Marcahuasi Si Mismo

This is Marcahuasi itself, a plateau where supposedly mysterious things happen in the fog. You can see theres that pit sorta thing where everybody camps- we didn't camp there as I told ya, and that was fine with us cause look how crowded! The last foto is the Giant Famous Head that was, they say, carved by an aspiring Martian sculptor. So that's about it for that little trip! I have some more pictures I'll show you when I get back, eh?

Marcahuasi Tres

These were taken during the climb to Marcahuasi. The last photo is of the pueblo where the buses had to stop and then ya hike the rest of the way. Originally we were going to go all the way up the first afternoon, but we got in late and it got dark and started raining so we stopped half-way or so. Had to construct the tent in the rain and we all got wet and cold and were decently miserable. But as you can see in the first photo, we woke up (not that we slept), got out of the tent, and were like 'Whoa!'

Heading '2' Marcahuasi

The first 3 pictures of of Huinco, a little village before the really serious mountain roads where 10 or so vendors like the red one set up to sell choclo con queso (corn with cheese- popular) and various coke and nestle products to tourists. I took the fourth picture during an unplanned stop- something was up with one of the buses but it got solved pretty fast.

The Magic Plateau Marcahuasi (1)

Firstly, thanks to youall who posted comments on the last entry, I like finding 'em! However, I'm going to ignore them right now in order to tell you about the little trip I just took into the mountains. It will be choc-full of mouth-watering vistas for all you greedy vicarious travelers. :-D

So this week was/is la Semana Santa, or Saint's week, which has something to do with Jesus and Catholicism, and results in a 4 day weekend for the students of Lima, Peru. There was a time when the idea was to use these extra days for worship and family, but newer generations have rejected the boring ways of their ancestors and taken to traveling instead. I had the VERY good luck to be invited with another student from I.U. and several people they live with on a trip to the mountain site Marcahuasi. I feel like I should avoid posting names or pictures of the people I went with 'till I get their permission, but here's the story briefly:

Our bus departed the downtown district of Lima at 6 am 'Peruvian time' (8 am) Thursday. It was a micro, the same sort that dominates the public transport scene, crammed with about 11 passengers and 3 employees and all our junk. On the way out we passed through some poorer neighborhoods, which photos are above. I can't really format pictures and text satisfactorily with this website, but I'll make another post with more pictures...

unos imagenes del barrio

Jesus Maria

For anyone interested (such as John!) I colored my neighborhood, Jesus Maria, black. I am just now recovering from a week of illness (swollen throat!), but today I'll go out and take some 'pics' of the 'hood'.

the house

This is actually the back of the house. The lower windows are my room and the upper windows are where the domestic employees sleep most nights (they have homes that are fairly far away, I understand). You can also see a big white wall rather than open sky- in this neighborhood the buildings all butt up against one another. The picture is taken from a little patio under an awning.

You might be able to tell that the 'hall' to the student rooms and the employee rooms are open, which is a pretty common design. When it's hot enough for Peruanos to complain it's only in the 80's or so, and it never freezes in winter. Its rare-issimo to have any kind of climate control machinery anywhere. On that note, I also notice that lawn and garden care are done with hand operated tools, like those lawn-mowers that spin when you push them- not gas operated- which is almost surprising cause gas is cheap.

Having arrived...

Lima is not SO much different from Chicago, but obviously not really like Chicago. There's a lot of traffic and general commotion on the street. Drivers in Lima seem to generally have one of two goals: 1. to pick you up; 2. to run you over. I gather that one gets around, for the most part, by taxi or by mini-bus. Taxis are UBIQUITOUS- some belong to larger firms and are considered reputable, some are just individuals who got a taxi license. Mini-buses are cool- they are way cheap kind of Volkswagen Bus type vehicles with a driver and a 'cobrador' who takes money, advertises the Mini-bus (by shouting at pedestrians) and helps passengers (the ones I've seen are very friendly). Selma (mi madre peruana) and I took a taxi yesterday to the downtown area. The driver was very conversational, and he and Selma talked about politics, traffic, young people today, everything. He got in a heated exchange with another taxi driver at one point, from which I understood "You are aggressive!" "No, YOU are aggressive!" Mini-bus and taxi drivers seem very skilled at what they do, and with such a volume of vehicles on the road you would think it'd be hard to get anywhere, but it's all very fluid.
Downtown was very interesting- we went to go shopping 'al mayor' which I guess kind of means at a discount. We walked mostly among shopping complexes with hundreds of tiny stalls (I think Selma called these catacombs, which they were). There were stands for everything- I bought a watch at a watch-stand. We also walked past the government palace where the president lives and the congress building.
My familia has introduced me to some VERY good fruit. The mango here eats like ice cream- no stringy fibers to speak of, and so sweet it's almost fermented (does that make sense)? Also, 'bananas of the island' look outwardly like unusually fat American Bananas, but reveal themselves to be in fact orange inside. They have a richer more interesting flavor than American Bananas. Also, 'pacai', which hangs from the tree in a huge pod. You strip the tough skin and it looks like an odd banana, but breaks up into segments each with a bean-like pit inside about the size of a dried apricot. The flesh tastes a bit like our own bananas with a crisper texture and a sweet juice. Yeah you could've found all this fruit information elsewhere on the internet, but you know.
I have a sore throat, you will be sorry to hear, which I got not in Peru but at the airport in Atlanta when I had to stay the night (I missed my connecting flight to Lima due to weather delays in Indy). I just bought some anti-biotics this morning (you don't need a doctor to buy 'em, but the people at the pharmacy wanted to sell me some really expensive thing that I didn't know what it was- I ended up with amoxicillin (sp?) which cost the equivalent of 3 bucks for 10 pills. My digestion is still healthy at the moment, if you were curious.
My familia, as you may know already, has two 'domestic employees' that do the cooking and cleaning. It's a bit weird to be served- I will have to describe the relationship between the family and the employees more as I observe it more- interesting. The familia, though, have all been very vocal about their interest in social equality and improving the condition of the poor in Peru (of which there are many). Oh- when we were downtown I saw in the distance a mountain (just one peak) kind of covered on one side with a bunch of tiny colorful houses, which Selma explained to be very very poor. Apparently, one needs to be careful when shopping downtown because the residents of that mountain come down into the city to pick-pocket.
School begins a week from Monday, with several introductory/and registration dates in the coming week. I'm looking very forward to school. The familia tells me Catolica (my university) has a very strong and reputable sociology program.

the first one

alo-hoy. if you're reading this you must be very interested in my life! i'm flattered. i've signed up for this thing in order to more easily share interesting stories and whathaveyou which i assume will happen while i'm in Lima, Peru (see figure 1 a). oh! i can even upload pictures that i take probly- that's cool i just thought of that. here's the dates: i leave March 4 (2008) and come home at the very end of July. okay, lemme go pack.