Category: Culture

Return to the USA

American Flag, Google

We flew from Cusco, Peru to Guayaquil, Ecuador and spent the night with Tracey McGuiness, aunt to niece Bonnie Craemer’s step children. She had graciously had us spend a couple of days with her before we went to Peru and had offered to take us to the airport which is 10 minutes from her house for our very early morning flight out of Ecuador to Miami.

We arrived in Miami and then took a plane to Orlando where Pat Maloney, Dan’s sister, met us. It felt so good to be back on American soil where we could speak English to everyone and drink the water. (Fun fact, we didn’t see any water fountains in our Latin American travels because you don’t drink the tap water there!)

I flew back and forth to San Antonio to help with some things for my sister, Marsha, while Dan stayed with Pat and helped do some stuff on her house.

When we finally bid a sad farewell to her after over 2 weeks, we headed to Kennedy Space Center.

View of control room exhibit, Kennedy Space Center website

We only spent one day there and could have easily spent another day.  We went to the E. O. Wilson Biophilia Center after visiting friends in Tallahassee.  This is a preserve that is has a 100-200 year plan to return the area to native plants and animals. We had a pleasant private tour and got to see an endangered Gopher Turtle.

We drove to Alabama and went to The Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery. These facilities are very close to each other and they are informative, thought provoking, sobering and very intense to visit. Even writing about them several months later, I feel touched almost to tears. The museum is extremely well done and I encourage you to visit it if you get close to Montgomery.

Memorial compliments of museumandmemorial.eji.org
Mountain carving is huge! A person can stand inside the horse’s mouth.

From there we went to Georgia where we met up with our niece, Bonnie, and stayed there several days. We took Bonnie and the 3 kids to Stone Mountain. That’s an amusement park/historical civil war site. After having been to the museums in Montgomery, it was very poignant. Did you know that more people died from disease in the civil war than from battle wounds? We enjoyed several activities there, especially the dinosaur show.

Front row: Bonnie, Finn, Astrid, Dominic, Dan, Lindie
Finn, Astrid (facing away), and Dominic in front of animatronic dinosaur
Elvis Presley’s birthplace

After a couple of more stops along the way (including a very quick stop at Elvis Presley’s birthplace in Tupelo, MS) and the restored ironclad USS Cairo ship in Vicksburg, MS, we finally made it to Austin. Can’t say how great it was to see Mitchell, Nicki, Bre, and Beth, not to mention a lot of friends. Beth rode back to Colorado with us stopping at the Abilene Zoo for a private tour with Krista Rader, Heritage Museum (cowboy museum) in Hobbs, NM, Carlsbad Caverns, Roswell, and the Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe. She was with us for about 2 weeks, some of it in Denver at the Children’s Museum and Dinosaur Ridge and Red Rocks area.

Bre came for another two weeks, during which time we could finally move back into our home which had been rented out. We spent time in Creede seeing a number of plays/activities (9 to 5, Wizard of Oz, Barefoot in the Park; Ms Sherlock, a backstage tour, and an improv). Bre had a great time there.

Now we are settled in, happy to be back in Durango which had a major forest fire this summer about 10 miles from our house. Fortunately the fire fighters were able to handle it with no injuries, deaths, or loss of structures!

Now we stay busy with Lindie working out almost every day and Dan spending lots of time volunteering with the Solar Barnraising folks. And time with friends. Winter is here and hopefully we get a good snowpack this year. We’ve had a little snow so far and frost many days now.

Signs in Peru

It is always fun to see interesting/different signs in the various countries. Here are our Peru signs.

Rainbow Mountain

While the Rainbow Mountain in Peru doesn’t compare to the Danxia Landform Geological Park in China they are still stunning. At 17,060 feet I think this was the highest place we went to…and we hiked almost an hour from the parking lot to get there! Slow but steady, no problems, thankfully.

Some people get up in the middle of the night and ride to the base of the mountain and hike up it. We chose to ride to the nearest parking area to the mountain which is about 3 hours from Cusco. As we rode to the park, we passed a roadside stand that the bus stopped at and a few people bought snacks.

The colors come from goethite or oxidized limonite (a brownish coloration), the bright yellow color may be due to iron sulphide, and  chlorite or copper make the green color.

Some people had gathered rocks and made a couple of carens to celebrate their getting to the mountain or perhaps for more spiritual reasons.

It is windy and cold that high (and rain threatened not far away) but the indigenous man and woman we saw wore sandals with no socks. When I asked the man about it, he said he didn’t have the time or money to go to town to get better shoes and socks.

The woman who ran the rest room by the parking lot (complete with water!), told me she had on 6 or 7 layers of clothes, including 3 skirts, a slip, and leggings. The skirt was a heavier, coarser material than I had expected. I won’t say she was warm but she didn’t seem unduly uncomfortable.A few people chose to go to the nearby higher formation but Dan and I passed on that. Not a lot higher but maybe another 100 feet or so.

 

Qorikancha

Qorikancha, also spelled Coricancha, Koricancha, and Qoricancha is a large Inca temple in Cusco. Supposedly this temple which was built in the 1500’s had walls covered in gold as well as gold statues. All of which the Spaniards took when they saw it.

This is a large example of the precise engineering that the Incas were capable of. The stones were precisely carved on site (stone chips and dust were found when they were restoring the building). The smallest block is less than the size of my thumbnail.

You can look through the window in one end room through to the next two windows because the windows are so precisely constructed. The walls are all the same thickness as well.

And as with so many other Inca buildings, there is a place where you can see the sun rays through an opening during the solstices.

During the restoration when a stone had to be remade because it was damaged or missing, the artisan did something on the stone to indicate it was redone. You can see the nubs on a few stones in the photo above.

Qorikancha is on the left of this photo.

The gardens are beautiful. There is a large grassy lawn as well as many varied blooming plants.

Arequipa

Cement plant on outskirts of Arequipa

We took a bus from Puno to Arequipa. Initially the ride was beautiful and verdant but as we got close to Arequipa, it became dry and brown. Those of you who know me, know that I like “cool and green” places. Not hot, hot cold, not brown. (OK, I put up with the dry cold in Durango but I’d rather be in temperatures from 60-80 F.)

Welcome from our Air B& B hosts.In spite of the dry conditions, we enjoyed Arequipa for the few days that we were there. We were the first guests at our Air B and B apartment and were greeted with a gift basket! They wanted to give us gifts when we left as well but we were already packed to the gills so we politely declined, explaining that there was just no room.

Remains of Juanita in climate controlled glass cube. Picture from Trip Advisor

We visited a number of places while we were in the area. The Museo Sanctuarios Andes is an interesting place (no pictures allowed) outlining the history of the Andean locals and displaying the remains of a young Incan girl who was sacrificed around 1450 and preserved in the icy area until a volcano erupted and caused her remains to be dislodged. More info on her here.

The Santa Catalina Monastery is a mix of an active monastery (now housed in a new building) and the well preserved original monastery. The walls are thick to keep a more constant temperature. Originally, the young women who joined the group brought their servant(s) with them so that they had a fairly comfortable room and the conveniences of home. At one point in time, the servants were no longer allowed and this made for quite a change for these women who had never cooked, washed, etc. on their own! The view from the roof of the building is wonderful.

We did a private tour of a local quarry and also a small canyon one day. The quarry had a “building” carved into one wall, beautiful work. In another section, we saw where two workers were dislodging large rocks for carving and another showed us how he makes the building stones. Dan gave it a try…hard work and slow for the inexperienced worker. The experienced worker could carve a stone in 10-20 minutes.

Next we went to Quebrada de Culebrillas or Ravine of Broken Shingles. This is a narrow, not very long ravine that starts shallow and quickly gets 20-30′ deep. In it, you can see some petroglyphs from long ago. This area has been declared a national Cultural Heritage.

The highlight of our time in Arequipa was Chivay and the Condor Cross. The trip from Arequipa to Chivay was a few hours and then we spent the night. We were with about 10 or so other people, all men and women in their twenties who worked together and were on a holiday (although they couldn’t tell me what the national holiday was!). We spent the night in Chivay, a small remote town with beautiful outdoor statues. The tour included meals and a dance show that night.

The next morning we met early and drove to the nearby Condor Cross area where you can watch condors soar on the currents. We did see several but they were quite high up so there isn’t a good picture of them. Still it was a lot of fun.

We left Arequipa by plane, one of our few flights during our travels. Even though the city of Arequipa is larger than Cusco, the Cusco airport is much bigger because so many people fly in to see Machu Picchu.

Trains in Peru

Peru rail from Cusco to Puno

There are two main train companies in Peru, Inca Rail and Peru Rail. Both are clean, comfortable and modern. Of course there are varying levels of service and amenities. The relatively short train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes (about 1 1/2 hours) goes through some lush, beautiful areas, often along the river.

The longer train from Cusco to Puno (Lake Titicaca) goes through a long valley for 10-12 hours. It is scenic in a different way however to break up the monotony, they have some staff play music, do local dances, and have a fashion show (merchandise for sale, of course!). The food was excellent on this train and you have white table clothes, wine, etc.

While trains are more expensive than buses, they are faster and more comfortable and still relatively affordable. The train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes was under $200 each way for the two of us and from Cusco to Puno, $450 for the two of us, including meals and entertainment.

The trip to Aguas Calientes is much lusher and (IMHO) more beautiful but we enjoyed the trip to Puno as well.

Puno

Puno is 12,556 feet in altitude and we could feel it as we climbed the two flights of stairs to our room…but by the time we left about 5 days later we had much less trouble. It is a well kept town with a pleasant pedestrian walk with lots of designs in the street. The town is situated on Lake Titicaca which is one of South America’s largest lakes and the world’s highest navigable body of water. Bolivia is across the lake from Puno but we didn’t go there.

Design in street.

Reflections of Puno:

  • For about $1 per page, someone who can read/type will write a letter for you. It seemed to be a very good business as there was often someone at one of the tables dictating a letter.
  • Funerals are a big deal, we saw a couple and they include music and a procession.
  • While we didn’t have any problems with thefts, one of our favorite restaurants had straps to tie your chair.
  • Getting money was expensive, the most expensive on our trip. You could only get a small amount at each ATM and the charges were high.
  • Fun Tee shirt we saw for sale with a play on the concept of “kamasutra”.

We did only a couple of things in Puno because Lindie has under the weather. We both went to the Uros Islands and Dan also went to the Sillistani tombs. Sillistani is a pre-incan cemetary.

The Uros Islands was one of our highlights of our entire travels, up there with Machu Picchu! These islands were interesting for two reasons:

  • The were literally created from blocks of sod with reeds in the lake and tied together until the reed roots grew together to make it a solid block. These “islands” float in the water and are anchored at one point by a pole and rope.
  • The locals who live on each of the islands, about 6 families per island, have found a way to retain their culture and make a living by sharing their lives with tourists.

For a reasonable fee, you take a boat out to the islands where you are greeted by some of the local women. Getting off the boat onto the island is a surprise because the “land” is covered in reeds and is mushy in places. The locals are constantly harvesting and renewing the reeds that cover the area.

The women seem to primarily make artwork where they use the chain stitch to tell the story of their family. The men create the island, maintain it, and make/sail boats made of the reeds.

Their homes are small one room buildings made of…reeds, of course. They cook outside on open fires however they had added a solar panel to each home so that they no longer need to use candles or oil lights inside. Fire had been a major issue so they are safer now with the solar electricity. Roofs are made of reeds tied together and when it rains, they often leak…surprised they haven’t changed to a more solid type of roof.

I’m not sure how many islands there are now but I did read that in 2011 there were about 60 islands with a total of about 12oo inhabitants. You can view pictures here.

Education Plus Nicaragua Needs Help

I’m way behind on posting because we have not had good internet but this post needs to be done in any case. It isn’t about our recent activities, it is about Education Plus Nicaragua which we visited back in May last year.

I didn’t give this organization enough mention in my May 15, 2017 posting. We visited the school and talked at length with a couple of staff members and met some of the kids. The children love going there each day, if for no other reason that they get a decent meal. But most of them appreciate the supplemental education that they get as well.

I received this email today and feel compelled to post it and ask anyone who reads this to consider giving $5, $10, $25, or more one time or on an ongoing basis. I can just about count the monthly contributions that I do regularly on one hand and this is one of them.

“Dear friends and family,

Where to even begin.

Last week, political protests erupted all across Nicaragua, leaving more than 30 dead so far.  Protesters are sick of what they view as their corrupt and inept government, and government forces have met peaceful protests with guns and mortars.  New laws were announced increasing income taxes, higher taxes on social security payments, and decreased medical coverage.  At the same time social security is almost insolvent, its funds having allegedly been used by the main political party, the Sandinistas, to purchase luxury housing and private businesses for themselves.  Censorship has kicked up – news channels that are not pro-government have been shut down, and things only seem to be getting worse.  “President” Daniel Ortega has announced he will be rescinding the social security reforms, but the number of protesters is still growing, with some police forces disobeying orders and joining the side of the people. Businesses in the capital are on strike today, demanding the release of political prisoners and an end to censorship and violent repression.

While the social security reforms were the main trigger of the protests, this really has been a long time coming.  Several other issues have caused the protest, including the government’s inept handling of a recent natural disaster in the Indio Maiz region, and because the people are sick of a public education system that says it averages 25 children per classroom but actually averages 50 or more.  Now, a common protest against non-profits such as Education Plus is: “why are you educating that children?  That should be the government’s job.  If you provide the education, then the government has no incentive to do their job.  Therefore, you are actually contributing to the problem.”

Well, in Nicaragua, the endemic corruption is so bad that even if there were more funding for the school system, little would find its way to the children.  More fundamentally, the current government does not want its people educated.  University students are a main faction of the protesters.   The government knows that with education comes greater awareness and a decrease in the sense of powerlessness.  Uneducated people are poorer – so the government can buy their votes cheaply in election years by going around giving out sacks of food and cheap building materials to repair homes.  Additionally, it is the poor and illiterate who are the easiest to manipulate.  We have firsthand accounts of the police going into our community of Pantanal and paying men 200 cord (about 6 USD) to attack peaceful protesters.

This is not the e-mail I wanted to be writing.  But big things are going on right now in Nicaragua, and I want to let you all know that with Education Plus, things will be business as usual as much as possible.  While public schools are closed for now, our doors will be open.  Our employees do not want to stay at home, in fact, they say they feel safer at Casa de los Sueños.  We have arranged transportation so they can get to and from work safely.  If the power is cut across the country as is rumored (in order to prevent communications of what is going on to the outside world), we will keep our doors open.  We will cook with wood and teach in dark but still enthusiastic classrooms.  We will remain a safe place for the children to come and be children throughout the crisis. 

If we start to argue about “government responsibility”, it is the children who will lose.  It falls to us who actually have the economic power to make a difference, to educate the children who will be the future leaders of their country.   As Cardinal Obispo Silvio Baez recently told a gathering of university students at the Metropolitan Cathedral, “The students of Nicaragua are its moral reserve.”

To make a donation to help us continue feeding the children during the crisis, please click on the button below:

Click Here to Help us Feed the Children During the Crisis

Thank you for standing with us during these heartbreaking times.

With hope and gratitude,

Monica, Jim, the staff, volunteers and children of Education Plus

Monica Loveley
Executive Director
Education Plus Nicaragua
www.eduplusnicaragua.org
 www.facebook.com/eduplusnicaragua”

Aguas Calientes Part 2

Most people only come to Aguas Calientes for the day or at best overnight. Breakfast at our hotel started at 4:30 in the morning because some people get up and hike up the mountain to be at the ticket gate when it opens at 7:00! Others get in line to get the bus so that they can be at the gate at 7:00. The buses are fairly new and comfortable for the ride up the mountain with 14 switchbacks.

Since we didn’t have a schedule to keep we stayed in the town several days. The things to do in the town aren’t as exciting as going to Machu Picchu but they were pleasant. In addition to looking at the stone carvings, there are hikes, tourist shops, hot springs, butterfly gardens, museum, and just exploring the town. While we walked up to the hot springs (to see some of the carvings along the way), we didn’t have bathing suits with us (we had traveled with only some of our things and had left them in Guayaquil with some of out things) and didn’t want to rent suits. We did buy a few things at the tourist shops but we mostly just hiked and walked around town.

Walking towards the museum, we passed men that were creating stone building blocks by hand. There were a few power tools but most of the work was done by hand, one stone at a time. Hard, hot work.

Workers in background picking stone; Foreground shows blocks that are partially finished.
Some work is done with power tools but it is still hot, back breaking work.
Man in green shirt is putting finishing touches on each block.
Finished stones

There was this funky old bus at a restaurant on the way to the museum as well. Love that it is used to hold plants and the satellite dish!We wandered into the area that is where the locals live. There was a lot of renovations in the past 5 years or so. New government buildings and a wonderful soccer field where we saw a game going on at night.

What a beautiful location to work out or play soccer!

The bridge that crosses over to the other side has chain link on the sides and as in some large cities, people have added a variety of padlocks as a symbol of their love. Cute although I understand it there get to be too many locks, the authorities have to cut them off.In Peru, there are three important symbols: the condor (sky/heaven), puma or cougar (earth), and the serpent (wisdom). You see the three symbols together frequently. There is a nice explanation of them here.Drainage is done in two ways. Walkways on the slopes tend to have a grate down the middle. Along the short street and a few other areas, there are holes in the concrete next to the curb. We saw this in other towns as well.

Cusco

Dan resting on the way up a steep area. Note the ancient adobe wall and stone foundation in the background.

Cusco was founded in 1100, probably making it the oldest city we visited. It is high, 11,152 feet and probably has close to 500,000 people. We were there briefly before we went to Ollantaytambo and then a bit longer after we left the Puno/Arequipa areas. Like many towns in Latin America, it is built on steep land.

Red car parked while unloading. Larger white truck must wait until the car moves.

One thing we saw very quickly is that the old parts of Cusco has very narrow streets. That wasn’t surprising but what was strange is that these old streets are two ways! This makes for very interesting traffic, lots of horn honking and frustration until one person gives up and backs up out of the way.

We went to a very interesting Inca museum and did some sight seeing. Sadly, most museums don’t allow any photography so we have little record of what we saw.

Note the beautiful skirt worn by the woman holding the lamb.

We didn’t see this often but it was not uncommon for an indigenous person to earn money allowing their picture to be taken. This one has a 2 week old lamb and a 2 month old llama.

Despite what the sign says, you are going to take a train or hike the Inca Trail to get to Machu Picchu. They take you as far as possible by car but then you still have to take the train the rest of the way. (Don’t you love the spelling of the word “by”?)

Here you see some people in costumes representing some of the figures in the Aguas Calientes stone carvings. (Sorry it isn’t clearer, this event was going on as we passed in a taxi or bus.)

All of the buses I remember in Latin America have a driver and someone to collect money. In this case, the woman has her daughter riding along. While she was good for her age, 3?, she was bored and climbing all over. Not very safe but I am sure the woman didn’t have an affordable choice for day care.

There are many stalls and people walking around selling crafted items as well as this beautiful mural. Cusco Art