Christmas

Everyone except our two children, Andres and Aiko, were gone by Christmas. We stayed in Arequipa. We had a quiet Christmas, I got a potato peeler. Peruvians typically peel potatoes with a knife and are not too worried about "wasting" a lot of the potato because the peel can be boiled and the water used is drunk because it is a good diuretic and cleans out your kidneys.

Peruvians are incredibly aware of the health benefits of all foods. When you go to the market and ask what a particular vegetable is "good for" it is understood that you want to know its health benefits and not whether it goes with fish or not.

Everything is used. we regularly boil the pineapple peel and drink the result or else mix it with water from boiling purple corn and make what is called chicha. Chicha is also the name of one of the current popular music styles in Peru.

Anyway, back to Christmas. I was asked to be Santa Claus for a colleague's child and her cousins.

Santa with Olga
I was a great success. I arrived on the housetop and all the kids were down below to greet Santa.
Welcoming Santa
Gifts from Santa are given personally. It makes for a good night's work for those who have a costume. The little girl in the photo is Anaflavia, the daughter of the director of the department where I worked.
Anaflavia meets he Main Man

She was so impressed by me that she grabbed my hand and kissed it when it was time for me too leave. In fact, her father drove me home and asked his daughter if she wante to sit on Santa's knee. "No! No quiero ir al Polo Norte!" ("No! I don't want to go to the North Pole."). Luckily for me she fell asleep in her mother's arms before we got to our house so her image of Santa is safe for another year.

Arequipa

Back in Arequipa for a few days before everyone heads home for Christmas. Andres and Aiko stayed with us over the holidays but were home by New Years.

Aiko shows her not so picture-perfect tan.
Aiko's tan

We had a great visit with our friends and hope we can do something similar again in the future.

Merry Christmas from moon-crowned Misty
Moon over Misty

Titicaca

After Cusco, we traveled by bus to Lake Titicaca. Dorje had an awful lot of fun with that name. The town on the lake is called Puno. What people really come to see are he floating islands called Los Uros.
Los Uros
The islands are anchored in 35 feet of water. They are build, over time, by laying down layers of large peat bog-like blocks of reed root material cut from the actual bottom of the lake and then periodically changing the reeds themselves as a top layer. It is a bit like walking on a bed with a firm mattress.
Island Building Materials

The reeds, called totora, are used for everything including building boats. They are very stable.
Totora Boats
Cooking is done with firewood using earthenware pots. The "stove" is also earthenware and looks a bit like he facade of a church with two steeples that have been cut off to give a place to put the pots. This same "stove" is used by many in Peru.
Cooking over a wood-burning stove

From Los Uros we traveled by boat for two hours to the island of Amantani where we spent the night in what is called turismo vivencial. Two or three people are sent to sleep in the homes of different local residents. The people who host guests take courses to learn how to feed us without killing us or making us sick. Some of us who knew better were worried about Chaggas' Disease but the rooms we staying in had plastered ceilings so were were unlikely to have beetles drop out of the thatch, bite us and make us very sick. In fact, I suspect that the upgrades in the housing were in part due to having visitors come and stay. The extra income means that people are able to do lots of things like not sending their older children off to live in Lima where they can earn money and send it home. If I haven't already said so, for me Lima is like Mordor and much of the rest of Peru is like the Shire.

Olga and Juanita, heading home
Without this extra income I don't think metal roofs would be a possibility.
The Village

This whole year has been a big long honeymoon for us, shared with friends.
Andy and Olga
We are so high here that there are few trees. The terracing not only gives you flat land to cultivate but is also essential to avoid soil erosion since just about every square inch of land is being used.

Countryside

The local people have a little show in the evening to get us to meet a few people. We are dressed up, so to speak.

A Typical Andian Family
But the real stars of the evening were this fashionable couple

David and Friend

Machu Picchu

Back in Cusco, we left for Machu Picchu early the next morning. Our first stop was Aguas Calientes. There are hot springs all over southern Peru, along witha lot of volcanic activity. Twenty-five years ago there was almost nothing here. Now it is a tourist trap but with reasonable prices. The hot springs were a nice way to spend the first afternoon.
Aguas Calientes - Plaza de Armas
We were joined by Olga and my sister, Debbie Tanton, from Prince Edward Island in eastern Canada where I was born.
Everyone at Machu Picchu
That mountain in the background (it is called Huayna Picchu)was climbed by both Olga and my sister Debbie, who was the oldest among us.

This is one of the most photographed scenes in the world, I am sure. But not evryone has Dorje in the picture.
Dorje, contemplating the universe

Although Machu Picchu is breath-taking you could tell we were all (especially John) still in a "relax and take it easy" mode after our 5 days of walking.

Letting the Guide do the work

There are lots of hidden treasures in Machu Picchu. The picture below is of a condor wing made from natural formation and added stone work.

Condor Wing

The stone work in all the Incan ruins was completed by people paying their taxes. Everyone was responsible for contributing a month's work per year to help build the empire.
Local Resident

While Olga and some of the others were climbing Huayna Picchu, I went with Andres and Alison Aash to see the Incan Bridge. This is a sort of back door to the citadel. It is obviously easily to defend; just withdraw the wooden drawbridge and no one can get by.
Incan Bridge
Heights have always been a problem for me. The trek gave me lots of opportunity to get used to them but it is never enough I think. I was really scared to sit down here with Andres.
Scared Shitless

Choquequirao

Our final destination, seen from afar late on our first afternoon

This story started 8 years ago. John Gunther wanted to take his family to the Galapagos Islands and found it too expensive. So he rented an entire boat, found 12 friends to join him (Andy and our daughter, Alison, included) and saved a lot of money. He organized a great vacation for all of us and I always felt that if I ever had the chance I would do the same for others as a way of paying back his effort.

So in July, 2007 when Olga and I began our sabbatical in Arequipa, I sent out emails to all our friends offering to organize a vacation in Peru that would include a 5-day trek to Choquequirao, one of the last Incan redoubts, high above the Apurimac River Gorge.



Choquequirao, although not as large as Machu Picchu, is much more difficult to reach. Our final party of 9 consisted of an 8 year old, our two children (Andres and Aiko) in their twenties


The Pletches

and a collection of academics and professionals ranging in ages from 48 to 61 - John Gunther, Alison Nash, Charles Kulter, Kate Dvorkin and their son, Dorje and David Clarke.
The Gang Starting Out

The trek to Choquequirao starts in the small village of Cachora, nestled in a beautiful verdant valley that eventually spills like icing over the edge of a cake into the Apurimac River Gorge, 1400 meters below. We started walking soon after lunch. We walked for 10 kilometers on more or less level land and darkness found us still several hundred meters above our destination for the night, a camp one hour above the Apurimac River.

The Apurimac Valley from Cachora

Walking on level ground, or even downhill, you could easily forget anything so automatic as breathing, especially when you begin to feel the pain in your knees. Walking at night adds an extra layer of caution and stress to everything else. We finally arrived at our camp at almost 9PM; tired and stressed but met with a great meal from a great cook whose presence we appreciated throughout our 5 days on the trail.

The next day we faced the eastern side of the Apurimac River Gorge. It is a daunting 1500 meter climb up a long series of 30 to 40 degree switchbacks.

Day 2 before-lunch climb
The end of Day 2 brought us to within 30 minutes of Choquequirao. The ruins themselves are only partially revealed. It is a work in progress. Day 3 was spent resting, visiting the ruins, exploring. Perhaps the most spectacular single feature of Choquequirao for me are the andenes (terraces) called the “22 Llamas”.
22 Llamas
I am not an expert on Incan ruins but I have never seen other ruins with designs created by using different colored stones. You can tell from Figure 4 that the terraces have only been partially uncovered. The terraces reached at least as far as the lookout from which the photograph was taken.

On Day 4 we started back. Once again we were going down, back down to the Apurimac River. Oh, my aching knees! The walking sticks were a great help.

Finally, on Day 5, we began our climb back to Cachora. I set out in the morning before everyone else determined to turn my breathing into a meditation. I did not stop to rest but rested while walking. Small, steady steps, favoring my left knee when I needed to. Inhale, inhale and a long exhale.



In all my years of doing yoga, ujjayi breath never felt so much a part of what I was doing physically.

Day 5: Going Up