A Day In The Country, Peru

Diane:

We visited the sugar cane fields owned and operated by Mickey's father. The visit was a family affair. They closed their restaurant, packed what I thought was a picnic lunch and off we went in the pickup. Two days before, we had had an unlucky urban encounter with the pickup. It was parked one block away from our hostal on a main street with plenty of people around. In the half hour it took us to gather our belongings, someone removed the left rear wheel and rolled off down the street with it. Tom stayed with the pickup, while Mickey and I went in search of a replacement. Tom said that in our absence, a man bicycled up to the car as if he were about to do something to it, but when he saw Tom, he turned around and went back in the direction he came from. In Cuenca, everybody with a car parked it in a garage, or behind a locked gate. This was another lesson in security for us: if you have a car, invest in and use wheel locks.

The work day in the fields had started by 6:00 a.m. As I understood it, they would go until 1:00 a.m. the next morning. Everybody was working hard when we arrived.






We came in down a long sandy series of unmarked, probably unnamed roads through the desert. It did not look like a promising location for a farm. But for the miracle of irrigation. In addition to the bags of fertilizer we were already carrying and ourselves, we picked up various pedestrians along the way. This is probably a hallmark of existence here - people helping each other out.

There was a small house on the property where the supervisor lived with his family. Mickey's father was the godfather of their son. As the day wore on, I thought about the lack of a support structure for parenting in a remote area such as this. Over the course of the day, I saw this 4 year old pick up two full-size axes and play with them in the sand - while his mother was watching. She also gave him a box of matches; he lit one and then lunged at his newfound playmate (Tom) with it. All under mother's watchful eye. She doesn't have a local library from which she could pick up a parenting book now and then. She doesn't have an opportunity to check with the other day-care Moms or child-care professionals at the end of the day. What support system does she have to improve her parenting skills?

In any event, she was kind to us. She let Mickey's mother use her kitchen to put together a wonderful hot meal - no picnic here!

There were lots of animals around the house - ducks, ducklings, guinea pigs, cows, pigs, dogs. At the end of the day, TM went for a short horseback ride.






There were also some fruit trees and an avocado tree. On the other side of the irrigation ditch, there were sweet potatoes, corn, and beans growing. They definitely have the basics of what they need to eat well. But the primary action here was the sugar cane.

Sugar cane takes 18 months to establish and produce its first harvest. For a couple of years after that, there's a crop every 3 months. I didn't see anything in the way of farm equipment lying around, so I can only surmise that they use labor-intensive practices. Mickey's father took some time off the job to share some of his thoughts about the business of growing sugar cane.






I was impressed that he uses biological pest controls. It was an easy choice, because they are inexpensive. He lived through the devastation caused by the 1983 El Niño, which wiped out his fields. Since then, he has lived in Lima and he has been an entrepreneur with six stores in the region, but he has by choice returned to farming. Generally people migrate from rural areas to urban ones. But, here is someone who returned to the land, knowing full well the trials and tribulations. During his first crop after he returned to farming, a dam upstream from there broke and remained broken for months. During that time, there was insufficient water for irrigation and he lost his newly planted fields.

We finished the day at the beach, body surfing in the wild waves. This is the third beach we have visited, since arriving in Northern Peru. At first, I didn't want to bother going, since most beaches pale in comparison to those in Sarasota. But unlike Sarasota, the surf all along this coast is great fun and I've been having a blast.

The farm is only a couple of miles from the beach. Mickey let both his younger brother and TM have a turn driving the pickup there and back. It was a manual transmission, so for TM, this also involved a driving lesson. TM was brimming with excitement at this opportunity. He was so excited that he shifted into gear just as I was hopping out of the bed onto the rear tire to get a close-up shot of a periguey (half goat/half sheep).

The road led to a very small, depressed-looking beach community. The beach itself was wide, soft, and unpopulated. Tom spent most of the time talking with Mickey's mother, while the rest of us bounced and floated around the crashing waves. Mickey's mother grew up in the area. When she was young, this used to be a fishing village. The fish were so plentiful, that locals could live off the fish they caught with casting nets - they didn't even need boats. Now there are almost no fish.

The people here don't know why. Perhaps there are commercial fishing operations that have wiped out local fish populations. Or maybe some critical corner of the marine ecosystem here was traumatized and is unable to heal itself. Or perhaps it's the result of the general die-off happening in all the world's oceans.

I know "life is unfair". We tell the kids this all the time. But, we're usually talking about the small stuff. Then there are the big ticket items. People here, with few resources and no security blanket to fall back on have to contend with El Niño phenomena wiping out roads and farms; with irrigation meltdowns; with entire fish populations disappearing. It is overwhelming to me and I am only a visitor.

For its part, the beach provided us a safe haven with its miles of open sand and sand cliffs. At first, we shared it with a large group of young men, who came to play soccer and play in the water. When they left, we had it all to ourselves.






Back at the farm, we were treated to hot lemon-grass tea to warm up our water and wind cooled bodies. We have stayed in Chiclayo far longer than anticipated due to the friendship and generosity that Miguel and his family have shown us.

Zaña, Peru

Diane: Zaña was a well-to-do colonial town in the 1500's, perhaps the most wealthy in all of Peru at the time. Today the ruins of the most prominent churches are all that remain of the town's former opulence. You can tell they must have been humdingers!

Early in Colonial times, the Spanish brought in African slaves to work on sugar plantations, who retained some significant part of their culture. Perhaps due to their different customs, the rest of the country came to think of Zañans as being morally corrupt. Or perhaps, their wealth led to a moral decline. Although there is disagreement on this, it is clear that an El Niño came through in 1720, flooding the town and leaving it in ruins. It was popularly thought of as a divine punishment for their evil ways.

Interestingly, the Sicán people had a similar legend. According to the legend, the last Naymlap king committed a series of sins culminating in a great flood. The facts are that the Sicán people abandoned their capital in 1050 A.D. and built an even larger one in Túcume. Perhaps the floods of an El Niño phenomenon led to their desire for a new location for the capital. As with Zaña, the legend blames the flood on immoral behavior.

Just outside of Zaña, we walked to some Pre-Incan ruins. There hasn’t been much interest from archaeologists in the site, so for all we know, it could be an unstudied civilization. Perhaps it too was disrupted by El Niño floods. All that is left are some walls constructed from adobe bricks.






And a huge number of huaquero (grave-robber) holes. The whole area is an enormous checkerboard of square holes.






There are pottery shards littering the area. Both TM and Tom spent some time sifting the sand to see what they could find. Tom found some decorated ceramic fragments. TM found what looked like copper or bronze depilatory tweezers like the ones we saw in nearby museums and a lot of shells. Note the dirty fingers and dusty jeans.






Micky and I checked out some of the cactus and cactus fruit growing nearby.

We then turned our attention to some huge, hopping beehives. The bees formed a thick blanket on the plants they chose for their hives. Unfortunately, a few of the bees turned their attention back toward us.

Extraordinary Museums, environs of Chiclayo, Peru

Diane: The Moche culture flourished here from 100 A.D. to 750 A.D. Not much was known about this civilization until recently. Huaqueros (grave-robbers is a loose translation) found the pyramid-tomb of the Lord of Sipán and were quickly emptying it of its valuable gold objects and selling them overseas. After hundreds of years of near-continuous looting up and down Peru's coast, this tomb from the 3rd century had remained undisturbed until 1987. Once the archaeologists were called in, they were able to stop the illegal removal of artifacts and begin a meticulous excavation of this tomb.

The structures were several stories high, composed of millions of adobe bricks, and had collapsed for the most part. Many items were found crushed, but in place. Putting ornaments, clothing, and skeletons back together was a mammoth job. And the funeral rituals that the tomb revealed were horrific, if you ask me. An extraordinary museum, Museo Tumbas Reales Sipán, exhibits the high quality, crafted funerary objects, the layout of the tombs, and the monumental efforts required during the excavation. The museum does a magnificent job, but it took effort on my part to distract my attention from the fact that seven people were murdered and buried alongside the Big Kahuna.

So, what did they find? First off there were a thousand ceramic pots with food to make the journey to the next world. Below that was a guard sacrificed to protect the Lord. His feet were cut off, to "symbolically" prevent any dereliction of duty. The Lord of Sipán was buried in extreme ceremonial dress with huge gold-and-turquoise earrings, breastplates of precious spondylus shell beads strung together, a necklace of gold spheres, a necklace of gold and silver peanut-shells, a gold scepter showing human sacrifices, and other paraphernalia. There were lots of semi-precious stones. It was lavish - up there with the funerary objects found with King Tut. Surrounding the Lord of Sipán were the other human sacrifices, including 3 young women, a child, a military general, 2 llamas, and a dog.

The archaeologists uncovered 10 other tombs. An earlier tomb housed the "Old" Lord of Sipán. The craftwork in his tomb was amazing. A high priest also had his own tomb. These tombs showed that the Moche were really big on hierarchy. The kings, priests, and military leaders were highly memorialized and their images enshrined on murals and ceramics throughout their territory. The Lord of Sipán, himself, held sway in all three realms, as the civil, religious, and military leader.

A lot of the artwork depicted prisoners, military leaders, deities, and decapitations. They were big on depicting prisoners and decapitations. They even had a specialized weapon, a tumi, which was used for decapitating people.

Update: We visited the actual Sipán site toward the end of our stay in Chiclayo. What political jockeying must have gone on to build the museum with all the actual artifacts so far away from the excavation site. What is left of these vast adobe structures are now mere mud mountains surrounded by fields.

Another impressive civilization was the Sicán (or Lambayeque). Their influence lasted from 750 A.D. to 1375 A.D. Some royal Sicán tombs weren't discovered until 1991. And so there is another impressive museum, Museo Sicán. The museum explains two tombs. One tomb has the king buried in a deep vertical shaft upside down with his decapitated head placed in front of him. He was surrounded by (+/-)20 murdered young women to meet his needs in the next life. In addition there was more than a ton of metal objects, including lots of gold.

The Sicán made distinctive masks that were stolen and are now located in private collections the world over.

We took an open-air taxi ride further down the road to the dry forest reserve where these tombs were found. One algorrobo tree in this reserve is believed to be 800 years old. Shamans believe it has healing properties and conduct ceremonies here. We hung out there for a short time, soaking up its essence.






The forest itself was amazing, in that it grew out of the sand in an area that receives very little rain. It was also depressing. Although a protected reserve, local people continue to cut trees for firewood and dig around the pyramid sites hoping to steal a bit of their country's archaeological heritage. As we walked we passed people with loads of wood on their backs, on their bicycles, and on their burros walking down the primary access road in and out of the park. We did not hear a peep from a park ranger.

In addition to these extraordinary tombs, a great legacy of the Sicán culture was their ceramic, metal, and irrigation technologies. They were the first to produce bronze objects in northern Peru. They used moulds to make ceramic containers. They also were very successful in bringing irrigation to this desert area - cultivating more land than is in cultivation today.

I had heard of neither the Moche nor the Sicán cultures, before reading about them in my guidebook. I don't know anyone who has visited these world-class museums, but they are truly a find. Since many of these areas are still under excavation, there is still a lot left to learn. I must admit that I am glad I did not live in those times. With no definitive explanations, an extrapolation of their burial practices reveals two brutal cultures. Of course I pretty much feel the same way about all the major, long-gone cultures of Mexico and points south in the Americas including the Spanish.

Pimentel, Peru

TM: I'll sum up my day:
I went to the beach, walked around, got stared at, went swimming, and didn't realize that I had burned myself so thouroughly that I am going to have to grow an entire new epidermis until I got home. I put on sunblock too. Shoot. At least I have moisturizer.

Meh.

Update on the count situation:
I am afraid I will have to start two new counts, after sevral experiences of yesterday and today.

Heloooo Count: 9

New - Salute count. Last night, I went out for dinner with my family to a pizza place. There was a kid at the table close to ours, and the family was just leaving. The mom made her kid stop pointing(even though I just smiled) but, as they were leaving, he turned to me, stood up straight, and saluted. Saluted, as in put his hand to his forehead and saluted me. Then, this afternoon, some guy on the street did the same thing, only he had a pepsi bottle in his hand. He used it to salute, and when I waved back, he nodded and drank deeply. Weird.

Salute Count: 2

Finally, my least favorite. The dreaded Harry Potter recognitions have started again. I wouldn't think that people would associate me with him, considering how my hair looks right now(when I get a chance, I'll try and post a pic. I look hilarious). Anyway, three seperate made comments relating to Harry Potter and me since last night. I find it frustrating, but it could be worse. I think I'll get a hair cut.

Harry Potter Count: 3

I really like it here. I think it is much better than Cuenca. Better weather, better people, and I like the way the city is laid out. Yeah...

Valentines day tommorow. Not an important holiday here, as giving flowers and chocolate and kisses is something that Miguel tells me is normal. So, instead, they celebrate late into the night with meat and partying in the streets.

I had a great time at the beach, body surfing. It was awesome.






I'll see yall later.

Welcome to Chiclayo, Land of the Novelty Horn, Peru

TM: After 15 straight hours of riding on buses and waiting in stations, we arrived in the small Peruvian town of Chiclayo, renowned for its strange horns and small buildings. They can't build more than 6 stories high because if they do, the buildings will weigh too much and sink into the aquifer and stuff. Also, big supports driven into the ground create springs. Anyway, this place is steamy hot, and it reminds me of Florida with about half the humidity. It is a really nice place, I like it here. Also, I can speak Spanish pretty fluently, and my mom said that today during lunch she heard me give the longest discourse she has ever heard. This was because when she tried to talk, I just kept on going, unlike I usually do, which is let her grab hold of the conversation. And I described, without knowing the sceintific word, what stem cells are to our friend here, Miguel. He is an awesome guy, lemme tell you. He is just a lot of fun to be around.







Some conclusions I have reached in the last few days:
1) People here are generally more alive and know how to have fun much better than in the States. I am going to take what I learn here and try to show it to my friends when I return. I mean, even at Rowe, where people were much more into living life to the fullest, I think only Carlos really had what I am talking about. Go figure.
2) When I get back to the states, I must make EVERY EFFORT not to fall back into my old routine and to change my life. I don't want to return to the sedentary lifestyle I lead before, and I don't want to fall back into the stagnant and reflectionless pool of the internet. I WILL CHANGE!
3)I think, after seeing the exhibits in the Museums here, that if the Spaniards hadnt come over, that South America would be the one dominant power in the world right now. Their technological innovations and ideas were really quite advanced for the amount of time the ancient cultures had to develope. It is quite interesting.


In other news, it would appear my ass is a hot comodity here. I am going to start a count. A count of the number of "Hellooo"s and Hissing indrawn breaths I get. So far, its 5.

Count: 5

I never realized before I came here that I might actually be attractive, but then my dad mentioned to me that I have in fact been asked out by two seperate girls in the States, and that that had never happened to him. I dunno if it is a common occurance nowadays, but it made me feel better about going home to relative nondesript-ness. That is, other than my flamboyant personality, which has hyperthophied in SA due to repression (being flamboyant while it sounds like your toung is tied in a knot is bad). I just never thought about girls much before. Or, I did, but I kept it so well hidden from myself that it took falling head over heels in love to open it up again. And here, for a while I tried to bottle it up again. NO MORE! I will now, instead of being a yellow chicken bastard, talk to girls who smile at me. I will take the first step. Because it is the exact opposite of what my instincts tell me to do, and it scares me. Because I know it is good. Go me.

Diane: Although Chiclayo is a significantly smaller city than Cuenca, the energy of the city pulses more forcefully here. In Cuenca, with a population of 300,000-500,000 depending on whom you believe, we used to joke that there were really only 100 people residing there. On a given day, as I made my way from the apartment to my Spanish class to lunch and beyond, I would always bump into somebody I knew. I believe I encountered every acquaintance at some point while out walking. And if you smiled at people you didn't know, they usually smiled back.

In Chiclayo there are more people concentrated in the city center. As a result, it is quite crowded most of the day. The sidewalks seem even narrower than in Cuenca. If two of us are walking side-by-side, there is no room for anyone else to get by. There are no buses in the center; consequently, there are tons of taxis. Each taxi has its own unique horn signal. Some are musical; some are more insistent; some sound more like car alarms; and I'm fairly sure that some started life as clown horns. Crossing the street is even worse than in Cuenca (who woulda thunk it). With fewer traffic lights and nobody having the right of way, the fearless pedestrian must brazenly thread their way through the unpredictable stop-and-go traffic. It's sort of like having 4-way stops at each intersection, but without the traffic conventions that generally govern them. Mindful chaos rules.

Rarely do people smile at me as I pass by. I don't think it has anything do with unfriendliness. People are just moving at a faster pace and they have to pay attention if they don't want to get run over. On the other hand, more people seem to talk, point, and stare at Calliope as we pass. For the most part I can't understand them, but Calliope seems to have perfect comprehension for this babble.

Although Calliope gets quite a bit of unwanted attention, TM is even more of a target. I had no idea that young women were making comments about him as we passed, until Miguel told me what one or two of them said. I'm now tuned in to some of the other dynamics. For instance, the street vendors who approach us when TM is around are more likely to be women. They come back multiple times with the same goods. I don't think they are so much interested in a sale as in getting a good look at TM.

The main plaza is always full of people and activity. Adding to the general hubbub, there is a sidewalk alongside where men thrust calculators in our faces. I couldn't figure out why they thought I would want to buy a calculator from them. Is a calculator an essential travel item for foreign tourists? Today, after listening to what they were saying, I realized that they were offering to exchange currency for us. Some were even speaking English, but I hadn't recognized it as such.

Our lodgings are at the top of a fifth floor walk-up. We share this perch with several vultures.






With them we get a bird's eye view of the town surrounding us. The only buildings higher than this are a couple of prominent churches and a new-fangled hotel. Evidently, buildings sink into the sand, when they get too tall.

Speaking of sand, northern coastal Peru is a desert land, which only greens up on its own during the rains that come with an El Niño phenomenon. El Niño also causes severe flooding, which can wipe out roads, entire cities, and probably whole civilizations. Diane's theory of why there is so little known about the many ancient cultures of Northern Peru is that the wholesale destruction caused by El Niño left locals overwhelmed with the search for a new homeland and very little for archeologists to work with.

I miss the wonderful, rich soups of Ecuador. But, I love the generous, dry heat here. I have exchanged the confines of my sweatshirt for the freedom of sandals and a tank top. And, I'm considering letting down my Spanish-study discipline and engaging in the decadent act of reading a novel written in English.

Miscellaneous Memories from Cuenca, Ecuador

Diane: We head out for Peru today. We are meeting a new acquaintance, Miguel, at the bus station at 11:00 pm tonight to head down to Chiclayo, Peru together. To me it seems an almost impossible coincidence, but Miguel is from Chiclayo and is heading back the same day we are.

We've lived in Cuenca for about four and a half months, in a city filled with quirks and charms, most of which I have not mentioned here. For example, the traditional clothing of the local women includes delicately sewn blouses, brightly colored, embroidered, flared skirts, and a particular style of hat. You see variations on this style everywhere from the markets to the banks.














I also love the mix of old and new.

Ice cream and various forms of popsicles are very popular in Cuenca. Although there are national brands of ice cream widely available, many small Mom-and-Pop shops make their own. Some are chunkier; some have more flavor; some are creamy. On our pedestrian commute into the Historic Center each day, we generally take a route that leads over a bridge and up a beautiful stone staircase. Half a block from the top of the stairs is my favorite home-made cocoanut ice cream. Additionally, on a sunny day, there are always mobile "Bon Ice" vendors on the ready. They wear colorful blue and pink uniforms and do tons of business.






Other street vendors congregate around special events or schools and churches when they let out, selling candy apples, this creamy stuff plopped on top of an ice cream cone (that, thankfully, I managed to avoid), plantain chips, seasonal fruit, and other munchies.

My favorite street vendors sell blow-up beach toys during special events

The interior of Cuenca's New Cathedral is in my view the most beautiful of any in Ecuador. Having only seen a handful of churches, I really have no basis to make this statement, but I'm willing to go out on a limb here. According to one source, the finished marble in the columns and floors was all hand cut and polished - no machinery was used.


















The exterior of the New Cathedral does not do justice to its interior grandeur. Its domes are an unmistakeable landmark, visible from almost any corner of the city, except right in front of it.

Also right in front of the New Cathedral was the unforgettable "Sweater Tree". When we arrived, a sweater in bright pink and red had been knitted around a prominent tree. I surmised that it was to keep the tree warm, but in fact it was purely decorative. The sweater is gone now, but not forgotten.

On the other side of the park is the Supreme Court of Azuay, an impressive and stately edifice that has been updated to meet the changing needs of the court building. Most of the office space has been converted to cubicles with the infrastructure for telephones, computers, and lights exposed. The interior is an eyesore compared with the magnificent stonework outside and in the entryway and courtyard as you enter.

Many buildings in the Historic Center are dilapidated to the point of falling down. Some have been restored. Many architectural styles are present. Due to the extensive permitting process and funding required to renovate, many owners of architectural gems have opted to turn their first floors into parking spaces. This is indeed a sad state of affairs. The citizens here take great pride in their center, so I have confidence that this will turn around. One of the things I love about the center are the cobblestone streets and the gorgeous stones holding up buildings and holding down sidewalks.

We live across the river from the Historic Center. The bridge closest to our apartment is of the non-descript sort, but its stonework does add character.






On the other side of the bridge are the ruins of Tomebamba, the old city of the Incas. A statue of the Incan leader, Huayna Capac, who extended the Incan Empire to its most northern limits stands at its edge. His sons engaged in a horrific civil war, which opened the way for the relatively easy Spanish conquest. The Spanish then looted the existing stonework to construct many of the historic buildings of Cuenca.






Back on this side of the bridge, we have a garden view from our bedroom window. The garden separates us from the main house.






The walls of our apartment are painted in bright colors.






We live in the blacksmith's neighborhood. It is officially part of the Historic District, but not in the center. I was confused by this at first, until I read that people used to ride to town and leave their horses at the edge of town. It was a convenient time and place to have their horses re-shoed and so a blacksmith area grew up just outside of town. Horses rarely come to town now, but there are still ironworkers busy at their trade. There is a museum dedicated to the fire arts as well. In front of it is a statue of the mighty Vulcan.






















During one of the many city celebrations we witnessed, in front of the pillars dedicated to the many patrons of this museum, we saw some dramatic fire-breathing. It brought to mind the fires of the Burning Man Festival.

Down the road from this monument is a large city park, Parque Paraíso, that incorporates a bit of forest with a boardwalk, soccer fields in constant use, lots of shade, paddleboats, playground equipment, and many romantic spots for couples. There's one area with a down-sized replica of a city street complete with traffic signs. They use it to teach road-safety to children. We saw the symphony orchestra play here a couple of months ago.

Calliope's favorite street scene was the lingerie shops, their glass storefronts brimming with merchandise.

A couple of weeks ago, the city installed a ceramic mosaic map of the Historic Center on strategic walls where tourists are likely to hang out.

Farewell Cuenca - you have charmed us with your good looks, rich culture, kind residents, excellent Spanish teachers, and beautiful surroundings!

TM: I want to talk more about one of the least pleasant subjects of my life here in South America. Child labor. Next door to our house is a blacksmith's shop, and every morning when I walk by to go to school, I see the same kid(He cant be more than 15) working there. He is always covered in dirt of the black paint they use to cover the grills they make. I can't even look him in the eye. What could I say? What can I DO? It is always in the back of my mind. Nagging at me. How can I complain while this kid is working every day except Sundays without a single vacation, even during Christmas? I have it made. I really do. But I'm unhappy anway. Because, well, I guess I am used to better living and don't appreciate what I have. *Sigh*