and then it all came up. literally.

6.19.2008

Thursday

Today, we head to Casa de Milagros (House of Miracles) to drop off supplies donated by friends and family.

Bright and early at 4:30 am we grabbed our packs, a piece of bread, and hurried to the rain in Aguas. Today we headed to Ollyantaytambo. Oll-yan-tay-tambo. The ride was cold with many stops for locals to get on and off, headed to work for the day. We arrived at Ollyantaytambo with the intention of exploring, but we quickly realized that would not be possible with our pack and the supplies. We walked up to the main square, a trek in itself. High in the mountains we could see an Inkan Fortress. We got a taxi to Calca for S/35. A ride which should have taken an hour took only 35 minutes. Let’s just say Peruvian taxi drivers can run with the best of New York taxi drivers. We gave the taxi driver the address of Casa de Milagros. The driver stopped, first for gas, then for directions. Then he stopped again for directions. And again. In total he stopped six times for directions and we finally headed down a very bumpy dirt road. After picking up a local woman, and driving a good distance on the dirt road, the driver stopped and said it was just up the road. We saw no palm trees of brightly colored house. The driver said we weren’t even in Calca anymore, but a different town entirely! I said we would bay S/5 more to take us all the way. The taxi driver was not too happy with us.

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We finally arrived at Casa de Milagros. http://www.chandlersky.org/ Of course, all the children were in school, but Marie gave us a full tour. She told us they had 32 children in all, four of them actually hers and 28 adopted from Peruvian villages. Within the walls of the 18th century hacienda (renovated in the 1990’s), there were several gardens, numerous bedrooms, a giant kitchen, dogs, cats, parrots, horses, volunteers, employees, and rows and rows of hanging laundry. Each building and room was eclectically painted in vibrant colors by volunteers.

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During the tour of Casa, I got sick. Not just “oh I feel kinda bad” sick. But SICK sick. I’m standing there talking about composting and realized I needed a bathroom n.o.w. I ran to the bathroom (which had no paper of any kind, whatsoever) and promptly expelled my piece of bread and the anti-malaria pills I had taken on a nearly empty stomach. Not a great thing when we are in, seriously, the middle of the Peruvian countryside. I did the best I could with no water (remember you can’t drink the water) and no toilet paper, and emerged from the bathroom. I finally got some clean water, and some Coca de mate, and felt better. Meanwhile Jill had some attempt at hot chocolate; however the kitchen was filled with flies. Jill was thrilled…

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Marie’s husband Alan drove us back to town, stopping along the way to greet friends. We came to the only road leading to town and were stopped by what we thought was a Peruvian strike. It turned out to be a celebration. This is what Alan told us:
“Not too long ago, 300 year old trees lined this street. Recently, residents began to get upset by the soft red flowers that would fall on their terra cotta roofs. Also, they had paved the road and were warned about roots breaking through the cement. For these reasons, they tore out all but one of the historic trees. Now only one of these trees stands in the town. The celebration is in honor of the grass and small baby trees planted in place of the historic ones.”

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Jill and I walked through the celebration and up to the main street. We took a very small taxi cart to Pisac, where they were having their weekly Thursday market. We began to look around the market, aware Pisac has been dangerous to travelers in the past. Although, since dropping off the supplies at Casa, our loads were significantly lighter now. Everywhere we looked, we saw women and children dressed up in typical Peruvian style, wanting a sol or two for a photo with them. They carried baby lamas and puppies. I bought a colorful painting and we ate lunch in a courtyard we happened upon.

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Next we got to the food market. We bought some beautiful wooden salad spoons and then some Chaco. Chaco is a typical Peruvian corn with kernels larger than garbanzo beans. The taste of each kernel was starchy, like a bean. Jill and I each got a whole ear, but could have easily shared on. So we passed what we didn’t eat along to some other travelers. We walked to the main plaza, looking for a taxi or bus to Cusco. Taxis were s/30, but we decided to take a local bus for s/2.20. We were two of the few travelers on the bus, an hour and a half to Cusco. Peruvian students (about 9 to 11 years old) filled the aisle way and were dropped off en route at their respective homes.

We arrived in Cusco and began to look for a taxi. But no! Many streets were closed due to Inti Raymi preparations. There were all kinds of dancers and dress, people and music. We hiked up a ways, to the Plaza de Armas, and took a taxi up to San Blas Plaza. We arrived at Casa de la Gringa with a warm welcome. We put our stuff in our brightly painted room and began to wait for Imexso to stop by with our tickets for El Lago Titicaca. After a while we decided to go to dinner. We tried a recommended restaurant called Café Jacks. A hip, clean restaurant, we were excited for a good meal. We ordered mango smoothies, a hummus plate, and Tuscan vegetable soup. Everything was delicious! Until…Jill found a hair in her soup…and I found one baked into my bread. Too bad! We walked back to the hostel to settle in for a good night of sleep, excited we could sleep in till 6:10. :)

A very good day. We didn’t have actual plans to get from Ollyantaytambo to Cusco, but we made it work! It was kind of fun to not have a plan, knowing we would get back one way or another!

Tomorrow is Inka Express and Puno.