Thursday, June 7, 2007

Qoyllur Riti



On Sunday I made the trek out to the Qoyllur Riti (Snow Star) festival. This is the largest festival in Peru and one of the largest pilgrimages in the Americas. It takes place on Ausangate, the tallest mountain in southern Peru. The festival is a blend of Catholic and Andean rituals. Tradition has it that a baby Christ appeared to a young Andean boy named Marianito Mayta. When the boy's parents noticed the boys dressed in fine clothing they notified the local priest Pedro de Landa. When the priest tried to capture the baby Christ, the baby Christ disappeared leaving behind a stone. Marianito Mayta died instantly, and the image of the Lord of Qoyllur Rit'i appeared on the stone. This festival is a celebration of the Lord of Qoyllur Rit'i and also a celebration of the Apu's (Mountain Spirits).

Our trek began with a 6 hour bus ride into the mountains. The road was very bumpy and by the end we were all covered in dust. Many of the roads that wound through the mountains were only wide enough for 1 car and had drop offs of several hundred feet with no guard rail. It was a bit frightening a times. We arrived at a little town which would serve as base camp. Here we unloaded the van, loaded up the horses with gear and began a 6 mile hike up into the mountains to the main festival site. Our camp was located about 15,000 feet about sea level on the side of a glacier. Being up this high, the sun will cook you in about 20 minutes if you don't use sunscreen. The temperature during the day was a balmy 70 degrees, but as soon as the sun went down the temperature plummeted. By 7pm it was about 20 degrees and a few hours later it went down to about 10 degrees. In a few hours I went from a tee shirt and cargo pants to 5 pairs of socks, wool thermal long johns, fleece pajama pants two pairs of cargo pants, a long sleeve spandex undershirt, long sleeve wool thermal, 3 tee shirts, a sweat shirt, ski jacket, scarf, gloves, and a hat (I was still cold!!). The dancers and musicians usually don't sleep at all during the festival. I managed to sleep both nights, but it was the most miserable sleep I have ever experienced.

The first night, out group went to bed around 9:30pm. We had been up since about 5 and were all exhausted. I fell asleep and woke up after what felt like a long restful sleep. It had to be about 5am I thought. Wrong, it was 1:30. Damn... how the hell am I going to fall back asleep? I managed to fall back asleep, but was awakened every half hour by dynamite blasts a few hundred yards from the tent, or from various bands marching past my tent (I think we must have been parked on a major parade route). Despite the shitty sleep, the worst part was my cheap ass sleeping bag. I borrowed it from a friend. It was so small that I couldn't move inside it (I'm glad I'm not claustrophobic), and it was so thin that both mornings around 4 am I awoke to find the inside of my sleeping bag was covered in condensation. That sucked.

The festival itself was awesome. There were about 30,000 people there (I only saw a handful of tourists, a nice contrast from Cusco!) There were all sorts of beautiful costumes and music and dancing around the clock. There is a church up on the hill. This is where most of the music and dancing takes place. Usually, there would be 3 different groups performing at the same time all next to one another. You could literally turn around and and be immersed in a different performance. The competing music all blended together surprisingly well. During the dances the men begin to whip each other on the legs. This can get pretty fierce, and many dancers end up with calf muscles split open as a result. This brings us to the Ukuku's.

The Ukuku's are the guardians of the festival. When the dancers are getting too carried away, they will jump in and break them up. They are also in charge of keeping the peace. This is the only festival in Peru where alcohol is strictly prohibited. If you are caught drinking or intoxicated, they have the authority to take you aside and whip you. The Ukuku's caught one man stealing. They took him up to the top of the glacier, stripped him naked, whipped the shit out of him, and then made him carry a huge block of ice down the mountain on his naked back. he was almost dead by the time he got back down (this all happened at night!!). So the moral of the story is never mess with an Ukuku!

The dancers must also climb to the top of the glacier and bring down a big chunk of ice. Once they are down the men must douse themselves with the melted ice water while the women must keep the block of ice between their thighs for 15 minutes. This is a required initiation if a person desires to dance.

On Tuesday (the last day of the festival) a group of local men, or queros, begin to ascend to the summit of Ausangate (about 21,000 feet above sea level) in order to bring back huge blocks of ice. This ice is symbolic of the irrigation of their land with holy water from Ausangate. The mountain of Ausangate is considered extremely sacred and the queros are the only people allowed up above the snow line.

On Tuesday we made our way back to Cusco, extremely tired but glad to have experienced this gem of Peruvian culture. I awoke Wednesday with a fever and an inability to eat anything but fruit, so I just loafed around all day took care of myself. I made fresh juice out of papaya, orange, lime and yogurt last night and that seemed to have some magical curative effect. As soon as I finished drinking it my fever went away and I felt 1000% better. Strange.

If you would like to see more pictures from the festival click this link:

Qoyllur Riti Pictures

Click on slideshow for the best view!

Google Earth Screen Shots Of My House!


Click on image for larger picture.


Monday, May 21, 2007

Lamb Snatchers Inc.



♪"Miguel had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb. Miguel had a little lamb, a lamb he did not own"♪ ... Today we went back to Miguel's property in the countryside. We went there today to hold a ceremony for peace between Israel and Palestine. I can't remember what it was called (too many syllables), but basically people all around the world were simultaneously lighting fires and praying for a swift, peaceful resolution to the conflict. It was very beautiful experience. This leads me to my next point...You don't have to be saintly to pray. One of Miguel's neighbors owns 5 lambs. These lambs have taken a liking to grazing on his property (I must add that when I referred to it as "his" property, Miguel replied "I don't own this land, I just look after it." That was nice:) Anyway, yesterday Miguel once again confronted the neighbor and asked him to take care of the problem. Miguel is trying to plant trees all around the property, but the lambs eat everything in sight, including the trees. So after all the praying, Miguel gets this evil grin and tells us "the plan". Miguel and this older Quechuan gentleman were to sneak off to the left while I was to sneak to the right. We made our way up the side of the mountain. The lambs in the meantime were happily eating trees. Miguel and the Quechuan made their move. The lambs freaked out started running in my direction. I jumped up and scared them back in the other direction. Miguel grabs one by the legs and, with the help of the Quuchuan man, starts carrying it down the mountain. Mission accomplished!!! Yep, that's right... I participated in my first lambnapping! We put the lamb in the larger house on the left (see previous entry) and are going to keep it there until the neighbor fixes the problem. (To the lambs credit, the other 4 came looking for the 5th after an extensive conversation across several properties) So I guess until the neighbor can fix the problem, we are holding his animal lambsom...

The Best Potato I Ever Had, or There is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, or Huatia Huatia Huatia Want...



Yesterday I got a chance to get out of Cusco and out into the countryside. My friend Miguel owns a large plot of land there. He invited me out there to participate in a huatia. A huatia is a traditional Peruvian oven made out of the earth. It is a mound built using soil and is open on one side. A fire is lit inside the huatia and allowed to burn for several hours. After there is sufficient heat, potatoes are placed inside, the hole is filled and the mound is allowed to collapse in on itself. The fire is extinguished and the potatoes cook for an hour or two via the heat from the surrounding soil. Sounds delicious! What my friend Miguel failed to mention that the afternoon leading up to the potato fest would consist of us digging a 1'x1' ditch down the side of a mountain in order to run a water pipe from a spring at the top. It was a very humbling experience to say the least. Ditch digging is not easy work!! We were about 1,000 feet higher in elevation than Cusco, so I was already short of breath. Once I came to terms with the fact that I would be digging a ditch all day, it got a little easier. Miguel is working on cultivating the land and making a self sufficient artist community. I have a lot of respect for that. In hindsight, it was actually an honor to be a part of that (even if my digging skills were not up to par!) So 4 hours, 3 blisters, and one hell of a sunburn later, I stumbled down the mountain and ate the best 7 potatoes of my life. You should try it sometime!

Saturday, May 19, 2007

To The List Of Things I Never Thought I'd Do...

Drink chicha. Chicha is a traditional fermented alcoholic drink made from corn. It has been produced in the High Andes for centuries. On my second day here, my new friends took me up to this little hut with 10-15 old Quechuan men and women sitting around a table. We gave them 3 soles (about $1) and they gave us a pitcher of chicha out of a huge vat and one glass for the 6 of us. When I asked how this was prepared, I was told in the traditional way a.k.a. mastication. First the corn is chewed by the women and spit back into the vat. This helps start the fermentation process. I was a little nervous as I had only been here 2 days and still had horror stories of people getting sick swirling through my head. I drank the chicha. It was a little bitter with only a small bit of carbonation. Not so bad. I survived, and that has quickly help me get over my initial fears. Since then I have eaten all kinds of strange stuff and drank the water. Up next...watch out Mr. Guinea Pig. I'm gonna eat you...

Shoe Shine Boys

For a lot of people around here it is tough to make a living. Many people make clothing, or jewelry, or artwork. Child labor laws do not exist here (or if they do, they are not enforced). It breaks my heart to see 6 year old boys trying to sell you cigarettes in the bar at 2 am (or anytime for that matter), and 4 year old girls wandering around the Plaza selling finger puppets. That sucks. Then there are the shoe shine boys. They make money by wandering the streets with their shoe shine boxes. I can't tell you how many times they have approached me asking if I wanted my shoes shined. I see a lot of business men utilizing their services. Squeaky clean shoes to match their squeaky clean, professional image. Makes sense, but when they approach me... I mean c´mon now. I don´t think these puppys would shine if you bronzed them:


My First Shower

After many hours of travel I thought that a nice hot shower would be a nice way to unwind and wash off all that airport funk. My roomie went back to work, so it was just me and the shower contraption thingamabobber:
Hmmmm.... There are 2 knobs, one for hot and one for cold. The hot is just for show as it does nothing. Cold it is! I guess those electrical wires running to the shower head have something to do with the hot water. Hmmmm..... So I start to fidget with the wires, I get a few sparks....progress.... the water seems to be warmer than it was before, but still a few degrees shy of cool. I guess this is it. By hot they must mean not frigid! Ok, lets do it!!! Damn that water's cold. I don't know if I can handle this. Let's fidget some more. Mistake #1: Touching the shower head while in the shower. By the third time I got shocked I started feeling like Bart Simpson when Lisa hooked a cupcake up to some wires to prove that her brother was dumber than a hamster. No more touchy! Got it! Mistake #2: Buying the economical extra larger bottle of Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Essential Oil Soap. For those of you who don't know, peppermint essential oil is cooling. It makes you feel all tingly and refreshed...usually, but in this case it was the equivalent of a -20° wind chill factor. (Note to self: Buy soap). After that shower I put on all the clothes I had, climbed under 3 Alpaca wool blankets and began my 17 hour snooze-a-thon. I am happy to report that subsequent showers have improved. The trick is to leave the water on just a trickle so that the thingamabobber has a chance to heat the water :)

Papaya Man


So every day I have been hearing the Papaya man come by my house. "Papaya, Papaya, Chirimoya, Papaya" ¨Papaya, Papaya, Guayaba, Papaya" "Papaya, Papaya, Chirimoya, Papaya" and on and on he drones. I finally saw him for the first time the other day. He has a bicycle cart loaded with fruit and a shoddy microphone. His head slowly moves back and forth, side to side and on and on he goes "Papaya, Papaya, Chirimoya, Papaya..." To my horror I realized that he reminds me of Teddy Ruxpin's evil brother (we all know Teddy Ruxpin is not evil, no sir ree). I awoke to said Papaya Man this morning gasping for breath and thoroughly freaked out. "Papaya, Papaya, Chirimoya, Papaya..." I'm going to have to start sleeping with earplugs if this keeps up...

Mi Casa



Friday, May 18, 2007

First Impressions


Well, I've been here for 8 days now and thought its about time to get started with this blog. My first few days were a little overwhelming to say the least. I started my travels on May 8th around 10pm. I took four trains to get to New York, a flight from JFK to San Salvador, San Salvador to Lima, a 12 hour layover in Lima, followed by a flight from Lima to Cusco. After 36 hours of travel and almost 48 hours of being awake, I made it. ¡¡¡WOO HOO!!! I did manage to doze off briefly in JFK but it was under a CNN TV, so needless to say it was not restful. (Sugar plum faeries move aside for war, famine, terrorist plots and wildfires!) I did also manage to get a load on at the bar in the Lima airport while watching an acoustic Eric Clapton video (what else is there to do during a 12 hour layover??). Peruvians like Eric Clapton in the way Germans like David Hasselhoff!

After I arrived in Cusco I was picked up at the airport by a wonderful stranger named Carlos Zevallos. I met him through www.couchsurfing.com (check it out!!) Not only did he meet me at the airport, but gave me a key to his apartment and is letting me stay for as long as I want. (Just for the record, I only spent about 30 minutes with him total. He took off for Cuba the following day and won´t be back until the 31st) So I had the place to myself for a few days, but now we have a couchsurfer from Argentina and one from France (United Nations Cusco style). During my first day here I went out and explored the city for a few hours, came back, took a shower (more on that later!) and then passed out for 17 hours. I woke up the next day in a daze. It was probably a combination of lack of sleep, too much sleep, dehydration, and altitude (Cusco is around 11,000 feet about sea level). Some people get altitude sickness really bad (anything from nausea and vomiting to high altitude cerebral edema) I was mostly just short of breath while walking up hills (there are a lot of them here). All of this combined with all sorts of unusual sights, smells, sounds and people made my first few days here a whirling, fuzzy, beautiful blur. I wouldn't have had it any other way :)