the line to try to get me to buy another one from her. Children will be children! Women on the island could be seen spinning yarn on hand spindles throughout the island. Boys and men though were the highlight for me! They can be spotted at all times knitting multicolor hats, gloves, etc. They have a pouch at their waists where they keep the ball of yarn. This then gets strung around their necks and they unlike some other people I know, are able to do two or three things at once -- knit, walk and sometimes talk. I was quite impressed and am trying to figure out how to do all of this and sign at the same time :-).
Once we got to the plaza on topof the island, there were about a hundred or so dancers and singers celebrating a holiday in traditional artesinal (sp?) style and dress. It was great to watch. We then spent some time on the perimeter of the plaza looking at some of the most exquisite weaving and knitting I´ve seen. After we proceeded to have lunch atop some building, and then made our way back to the boat around the other side of the island. While we had lunch, we were facing the snow-capped Cordillera Real mountain in Bolivia.On the way down we were met with more little salespeople, some sheep and cows and more beautiful scenery. Somehow descending the 500 or so steps was harder than ascending them, but we all made it back to the boat in one piece and relaxed, slept, wrote or chattered on the journey back to the mainland. Our only mishap happened when Gary wanted to go to sit on the top of the boat and his prized baseball style hat from the Galapagos Islands departed his head and went into the lake. All and it, it was an experience that I will never forget.
We´ll be here tonight and leave early tomorrow morning to drop Kate off at the local airport to fly to Lima and Boston. We will be heading up further northwest (Ariel thinks SW) to Arequipa and the Colca Canyon. We´ll be in touch then.
Hasta luego,
Lisa
First, some facts. As most of us know from going to elementary schools in the US, Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world. 60% of the lake is in Peru and the other 40% is in Bolivia. The name translates into Titi meaning puma and caca meaning grey. The English translation obviously is a subject of more chuckles than the true meaning of the name. Our guide Carlos also told us that the 60% Peruvian part is the puma (titi) and the 40% Bolivian part is the caca (grey). I suspect he was just being nationalistic.
The first island we went to, about 15 minutes offshore, was one of the Uros floating islands. The inhabitants there were Uros and their language was the third national language after Spanish and Quecha. The name of the language is Aymara. The islands are made from reeds and walking around on them is really cool, totally squishy deep pile carpet. All of their homes, boats, etc are also made from the reeds. Since I left my journal at the hotel, perhaps Gary will add a comment on the nitty gritty of the construction of things there. Each island is inhabited by one or two extended families. It takes about a year to build the island and once completed, it lasts about 40 years. The Uros people have lived there for centuries, trying to remove themselves from other indigineous groups that were not so peaceful. Their average lifespan is about 100 to 110 years, attributed to the fact that they eat right, exercise naturally due to things they must do every day, and are stressed about little. Children go to primary school on one of the bigger floating islands and if they want to continue their education have to go to the mainland. We were there at about 9:00 in the morning and saw some traditional row boats full of children rowing themselves to school, or at least that is what we could come up with as an explanation. I wish I were able to post some of the pictures here now, but I´m going to give Kate the CD we made and hopefully she´ll put some on the blog when she gets back to Boston..
From there, we went on one of their totally cool reed constructed boats and floated over to another of the Uros islands. I would pay big money just to be allowed to be rowed around on that boat for a day (a week, a month, a year?) -- it was that incredibly comfortable. It was somewhat cool outside yesterday (it is winter here), but the sun was shining brightly and I couldn´t imagine a better way to spend some (or all?) of my time. Once we got to the next island, we walked around for a bit, and then went back on the little tour motor boat for a two-hour ride to Isla Taquile.
Unlike the floating islands, this is a real one and was much farther out on main part of the lake. The inhabitants here are Quechua and speak limited Spanish. Once we arrived, we were met with the challenge of ascending about 500 or so primitive ¨steps¨ to get to our destination. Along the way, we were accosted, in a positive way, by young girls wanting to sell us woven bracelets similar to friendship bracelets, but more intricate. The were one Sole, about 33 cents each. By the time I left the island, I was adorned with about 5 of them. With one group of three girls, I took their picture and then told them I would buy one bracelet from each, and the sly first girl sold me one, then surrepticiously went to the back of the line to try to get me to buy another one from her. Children will be children! Women on the island could be seen spinning yarn on hand spindles throughout the island. Boys and men though were the highlight for me! They can be spotted at all times knitting multicolor hats, gloves, etc. They have a pouch at their waists where they keep the ball of yarn. This then gets strung around their necks and they unlike some other people I know, are able to do two or three things at once -- knit, walk and sometimes talk. I was quite impressed and am trying to figure out how to do all of this and sign at the same time :-).
Once we got to the plaza on topof the island, there were about a hundred or so dancers and singers celebrating a holiday in traditional artesinal (sp?) style and dress. It was great to watch. We then spent some time on the perimeter of the plaza looking at some of the most exquisite weaving and knitting I´ve seen. After we proceeded to have lunch atop some building, and then made our way back to the boat around the other side of the island. While we had lunch, we were facing the snow-capped Cordillera Real mountain in Bolivia.On the way down we were met with more little salespeople, some sheep and cows and more beautiful scenery. Somehow descending the 500 or so steps was harder than ascending them, but we all made it back to the boat in one piece and relaxed, slept, wrote or chattered on the journey back to the mainland. Our only mishap happened when Gary wanted to go to sit on the top of the boat and his prized baseball style hat from the Galapagos Islands departed his head and went into the lake. All and it, it was an experience that I will never forget.
We´ll be here tonight and leave early tomorrow morning to drop Kate off at the local airport to fly to Lima and Boston. We will be heading up further northwest (Ariel thinks SW) to Arequipa and the Colca Canyon. We´ll be in touch then.
Hasta luego,
Lisa
wake-up bark!
One reason Kate (and Ariel and Lisa to a lesser extent) are feeling poorly is the combination of altitude (here in Puno we´re at about 13,000 feet) and not enough sleep. Peru is a hard-working country, and they start their day well before dawn. Consequently many of our days have started at 5:30 am... and not ended until, in some cases, the wee hours of the next day. (The days here, well south of the tropics, have just 10 daylight hours, so we have to make use of all of them.) We have had many days in a row, starting with the night before the last day of the trek, of less than 5 hours sleep. We have yet to sleep in a heated place, so add cold to the formula. On the bright side, we´ll be heading north from here, so cold should be less of a problem. At least, we hope to dispense with the hats and scarves during the day.
Several days ago we stayed in a hostal and needed to get up at the usual 5:30, so, as a backup to our own alarms, we left a wake-up request with the desk guy. At precisely 5:25, a dog began barking. I looked out the window, and he was barking directly at our door. Big German shepherd, very robust bark. He gave 4 series of 4 barks like this: Bark BARK bark bark. He then trotted off.
I said to Lisa,¨"Alarm dog. That´s a new one for me." As the clock changed to 5:30, I heard footsteps, then a quiet knock at the door. I said (in English, because I wasn´t awake enough to try Spanish), "We´re up!" whereupon the knocker walked away.
Now, it´s all probably a coincidence: the knocker probably awoke the barker. But for 5 minutes, at least, I thought Peru had alarm dogs.
Several days ago we stayed in a hostal and needed to get up at the usual 5:30, so, as a backup to our own alarms, we left a wake-up request with the desk guy. At precisely 5:25, a dog began barking. I looked out the window, and he was barking directly at our door. Big German shepherd, very robust bark. He gave 4 series of 4 barks like this: Bark BARK bark bark. He then trotted off.
I said to Lisa,¨"Alarm dog. That´s a new one for me." As the clock changed to 5:30, I heard footsteps, then a quiet knock at the door. I said (in English, because I wasn´t awake enough to try Spanish), "We´re up!" whereupon the knocker walked away.
Now, it´s all probably a coincidence: the knocker probably awoke the barker. But for 5 minutes, at least, I thought Peru had alarm dogs.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Picture Post
[Gary here, at noon EST Wed. I have added description in bold below each picture.]
So Kate's not feeling so hot. Sat the day out when Lisa, Gary, and Ariel went off to an Island, I believe. In the meantime, I am finally getting around to posting more of their pics, and it sounds like you really enjoyed the first one. So here you go... Just a smattering (you'd think Google would make it easy to post pics on Blogger! Sheesh!):
So Kate's not feeling so hot. Sat the day out when Lisa, Gary, and Ariel went off to an Island, I believe. In the meantime, I am finally getting around to posting more of their pics, and it sounds like you really enjoyed the first one. So here you go... Just a smattering (you'd think Google would make it easy to post pics on Blogger! Sheesh!):
-Not sure... I think the fast group climbed an outcropping left of the trail that I skipped, if this was shot from there it´s looking forward toward the highest point of the trail.-
-At the pass, looking slightly left of the continuing trail.
Note the similarity to Crawford Notch in NH seen from the top of Mt. Willard. But the "hills" defining the valley here are just about twice as high. -
Note the similarity to Crawford Notch in NH seen from the top of Mt. Willard. But the "hills" defining the valley here are just about twice as high. -
-Ariel and Johan seated just below the high point of the pass. It was very windy right at the top.-
-As mentioned elsewhere, our campsite on the trek´s last night was in a canyon for protection from the high wind. This is the view of the campsite as we approached from the trail. Yes, it was a rather steep climb down. :) -
Sunday, July 29, 2007
The promised picture
I believe this is the image Kate was trying to post. Wow. I saved it as my desktop image for the remainder of their trip :) They've been having some trouble posting it so they emailed it to me and asked if I could take care of it. Wish I could tell you something about the photo, though! Kate seems to have gone offline without telling me that info!I'm happy. I just had a chance to chat with Kate online for a while. Most of what I now know about their trip I know from reading this blog, though. Be sure to read Gary and Lisa's comments on my previous entry (titled "Word From Abroad") - they put in some incredible details! In the meantime, hopefully we'll get to find out more about this photo!
--J
p.s. I got more pics from Kate - I'll try to post them later tonight.
Multiple Entries at Once
As I sit down to type this Gary has been typing away for nearly a half an hour at another computer across the room. Hopefully I won't repeat what he is already typing. Before descriptions of Machu Picchu, I'll do a few more random updates:
1st: Thank you to all who sent me kind birthday wishes on Thursday. I had an exhilarating birthday and was suprised to receive a yummy cake, topped with chocolate icing, made right in our food tent along the trek! I also received Fluxx, in Spanish, from Jeremy and a wonderful llama, who will become my new classroom mascot from Ariel, Lisa, and Gary.
2nd: For those of you following the 80's song update, here are a few more we've heard along the way. Total Eclipse of the Heart, en Español. My favorite thus far has been "Tarzan Boy," which some people might remember as the Listerine commercial a few years ago. The pan pipes muzak this morning included selections from Les Mis, "Daniel," "Feelings," and "Stop in the Name of Love."
Lares trek: Not knowing what Gary and Lisa are currently posting, I'll try and add a few comments of my own and post a full update after Gary is done.
Our fearless jefe, Cynthia, told us that she had only seen snow once in her life when we met Wednesday night before the trek. Snow sighting two happened on our van trip to the beginning of the trek! Needless to say, I had never before experienced snow on my birthday.
We also met some Londoners as we set out, some of whom are moving to Boston to attend MIT this fall. I gave them my card in case they ever wanted to find some decent pizza in Suffolk county.
Oops... Gary just called to see if we can import some pictures. We've had innumerable obstacles hit us when we tried to do this in the past. Hopefully this time we will have success!
Adios for now!
1st: Thank you to all who sent me kind birthday wishes on Thursday. I had an exhilarating birthday and was suprised to receive a yummy cake, topped with chocolate icing, made right in our food tent along the trek! I also received Fluxx, in Spanish, from Jeremy and a wonderful llama, who will become my new classroom mascot from Ariel, Lisa, and Gary.
2nd: For those of you following the 80's song update, here are a few more we've heard along the way. Total Eclipse of the Heart, en Español. My favorite thus far has been "Tarzan Boy," which some people might remember as the Listerine commercial a few years ago. The pan pipes muzak this morning included selections from Les Mis, "Daniel," "Feelings," and "Stop in the Name of Love."
Lares trek: Not knowing what Gary and Lisa are currently posting, I'll try and add a few comments of my own and post a full update after Gary is done.
Our fearless jefe, Cynthia, told us that she had only seen snow once in her life when we met Wednesday night before the trek. Snow sighting two happened on our van trip to the beginning of the trek! Needless to say, I had never before experienced snow on my birthday.
We also met some Londoners as we set out, some of whom are moving to Boston to attend MIT this fall. I gave them my card in case they ever wanted to find some decent pizza in Suffolk county.
Oops... Gary just called to see if we can import some pictures. We've had innumerable obstacles hit us when we tried to do this in the past. Hopefully this time we will have success!
Adios for now!
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Word from abroad
Just got off the phone with Kate. Things are going smoothly having completed their Llama Trek. From what I heard, camping was good (Easy? Difficult? An adventure? I don't know) - All I know is it involved tents and sleeping bags and camp food. At such altitudes it was three steps then take a breath; three steps then take a breath. Tomorrow they head to Machu Picchu and return to Cuzco by bus (am I getting this right?). I'm a little confused about where they are right now. I was under the impression that the Llama Trek was TO Machu Picchu, but it sounds like that is not true. Who knows! Anyway, that's what I know.
Can't wait to get Kate back on Friday, I know that! But I am happy things are going smoothly and they're having fun.
Jeremy
Hola from Agua Calientes
Lisa here. We finally made it through the Lares Trek, and what a trek it was. Our team was wonderful -- our fearless leader was Cynthia, her able assistant was Johan, and they were accompanied by four horses, siete llamas (still adorned with earrings and other colorful attire from a celebration honoring animals back on 24 June), a llamero, a caballero, an amazing cook or two that made incredible onionless and garlicless Peruvian dishes (for Gary's allergies) as well as a surprise birthday cake on our first day out to celebrate Kate's birthday (without an oven at that)!
Our first day out began with a trip via a van to the town of Lares. The first hour and a half was on a nice paved road, followed by two more hours on a narrow, winding dirt "road" cut into a cliffside (Kate was not too pleased with this, but was a real trooper). About half way up on the dirt road, the snow started. Cynthia is 27, has been guiding tours like this for 5 or so years, and this is only the second time she saw snow. (She never saw it before on a tour.) I'm not quite sure if the pictures will come out, but it will be something to send to her to remember for a long time. This is the coldest winter that Peru has ever had, and I will get back with more temperature statistics later on.
Before arriving in Lares, we stopped at some other small village to try to find petrol, only to be told to go in different directions by at least four or five different people. We did actually find it and continued on our way to Lares. Once there, we took leave of our van and went up to take advantage of the hot springs (Kate took the time to take photos and write in her diary, while Gary, Ariel and I braved the cold air to bask in the hot springs for a half hour or so.) Once we finished and changed back into our clothes, we went into a grass roofed open air hut to have our first lunch. It started raining (not snowing this time), but by the time we finished eating, the rain stopped. We then walked back down to where we left our van to meet up with our horses and llamas. Equipment was packed onto the animals while we commenced our four hour hike to the first night's base camp. About 20 minutes after departing, our team of llamas and horses trotted up behind us and soon left us in the dust. We arrived at camp at dusk, barely saw (but heard) a waterfall. The tents were already set up and we went into the "dining tent" to have tea, hot cocoa, mate de coca, popcorn and biscuits. After setting down in our respective tents, we went back to the "dining room" for dinner. Needless to say, by that time we were extremely exhausted and went straight to our tents to try to sleep.
(Gary here.) Amazing the things you learn about your spouse on these things. Like, Lisa has never camped in her life. We were like two elephants trying to get the tent arranged. By most standards it was a roomy two-person (even 3 or 4) tent. Lisa treated it like a hotel room: she got in the middle and started distributing stuff everywhere. It took a while to get this process under control. Meanwhile, the temperature was dropping. When we arrived at the site, it was about 40F. By the end of dinner it was down to around 34F. (Temps drop very fast in an open field with no woods to hold warm air... at 11,800 feet!). By the time we finished settling in for the night, it was well below freezing. I suspect it touched 20F by 4:30 when I got up to try out the latrine. Droplets of mist had frozen onto our tent. A spectacular dawn was beginning.
(Lisa is back). The second day was the hardest, albeit the most spectacular. We probably started out around 7:30. For the first 5 or so hours (it should have only been four but because I am so slow and I took so many pictures, it took longer.) It was all uphill to the pass. The footing itself was nowhere near as bad as hiking is in New Hampshire, but because of the thin air, it was difficult to breathe. Along the way, there were spectacular views of snow-capped mountains in the distance (some not so far in the distance), and all kinds of wildlife. We encountered pigs of all sizes and ages, horses, cows, an eagle, other birds indiginous (sp?) to the area, and, most importantly, llamas and alpacas. There were also many dogs along the way, but no cats. There were chickens of all colors, sheep, some goats and --- ? If I think of any more, I will add them to the list.
Once I finally made it to the pass (and almost exhausted my battery in my camera), we rested for a short while and started our descent to our lunch site. (Gary said the pass was 15K feet). I don't know how everyone else felt, but I was glad to have my feet moving in a downward motion. We stopped by a beautiful lake to have lunch, which as was our campsite the night before, ready and waiting for us. Near the lake there were hundreds of sheep with many tiny lambs, some of the smallest I have ever seen. Also along the way, we encountered many young children walking either on their way to or on their way home from school. Most of them asked for some "ducles", but we gave them "lapizes" with the fingerspelled alphabet on them and they seemed quite content with their gift. At some point here, we passed the home of an older woman weaving in her back yard (along with her puppy and unusually colored pig), so of course I had to go down to observe and make a small purchase.
After lunch, we had an additional three or so hour hike down we arrived at a canyon where the campsite was set out for our second night's stay outside. Tea time again, followed by some alone time in our tents, followed by dinner, followed by another frigid night. Ariel and Kate had a reading of 34F INSIDE their tent the next morning. (Anyone thinking of coming to Peru might want to opt to come here during their summer, although their summer is rainier than winter and this was the coldest year they have ever had.)
Now to today. After a cold breakfast (the breakfast was hot, we were cold), we started the final part of the trek, which was partly on dirt hiking paths and partly on a dirt road. Today is Independence Day here and we saw many celebrations in small houses along the way and heard loud music coming from these houses. After two or so hours, we arrived at our final outdoor lunch site, met some lovely children who hung around with us for the hour or so we were there, and said goodbye to our horses, llamas, llameros, caballeros, and cooks. We then went by van to Ollantaytambo where there were incredible Incan ruins of the great Incan city and ---
They are closing the lights at the internet cafe so we will have to continue with this blog mañana. We are off to Macchu Picchu--
Hasta mañana, y con nuestra amor,
Lisa, Kate, Ariel and Gary
Our first day out began with a trip via a van to the town of Lares. The first hour and a half was on a nice paved road, followed by two more hours on a narrow, winding dirt "road" cut into a cliffside (Kate was not too pleased with this, but was a real trooper). About half way up on the dirt road, the snow started. Cynthia is 27, has been guiding tours like this for 5 or so years, and this is only the second time she saw snow. (She never saw it before on a tour.) I'm not quite sure if the pictures will come out, but it will be something to send to her to remember for a long time. This is the coldest winter that Peru has ever had, and I will get back with more temperature statistics later on.
Before arriving in Lares, we stopped at some other small village to try to find petrol, only to be told to go in different directions by at least four or five different people. We did actually find it and continued on our way to Lares. Once there, we took leave of our van and went up to take advantage of the hot springs (Kate took the time to take photos and write in her diary, while Gary, Ariel and I braved the cold air to bask in the hot springs for a half hour or so.) Once we finished and changed back into our clothes, we went into a grass roofed open air hut to have our first lunch. It started raining (not snowing this time), but by the time we finished eating, the rain stopped. We then walked back down to where we left our van to meet up with our horses and llamas. Equipment was packed onto the animals while we commenced our four hour hike to the first night's base camp. About 20 minutes after departing, our team of llamas and horses trotted up behind us and soon left us in the dust. We arrived at camp at dusk, barely saw (but heard) a waterfall. The tents were already set up and we went into the "dining tent" to have tea, hot cocoa, mate de coca, popcorn and biscuits. After setting down in our respective tents, we went back to the "dining room" for dinner. Needless to say, by that time we were extremely exhausted and went straight to our tents to try to sleep.
(Gary here.) Amazing the things you learn about your spouse on these things. Like, Lisa has never camped in her life. We were like two elephants trying to get the tent arranged. By most standards it was a roomy two-person (even 3 or 4) tent. Lisa treated it like a hotel room: she got in the middle and started distributing stuff everywhere. It took a while to get this process under control. Meanwhile, the temperature was dropping. When we arrived at the site, it was about 40F. By the end of dinner it was down to around 34F. (Temps drop very fast in an open field with no woods to hold warm air... at 11,800 feet!). By the time we finished settling in for the night, it was well below freezing. I suspect it touched 20F by 4:30 when I got up to try out the latrine. Droplets of mist had frozen onto our tent. A spectacular dawn was beginning.
(Lisa is back). The second day was the hardest, albeit the most spectacular. We probably started out around 7:30. For the first 5 or so hours (it should have only been four but because I am so slow and I took so many pictures, it took longer.) It was all uphill to the pass. The footing itself was nowhere near as bad as hiking is in New Hampshire, but because of the thin air, it was difficult to breathe. Along the way, there were spectacular views of snow-capped mountains in the distance (some not so far in the distance), and all kinds of wildlife. We encountered pigs of all sizes and ages, horses, cows, an eagle, other birds indiginous (sp?) to the area, and, most importantly, llamas and alpacas. There were also many dogs along the way, but no cats. There were chickens of all colors, sheep, some goats and --- ? If I think of any more, I will add them to the list.
Once I finally made it to the pass (and almost exhausted my battery in my camera), we rested for a short while and started our descent to our lunch site. (Gary said the pass was 15K feet). I don't know how everyone else felt, but I was glad to have my feet moving in a downward motion. We stopped by a beautiful lake to have lunch, which as was our campsite the night before, ready and waiting for us. Near the lake there were hundreds of sheep with many tiny lambs, some of the smallest I have ever seen. Also along the way, we encountered many young children walking either on their way to or on their way home from school. Most of them asked for some "ducles", but we gave them "lapizes" with the fingerspelled alphabet on them and they seemed quite content with their gift. At some point here, we passed the home of an older woman weaving in her back yard (along with her puppy and unusually colored pig), so of course I had to go down to observe and make a small purchase.
After lunch, we had an additional three or so hour hike down we arrived at a canyon where the campsite was set out for our second night's stay outside. Tea time again, followed by some alone time in our tents, followed by dinner, followed by another frigid night. Ariel and Kate had a reading of 34F INSIDE their tent the next morning. (Anyone thinking of coming to Peru might want to opt to come here during their summer, although their summer is rainier than winter and this was the coldest year they have ever had.)
Now to today. After a cold breakfast (the breakfast was hot, we were cold), we started the final part of the trek, which was partly on dirt hiking paths and partly on a dirt road. Today is Independence Day here and we saw many celebrations in small houses along the way and heard loud music coming from these houses. After two or so hours, we arrived at our final outdoor lunch site, met some lovely children who hung around with us for the hour or so we were there, and said goodbye to our horses, llamas, llameros, caballeros, and cooks. We then went by van to Ollantaytambo where there were incredible Incan ruins of the great Incan city and ---
They are closing the lights at the internet cafe so we will have to continue with this blog mañana. We are off to Macchu Picchu--
Hasta mañana, y con nuestra amor,
Lisa, Kate, Ariel and Gary
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Some Rapid Comments
Lisa is off to bed, but sends her love to her family back at home and will sit down to type if Kate ever surrenders the computer. :)
Since we have started classes, Lisa and I have had far less time to compose our thoughts and our blog entries. Tonight will be brief as I have homework waiting for me and must be up early (although, not HMS early) for class tomorrow.
Today's random observations:
--80's song of the day: Journey, Anyway You Want It
Note: Dad, the Queen on pan-pipes was sold out. I guess you'll have to wait for iTunes. ;)
--We, or rather, Lisa has seen only one cat in our entire time in the country.
--Some effects of high altitude that we have experienced: headaches, joint pain, light-headedness, and tingling (as in when your foot falls asleep) in various places on our faces.
--Greatest altitude reached without the help of a plane: roughly 11,000 ft above sea level.
Note: when Kate and Jeremy went skydiving, our plane took us up 10,000 ft.
--Even though it is winter, because of our altitude and the thinness of the ozone layer here, the sun is very powerful. After only a half-hour or so I burnt the part in my hair. Lesson learned; today I wore a hat.
I can't remember if I mentioned, but we met some local Deaf people yesterday. We even videoed some of their signing. The educational opportunities (ha!) for the Deaf outside of Lima are horrible! And if you haven't read about the education available for the regular hearing kids (it's been in the news due to all the protests), it's FAR worse. I keep saying, "more on that later" but we only have so much computer time. If anyone reads a point they'd like us to expand upon, just comment or send an email. I hope that we are able to meet up again with Jack and Judith so that I can ask them their opinions (perhaps on video) of what they have seen here in Peru. They have a Deaf collegue who we saw briefly at the airport, but it appears she is the exception rather than the rule in this country.
Tomorrow is the last day of Spanish lessons and they have been going well, but the loss of two days has made quite an impact. Also I must admit having Ariel here makes a difference as her Spanish is many levels above ours and we will most likely take advantage of her if things get really difficult.
I'm sure there is much more we should be writing about, but I can't think of anything right now so that's all folks!
Since we have started classes, Lisa and I have had far less time to compose our thoughts and our blog entries. Tonight will be brief as I have homework waiting for me and must be up early (although, not HMS early) for class tomorrow.
Today's random observations:
--80's song of the day: Journey, Anyway You Want It
Note: Dad, the Queen on pan-pipes was sold out. I guess you'll have to wait for iTunes. ;)
--We, or rather, Lisa has seen only one cat in our entire time in the country.
--Some effects of high altitude that we have experienced: headaches, joint pain, light-headedness, and tingling (as in when your foot falls asleep) in various places on our faces.
--Greatest altitude reached without the help of a plane: roughly 11,000 ft above sea level.
Note: when Kate and Jeremy went skydiving, our plane took us up 10,000 ft.
--Even though it is winter, because of our altitude and the thinness of the ozone layer here, the sun is very powerful. After only a half-hour or so I burnt the part in my hair. Lesson learned; today I wore a hat.
I can't remember if I mentioned, but we met some local Deaf people yesterday. We even videoed some of their signing. The educational opportunities (ha!) for the Deaf outside of Lima are horrible! And if you haven't read about the education available for the regular hearing kids (it's been in the news due to all the protests), it's FAR worse. I keep saying, "more on that later" but we only have so much computer time. If anyone reads a point they'd like us to expand upon, just comment or send an email. I hope that we are able to meet up again with Jack and Judith so that I can ask them their opinions (perhaps on video) of what they have seen here in Peru. They have a Deaf collegue who we saw briefly at the airport, but it appears she is the exception rather than the rule in this country.
Tomorrow is the last day of Spanish lessons and they have been going well, but the loss of two days has made quite an impact. Also I must admit having Ariel here makes a difference as her Spanish is many levels above ours and we will most likely take advantage of her if things get really difficult.
I'm sure there is much more we should be writing about, but I can't think of anything right now so that's all folks!
Two MORE to Peru!!
Ariel and I are here! Cuzco is eye-boggling. The landing pattern into Cuzco reminds me of soaring flights over Lafayette and Mt. Washington... with if anything more aggressive maneuvering.
This is a non-American keyboard, so I am amazed at the length of the blog entries Lisa and Kate have posted with nary a typo. To give you an idea of what one is up against, here is what this blog´s URL looks like if I touch-type:
http<Ñ--twotoperu.blogspot.com-
Ariel is currently napping. She got about 90 minutes of sleep during last night´s flight - I got none. We were too stressed out and frantic. You see, our plane from Boston left its previous location (JFK) an hour late, so we left Boston 75 minutes late, leaving only a 15 minutes Atlanta layover before our connection to Lima was supposed to leave its gate... and our arrival gate was over a half-mile from our departure gate. With full backpacks. As we rolled up to the arrival gate (after 10 minutes of nail-biting taxiing and 2 minutes of excruciating waiting for gate clearance) a cabin crew person got on the P.A. and said passengers connecting to Peru should go to gate so-and-so (even farther away from the boarding pass´s gate!), THEY ARE HOLDING THE PLANE FOR US! We began breathing again. And it turned out there´s an underground train that did about a quarter mile of the distance. Then, the question became would they be kind enough to also hold for our baggage. They did!
Our 4 hour layover in Lima was a picnic by comparison, but though we tried, neither of us got any significant sleep in the lounge area, even though it was reasonably quiet (being 5 am local time).
From there, everything has gone flawlessly. Well, nearly. We had to wait in the Cuzco airport parking area for nearly an hour to find out that the other people who were supposed to be on our flight and be taken to our same hostal, hadn´t been on the flight.
The hostal, the room, the people, and the views are all marvelous. I had three cups of coca-leaf tea while waiting for our room to be prep´d, and now despite being up for 32 hours straight, I cannot nap. But the weather is 60 degrees with a whisper of a breeze, the air is crystal clear and smells of interesting food, and I am quite content to gaze out at the tile roofs below our window, and wait for Lisa and Kate to "get home from school".
This is a non-American keyboard, so I am amazed at the length of the blog entries Lisa and Kate have posted with nary a typo. To give you an idea of what one is up against, here is what this blog´s URL looks like if I touch-type:
http<Ñ--twotoperu.blogspot.com-
Ariel is currently napping. She got about 90 minutes of sleep during last night´s flight - I got none. We were too stressed out and frantic. You see, our plane from Boston left its previous location (JFK) an hour late, so we left Boston 75 minutes late, leaving only a 15 minutes Atlanta layover before our connection to Lima was supposed to leave its gate... and our arrival gate was over a half-mile from our departure gate. With full backpacks. As we rolled up to the arrival gate (after 10 minutes of nail-biting taxiing and 2 minutes of excruciating waiting for gate clearance) a cabin crew person got on the P.A. and said passengers connecting to Peru should go to gate so-and-so (even farther away from the boarding pass´s gate!), THEY ARE HOLDING THE PLANE FOR US! We began breathing again. And it turned out there´s an underground train that did about a quarter mile of the distance. Then, the question became would they be kind enough to also hold for our baggage. They did!
Our 4 hour layover in Lima was a picnic by comparison, but though we tried, neither of us got any significant sleep in the lounge area, even though it was reasonably quiet (being 5 am local time).
From there, everything has gone flawlessly. Well, nearly. We had to wait in the Cuzco airport parking area for nearly an hour to find out that the other people who were supposed to be on our flight and be taken to our same hostal, hadn´t been on the flight.
The hostal, the room, the people, and the views are all marvelous. I had three cups of coca-leaf tea while waiting for our room to be prep´d, and now despite being up for 32 hours straight, I cannot nap. But the weather is 60 degrees with a whisper of a breeze, the air is crystal clear and smells of interesting food, and I am quite content to gaze out at the tile roofs below our window, and wait for Lisa and Kate to "get home from school".
Monday, July 23, 2007
Arriving soon at your local Cuzco...
(if you are Lisa and Kate) will be Gary and Ariel.
Ariel expects to arrive at Harvard by noon EDT, whereupon packing and general merriment will ensue. When we're done, it's off to Brighton to park her car, switch to a taxi, and head to Logan. Our first flight is at 1900 EDT to Atlanta; then another to Lima; then another to Cuzco. I got up at 6:30 this morning; we arrive in Lima sometime around 5:30 AM Tuesday; there's a multi-hour layover before continuing to Cuzco; so basically we'll be traveling for a looooooooooooooooooooooooong time. Viva la red-eye.
Ariel expects to arrive at Harvard by noon EDT, whereupon packing and general merriment will ensue. When we're done, it's off to Brighton to park her car, switch to a taxi, and head to Logan. Our first flight is at 1900 EDT to Atlanta; then another to Lima; then another to Cuzco. I got up at 6:30 this morning; we arrive in Lima sometime around 5:30 AM Tuesday; there's a multi-hour layover before continuing to Cuzco; so basically we'll be traveling for a looooooooooooooooooooooooong time. Viva la red-eye.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Observations
Last post I (Kate here) mentioned a few random facts about dogs and other things we had noticed. I´ll add more observations today.
80's music is alive and well in Peru. You haven't heard Queen until you've heard "It's a Kind of Magic" played as muzak with a pan-pipe accompaniment in a grocery store. This morning at breakfast I even got to hear Martika, who will be playing somewhere near here in the next month!
On gods and worship:
When we made our trip to Pachacamac we learned (ok, I learned this in High School) that the Incas worship a sun god. Having spent so many days in the haze and cloud cover that is Lima, I am quite ready to worship the sun each time I walk out of my door in Cuzco.
On earning money:
There are any number of vendors here in Cuzco who will sell you glasses, woven belts, postcards, and plethera of textiles woven, knit, and crochet. There are also many people in native dress who are carrying cute babies, sometimes human, sometimes lambs or goats who will let you pose for a picture if you're willing to pay. There are also many children not yet up to my waist, and that's saying something who will sell you a doll or not, for a bit of change.
Communicating:
During a phone call with Jeremy today he asked how our communication skills were working out. It's a shame that scheduling required us to make our school visits prior to our Spanish classes. I definitely need to sit down and write more in depth about our tours at the schools, which were both in Spanish, but they provide two ends of the spectrum of Spanish communication experiences we have experienced. At CPAL the director of the school was warm, inviting, and spoke to us as fellow educators. Melva (pardon if I have to correct this later, I don´t have her card with me now) had an aura of one who can convey information in a variety of ways. She explained that she only had a bit of English and spoke Spanish the entire time, but was patient and never condescending when we didn't understand and always found a way of conveying what she needed to say. Melva spoke of her month-long stay in the United States and how she felt it reinforced that the ideas expressed by people with limited skills in a particular language, in her case English, should never be the sole indicator of intelligence. Just as with Deaf children in English or Spanish. Or in our case, Spanish. We felt welcome, respected and not at all overwhelmed.
At the second school the experience was quite different. The experience was wonderful, but we left feeling much more overwhelmed. More on this later as my time online is slipping away.
In general our experiences have varied depending on the situation. Here in Cuzco most of the haggling we've done over various wares has been in Spanish. A vendor may pull out a few words of English to try and sway us. When we meet up with a more complex situation while asking for information or help we have used as much Spanish as possible, throwing in a few words of English when we are stuck; the person with whom we are communicating will do the same. At the yarn shop "safety pin" required a picture and then we both exchanged the words to file away for later.
Tomorrow starts our first day of Spanish classes so there will be lots more to say after that. Actually, there's always lots more to say, we just can't get it all down when we sit to write. If you have any questions about what we're doing or have requests for more (or less) information on a particular topic, please let us know.
Also, many thanks to our readers and to those commenting. It's the taste of home we need to keep from feeling too homesick.
Adios for now!
80's music is alive and well in Peru. You haven't heard Queen until you've heard "It's a Kind of Magic" played as muzak with a pan-pipe accompaniment in a grocery store. This morning at breakfast I even got to hear Martika, who will be playing somewhere near here in the next month!
On gods and worship:
When we made our trip to Pachacamac we learned (ok, I learned this in High School) that the Incas worship a sun god. Having spent so many days in the haze and cloud cover that is Lima, I am quite ready to worship the sun each time I walk out of my door in Cuzco.
On earning money:
There are any number of vendors here in Cuzco who will sell you glasses, woven belts, postcards, and plethera of textiles woven, knit, and crochet. There are also many people in native dress who are carrying cute babies, sometimes human, sometimes lambs or goats who will let you pose for a picture if you're willing to pay. There are also many children not yet up to my waist, and that's saying something who will sell you a doll or not, for a bit of change.
Communicating:
During a phone call with Jeremy today he asked how our communication skills were working out. It's a shame that scheduling required us to make our school visits prior to our Spanish classes. I definitely need to sit down and write more in depth about our tours at the schools, which were both in Spanish, but they provide two ends of the spectrum of Spanish communication experiences we have experienced. At CPAL the director of the school was warm, inviting, and spoke to us as fellow educators. Melva (pardon if I have to correct this later, I don´t have her card with me now) had an aura of one who can convey information in a variety of ways. She explained that she only had a bit of English and spoke Spanish the entire time, but was patient and never condescending when we didn't understand and always found a way of conveying what she needed to say. Melva spoke of her month-long stay in the United States and how she felt it reinforced that the ideas expressed by people with limited skills in a particular language, in her case English, should never be the sole indicator of intelligence. Just as with Deaf children in English or Spanish. Or in our case, Spanish. We felt welcome, respected and not at all overwhelmed.
At the second school the experience was quite different. The experience was wonderful, but we left feeling much more overwhelmed. More on this later as my time online is slipping away.
In general our experiences have varied depending on the situation. Here in Cuzco most of the haggling we've done over various wares has been in Spanish. A vendor may pull out a few words of English to try and sway us. When we meet up with a more complex situation while asking for information or help we have used as much Spanish as possible, throwing in a few words of English when we are stuck; the person with whom we are communicating will do the same. At the yarn shop "safety pin" required a picture and then we both exchanged the words to file away for later.
Tomorrow starts our first day of Spanish classes so there will be lots more to say after that. Actually, there's always lots more to say, we just can't get it all down when we sit to write. If you have any questions about what we're doing or have requests for more (or less) information on a particular topic, please let us know.
Also, many thanks to our readers and to those commenting. It's the taste of home we need to keep from feeling too homesick.
Adios for now!
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Lisa Can Leave Happy
Kate here:
This entry will be a mix of things that we forgot to write about in previous posts, but I'll start with today for those who have limited time.
As Gary said, Cuzco is beautiful after all the cloud cover and pollution of Lima. Mountains, blue skies, llamas... who could ask for more? Poto, if you're reading this (and I'll fall over if you are) I could see within my first 10 minutes why you loved Cuzco so much.
But let us back track to Lima. We discovered yesterday that our flight was to leave earlier than expected and the first order of business was to find a shop that sold alpaca yarn. After much wandering we found an indoor market that had yarn for sale. 12 skeins of an alpaca, cotton and wool blend for the bargain price of 80 soles. That translates roughly to $25, maybe a little less. Quite a deal, but not alpaca yarn. On the way back we happened across an alpaca boutique with some AMAZING baby alpaca yarn for about $4-5 dollars. For you textile nuts out there, it was more than quite the deal. As we left the store, with the yarn in Lisa's hot little hands she stated, "I can leave happy now!" Not that we're leaving...
Back track to our first attempt to leave Lima, on Thursday. While in the check in line at the airport we saw signing. A little nosing through the crowd made it clear that it was ASL. A few minutes later we were chatting with Jack and Judith L. of Freemont, CA. Those of you back at HMS should ask Buddy and Karen if they know them. As it happens, J&J were on our flight to Cuzco.
Be Careful What You Wish For...
As I finally found a comfy position in my seat on Lan Peru flight 023 to Cuzco I thought, "it would be nice to have a slightly longer flight so thatI can doze off." But the whole flight is an hour, so it was not to be. The snack trolley rolled down the aisle as the in-flight display monitor showed 27 minutes until landing. The little crunchy bread sticks that were given as a snack along side the mini-muffins were quite tasty. Muffins stowed ad water swallowed (yes Jeremy, I've been drinking water) the captain began to announce that there was bad news. Due to bad conditions in Cuzco we would have to turn around and head back to Lima. Or at least that's what I gleaned of the message with my rusty Spanish. Darn weather! Then in English a similar message with one major difference, ¨due to riot conditions." How often do I tell my students that missing one word in a sentence can completely change its meaning?
Some Observations:
Clear Channel appears to own every billboard in Peru.
In Peru Pizza Hut and KFC are always side by side.
In Peru Radio Shack sells luggage locks. Note: at the Lima airport Lisa's locks, although TSA approved, were taken from her luggage along with one of my caribeeners (sp?).
If you don´t want to wait in a check-in line at the airport, just ask for help and you get to jump to the front of the line!
If a dog is on a leash (ie, has an owner vs a person it just hangs out with), it will be wearing a doggie coat.
Lisa here: Back to Cusco. The fact that as we were driving over here from the airport we saw multiple llamas and alpacas along the way has me ecstatic. Ever since I met and fell in love with my first alpaca, Carlotta, at an alpaca farm in Hartland Vt one sunny February day in 2004 when the temperature was about 10 below 0, I have looked forward to the day when I could see them in the wild. When I was in Ecuador a couple of years ago, I saw some, but nothing like here. Now my goal is to wander the city photographing all the alpacas and llamas I can find. After that it will be on to vicuñas, and that will be a real treat since there are no vicuñas in the states. If anyone wants a history of the camelid family, maybe my husband can find one of the sites on line with a good synopsis of their evolution.
I think we´re going to sign off now. Hasta luego amigos.
This entry will be a mix of things that we forgot to write about in previous posts, but I'll start with today for those who have limited time.
As Gary said, Cuzco is beautiful after all the cloud cover and pollution of Lima. Mountains, blue skies, llamas... who could ask for more? Poto, if you're reading this (and I'll fall over if you are) I could see within my first 10 minutes why you loved Cuzco so much.
But let us back track to Lima. We discovered yesterday that our flight was to leave earlier than expected and the first order of business was to find a shop that sold alpaca yarn. After much wandering we found an indoor market that had yarn for sale. 12 skeins of an alpaca, cotton and wool blend for the bargain price of 80 soles. That translates roughly to $25, maybe a little less. Quite a deal, but not alpaca yarn. On the way back we happened across an alpaca boutique with some AMAZING baby alpaca yarn for about $4-5 dollars. For you textile nuts out there, it was more than quite the deal. As we left the store, with the yarn in Lisa's hot little hands she stated, "I can leave happy now!" Not that we're leaving...
Back track to our first attempt to leave Lima, on Thursday. While in the check in line at the airport we saw signing. A little nosing through the crowd made it clear that it was ASL. A few minutes later we were chatting with Jack and Judith L. of Freemont, CA. Those of you back at HMS should ask Buddy and Karen if they know them. As it happens, J&J were on our flight to Cuzco.
Be Careful What You Wish For...
As I finally found a comfy position in my seat on Lan Peru flight 023 to Cuzco I thought, "it would be nice to have a slightly longer flight so thatI can doze off." But the whole flight is an hour, so it was not to be. The snack trolley rolled down the aisle as the in-flight display monitor showed 27 minutes until landing. The little crunchy bread sticks that were given as a snack along side the mini-muffins were quite tasty. Muffins stowed ad water swallowed (yes Jeremy, I've been drinking water) the captain began to announce that there was bad news. Due to bad conditions in Cuzco we would have to turn around and head back to Lima. Or at least that's what I gleaned of the message with my rusty Spanish. Darn weather! Then in English a similar message with one major difference, ¨due to riot conditions." How often do I tell my students that missing one word in a sentence can completely change its meaning?
Some Observations:
Clear Channel appears to own every billboard in Peru.
In Peru Pizza Hut and KFC are always side by side.
In Peru Radio Shack sells luggage locks. Note: at the Lima airport Lisa's locks, although TSA approved, were taken from her luggage along with one of my caribeeners (sp?).
If you don´t want to wait in a check-in line at the airport, just ask for help and you get to jump to the front of the line!
If a dog is on a leash (ie, has an owner vs a person it just hangs out with), it will be wearing a doggie coat.
Lisa here: Back to Cusco. The fact that as we were driving over here from the airport we saw multiple llamas and alpacas along the way has me ecstatic. Ever since I met and fell in love with my first alpaca, Carlotta, at an alpaca farm in Hartland Vt one sunny February day in 2004 when the temperature was about 10 below 0, I have looked forward to the day when I could see them in the wild. When I was in Ecuador a couple of years ago, I saw some, but nothing like here. Now my goal is to wander the city photographing all the alpacas and llamas I can find. After that it will be on to vicuñas, and that will be a real treat since there are no vicuñas in the states. If anyone wants a history of the camelid family, maybe my husband can find one of the sites on line with a good synopsis of their evolution.
I think we´re going to sign off now. Hasta luego amigos.
Cuzco at last!
[Transcript of phone call I just received from Lisa.]
"Gary, this is gorgeous. There was nothing like this in Ecuador. The mountains, the streets... llamas and alpacas wandering everywhere. Sunshine after 5 days of clouds. I'll call ya later, we're going out!"
"Gary, this is gorgeous. There was nothing like this in Ecuador. The mountains, the streets... llamas and alpacas wandering everywhere. Sunshine after 5 days of clouds. I'll call ya later, we're going out!"
Friday, July 20, 2007
Pachacamac
Lisa the ex-history teacher reporting here. As Kate mentioned earlier, we decided to head outside of Lima today and went on a tour of Pachacamac. We went with a tour group of about 8 other people that was lead by a wonderful tour guide Juan Carlos from Lima Vision. Pachacamac is an Incan and pre-Incan temple site. Pachacamac was the creator god of 3 or 4 pre-Incan civilizations and the site existed for 1000 years prior toarrival of the Incas .
The first place we saw was the place where offerings were made before being allowed to ascend to the temple of Pachacamac. We went up the road a bit and found out the reason the original settlement was situated there; in the midst of the desert, there was a green fertile area which allowed people to inhabit such an area. From that site the Pacific was in clear view and close proximity. The next stop was to the first and second temples. The first basically looked like a mound of sand, somewhat amorpheously shaped. (The temples in the area were not pyramids, but rather had flat roofs. It was on these roofs that the sacrifices were made.) That was the oldest temple. In later years, still before the Incas arrived, a newer temple was built that clearly had much more definition. Finally, a bit further up the road, we arrived at the most majestic Incan temple, built atop a hill with clear views out to the ocean, to the east, and the north and south.
While at the Incan temple, we learned all the juicy details of the workings of the temple. The Incas had sacrifices, but they were not of animals. Young virgins, identified at birth, were raised to be sacrificial ¨lambs¨. This was a very priviledged position to be in and they were raised in very high standards. The final place we visited on the site was a recreation of the ¨house¨the virgins lived with with all women servants at their beck and call (no men allowed for obvious reasons.) The actual sacrifices were not regular events but only occured in times of disasters (earthquake, volcanic eruption, el Niño), when the Incas thought they needed to give something to the gods to restore order The sacrifices themselves were done in two ways which I will not detail here, but although one was considered more humane than the other, both sounded fairly horrible to me. Once the sacrifice was complete, their bodies were thrown into a burial pit below the sacrifical slab. To date, 11 bodies have been found at the site.
Another interesting tidbit about the place concerns Hernando Pizarro, ¨honorable¨ brother of of the more infamous Francisco. While Francisco was up north doing his deeds, he sent his brother down to investigate the temple of the god Pachacamac. We saw where Hernando walked up to make his initial offerings in order to be let into the temple in general. His offerings were accepted however he was not allowed access into the temple to set eyes on Pachacamac. He was not a happy camper about this and tried to figure out how to gain access to the palace of the god. (If the god was an actual person, his plan was to ¨kidnap¨him ala the taking of Atahualpa in Cusco. If the god was a statue made of gold, you can imagine what his plan would have been.) Anyway, he finally used forced to enter the temple and was quite disappointed to find Pachacama to be a 230 cm high, carved wooden totem with a diameter of about 12 cm. As a show of his disappointment, he proceeded to burn the original god as well as almost all copies made of it. There are only two of the copies left today and they are both in a museum in Lima.
As for the god itself, it had a dual nature. On one side it was a happy god, a god of fertility. On the other, it was a more fierce sort, complete with a jaguar to beware of. All of this is shown pictorally on the totem.
While there was a lot more, this is the gist of the story. It was truly fascinating and our guide was incredible knowledgeable, articulate (in English y en Español), and personable. As soon as we are able to get to either a computer where we can upload the pictures or a place where we can make a photo disc, we will start boring you with our pictures.
Time for bed-- hasta manaña.
The first place we saw was the place where offerings were made before being allowed to ascend to the temple of Pachacamac. We went up the road a bit and found out the reason the original settlement was situated there; in the midst of the desert, there was a green fertile area which allowed people to inhabit such an area. From that site the Pacific was in clear view and close proximity. The next stop was to the first and second temples. The first basically looked like a mound of sand, somewhat amorpheously shaped. (The temples in the area were not pyramids, but rather had flat roofs. It was on these roofs that the sacrifices were made.) That was the oldest temple. In later years, still before the Incas arrived, a newer temple was built that clearly had much more definition. Finally, a bit further up the road, we arrived at the most majestic Incan temple, built atop a hill with clear views out to the ocean, to the east, and the north and south.
While at the Incan temple, we learned all the juicy details of the workings of the temple. The Incas had sacrifices, but they were not of animals. Young virgins, identified at birth, were raised to be sacrificial ¨lambs¨. This was a very priviledged position to be in and they were raised in very high standards. The final place we visited on the site was a recreation of the ¨house¨the virgins lived with with all women servants at their beck and call (no men allowed for obvious reasons.) The actual sacrifices were not regular events but only occured in times of disasters (earthquake, volcanic eruption, el Niño), when the Incas thought they needed to give something to the gods to restore order The sacrifices themselves were done in two ways which I will not detail here, but although one was considered more humane than the other, both sounded fairly horrible to me. Once the sacrifice was complete, their bodies were thrown into a burial pit below the sacrifical slab. To date, 11 bodies have been found at the site.
Another interesting tidbit about the place concerns Hernando Pizarro, ¨honorable¨ brother of of the more infamous Francisco. While Francisco was up north doing his deeds, he sent his brother down to investigate the temple of the god Pachacamac. We saw where Hernando walked up to make his initial offerings in order to be let into the temple in general. His offerings were accepted however he was not allowed access into the temple to set eyes on Pachacamac. He was not a happy camper about this and tried to figure out how to gain access to the palace of the god. (If the god was an actual person, his plan was to ¨kidnap¨him ala the taking of Atahualpa in Cusco. If the god was a statue made of gold, you can imagine what his plan would have been.) Anyway, he finally used forced to enter the temple and was quite disappointed to find Pachacama to be a 230 cm high, carved wooden totem with a diameter of about 12 cm. As a show of his disappointment, he proceeded to burn the original god as well as almost all copies made of it. There are only two of the copies left today and they are both in a museum in Lima.
As for the god itself, it had a dual nature. On one side it was a happy god, a god of fertility. On the other, it was a more fierce sort, complete with a jaguar to beware of. All of this is shown pictorally on the totem.
While there was a lot more, this is the gist of the story. It was truly fascinating and our guide was incredible knowledgeable, articulate (in English y en Español), and personable. As soon as we are able to get to either a computer where we can upload the pictures or a place where we can make a photo disc, we will start boring you with our pictures.
Time for bed-- hasta manaña.
Of Spaghetti and San Antonio
Kate here. Last night I stated that those reading the blog should really take time to read the comments. To eat up more of your time, I should also say that it's worthwhile to go back and see new comments added. Apparently some of our more faithful readers (read all the puns you want into that) have really latched onto the conversation we had with Claire regarding the teaching of evolution. What has evolution to do with spaghetti? Read through some of the comments and you too can be in on this discussion! Besides, what else is there to read during the final hours before HP #7 arrives on the shelves?
San Antonio now... not the city, but our lovely hotel. They've managed to arrange for us to stay in our room another night! THANK GOODNESS! It's really starting to feel like a home base for us. High recommendations to anyone traveling to Lima. The neighborhood is safe and easily walkable. The rooms clean and comfortable. The staff incredibly helpful. What more can we say?
Today we're off for a day trip to see some ruins, or maybe mummies, or perhaps both. But it's time to escape the city for a while. Our attempt to leave by plane yesterday thwarted, we will stick to more conventional means (bus) today and see where that gets us.
I just occurred to me that perhaps when we arrive in Cuzco we will have similar problems in being unable to post pictures. If that's the case we may go to one of the multiple photo shops I've seen and get a few put on disk. No promises, though.
San Antonio now... not the city, but our lovely hotel. They've managed to arrange for us to stay in our room another night! THANK GOODNESS! It's really starting to feel like a home base for us. High recommendations to anyone traveling to Lima. The neighborhood is safe and easily walkable. The rooms clean and comfortable. The staff incredibly helpful. What more can we say?
Today we're off for a day trip to see some ruins, or maybe mummies, or perhaps both. But it's time to escape the city for a while. Our attempt to leave by plane yesterday thwarted, we will stick to more conventional means (bus) today and see where that gets us.
I just occurred to me that perhaps when we arrive in Cuzco we will have similar problems in being unable to post pictures. If that's the case we may go to one of the multiple photo shops I've seen and get a few put on disk. No promises, though.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Our Aborted Trip to Cusco and ...
Well, you have heard from Jeremy, Gary and Kate about our day, I guess it is my turn now. By now you are all aware of the teacher strike causing the airport to shut down in Cusco, and our return to our first Peruvian home at the Hotel San Antonio Abad, which we cannot say more good things about. We contacted LanPeru, the airline, and got the first available flight out, which is on Saturday at 3:oo. Everybody expects everything to be pretty much back to normal by tomorrow, but all of tomorrow´s flights were booked even before today´s incident. Kate and I decided to treat ourselves to one of the finer restaurants in the area which is situated overlooking a pre-Incan pyramidal temple. The ruins were very impressive and even at night I think I succeeded in getting a few good shots of the ruins. We finally tasted the ¨national drink¨, a Pisco Sour, which is quite good. We both greatly enjoyed different versions of sea bass, mine with quinoa, yucca and asparagus and hers with cilantro risotto. I can´t remember what the desert was called, however it was a sort of a cylindrical wafer with a cream based filling, surrounded by strawberries and possible lychee nuts with drizzled chocolate. Either the wafer of the filling had something to do with quinoa. It was all quite satisfying.
Since we will still be in Lima tomorrow, we plan to visit a pre-Incan archeological complex 31km SE of the city. We might also go to another Incan site where about 2000 well-preserved mummies were found a few years back. Part of this site has a reconstruction of the chief´s house complete with one room that has been identified as a guinea pig ranch. I feel I owe it to my guinea pigs at home to pay homage to this ancient site.(I also refrained from eating the guinea pig special that was on the menu this evening.)
Well, we´re both tired and will add more tomorrow.
Note from Kate: I put this link in the comments, but not all of you read them (you should) and I can easily make it a hyperlink here, even in my tired state. This link= an article on the strike/riots . That's all for now, g'night!
Since we will still be in Lima tomorrow, we plan to visit a pre-Incan archeological complex 31km SE of the city. We might also go to another Incan site where about 2000 well-preserved mummies were found a few years back. Part of this site has a reconstruction of the chief´s house complete with one room that has been identified as a guinea pig ranch. I feel I owe it to my guinea pigs at home to pay homage to this ancient site.(I also refrained from eating the guinea pig special that was on the menu this evening.)
Well, we´re both tired and will add more tomorrow.
Note from Kate: I put this link in the comments, but not all of you read them (you should) and I can easily make it a hyperlink here, even in my tired state. This link= an article on the strike/riots . That's all for now, g'night!
Riots and Refuge
Hi all - this is Jeremy. Just a quick post on behalf of our Ladies in Lima. And yes, they are still in Lima.
You may recall the news of riots in Peru airports [BBC News] from a couple days ago. Well, the riots have spread to other airports including Cuzco (though the news has not yet made it back to the US, it seems. Wow, I got the scoop!). Don't worry, Kate and Lisa are safe, albeit back in Lima.
Anyway, 15 minutes from landing in Cuzco, riots broke out in the Cuzco airport and the plane was sent back to Lima. Kate and Lisa will be spending the night back in the hotel at which they spent last night. They made friends with a Deaf couple from... details are fuzzy... California, I think? Anyway, they will be calling family and posting shortly, but they asked me to post in the meantime. If I hear more I will post, but in the meantime, don't worry - they're safe!
Jeremy
OK, well, my flight tracker never reported the flight landing at Cuzco... because it didn't. It got close, but had to return to Lima because some protests in Cuzco caused the airport there to be closed. (Hilariously, it still says the flight is "On Time".)
Our intrepid ladies have been given free tickets to try again when the airport re-opens, and have gotten rooms at the same Lima hotel as yesterday.
In the airport, they saw some people signing, struck up a conversation, and discovered that they work with Robin and Greg (Horace Mann alumni who moved to CA a decade or so ago).
They'll be on their way back to the hotel shortly.
Our intrepid ladies have been given free tickets to try again when the airport re-opens, and have gotten rooms at the same Lima hotel as yesterday.
In the airport, they saw some people signing, struck up a conversation, and discovered that they work with Robin and Greg (Horace Mann alumni who moved to CA a decade or so ago).
They'll be on their way back to the hotel shortly.
According to my flight tracker...
... Kate and Lisa's flight on LanPeru is on time and should be arriving at Cuzco right about now.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
We're Here!!
There is so much to write... where to begin.
We arrived a little late at about 1 am EST, as Jeremy posted in the comments earlier. (Please note that Jeremy and Gary will be posting in the comments or in the actual blog when we can't make it to a computer.) There was a driver from our hotel waiting to pick us up, thank goodness. We shared the car back to the hotel with a woman named Claire, from Belgium. She and Lisa chatted a good deal about Peru and travel in general. We came to learn that Claire just finished her thesis in "Osteopathie" and she was curious about Americans' attitudes toward science. Specifically, Claire was curious if it was true that in America a law was passed that prohibited the teaching of evolution. More on this later, but it is amazing the reputation we have abroad. Feel free to add your opinions on this subject in the comments area. I'd love to leave a message for Claire as she may be heading back to this hotel when she's finished with her 3 week mountain trek.
Today we were able to visit not one, but two schools. Again, I won't get into details just yet (Kate typing now, by the way. We'll save that for when I have the camera and can upload pictures.) but we learned a lot about the educational system in Peru and just how much the teachers have to fight and fund-raise for their students. It was quite a shock to see such homogenous classes. For those of you who work at HMS, take Marvin T. and Kelyn C and imagine an entire classroom of such cuties. In one classroom I was mobbed by students who were trying to pull of my glasses! Why? They couldn't believe that blue/green eyes could be natural! But it was when a student asked my age that we both felt as though we had truly visited a school for the Deaf. ;)
Alright, I'm off for now to try and navigate the spanish version of blogger to see if we can enable Jeremy and Gary to post for us when we're out of touch. Hopefully later this evening there will be pictures for you all.
We arrived a little late at about 1 am EST, as Jeremy posted in the comments earlier. (Please note that Jeremy and Gary will be posting in the comments or in the actual blog when we can't make it to a computer.) There was a driver from our hotel waiting to pick us up, thank goodness. We shared the car back to the hotel with a woman named Claire, from Belgium. She and Lisa chatted a good deal about Peru and travel in general. We came to learn that Claire just finished her thesis in "Osteopathie" and she was curious about Americans' attitudes toward science. Specifically, Claire was curious if it was true that in America a law was passed that prohibited the teaching of evolution. More on this later, but it is amazing the reputation we have abroad. Feel free to add your opinions on this subject in the comments area. I'd love to leave a message for Claire as she may be heading back to this hotel when she's finished with her 3 week mountain trek.
Today we were able to visit not one, but two schools. Again, I won't get into details just yet (Kate typing now, by the way. We'll save that for when I have the camera and can upload pictures.) but we learned a lot about the educational system in Peru and just how much the teachers have to fight and fund-raise for their students. It was quite a shock to see such homogenous classes. For those of you who work at HMS, take Marvin T. and Kelyn C and imagine an entire classroom of such cuties. In one classroom I was mobbed by students who were trying to pull of my glasses! Why? They couldn't believe that blue/green eyes could be natural! But it was when a student asked my age that we both felt as though we had truly visited a school for the Deaf. ;)
Alright, I'm off for now to try and navigate the spanish version of blogger to see if we can enable Jeremy and Gary to post for us when we're out of touch. Hopefully later this evening there will be pictures for you all.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
And We're Off!
Just a quick post to say that we're off to Peru! Of course it will be more than 12 hours from now before we get there, but this morning starts our journey. We will post as often as possible along the trip and USB connections willing, we'll have lots of pictures for you to see.
See you all soon!
Kate and Lisa
See you all soon!
Kate and Lisa
Friday, July 13, 2007
The Countdown Begins...
Four days until we leave...
After long and laborious hours of work Lisa (with the help of South American Explorers) was able to make contact with CPAL and we'll get to make a school visit on July 18th! Unfortunately the students will be on their winter break at that time. At least we will be able to set up further contacts based on this visit.
More soon!
After long and laborious hours of work Lisa (with the help of South American Explorers) was able to make contact with CPAL and we'll get to make a school visit on July 18th! Unfortunately the students will be on their winter break at that time. At least we will be able to set up further contacts based on this visit.
More soon!
Monday, July 9, 2007
A Growing List of Thanks...
Frequently during this process I have thought that there are many people to whom we owe thanks as we prepare to leave on our trip. Each time I sit down I realize that similar to the laundry list stars bring to the Academy Awards, no matter how many people we thank, we'll inevitably we'll leave off someone and begin that awful awkwardness that happens when you offend a friend or agent.
My solution is that this post will be a growing list of thanks. Each time Lisa or I have a spare moment and are thinking of someone to thank, we'll modify this post. Keep looking back to see who's been added to the list. This also means we will be adding people we meet along the trip, as I'm sure we'll find plenty of amazing people along our journey who will earn our friendship and thanks.
Thank you list:
*Our families, particularly Gary, Ariel, and Jeremy
*Fund for Teachers, for the funds that made this trip possible
Alice, for the ASL story dvds
Charlotte, for the HMS dvds and for seeing if her dad has any Peru contacts
Claudia, for the business cards
Jerry, our principal, for signing off on the grant
Rebeca, for translation help
Tom, for the ASL dictionaries (the check is in the mail!)
Note: If you'd like to make a case for why you should be included on the list, feel free to leave a comment!
My solution is that this post will be a growing list of thanks. Each time Lisa or I have a spare moment and are thinking of someone to thank, we'll modify this post. Keep looking back to see who's been added to the list. This also means we will be adding people we meet along the trip, as I'm sure we'll find plenty of amazing people along our journey who will earn our friendship and thanks.
Thank you list:
*Our families, particularly Gary, Ariel, and Jeremy
*Fund for Teachers, for the funds that made this trip possible
Alice, for the ASL story dvds
Charlotte, for the HMS dvds and for seeing if her dad has any Peru contacts
Claudia, for the business cards
Jerry, our principal, for signing off on the grant
Rebeca, for translation help
Tom, for the ASL dictionaries (the check is in the mail!)
Note: If you'd like to make a case for why you should be included on the list, feel free to leave a comment!
Friday, July 6, 2007
The Saga of Booking the Llama Trek
We finally wired the money for our Llama Trek! Part of the adventure in independently planning our trip is learning how to do new things. While we found the Llama Trek fairly easily via a link on the South American Explorers website, sending in the deposit was anything but easy. As I encountered a few years ago when I visited my daughter in Ecuador and tried to book passage to the Galapagos, not everyone accepts credit cards. At first, I called my bank to ask them about wiring money; they said it costs $35. I then asked my husband; he said our other account wires money for free. The third option, Western Union, was the most convenient so I decided to start there. At $85, I thought again about going to our "free bank." I drove over there today only to be informed they could only wire money to an American bank. No problem, the "other bank" was just next door. I walked over, asked about wiring money and was told it was no problem -- usually. However, the computers were down and they could do nothing until they came up again. Okay, I could be patient, especially when I went to kill time at LL Bean (they were having a sale!) Two shirts, a pair of capris and a bathing suit later, I was on my way back to the bank. This time, the system was up, the money was sent and now all we have to look forward to is coming up with the money to pay for the final 20% of the trek. After this, three days of hiking on the Inca Trail will be nothing!
ITIC
For those traveling on Fund for Teachers grants, you might want to invest in an International Teacher Identity Card (ITIC, for short). Similar to the International Student Identity Card (ISIC), this ID affords discounts worldwide and is recognized internationally as a valid form of teacher/student identification. I had one when I lived and worked in London 11 years ago and it was worth the $26 investment.
Click the ISIC link for more information...
Click the ISIC link for more information...
Thursday, July 5, 2007
A quick post of dates
It was recently brought to my attention that we have yet to post our dates of travel. For our absolute nearest and dearest we will provide the link to our Google calendar (shameless plug from Kate: I love that the gmail calendar can accept text messages from your phone and add events to your calendar using regular, plain ol' English!) so that they can have our flight info, etc. For the rest of our readers, here's a basic itinerary:
July 17th: we fly to Peru
July 20th - 25th: Spanish classes
July 23rd: Lisa's familia arrives
July 26th - 29th: Llama trek
July 30th: Puno/Machu Picchu
Aug 2nd: Kate back to Lima
Aug 3rd: Kate back to the states
Aug 7th: Lisa et familia return to the states
We will try to post while we're in Lima, Cuzco, and Puno but we definitely won't be able to post along the llama trek.
For our friends and family who say, "this is pretty vague," you're right. This is pretty vague because the blog is open to anyone who chooses to browse through Blogger.com. Before we leave we'll send a mass email to our friends and co-workers with some more details.
July 17th: we fly to Peru
July 20th - 25th: Spanish classes
July 23rd: Lisa's familia arrives
July 26th - 29th: Llama trek
July 30th: Puno/Machu Picchu
Aug 2nd: Kate back to Lima
Aug 3rd: Kate back to the states
Aug 7th: Lisa et familia return to the states
We will try to post while we're in Lima, Cuzco, and Puno but we definitely won't be able to post along the llama trek.
For our friends and family who say, "this is pretty vague," you're right. This is pretty vague because the blog is open to anyone who chooses to browse through Blogger.com. Before we leave we'll send a mass email to our friends and co-workers with some more details.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
More links and To Dos
Useful sites we've found along the way:
Hotel San Antiono Abad - where we'll stay in Lima
Trafico Peru - where we booked many of our one-way flights
South American Explorers - for information, discounts, and ideas
Update:
Lisa has asked the South American Explorers if they can contact the school in Peru as we have had extreme difficulty in getting a response. At this point this is the element of our trip that concerns us the most.
On the fun side, we've got a DVD that shows off our students at HMS and will be bringing some ASL/English/Spanish dictionaries along to hand out. Lisa has also decided to acquire some small gifts to share with the staff at our school and our family host at Lake Titicaca. To share a bit of New England she thought maple sugar candy would be fun. I also need to remind myself that we should bring some HMS pens that our principal had made and contact Alice about the story-telling DVDs...
Hotel San Antiono Abad - where we'll stay in Lima
Trafico Peru - where we booked many of our one-way flights
South American Explorers - for information, discounts, and ideas
Update:
Lisa has asked the South American Explorers if they can contact the school in Peru as we have had extreme difficulty in getting a response. At this point this is the element of our trip that concerns us the most.
On the fun side, we've got a DVD that shows off our students at HMS and will be bringing some ASL/English/Spanish dictionaries along to hand out. Lisa has also decided to acquire some small gifts to share with the staff at our school and our family host at Lake Titicaca. To share a bit of New England she thought maple sugar candy would be fun. I also need to remind myself that we should bring some HMS pens that our principal had made and contact Alice about the story-telling DVDs...
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Volunteer work
While in Cusco we really want to volunteer with children at an orphanage specifically for the deaf. There are many programs for the deaf in Peru. Lisa has a few contacts and we've found sites that talk about deafness in Peru and even sites that directly provide contact information for schools in Peru like the CPAL program, http://www.cpal.edu.pe/ . Unfortunately, at this point none of the programs we've contacted in English or Spanish (thank you Rebeca and Ariel!) have responded. There is a program we can definitely visit, but there the children are multiply handicapped and we were hoping to find a school that mirrored our own here in Boston in order to set up a long term relationship. So now we're doing our least-favorite part: waiting.
If anyone knows of a school in Cusco or Lima that would be willing to let us stop by for a day or two, we'd love to hear from you!
If anyone knows of a school in Cusco or Lima that would be willing to let us stop by for a day or two, we'd love to hear from you!
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Cusco Spanish School
We have a school: Cusco Spanish School in Cusco, Peru. After looking for a program that could accommodate our narrow window of opportunity for Spanish lessons, they seemed to be the best bet. We'll be there from July 20th to the 25th taking classes for 4 hours a day. In addition to the Spanish courses we'll have the opportunity to learn some Peruvian cooking, dancing and do a bit of volunteering in Cusco.
To see more information on the programs the Cusco Spanish School offers, check out this website: http://www.cuscospanishschool.com.
Every day we make a new commitment the trip seems a bit more real. Buying the tickets was a start, particularly since we hadn't received the monies from Fund for Teachers yet. But now we have a school, a really cool video camera, a blog, and most importantly FUNDING! As we progress on filling our busy schedule in Peru we are also scrambling around to put together examples of what happens at our school so we can share with the students and staff in Lima or Cusco. The goal is to have several DVDs of our students reading stories in ASL (American Sign Language) and then record the Peruvian students telling stories in their Sign Language, be it Spanish, Peruvian, or regional.
We tend to think of our students as being "in need" as they attend a school that receives Title 1 funding, but we will be bringing supplies with us for the students in Peru. Often students there don't have the basics like pencils and notebooks, so all the room allocated in our bags for souvenirs on the way home will be filled on the way down with school supplies.
There will be more on our preparations later, but the reality of the end of the school year here is still a priority, however much fun it is to procrastinate while thinking of Peru!
¡Adios!
To see more information on the programs the Cusco Spanish School offers, check out this website: http://www.cuscospanishschool.com.
Every day we make a new commitment the trip seems a bit more real. Buying the tickets was a start, particularly since we hadn't received the monies from Fund for Teachers yet. But now we have a school, a really cool video camera, a blog, and most importantly FUNDING! As we progress on filling our busy schedule in Peru we are also scrambling around to put together examples of what happens at our school so we can share with the students and staff in Lima or Cusco. The goal is to have several DVDs of our students reading stories in ASL (American Sign Language) and then record the Peruvian students telling stories in their Sign Language, be it Spanish, Peruvian, or regional.
We tend to think of our students as being "in need" as they attend a school that receives Title 1 funding, but we will be bringing supplies with us for the students in Peru. Often students there don't have the basics like pencils and notebooks, so all the room allocated in our bags for souvenirs on the way home will be filled on the way down with school supplies.
There will be more on our preparations later, but the reality of the end of the school year here is still a priority, however much fun it is to procrastinate while thinking of Peru!
¡Adios!
Monday, June 4, 2007
Selecting A School
And the winner is... not yet known. We found a school, which will not yet be named, and are hoping they can accomodate us for the dates in July we requested. All the other reservations, activities, etc depend on our course dates, so stay tuned to see what happens next!
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Fund for Teachers
Many friends and colleagues have asked how is it that we found a grant to go to Peru. Going to Peru to study Spanish, volunteer with the Deaf, and commune with alpaca is, well, rather specific. In later posts we'll get into the details, but our grant comes from the Fund for Teachers. If you'd like to learn more please visit this site: http://www.fundforteachers.org . If you're feeling particularly generous there is information on how one can donate to help continue this amazing program.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Our First Post!
In preparation for our trip to Peru we have started this blog. If you're reading it, you're most likely a friend, family member, or a student of ours. Welcome!
Future Postings should be more interesting, but hey, it's a start. Check back later to learn more of our exploits at home and abroad!
Lisa and Kate
Future Postings should be more interesting, but hey, it's a start. Check back later to learn more of our exploits at home and abroad!
Lisa and Kate
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