Up, Down and Around in The Sacred Valley

With the parents gone, Lou and I have joined forces once again, heading out for the archeological site of Pisac. Passing fairly rapidly through the Sunday market that purveys a range of near identical handicrafts at each stall, we wheezed up the selection of terraces that consistute the bottom of the site, expecting to reach the top...about five or six times.

The site was huge, winding its way around the hillsides that look down into the sacred valley, of which the settlement was once the capital city. Dizzying drops looked down from impossibly constructed buildings, clinging to sheer rockfaces. The site was spectacular and endless, a truely pleasant surprise, even if my legs needed a couple of days afterwards to ride out the beating they took.

Pisac, Peru
30th November 2009

Family Presence Drops by 66% in Peru

Sadly had to say goodbye to the folks today as they headed in a taxi off to Cusco airport. We've had a lovely month together bumbling around various bits of Peru, giving me a great opportunity to get to know a selection of the wide variety of the regions of desert, mountains and jungle that make up the country.

Cusco, Peru
26th November 2009

Top Notch Riding

Pa and I, deciding that the exhaust fumes and constant touted offers of massages, photos with llamas, cheap jewellery and expensive knitware were not really our bag, decided to escape to the countryside on a mountin biking excursion; this turned out to be a fantastic decision.

Renting a couple of squeaky but funcional front suspension bikes, we muddled around the centre until we found the bus terminal from which transport to the widely acknowledged 'mountain biking bit' of the region departed. Cheerfully tossing our bikes on the top of the next departing combi we eventually left the bus at a crossroads in the middle of nowhere by the reccommendation of the bus ayudante and pointed our wheels in the direction of the most rural looking exit.


Thus followed a four hour epic that passed mirror calm lakes supporting reed boat fishermen, tiny adobe villages, sweaty breathless climbs to bitterly cold ridges, fast downhill curves and long traverses across the bases of huge natural bowls in which we seemed to be the only forms of life amidst the vastness of nature.
Eventually sporadic directions from locals led us down a gravelly, sheer switchback to the salt pans of Salineras, hidden in the crook of a valley. After marvelling in a slightly exhausted way we proceeded through a gate down a narrow dirt track that clung to the side of the hills overlooking a dizzying drop and decended into a technical section of rocky path that spat us out at the bottom of the valley, a languid cycle along the river and onto the paved highway to Urubamba, where the bus to drag us back up the valley to Cusco awaited.

In our own way, we'd bumped into the local mountain biking scene, seeing for the first time in hours a selection of mud-dusted bikers, all who had obviously enjoyed picking their own lines down the valley.

Great fun, and I'll be sure to investigate more options in the Sacred Valley if I end up spending more time in Cusco.

Cusco, Peru
24th November 2009

MISSING: Have Seen This Person?

Height: Approx. 6ft
Weight: Approx. 75kg
Age: 36
Description: Shoulder length hair, beard, brilliant incandescence surrounding head
Clothing: Long blue, red and gold robes
Occupation: Saviour of Humanity
Last Known Location: Huancayo Central Plaza

We would greatly appreciate any information on recent sightings of The Messiah (excluding those of his form in bread/rock walls/clouds etc.), who disappeared in the middle of a crowded Plaza de Armas a couple of weeks ago during the town parades. His mother is very worried because even though she acknowledges he is a very naughty boy he would never wander off for this long.

Any information can be emailed to i_once_was_lost@hotmail.co.uk. Bless you for your kindness.

Cuzco, Peru
22nd November 2009

Elementary Level Civil Unrest

Its national children's day in Peru, and what better way to celebrate than to get the little tykes out parading the streets and waving placards with numerous messages about respecting children's rights and such. Heartening indeed that a spirit of voicing political opinion in a very public way is fostered in Peruvians from a young age, much better than the training to sit in a corner and grumble quietly that we Brits seem to have cultivated.

Cuzco, Peru
20th November 2009

All For Naught

Wandering around the broken-tooth fortifications of Saqsaywaman outisde Cuzco with Dad and reading about how the Spaniards had torn down the impossibly engineered stone walls to build their own houses, Dad mentioned a poem that sprang to mind about the inevitable ravaging of time on empires and the men who founded them, no matter how mighty they once were. After a short bit of internet digging the poem was found, and by crikey it's a good one.

"Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Cuzco, Peru
20th November 2009

Machu Picchu, Almost In Glorius Technicolour

After a groggy bus ride at six o'clock in the morning up the winding switchbacks leading to the entrance gate which I pass with little delay, I round the corner along the paved entrance to the breathtaking wonder of the world that is the Lost City of The Incas, Machu Picchu.

Confronted by astounding stone terraces 2000 metres above the river Urubamba that froths and churns and backed by the iconic image of the imposing mountain of Wayna Picchu, I take out my camera to capture the moment. Flicking the lens cover open, I position the jaw dropping landscape in the viewfinder and press the shutter.

Beeeeeeep. Battery empty.

Below is the last image that was taken on the dying battery, unaware of it's impending end; a worthwhile shot in the central plaza of the pathologically ugly Aguas Calientes, posing with a tacky Inca statue. A fine alternative, I'm sure you'll agree, to world class ancient mountaintop monuments.

Aguas Calientes, Peru
17th November 2009

A Temporary Agreement With Death

The woman in the seat next to me jerks awake as all four wheels of the bus skid to a halt over the dusty earth road, coming to a stop inches away from the radiator grille of a large blue truck that has performed the same procedure in the opposite direction around the blind bend that hugs the cliff face. Glancing out of the window, the tyres of our vehicle have drifted within inches of the crumbling outside edge of the road that drops away vertically 150 metres to the tumbling river at the bottom of the valley.

An elderly lady lets fly with a screeching tirade of obscenity at the driver, opening the partition between the passengers and the cab, making sure that she will be heard. I can't say I blame her; for the last hour the bus has been flung with incresing optimism around such corners, seeming from my window seat vantage point on the side of the unprotected drop that we are launcing out into space, destination riverbed.

Over the course of the bus ride between Huancayo and Ayacucho I have been, without doubt, about as terrified as possible at the prospect of imminent death on the high, twisting single track dirt road, punctuated by passing places which allow vehicles to knock wing-mirrors as they pass, the outside vehicle teetering on the edge. Prior to leaving Huancayo all conversation pertaining to the route with locals was met with sobering admissions that the journey was very dangerous and buses were frequently lost, but as it was at least an hour quicker than the higher, safer alternative path it was accepted as the choice of the local bus company.

Staring like a shell shocked war veteren into the distance in the safety of a bus stop in a town beyond the mountain pass, a delay was attributed to the large pile of rocks that the ayudantes unloaded from the rear luggage locker below the passenger compartment, presumably to stop the back wheels skidding out over the precipice on the corners; a retrospectively almost reassuring measure.

Ayacucho, Peru

10th November 2009

Who's A Pretty Boy Then?

Huancayo, Peru
8th November 2009

Getting High in Trains

Rocking gently out of Lima, the classic train route to Huancayo crawls steadily up stunning mountain scenery along a narrow gauge overlooking precipitous drops.

Options are for the "classic" (re: cramped and uncomfortable) or "tourist" (reclining seats, glass carriage roofs, bar inhabited by girating Peruvian college tourism students etc.) cars, guess which one I ended up in. Almost worth the saving of three or four quid...but not quite.

Topping out at over 15,000 feet above sea level, the brief exit from the train permitted by the staff in order to take photos of the second highest railway station in the world (damn those ambitious Chinese) is a slightly light-headed affair, feeling throughly slapped around by the altitude.

Huancayo, Peru

7th November 2009

Fair Trade; Fairly Obvious?

If you every actually try to sit down and work out who is trying to do what in the area of ethical trading, you'll be due a headache. The increasing number of branded non-profit organisations and NGOs is making consumers who buy ethically sourced products very confused indeed.

My initial mission to "Come out to Latin America to work in Fair Trade" is an admission in this confusion itself; Fair Trade is but one brand amongst a range that are out there representing ethical trading and sourcing, admittedly with more profile than others. Recently it has enjoyed a rise in awareness and publicity with the partnering of various large companies such as Cadbury, Starbucks and Sarah Lee all sourcing Fair Trade commodities. However, many people feel that Fair Trade has diverged from its original purpose with these developments and it was very interesting to read an interview with one of the founders, Frans Van Der Hoff, regarding the evolution of Fair Trade on the Equal Exchange blog. To quote:

"The interview couldn’t have come at a better time. Consumer confusion about the goals and impact of Fair Trade vs. other brands and certifications is at an all-time high. And that should come as no surprise. The certifying agencies (FLO International and Transfair USA) have watered down the purpose and integrity of the movement, aiming for dollars over mission, breadth over depth, as they lower standards to increase the number of products available on the shelves...

...somewhere along the line, the certifiers began marketing Fair Trade as a poverty alleviation strategy, rather than an economic transformation model as it was originally intended. Alleviation means, “to lessen (pain, for example); to make more bearable.” Fair Trade was actually created to provide producers with a basic level of security, a social net to raise people out of abject conditions so that they would have the ability to approach their situations with more complex strategies, not to alleviate, but to change their economic conditions.

The original founders of Fair Trade knew that economic conditions don’t change by extending charity. They understood the far more impactful goal of supporting farmer organizations so that together, the farmers can tackle the myriad issues which will enable them to create better conditions for themselves. Organized farmers build economic and political power, create social programs, lobby governments, enlist the collaboration of others by building solidarity networks. This is the true power (and potential) of Fair Trade."

It is interesting to see how an organisation that is seen to have achieved so much is to some extent becoming a victim of its own success, and how the directors will seek to capitalise on their successes without comprimising the basis of the brand. One key difference for me is the divergence of seeking to support farmer organisations and the social stability and benefits that they bring, over increasing awareness of a brand, much as any other corporation with less ethical designs on sourcing would.

Lima, Peru
5th Novermber 2009

A Spot Of Culture

Museums. The domain of childhood boredom and monotony. Not so the National Museum in Lima; battles, alliances, empires, sacrifices, far flung trading routes and the fabric and intracacies of society all pass before you as you wander the halls. I suppose I've grown into the concept of impressive displayed artefacts woven into a story that defines our best guess at a long gone civilization.

Especially when the civilization makes ceramics depicting what Bill Clinton could only describe as "lewd acts"; it's great to know that as long ago as 2500 years they were getting busy with the kind of things that you wouldn't chat to your parents about over dinner. Or, in fact, ever.

Lima, Peru
4th November 2009

K2, The Taliban and Tea

I've just finished "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin, and it was well worth the effort. It's a biography written by a journalist who has followed climber-turned-humanitarian Greg Mortensen for the last two years. Greg is the founder of the Central Aisa Institute (CAI), whose primary aim is to provide a balanced education for children, primarily in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a need that was recognised when he stumbled, lost and exhausted, across a rural village in Pakistan after a failed climbing attempt on K2.

The book chronicles his personal journey from making an ill-advised promise to build a school to a village elder to rushing around Central Asia maintaining fifty-five schools and expanding the program. Particularly interesting is the effect of the events of September 11th on his quest, and the struggles and alliances created with the Muslim influence in the region; if anything, it's a great example of open-mindedness and tolerence, qualities sadly lacking in the media for the last decade.

There's a website (the institute is still trying to raise money, after all) and if you get the chance, buy the book through it as a proportion of the sale goes to fund the CAI's projects. Inspiring stuff, I'd reccommend it to everyone.

Lima, Peru

2nd November 2009