Well we left Buenos Aires just in time, the evening before we left a huge front moved in, high winds bending trees and the rain pouring down all evening. "We" went shopping, I bought a nice lambskin coat, which had to be made to measure (no extra charge) and a nice briefcase. I had to stop there, but it was hard. Mind you, trying on leather coats in 32C humid weather is not easy work! We had a nice dinner at one of the more popular restaurants, they serve you champagne (sparkling wine) and cheese and meat) while you are waiting, we had to watch what we consumed or we would not have been able to eat our meal, which we shared, as the portions are so large.
We were up at 530 to catch our flight to Lima then Cuzco. We went from sea level to 3300m, thank god for diamox, although I am still feeling the altitude, hopefully, I will acclimatize in another day. Drinking lots of coca tea (related to cocaine, but no high). We travelled from Cuzco through the Sacred Valley to Urubamba, where we stayed the night. The landscape is beautiful, sharp green hills, it looks like they are covered in velvet and snow capped dark blue Andes. The hills are terraced, many of the current farmers still use the Inca terraces which are still standing. The hills look like a patchwork quilt, light green, dark green, white, yellow, purple. The main income here is tourism and farming. They farm mostly corn, potatoes, a bean from the lupin, grains. It is very hard work. Many of the fields are on the side of the hill and are not level. Most of the fields are tilled by hand, if they are lucky, they can rent someone with a tractor to do the first tilling. Then the rest of the work is done by hand. We watched them harvest potatoes with a pick axe, spending most of their time bent over. These are not young people either, life here is very hard. Hard work, they have to depend on market values for their crops. Often, they have to use someone else's truck to get their produce to market, so they need to sell it all. No running water or electricity. Outside of the bigger hotels, its hard to find cold drinks as electricity is scarce and expensive.
Our guide was telling us that many want to move to the city and work for 300 sols (125 dollars) a month, as they can have an easier life with electricity and TV. Not every town has a school, so the kids have to walk miles to school, as a result, a lot of children do not go to school or past primary school. You would never know how hard they have it as they always stop and say hello and have a smile for you. The Peruvians as wonderful people.
Pictures from BA, no Peru pictures downloaded yet
We are off to the train to Aguas Calientes which is the main town outside of Machu Picchu. Tomorrow, hopefully, we will be there.
Kim and Dan
LAMBSKIN coat?! Poor little lambs! I don't know that I would want to tackle the farming in Urubamba. I think I will stick to PEC!
ReplyDeleteCounting down until you are home, although I am sure you aren't!! :)