Yawar Mayu

I was relieved to get off the bus. It had been swaying through the Peruvian countryside for about an hour, making my breakfast feel a little less than secure. Relieved to get off the bus and into a taxi with a local campesina riding in the hatchback, voluminous skirt, fedora-esque hat and all. Our Peruvian Paso horses were waiting for us by the colonial church in the town of Maras. Waiting with them was an old man in a green felt hat with a crinkly smile. Our guide, Alvisu, introduced us to the horses; Inti (the sun god) and Tobias (I liked to call him Toby) were Victoria and Marla´s mounts. Mine was the beauty of the bunch; a rich bay with a handsome face named Yawar Mayu. Soon we were riding out of Maras, smiling and laughing at the thrill of riding horses... in Peru! To our right, farmland sloped down to plunge into a steep valley whose other side rose abruptly in rugged green peaks. Our path was a dirt track bordered by american agave; winding up and down, in and out of little canyons.Winding out of little canyons and into rolling, tree-less grassland. We waved to farmers, hunched over their crops, as we approached the ruins of Moray. A light, sunny rain was falling.

We dismounted and stared into the deep, amphitheater-like ruin. Built in a meteor crater, the Incas used Moray as an experimental agricultural centre. There is a difference of about a degree Celsius betwen each terrrace; the ones at the bottom once grew coca, which normally only grows in the jungle! The ruin is beautiful; such perfect circles ringed in green. Alvi stayed with the horses while the girls and I descended into the ruins down the steeper-than-they-looked-from-above Inca stairs. I introduced Kyla and Dylan to Marla and Victoria, which made them laugh... they loved the idea. Climbing back out from the very lowest terrace took a TON of energy. An old peruvian man told me to breathe through my nose, which I´m sure would have been very helpful if I wasn´t so congested and physically able to follow his advice. He thought I just didn´t understand Spanish.

We found Alvi and our noble steeds and bridled them back up (just the steeds, not Alvi) to head for our picnic spot. We lunched in the shade of a grove of trees next to an abandoned mud-brick house with a wide view of the valley. From Yawar Mayu´s saddlebags Alvi produced a salad of cooked cauliflower, carrots and beans, bread, cold chicken, yucca and chicha morada. All delicious, even the cauliflower.While we ate Alvi told us that the house belonged to his family and how he dreamed of turning it into a guest ranch. When I went around the front of the house to take some pictures the mountains ahead and to the left pulled me like a magnet. I walked and ran as far towards the "edge" as I thought I could without getting separated from my group. A local man with a cowboy hat on his head and a dog at his side was contemplating the view from a few hundred metres ahead of me. I snapped a few photos, took a deep breath and reluctantly returned to my friends.

Riding on, we quickly noticed the horses´ distinct personalities... Inti was deadset on following our guide horse (even when he tried to pull aside for a picture) and would cut everyone off to be second in line. Toby was pretty lethargic, yet he too wanted to walk ahead of the others. Yawar Mayu was the only one who didn´t mind bringing up the rear, but because Toby would walk so slowly we always ended up tailgating him massively. Consequentially, my left knee was nearly pooped on... twice. I would have rather ridden out front.

The rest of the day was a blur of hoofbeats, sunshine and countryside. People working in the fields would stop to stare at us or call out a "buenas tardes". And a buena tarde it was; drinking in the scenery (think green fields in the foreground and glacier draped mountains in the background), singing and laughing with my group and breathing in the fresh country air. How epic is it to ride through the peruvian highlands on a beautiful horse whose name means "Blood River" in Quechua? The Paso horses gait is famously smooth, but we had to work to keep them moving that way rather than bouncing us around like sacks of potatoes. 6 hours on a horse is a long time. By the time we rode into Chinchero I was getting almost unbearably sore and cold. The most comfortable and (to me) natural parts of the ride were the brief minutes we sped up to a canter along the more level stretches of red earth road. By the end of the day I was more relieved to get off the horse than I had been to get off the bus. All of us, Alvi included, were completely knackered and dozed the whole (freezing cold) taxi ride back into Cusco. I came home from my day of riding feeling like I´d been run over by a bus. Sore muscles? Check. Bruises? Check. Sunburn? Check. Nasty cold? Check.
It´s not a day well spent unless you have battle wounds, right?

Con amor,
Julia

Sick.

Yesterday I woke up early enough, but a fever kept me in bed tossing and turning until about 9:30. I felt like I would vomit if I got up. Sure enough, as soon as I stood up I was on my knees in front of the garbage can. The spanish couple in my dorm took care of me, holding back my hair and offering me water. I drank some more, took out the trash bag and went right back to bed until 11:30. I showered to rid myself of the previous days rock-climbing sweat and the gross, dirty feeling of being sick. I ate a mango to try to regain some energy. The shower was more successful than the mango; I still felt extremely weak and achy. I helped Natalie do a bit of research about Colombia (our family is studying it this week), tried to go buy something with electrolytes from one of the tiny convenience shops beside the hostel, both of which were closed (on a Monday at 2!?) and finally (imagining all the kids jumping on me) decided I couldn´t go to school. At about 2:30 I crawled back into bed fully clothed and didn´t wake up again until 7:00... a.m. I think it must have been something I ate the night before; Jen was sick too and she had supper with me. I will have to talk to Marla and ask whether she was ill. We all had the same thing... It has been a bad day for many of the volunteers; Janek and Lucy are in hospital with something similar and I heard of a few others getting sick too. This morning I´m feeling a lot better (I should hope so after 16 and a half hours sleep). I had a real breakfast, got dressed and feel like I could walk more than the distance between my room and the bathroom. For which I am very thankful; I already missed one sunny day in Cusco! And actually, though it is another beautiful day, right now I wish I were home. Or that you were here. I miss my real friends...
Con mucho amor, te extraño,
Julia

"You have a drunk drivers tan."

I just got back to the hostel after a day of rock-climbing.
Apart from having fun, the reason we went was to prepare ourselves to take about 25 of the older kids from Aldea Yanapay climbing on Saturday. ¡Que locuro! What madness! I think it will be a really fun opportunity for them, though. My peruvian co-teacher from familia Uvitas, Natalie, arranged it with a guide she has climbed with before. There were four of us volunteers there; myself, Natalie, Sam from Manchester and Marla from Alaska. Alex the rock climbing instructor´s paramedic friend Fabio was there too, because he will be teaching a first aid class on Saturday. We met in Plazoleta San Blas just after 8:30 in the morning. I put sunscreen on for the first time since arriving in Peru as we waited for Alex and Fabio in the glorious sunshine. I put on a good hearty dose too, because it exploded out of the tube thanks to the air travel!

The taxi ride out of the city took us by the ruins of Sacsayhuaman and Q´enqo. Driving out of Cusco, weirdly, reminded me of Australia... because the hills on the outskirts of the city are covered in Eucalyptus trees. When we got out of the car I felt like dancing! It was such a relief to be out in the hills and  fresh air, with Cusco just out of sight. I really do enjoy Cusco, but I am a country girl and definitely need a break every once in a while. Our climbing spot was just a few minutes´ walk off the road, a small-ish, lumpy, rock face with a fang-like protrusion sticking out from of the green hills. The whole area was grassy, with jagged grey rocks sticking out  everywhere and purple flowers scattered accross the hilltop. Alex and Natalie set up the ropes for rappelling while the rest of us took in the view and breathed deeply. I was excited to strap on a snazzy tuquoise, purple and neon yellow harness, knowing I was about to climb "real live rocks" for the second time in my life. The rappel was an uneven vertical face at the top and then a "negativo" at the bottom, which just meant that the face angled back, preventing you from touching it. On our second rappell we waited at the bottom and then set ourselves up to climb. Fabio made it look easy (and sylish, with his pants tucked into his socks), but the wall was actually quite challenging. I was the first to try it (tucking my pants in too, of course!) and fell off trying to get out of a sticky spot. Swinging on the rope is fun, so I didn´t mind falling. That is, until Marla made it up first try! Though she is more experienced... Sam was facing a fear of his (heights) and did really well, making it up to where I fell the first time. The second try I made it a lot farther, but still not quite to the top. We spent a while learning our knots, then gathered up the gear, ate our lunches (avocado and tomato sandwich and chocolate cookies) and started our walk back in to Cusco. It was a beautiful walk through the rolling, emerald hills and past various lesser-known ruins. At one point we saw lots of horses being ridden and grazing. I wanted so badly to hop on one and gallop through one of those fields in the rain, which was falling gently though it was still sunny. At one point there was a lost in translation sort of moment discussing the different expression for farmers tan in our respective languages. Marla had zoned out and asked what we meant by a "drunk driver´s tan". :) We spent a while bouldering at some pre-Inca ruins. Moving sideways along a wall barely as tall as yourself, with minimal footholds, is harder than it looks, especially when the ants who live around your handholds start climbing on and biting you. I managed to do both walls I tried; the ants were just motivation to do it faster. The walk back to Cusco was along a grassy path flanked by low, stone walls. The sun was so powerful today that despite two applications of SPF 55 my skin is displaying evidence of the beautiful weather. I had a late afternoon meal of salad, soup, rice, peruvian soy-meat stew and cool chamomile tea with Marla and Natalie on our way home. The whole thing cost 5 soles (about $1.80). The combination of sun, rock-climbing, food and a long, long walk left us completely "knackered" (as Sam said). Time to go nurse my sunburn and maybe take a little nap before maybe going out tonight.

With love,
Julia