New Views and Adventures

I want to say Happy Father's Day to my father, step-father, brothers and all the other amazing fathers out there today. Thank you for being there and for all you do for our families. Thank you to my father, Clarence, and step-father, Mike for helping to make me the man I am today. I love you both very much.

Back to Peru....

Time feels like it's flying by. I haven't had a ton of time to explore since I got here. Long workdays have left me all tuckered out by 5pm almost everyday. A couple days ago I went to look for some dinner (hoping to find Cuy - guinea pig) and wandered up the side streets of Ollantaytambo. They are more like alleys, actually. Not enough to fit a car, but a work trike will fit fine, and it seems that's how they operate back there.

The alleys were filled with restaurants, mini-marts, spas, massage parlors, homes, internet cafes, and bars. They are all cobblestone with a stone drainage ditch built in on one side. Both sides have ten foot stone walls adorned at the top with flowers, cacti, or broken glass (keeps intruders out). Many of these walls have foundations from the Inca era, which can be recognized by the large, perfectly cut stones that fit together without any mortar.

The noise mentioned from my last post is non-existent even one block back. I almost cried as I stood in silence, surrounded by the old world-like setting, watching children playfully swing rope whips at the men walking by (this seems to stem from the very carefully choreographed dances the locals perform at every festival and links back to the Spanish invasion of Peru). Time seemed to stop as I explored deeper and deeper into the town, taking in the aroma from the flowers and plants that lines the street.

Soon enough, I passed two men carrying a 40 liter tub down the road filled with roasted Cuy. Unfortunately, it was not for me. Cuy used to be solely a celebratory meal, but in recent years it's become more common in Peruvian restaurants, especially more high end places. But it's still the meal for celebrations, and that day happened to be Mother's Day. I know. I know. I thought it was a Hallmark holiday too. But it's celebrated a bit different here.

Mother's Day in Peru is a three day celebration. They don't simply take ma' out for dinner, give her a phone call, or send a card. They have concerts, carnivals, parades,  special food (hence the Cuy), and gift giveaways for the mothers. Most businesses close down for the holiday. Even our combi driver was very hesitant to work that day. Like I mentioned in my last post, Peruvians have a lot of love for their family. I personally loved the affection and gratitude they showed toward their mothers and feel that Westerners could do a much better job at showing the same gratitude and affection. I am very blessed to have a very special mother and three awesome grandmothers to share my life with.

So I couldn't find any Cuy for myself, and my fallback restaurants were closed as well, so I settled for dinner at the hotel restaurant. I was surprised by a 7 x 5" hunk of the lasagna special that was more than one could hope for after a long day on the bike. Although they don't have access to ricotta cheese, the flavor and consistency were not lacking and would please the palate of any lasagna connoisseur I know (mainly my brothers and sisters). We were also surprised with a creamed artichoke and green olive spread on top of homemade bread that fantastically complimented the rest of the meal.

Mino, the chef, is a transplant from Italy and Sabrina, his partner and the baker, is from Lima. The bakery slash pizzeria compliment each other very well and I tend to spend most of my earnings here, not just for the food, but for the great company everyone in the restaurant and at the hotel reception offers. Now, every Tom, Dick, and Jose in Ollantaytambo has a wood fired pizza oven, but if I can choose between some guy from Peru making me a pizza, and a guy from Italy making me a pizza, guess which one I'm going to choose. Besides that, everyone knows I love my lasagna, and they seem to be the only offering in town.

The great thing about having friends that run a restaurant is getting help with my Spanish. Currently my Spanish is, oh, how would you say it......horrible. Not as bad as many of the tourists who great you with, "buenos nachos," but much worse than it should be as a guide in South America. I've heard that ordering food in the native tongue is one of the best ways to improve your speech and learn the language. Peruvians have their own dialect of Spanish and many have started using Quechua as their conversational language again. The Quechuas were the common people during the Inca era. The Incas were the royalty and the Quechuas were the workers. During Spanish rule, the Quechua language was all but forbidden and replaced by the native tongue of the new rulers.Those that spoke it were said to be the lowest of the low and all but the mountain people and the elders of the time deemed it a forgotten language. I don't speak any Quechua, yet, but I am learning how to speak proper Peruvian Spanish instead of sounding like any other tourist that took two years of Spanish in high school or college.

The best part of learning a little of the native language is being able to interact with the local children. I'm still working on this, but the kids here love to play regardless of any language barrier. A friendly smile and the start of a game of peek-a-boo is all that's needed to win them over. The children here love to play outside, which is a trait I admire more than most these days. Whether they are playing with bottle caps, tops, rocks, a soccer ball (fotbol), each other, or even a beat up old bicycle without pedals or tires, they are having the time of their lives. I recently watched a boy, about 5 years old, push himself around a concrete soccer field on said bike like it was brand new on Christmas day. He was enjoying himself in a way that you rarely see children do in the U.S. these days. He had no idea that the bike was not functioning like it was meant to, and show no signs of stopping anytime soon. In fact, there were three other children waiting in line to take their turn on what seemed like it could have been a Disneyland roller coaster he had just waited four hours in line to ride.

If you cannot tell, I am enjoying my time in Peru, immensely. I haven't even talked about all the mountain biking, trekking, or all the spectacular views I've encountered along the way. This will come soon, but for now I'll leave you with a few photos from my most recent adventure, a 37 mile trek to Choquequirao, a less traveled Inca city than Machu Picchu.

My mother also tells me I have a silver-haired following, so I want to give a shout out to them as well. Thank you very much for reading and I hope I can continue to provide worthwhile material that will keep you waiting in anticipation for the next release.

Until then, thanks for reading and God bless.

-Shannon

View of the high peaks and glaciers on the Choque trail.

The bucket we had to ride across the river to get to Choque. 

My clients at the last campsite before the ruins.

Choquequirao

View of one campsite.