Peru, day 7 & 8 (Sept 15 & 16)

Mmmm, I'm sitting here drinking some left-over mulled wine. Had some friends over last night and made it for them. It's so tasty!!! Would it be bad to make a whole batch just for myself? And it makes the house smell really good too! :)

Ok, back to Peru...

Sept 15 was our rest day in Cusco. Spent the day bumming around the city and a little bit of shopping. Bought my fabulous blanket that day. It took me about four hours and a ton of walking to find the one I really liked...but it's worth it. So nice and warm. We also had our briefing for the trek. All day I'd been thinking about taking a "day off" from the group and going on a mt bike ride. I was a bit nervous, 'cause if I got hurt right before the trek...I would have been in such trouble! Also, after looking at the shops that did the mt bike tours, I didn't have much confidence in the equipment etc. Finally decided that I would regret it if I didn't. You know what they say, we only regret the things we don't do. So I decided to go for it!

Sept 16 I woke up really early and headed out to meet my fellow bikers. I was supposed to be going with four other women, but when the tour guide finally showed up, it turned out it was just me and one other guy, Olaf. It was fine, just not what I'd been expecting. The bike they had for me was small enough...but it was a piece of crap! I didn't expect high quality bikes, but I did expect that they'd work. I only had 3 gears! And my helmet had to be tied on! Sheesh. It kept slipping back on my head, or down over my eyes. I finally gave up and just decided to not fall! :) The route was about 27 miles with elevation gain of only about 800-1,000 feet, which here would not cause me difficulty. But there...! Wow! When you're at 13,000 feet ANY hill feels huge. Especially when you only have a couple of the middle gears.

So this is about 30 feet into our ride and already the fourth fix! Not a good sign. Our guide Gilbert totally reminded me of a Hawaii surfer dude. Very funny. But he was great.

Here I am a little bit into our ride. The wind was pretty strong and was making it even worse. This was the first time in Peru that I had to use my inhaler. The view was just beautiful, and the riding would have been a LOT more fun at a lower elevation...or if I'd been on my Titus.

We rode for about 2 hours and finally got to one of the archaeological sites we were going to visit, the Maras Moray. Maras is the nearest town. The moray was an Inca experimental farm. They planted different types of plants on each terrace and experimented with water, light etc. Fascinating. In this complex there are three morays, but the one below was the most impressive. Can you see the people down in the bottom? It's a lot farther down than it looks.

Took us a while to walk down, but it was fun. Hot at the bottom too! Here I am going down the "steps" that are on all the terraces. You can't see it here, but on each terrace the stairs reverse direction...so it's like going down flights of stairs. We spent a bit of time resting at the bottom, then had to slowly work our way back up.

Walking up was exhausting, so we took a brief break back at the top. A very cute puppy was trying to sleep in my helmet, but then his mom came and took him off. There are a ton of dogs in Peru, and they're not like ours...pets. But it's not as bad as in Belize, where they were obviously in much worse health and more wild. These ones are tame..just not pampered.

After we left the Moray, we biked towards the town of Maras. Now the fun started! From here it was almost all downhill. Here's one of the hills we came down...and then did have to go up on the other side. This was the last hill up. At the top of that hill the headwind was so strong that it actually blew me backwards into a cactus patch.

After Maras we started descending into the Urubamba valley passing by the Salinas salt mines. They were pretty cool too. The descent was very hairy in spots. I didn't have to get off... but to be honest, I think there are several spots where I should have. Well, guess not 'cause I did ride them, but they were scary. I did fall once badly, but thankfully didn't land on the nearby rocks. Or off the huge drop-off on the other side! Olaf took quite the tumble, so here's Gilbert fixing his bike...again!

And while we were fixing his bike, we were passed by some donkeys. The farmer with them laughed at us. We finally made it down to Urubamba, where the bus was waiting to take us home. The wind was blowing so hard at that point it felt....I don't know, but it was super windy! This is a view back up the valley towards the salt mines.

So I had a great day, and am so glad that I did take the opportunity to go biking. I don't regret it. Once I got back to the hotel I had to pack for the trek, since we'd be leaving at the crack of dawn. We were going to leave all of our luggage at the hotel in Cusco, just take what we needed for the trek. Then it was off to bed, 'cause the next day we were going to be on our way!

Roller derby!

Friday night I went with some friends to 80's night at the Grove. It was fun...but I was a bit disappointed with the music. The first DJ was....ok, but not great. He played 80's stuff, but none of the really good ones. More the cheesy songs. Oh well, it was still fun. The second DJ was better, but his was a mix of 80's and 2000's, which again was great but not really what we'd been hoping for. Better than the last 80's night I went to where Sheila, Terra and myself had our drinks spiked by this creepy little man. Good thing the three of us left together that time! Anyway, a good time was had by all! :)

I was dog sitting again, so I spent some time with the puppies on Saturday. They're so funny. I'm really not a little dog person...but these guys have definitely grown on me.

Sat night we went to see April at her roller derby bout. Yes, Bend does have a roller derby league! If you have not been, you should go to a bout. It's a total blast and those ladies skate hard!!! Their league is called the Lava City Roller Dolls and April skates on the 12 Gauge Rage team. They were great. They "lost" by 4 point... lost is in quotes 'cause they fought like hell and skated their asses off.

My throat was so sore Sunday. From all the yelling and screaming! :) Way to go April! 12 Gauge Rage may not play in the championship bout, but April may be skating 'cause they're down a couple skaters. I'll be there with bells on. Hmm, maybe real bells this time! Cow bells for cheering. Saturday Dec 9th. I should have pics from the bout really soon...

Mt biking in the snow!

Today I took my "little brother" (through the COPY program, see my links) out for a mt bike ride. We'd been wanting to go the last couple times we hung out, but last week it was raining...and I can't remember why before that. But today was supposed to be the day! He forgot his bike in Sunriver though (I pick him up from his grandmothers here in town), so he rode his sisters bike. I was proud of him for not being scared to be seen on a "girls bike"...and it sure was a girl's bike!!!! :) Bright pink, tassles and all.

We went up to Phils and did the lower flat loop. He did really well. A couple minutes out I asked him if it started to precipitate, would it be rain or snow. He guessed rain, I guessed snow. About five minutes later it started to snow!!! :) It was great. We stopped at the chicken roundabout for pictures. By the time we got back to the car it was snowing so hard we could barely see, and we were both soaked.

It was a lot of fun though!

Peru, day 6 (Sept 14)

Today we saw Pisac, Ollantaytambo and Chinchero. Another hot day once we got started. We drove from Cuzco to Pisac, a colonial town where we stopped at the "renouned" market. That's in quotes 'cause...to be honest, all the markets start to look like each other after a while. We spent some time here shoping for gifts. Got some good deals though. We then went to the nearby Inca ruins which has the largest Inca cemetary. We had to hike along a very narrow trail, which mom really didn't like at points. It was good to get out again and really stretch our legs. Going out wasn't too hard, but coming back had a few hills and sets of stairs that were challenging.

We had lunch in Urubamba at a "tourist restaurant." There are tons of these all over! What it is, is a set lunch where you choose from several appetizers, a main course and dessert all for a set price. Or a buffet. Some places were great, others only ok. This one was...ok I guess. From there we continued on to Ollantaytambo, a very well-preserved Inca site. The town of Ollantaytambo itself was beautiful and incredibly clean. It had these amazing water canals in the middle of the streets. They were built by the Inca and are still used today!

(Jean and Anne in the market at the base of the Ollantaytambo fortress)

The fortress of Ollantaytambo is a formidable stone structure that climbs these massive terraces to the top of a peak. It was the site of the Inca's greatest victory against the Spanish during the wars of conquest. It was incredibly windy there! After having our emplanation, Wilbur left us to climb up and explore the site. Now, standing at the bottom, I really wasn't sure I was going to go up. It was very steep with a ton of steps...however, he thought it would only take us 40 minutes to go up, accross and back down. After some hemming and hawing we decided to go ahead and try it. Took us 20 minutes! :) It was great though. Beautiful views...and to be honest it made us all feel better about our upcoming trek!!!! We were all finding the altitude difficult, so the fact that we could do Ollantaytambo with such ease made us feel much better.

(Mom and I crossing Ollantaytambo)

(One of the walls facing down into the Sacred Valley and the Urubamba River)
(Me coming down some of the steps)

By the time we got back in the bus, we were all pretty tired...and shopped out. There was a market in EVERY place we stopped. We wer planning on stoping in Chinchero on our way back to visit that market, but decided to just stop there briefly. Chinchero was evidently one of the valley's majoy Inca cities, and has a collonial church that was built on top of the remains of an Inca palace. It aslo had imense agricultural terraces.

We got back to Cuzco at about 7:00 pm after a beautiful drive where we saw San Juan Mountain which is approx 5,900 meters (about 19,500 feet). We were all tired, but we knew we had the next day "off." A day to rest, shop and explore in Cuzco and get ready for our trek.

Snow!

This was the Sunriver library this morning. Snow in the ground, and I don't think you can see it, but it's snowing lightly here too. Not sure if I'm super happy...or sad! :) I love skiing, but with Peru and all, I don't know that I'll be able to afford much skiing this year. Oh well, this may be a good year to learn how to cross country. 'Course, I don't have xc skis though!

The Oscar Meyer Wienermobile!

Look! The Oscar Meyer Wienermobile was in Bend yesterday! :) April and I saw it when we were driving down Bond. It made us laugh. So we had to go around the block again to take this picture. Hee hee.

My class went well. I enjoy teaching, I always have. It's always a lot of work, but it's fun. It's funny...I am actually really shy (stop laughing, really, I am!) except when it comes to public speaking about something I know about. Half of my job is public speaking, which has also helped. But if I know what I'm talking about...I don't have any fear. So most people who know me, see only that. But truly...I am very shy! :)

I'm dogsitting for Lisa and Yvonne this weekend again. Hooray, more time with the puppies.

Multicultural children's literature

I'm teaching a class up at OSU (on the COCC campus) today. It's for the Masters of Education program, and it's a class on multicultural children's literature. They don't really have anyone up there who can teach it, so they'd asked the library if any of the children's librarians would consider teaching the entire course (Sept-Dec). I seriously thought about it, but with my trip, it just wasn't going to work. So instead, five of the children's librarians are each teaching one class, and the education teacher is doing the other three or four.

My class today is on fiction and folklore with a focus on Native Americans. Wow. Daunting task!!! There is so much.....bad literature featuring Native Americans...and some of them are "classics." For example Little House on the Prairie (which I never liked...Loved the TV show, but not the books), The Matchlock Gun or The Courage of Sarah Noble. I don't think these books should be used in the classroom! They're so....bad! Go back and read them if you don't believe me. Others are just bad...but with good intentions. Sometimes the writer meant well, but misrepresents so much about history and culture. Then there is The Indian in the Cupboard and My Heart is On the Ground (a Dear America book)...I do think those writers meant well...but their books just perpetuate stereotypes and My Heart is on the Ground is historically innacurate (suggesting that the boarding schools Native American children were forced into were good!!!)

It's a huge controversy, and one I'm not sure which side I'm on. Can people, not from that culture, write about it? Can whites write from a Native American perspective? Can an African-American writer write about an Asian child??? I'm not sure. I think yes, if it is well (and I mean WELL) researched...but mistakes are still made. I don't know. It's a difficult topic.

And one that has been consuming me since the conference was over! But by tonight I'll be free and clear! Hooray!!!!!!

Peru, day 5 (Sept 13)

This day was a little....tense in the morning. Several people on the trip were very unhappy with how the trip was shaping up. The veeeery long bus ride, feeling like they were being "lied to" about things, feeling like the hotel we were staying at was not up to par...the list goes on. They wanted to have a group meeting and get everything out on the table, and "nip the problems in the but." (or is that "bud"?) I did not take part in the meeting. I didn't feel that anything was wrong, and didn't want to spend several hours of my day talking about it! So I read, wrote in my travel diary, checked email...kept myself busy. Evidently it went ok, and everything was fine, but gotta tell ya, it did put a damper on my day.

Once all that was over, we had lunch and then took a longer hike. I think Wilbur wanted to see how we were acclimating, and see if he was going to have to change anything about the trip. We walked up to Sacsayhuaman (pronounced sexy woman). I don't seem to have any pictures of that day though! :( I know I took a ton, but I cannot find them. Oh well. Mom didn't come with us today...she was having her elevation sickness day. Not fun for her. Or us really. She also got a really bad nosebleed from the elevation and dryness. Kim, our roommate at this hotel, had been really sick the day before, but did come with us to Sacsayhuaman. She got worse that evening though. What we didn't know until we got back to North America is that she had the beginnings of high altitude edema! Ick.

Sacsayhuaman (since I don't have pics) means "satisfied falcon" and is at the head of what the Incas thought of as the puma-shaped city of Cuzco. The fortress itself is designed to look like a puma, with these jagged walls forming the teeth of the puma. It was a long hard walk up. Again, a walk that at home would have been exercise, but not like this! :) Had to stop several times to catch my breath, but all in all was feeling really good about my conditioning.

Back at home I'd been experiencing a LOT of leg pain when hiking, and issues with my asthma. I had NO leg cramps, the entire time in Peru. I did have to use my inhaler several times, but nothing like I thought I might. I was really worried about my health before I went, but it turns out I did better than most people! The rest of the group were all taking Diamox, a medication used to treat or prevent high altitude sickness. I, however, can't take it. It's a sulfa drug, so I'm allergic to it. Everyone was amazed that I was doing as well as I was without it. Not sure why I had none of the problems other did...but it was nice! :)

We also saw Puca Pucara ("red fort") which was a garrison close by, Tambo Machay (a ceremonial spring reported to extend life) and Q'Enko (a shrine, literally meaning "zigzag") which was used for divination. Lots to see this day, but it was great to get out, stretch our legs and get a little exercise. It felt like all we'd done up to this point was eat! I figured I'd be coming back from Peru with extra pounds instead of fit! :)

Peru, day 3 & 4 (Sept 11 & 12)

September 11 was completely 9/11 free. Which was really good for me. I forgot until about 1/2 way through the day, that it was 9/11. Not that the Peruvian people didn't care, but it didn't affect them like it did most North Americans.

Anyway, we spent our third day in Peru visiting the Uros islands, the floating islands of Lake Titicaca. Titicaca means grey puma (titi=puma, caca=grey). The Uros people have been living on the lake for hundreds of years on islands made from totora, or cattail-type rushes or reeds. One of the islands even pre dates the Incan civilization. As parts of the islands degrade, they're replaced. There are about 40 islands in all, with most having about 7-10 families each. The island we visited was called Kontiki (which means "god travelers"). Here we are heading out into Lake Titicaca. To the right of us was Bolivia. It was about a 1 1/2 hour ride out there. The weather started out chilly, but warmed up nicely. I could have worn one of my tanks! The sky was clear blue.

This is a really small island, but it gives you a good idea about how they look. Here they are demonstrating how they build the islands. In the above picture you can see two of the reed boats they build. They said it takes 8 men about 6 weeks to build one, and they last about a year. Pretty good. Here are some of the Uros women cooking. When we asked the men what happens if the cooking fire is tipped over, they just shrugged and said that was "their" problem, pointing to the women. Nice.They made us some traditional fried quinoa, which was fabulous! We bought some weaving and some reed boats from the families, then took a reed boat ride to another island, and then it was back to the mainland. There are a lot more pictures of the islands in my Peru gallery. It was a fascinating culture to observe. I'd been so excited about seeing the floating islands, and they were as great as I thought they'd be.

We then went back to the hotel, ate a late lunch and took a nap. We were all still acclimating to the altitude. Most people were doing ok, but there were still one or two who were not doing well. I took this opportunity (after a short nap...even me!) to go to one of the MANY internet cafes and write home. It was just nice to have that contact, and be able to share some of my experiences up to that point.

At about 4:30 we did the same walk my mom had done the day before. Now, back home I would not have even considered this walk an "outing," but at 13,000 feet or so...it literally took my breath away! We walked up to the statue of "The Hero" that sits on a knoll above Puno. Gorgeous view of the town and lake from there. What the rest of the group did was just not quite long enough, so me, my mom and Jean walked a bit farther along. And we saw this: Sheep, on the roof. Right in the middle of a "residential section" if you can really say that of any Peruvian town! it was just a very funny sight. Not sure you can see him in the picture, but there was a sheepdog up there too.

The next day September 12, we drove from Puno to Cusco. Initially we were told it was going to be a six hour drive. Pbththth! We left Puno at about 7:40 and arrived in Cusco at 6:15-ish. You know, I'm not sure Wilbur has a really good grasp on the passage of time. I just don't think it's something important in his culture! This is our can all loaded up with our luggage.

We visited Sillustani, an Inca ruin/cemetery. The funnary towers care called chullpas. Most of them were destroyed, but one still has the side the the door still standing. I decided to crawl inside...I was the only one.

Sillustani sits right on the edge of Lake Umayo. Again, just beautiful. And hot enough for a tank top too! :)
We did cross over the "Great Divide," a4,335 meter pass where all the rivers start flowing to the Amazon. We stopped for some more shopping.

We finally arrived in Cusco, our home for the next four days. Cusco is a bigger city, over 500,000. Beautiful. Our hotel was...older, but it's location was amazing. We were about 1/2 a block from the main Cusco square

Happy birthday Kai!!!

It's my nephew Kai's first birthday today! Happy birthday baby boy! He's the cutest thing ever. As he's growing, he looks more and more like his dad, my brother. Here's a picture of Kai:

And now here's one of my brother holding me:

although maybe that one isn't that great...how about this one:

Hmm. Those may not demonstrate well...but Kai really does look like Randal! This picture above is the day I was brought home. I was tiny! Wish I could have been there today for his birthday. My friend Heidi just became an aunt again yesterday, so now we have nephews whose birthdays are very close. Wonder if that could help me remember when Kai's is? I almost forgot to send him happy birthday wishes today, but now that I remembered, I'm all over it! :)

It made me nostalgic, so I also uploaded some pics of growing up onto my Flickr site. You know what's really wired? Those who know me now really don't know me as "horsie-Chandra," but those who know me from Vancouver know me as nothing but that! I grew up riding horses, working in a barn, working on a ranch...if you don't believe me, check out my new Growing Up gallery (there aren't that many horse ones in there yet). It's odd to have a part of you that is so much...a part of you, that most of your current friends know nothing about. Huh. My meditation for the day.