A Day To Remember

Thursday 11 January

We both woke early this morning – before the alarm at 06.00. I still had some after effects of the altitude sickness - a headache and a slightly woozy feeling, although much less than yesterday. But I still felt very delicate. Colin was feeling a lot better, although still not ‘perfect’!

We made it to breakfast by 06.30, but we didn’t eat a lot – cereals, fruit, and small Peruvian “scotch” wholewheat pancakes with jam and marmalade – which was probably a good idea as digestion is much slower at altitude. We were almost ready to go when Beatriz called for us promptly at 07.00. As I was still suffering a bit, she suggested I took a few puffs of oxygen, but when the canister was produced from the kitchen, it was empty. I had my blood pressure taken, and that was a bit higher than normal, so Evelyn made me a drink made from “ayrampu” – crimson seeds from a tiny cactus plant, that the local people still use medicinally and as a food colouring. It tasted a bit like weak blackcurrant juice – not at all unpleasant. It was then time to go.

We retraced our path up the steep windy slope from the hotel back to the road – it seemed no less daunting going up than it had yesterday, going down. We turned right on to the bumpy road, going further along the Colca Valley. As a result of the rain last night, the road had an almost permanent stream running down the side and in places huge puddles stretched likea lake across the surface. Even more dangerous were the rocks and scree brought down from the mountainside and now scattered across the road. Alfonso weaved his way around the rocks, forded the streams and lakes, negotiated the hairpin bends and even traversed a 460 metre tunnel cut through the rock. We saw lots of animals - sheep, donkeys, cows and horses being driven by men, women and children to their pasture for the day – the local people walk everywhere. We encountered many people on their way to work in the fields, most men carrying radios, to keep them company while they toil – ploughing with wooden tools that looked as if they came out of the Middle Ages (men), harvesting crops such as broad beans which are in season at the moment (men and women), or tending the animals in the fields (older men and children).

We passed through several towns, such as Achoma, Maca and Pinchollo, all of which seemed very similar to those we saw yesterday, with a large church in a square in the middle of town, surrounded by avenues of grey brick houses with corrugated tin roofs, some held on by boulders. A few still have the grass thatched roofs, but these numbers are dwindling – like thatching at home, this skill is being lost. All the ladies were wearing their traditional costumes – bright gaudy coloured skirts, decorated with floral patterns or braid, in many layers, topped by equally decorative waistcoats with elaborate embroidery and sequins, over crisp white blouses and cardigans. All the women wear hats – there are two styles representing the “upper” people and the “lower people in the town – decided not by status, but by which side of the town square they live on. The “upper” ladies hat is a “stetson” shape with a rosette on the left hand side, and an up-turned brim at the sides. The “lower” ladies wear a round “Mary Poppins” style hat, with the brim turned down all the way round (reminds me a bit of my old school hat). Both styles of hat are richly decorated with beads, sequins, and embroidery. All the men wear round black felt hats. Both men and women wear a type of shawl to carry their wares along the road - richly coloured and woven in local intricate patterns - wrapped around their bodies, with the goods concealed across their backs.

As we passed up the canyon, terraces were spread out on both sides of the river, not only on any available flat ground, but also on the steep slopes of the mountains. Most of these terraces have been here since pre-Inca times (more than 1.500 years), and are still tilled and tended in much the same way. When the Incas came between 400 and 800AD, they found these terraces all along the valley, and with their good organizational skills, made them even more profitable. They organized the family groups into villages and ensured everyone had a job – farming, building, hunting, etc. They encouraged trade between villages and towns, and had developed a method of measuring and calculating, and so the Inca Empire flourished. Today, we saw fields of potatoes, barley, broad beans and fruit trees – all jumbled together. The people here believe that yields are larger if the crops are mixed and rotated between different vegetables and again between animals and fallow. The terraces are walled and the fields irrigated with waters coming down from the snow melt of the Andean chain and lakes and springs from higher up the sides of the canyon. At one point we stopped to see a large rock at the edge of the cliff, with a carving showing the plan of the terraces with the lakes and irrigation channels which was made by the pre-Incas, as a plan of how the terraces should be built. Apparently, if you run water down the face of the rock, it automatically channels into where the irrigation channels are today.

One of the recent Presidents of Peru, decided he would reinstate irrigation channels that had fallen into disrepair with a huge Government backed project and the road we have been traveling on was built so that the engineers and labourers could get all their equipment to the site. Unfortunately the project has failed, probably due to global warming, as there is not sufficient water any more to fill all the channels. The snows are much less, so the melt waters coming down from the Andes peaks are much less, and the annual rainfall has decreased considerably making the lakes and streams much lower.

A highlight of today, and probably the whole of the South American trip, was to see condors flying along the canyon. We stopped at a popular observation point, where there were a couple of bus loads of visitors already gathered, and found good observation spots - I sat on the wall bordering an almost a sheer drop to the river several hundred metres below, while Colin and Beatriz were further round the wall. We only waited a short while to see three condors, circling in the thermals, back and forth along the valley, soaring and floating through the air on the thermals, their eight “finger” feathers at the end of their wings clearly moving up and down to change their direction of flight. At times they flew so close to where we were sitting, you almost expected them to collide with the cliffs. But of course they didn’t. They were so graceful, two adults and a juvenile, black with white wing feathers and black “fingers”. Everyone present was enthralled. As they settled on a cliff some distance away, it was time for us to move on again.

The canyon had become much narrower as we traveled further along, becoming a steep ravine, with only the width of the river at the base. Terraces were confined to the lower parts of ravine and valleys leading off. Some of the terraces, still several hundred metres above the river, grew fruit trees in sheltered spots. We could see tracks on the sheer mountains opposite, built to connect towns and villages on that side (one settlement seemed to have just three houses perched on the very end of an outcrop of rock, hundreds of metres up on the mountainside). These tracks appeared little more than goat tracks, and much too dangerous to traverse. But the people of these remote villages walk everywhere, to barter their produce for supplies, such as fruit or vegetables for meat or wool. It takes six hours from some villages on the opposite side, to walk down to a bridge across the river and up to the road which we had been traveling on. Here they may be lucky to catch a bus to Chivay, the capital of the region, or, if not, they walk on to towns like those we had passed through, to make their trade.

From here, we retraced our route back to the condor observation area, and walked along a path on the cliff edge for about an hour (probably looks like a goat track from the other side), where we saw more condors and an abundance of bird life, from eagle hawks to woodpeckers, finches and sparrows to siskins and many more species we couldn’t always identify. At one point we saw a falcon being mobbed by a kestrel – there were lots of feathers just in front of us on the cliff path, presumably from the falcon’s prey. We were looking out for an Andean version of a rabbit and a skunk, which frequent this area, but were unlucky today. We had to very walk slowly because of the effect of the altitude.

Our next stop was at the Church in Maca, one of the few churches you are able to enter during the day. All the churches in this area are Catholic, and mostly built in the Spanish style, with a large tower on either side of an arched door, with arches above to display icons. A few of the Inca traditional beliefs are represented, such as the sun and moon gods. This church has just been renovated – it was severely damaged in an earthquake in the early 1990’s and there is a programme to renovate all the churches in the area that have been damaged in this way. It has lots of altars along the side walls made from wood covered with gold leaf, cluttered with saints whose bodies are made from sticks, covered with “cloth mache” - like paper mache, but with material – and heads and arms are made of painted plaster. They have successfully recovered some of the wall paintings, showing local people worshipping, floral displays and the sun with a bushy handlebar moustache and the moon, seemingly laughing. We were shown some photographs of the restoration work taken as it was being carried out.

We were late for lunch by now, so returned to the hotel where Evelyn had a superb meal waiting for us – broad beans and bacon, Andean potatoes in a cheesy sauce, trout with salad and vegetables and a local fruit for dessert. As the sun was still shining here we were able to sit out on the patio and admire the view down to the river. But we could see dark clouds massing over the peaks and hear the distant rumble of thunder!

After lunch, before our short siesta, we walked through the gardens of the hotel. They have a large kitchen garden growing vegetables and fruit, some of which we recognized like celery, carrots, apples, passion fruit (green, not purple like our passion fruit) and chillis (Peruvian food is often spiced with chillies), and some we had not seen or heard of before, like tuna (not a fish, but a sweet yellow skinned, orange fleshed, oval fruit, a bit like a kiwi fruit with pips through the middle) and others with complicated names I cannot remember. We had hoped to look inside the thatched bungalow that is part of the hotel, situated near the river, but it had been made ready for people arriving later today. Apparently this hotel is closing for one year from the middle of February, for the owners, Orient Express, to add fourteen more bungalows to the site. It was originally built for the owner of the travel company who has organized this part of the trip for us, as a holiday refuge for him and his friends. It has seven rooms like ours, a dining room and a lounge on a mezzanine floor. Four years ago he sold it to the Orient Express company. I am not sure how they are going to fit fourteen bungalows into the site (although large, it would mean removing trees and changing the landscape) but I hope it doesn’t spoil the peace and tranquility, as well as the ambience, of the hotel. At the moment it seems almost perfect.

As we set out later in the afternoon, it began to rain. By the time we reached Chivay, about half an hour’s drive away, it was pouring down and many of the town’s roads were flooded, streams careering down towards the river at the bottom of the hill. We drove on through to La Caleira, to the thermal hot springs pools, heated as the water passes over the hot underground lava. The temperature in the pools is a constant 80 degrees C. I had not been too excited about trying these pools, still not feeling my best, but we had brought our swimmers and towels, so – we had to go in. There was an open air pool and a covered pool, and despite the thunder and lightning overhead and the torrential rain by this time, Colin and I changed in the small huts and waded into the outside pool. I could just stand on tip toe and the water came up to my chin. And it was so warm – hotter than I would have my bath or shower water, and at one end it felt almost boiling. It had a slight sulphur smell, and we were advised not to stay in too long as it can cause dehydration and headaches the first time you use it – and I didn’t want any more of that. The waters are supposed to be efficacious and relieve all aches and pains, and we could believe it as we swam around in the rain. We got out after about twenty minutes feeling exhilarated and glowing inside, and the warmth stayed as we got dried and dressed, despite the air temperature being quite cool by now. On the way out we went into a small “barn” next to the pools, housing the museum of Peruvian life. It showed the primitive way of life that many Peruvian villagers still live today – in one room with a clay fire and clay bed, furniture and storage for grains and vegetables – it reminded me very much of the gurs we had seen in Mongolia. There was a model of the man, traditionally the oldest man in the village, who would choose relics to bury each year, as gifts to the gods to provide a good harvest and keep the families safe. At the far end, were a few examples of stuffed animals that could be found in this area – vicuna, alpaca, a snake, Andean fox, and Andean deer. This museum provided a small snapshot of this region, and in keeping with the area, was simply displayed.

We were supposed to explore Chivay, the capital town, this afternoon (having failed to do so yesterday), but by the time we returned to the town, it was awash from the rain, with many people were trying to ‘sweep’ the water away from the shop doors and houses. So we decided to go back to the hotel, and visit this town again tomorrow before we leave for Arequipa. At the hotel, Evelyn offered to let us watch a video about the life of the condor, made by the BBC, although it was in Spanish. Colin gladly accepted and said we would be in the lounge about 18.00, not realizing that was less than half an hour away.

We had a quick change for dinner, and made our way to the lounge and watched the video, with no sound of course, as we couldn’t understand what was being said. It showed lots of the places we had seen today not just the condors, as well as lots of the traditional festivals and customs of this region – usually based on religious dates. It was then time for dinner – another local style meal, including avocado and alpaca – that was delicious and so well presented. The other couple had arrived from Colombia by this time and the lady appeared to be suffering from the altitude. I could empathize with her. After dinner, back in the room, I blogged for a while, sitting on the bed surrounded once more by hot water bottles and candles which had a really relaxing effect.. We were being allowed an extra hour in bed in the morning as we were not leaving until 08.00.