Livin la Vida Cusqueña

Semana Santa in Ayacucho. Friday street murals.

Cusco has been home for a few weeks now so I thought I would share a bit of what life is like here. In keeping with the tradition of remarkable and historic cities such as Avignon, Prague and York, Cusco is a beautiful city to call home. It is the historic capital of Peru as it was the capital of the Inca Empire, and until the Spanish came, gold and silver decorated just about everything. Looking out from my kitchen window, I can see across a small ravine to the bohemian district, San Blas with its homes scattered up and down the hillside. The tiled roofs remind me of southern France. I live in the neighborhood of San Cristobal named after the ’White Jesus’ overlooking the city like Rio’s Christ the Redeemer.

I have a room in a big boarding house that resembles a log cabin. My sweet tiny room is quaint, with a backdoor to the garden. I have my own bathroom with plenty of agua caliente. I might have resigned myself to being a smelly, dirty hermit otherwise. The house is quiet and so is the neighborhood, a short hike above the main square and a few hundred steps down from the back entrance to Sacsayhuamán, the ruins of a zig-zaggy fortress outside the city. Most mornings, I climb out from under three wool blankets, throw on a coat and my tire slippers and shuffle down to the corner to buy breakfast, usually fresh rolls and an avocado. Hiking back up to the house, I eat breakfast sipping mate de coca. On lazy mornings, I don’t have to be at work until 10.30 so I can lay in bed reading or playing guitar, or grab a coffee to go and sit in the square and people watch.

Other mornings, I’m meeting clients at fancy hotels and taking them to the airport, all before 7am. My job is fun because I get to meet the people that come through Cusco and be a guide or go-to person during their stay here. They can call me at any time which can be frustrating when someone calls on Sunday morning to ask if they can change their train tickets to Machu Picchu. But I much prefer spending time with real people than with my computer in the office. When I’m not doing airport/bus/train transfers I’m in the office until 6. It’s dark and getting chilly when I leave, the city lights are lit and the streets are bustling with eager tourists.

The center of Cusco is small enough so I can go to the central market for fresh fruit and veggies, go to the office, or meet clients at their hotels on foot. The cobblestone streets wind up, down and around agencies, restaurants, churches, museums, hostels, bars, etc. The streets are alive with tourists, locals selling dolls, post cards, jewelry, etc. any time of day. You can buy tamales on the street for 25 cents and get a liter of fresh OJ for a dollar at the market or eat wood-fired pizzas and juicy alpaca burgers for 10 bucks.

Everyone who visits Machu Picchu comes through Cusco, meaning the city sees one million tourists a year. There is adventure ready to be had here with festivals fast approaching in the calendar year and ruins in virtually every direction. I have plenty of time to explore and have already planned some exciting trips for when friends visit! In the meantime, tomorrow I am headed for Copacabana, Bolivia to cross the border and renew my visa. For a few nights I will be sleeping on an island on Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in South America and the Incan birthplace of the world. My backpack on my back, greeting the ancient spirits of this extraordinary lake, I can’t think of a better way to celebrate six months in South America!

Es una vida Hermosa! Chau amigos.

Lima --> Ayacucho --> Cusco

It's been a memorable ten days as I packed up my life in Lima and prepared for a new beginning in Cusco, with Ayacucho Semana Santa in between. I'm mostly just going to post what I wrote about Semana Santa for the LAFL Blog. I want to add, however that thanks to great people, both Los Gorriones kids and Señoritas, great friends living and volunteering in Ayacucho, and my travel buddies, this was an amazing vacation and a breath of fresh air. So it was with renewed energy and spirit that I took the long journey to Cusco. It really is a spectacular destination and I feel lucky to have this opportunity to know Cusco differently then in my previous visit. But I'll write more on that later. For now, here's some of what made this past week great...

Waving bright red bandanas and wearing red t-shirts on Saturday morning, an eager crowd awaited the arrival of the Pascua Toro, or Easter Bull in Ayacucho, announcing the beginning of the final day of Semana Santa that would end with an extraordinary procession outside the Cathedral at 5:30am Sunday morning. Though the celebration had lasted all week, standing amidst the people, they showed no signs of weariness. In fact, many were already celebrating the grand finale with morning ice creams, popcorn, and cerveza’s. Without introduction, the people ahead of us suddenly scattered to allow a beaming cowboy break through towing a wild bull behind him. In gleeful screams, we tried desperately to catch glimpses and take photos of this famous bull pull. Within seconds they’d flown by us and we were left to wait for more.

In total, I saw three Easter Bulls run wildly past, though there may have been more. Delighted with the stunning performances I’d witnessed on Friday, I couldn’t wait to see what else Saturday had in store for the thousands of people who traveled to Ayacucho to celebrate the Christian Holy Week. All day Friday, local artists had labored on the streets of the Plaza de Armas, creating stunning murals out of colored sand. Their hard work was short lived as the evening’s touching procession, in stunning candlelit darkness, marched the Señor del Santo Sepulcro around the plaza leaving behind dusty remnants of the beautiful art sacrificed in the name of religious fervor.

I’ve spent a good deal of time in Ayacucho, and I can honestly say that it is one of my favorite destinations. It is a mixture of tranquility and activity and Semana Santa was no exception. On Saturday afternoon, to sneak away from the crowded city center, my friends and I took a short combi ride to the Wari ruins, just 30km from Ayacucho. Exploring these beautiful ruins and the quiet paths linking them riddled with cacti and fresh tuna fruit, you’d never know of the fiesta taking place just a short distance away. Not wanting to miss the evening celebrations, I was back in Ayacucho in the late afternoon, and after a reviving dinner was joining in with the music and dancing that would last all night. Like huge statues made of construx, scattered around the square were reed towers that erupted in exciting fireworks displays throughout the night. Big brass bands played around the Plaza so that when one band grew tired of playing cumbia and samba we moved on to another corner of the square where a new band was blasting horns, guitar and drum beats into the night.

The excitement and fervor kept the crowd moving and though I’d taken a short nap, when my friends awoke me to rejoin the festivities, there was an even bigger crowd then when I’d left just an hour ago awaiting the famous procession which wouldn’t start until 5:30 in the morning. Tired faces waited patiently near the Cathedral, people slept on the sidewalks and small children played on the street beside their parents. The final fireworks tower erupted in announcement of what we’d all been waiting for. Tired eyes fixed on the Cathedral as the famous brilliantly lit pyramid seemed to float out of the doors of the Cathedral supported by the hands of 200 people and began to circle the Plaza in what is known as the Resurrection Mass. It was truly a remarkable finale to this exciting celebration that will ring forever in my mind as an extraordinary Peruvian cultural experience.