So... What happened in the last, what, month and half or two months since I wrote a blog? Well, lots and nothing, as usual. The big thing that happened is that mom and Jacques came to visit for two weeks from October 20th to November 3rd. I was in charge of planning this trip which had to include a few must-sees from Bolivia and Peru. They took all the pictures but my mom sent me a few that I'll post although they might not all illustrate my narrative here...
One thing about coming here to visit is that you lose a bunch of days adjusting the the altitude and generally feeling like crap. And crap-feeling time was spent in La Paz. Then we went to Tiwanaku where the weirdest thing happened. In that village where there is usually no tourists whatsoever staying in the bunch of hotels available, we got there and everything was booked! There was a sculpture festival of some sort happening and all the sculptors had taken the rooms. But never fear, this is my town. I got a hold of Doña Delia and I got us to stay in the house where I usually stay while living in Tiwanaku! Not quite as plush and cosy as the hotel I had planned to put my parents in, but at least it was giving them a taste of my regular life here. Turns out, to my extreme surprise, that house is super warm in the spring!!! I couldn't believe it! I woke up in the middle of the night and walked about in my boxer shorts and t-shirt and felt totally fine. Usually it's close to freezing when I live there. And squatting at Doña Delia's house allowed my parents to have another taste of what my life is here usually: I got Aurora to cook quinua cakes for us! It's my favorite food that our cook (Aurora) makes! So it all turned out fine and apparently I gained some cred in Jacques' eyes by seeing the "conditions" in which I usually live in. I wish everyone could see it then so that people would stop thinking I get "vacations" just because I leave Montreal for months at a time to go to a different country...
Ok, after Tiwanaku, we got to go to Copacabana, a beautiful small town right by Lake Titicaca which is the spot to catch a boat and visit the Island of the Sun (an important place for Inka mythology). Only Jacques got to visit the Island because mom got sick that night and morning so I stayed with her. It's not like I wont get another chance to visit it, while Jacques wont do the trip another time. Instead I stayed at our nice hotel and read in the sun. That was great, and I payed for it later. Contrary to my belief, I *can* get sunburns. Must be getting old... Here's a picture of me and mom sitting at the hotel. In the background you can see a bit of the lake.


Now, if you want to see actual Inka structures you have to leave the city, or go to its outskirts. First stop was Sacsayhuaman, the "Fortress" that isn't one. It's overlooking Cuzco and has GIGANTIC walls with some stones higher than me, and that's where the Inkas retreated to fight off the Spanish so it was thought by the Spanish to be a fortress. But it most likely wasn't. It was more a place of ritual, when the Inkas weren't under attack. Here's me and mom trying to look past century-ish in sepia tones in one of the many doorways of Sacsayhuaman.


After this 2 hour walk through the site, we hopped back into our taxi and continued toward the town of Ollantaytambo. Again, I have no pictures of the town but it is AMAZING. Sadly we were tired from the Pisac adventure so we didn't explore as much as we would have liked to. Part of the town are still actual Inka streets, and there's water canals running through them. It kinda gives a glimpse of what regular folks living under the Inka rule lived like. And there's ruins of a bigger settlement that you can visit but again it flanks a mountain and we were too tired to climb. We did visit everything that was at our level though, which included fountains and just pretty ruins. We slept in a really nice cosy hotel there, right in the train station. There was a huge avocado tree right in front of our room, which made me crave avocadoes but none fell off... boo... We woke up at dawn and hopped on the train to Machu Picchu.
When we got there it was all foggy making it look kinda creepy and outerworldly.


So that's it. We relaxed and walked around Cuzco some more the rest of the time, and I splurged on a plane ticket home because I was not about to face the blockades again!
Since then, life has been rather boring. I analyse all day, and lately I've been trying to tie loose ends, and prepare for my departure. I need to do stuff like cut the internet service, pay the rent for the months I wont be there (which is a bitch with the canadian dollar going doooooown - my rent is in US$), stuff like that. And worry about the mountain of bones left to analyse. Summer is definitely here though, which is weird and nice. I don't need a coat out, and usually I'm colder in the apartment than outside so I need to take off some layers before going out. Most of the time it's really sunny and the sun doesn't go down before 7pm so that helps to keep motivated to do analysis - no darkness to make you feel tired. Sometimes though there are these incredible storms with wind, hail, and thunder and lightning. But they never last for long. Ok, when I'm left talking about the weather, I think it means I ran out of things to say and should go do something else.
Sorry for the late post folks!
4 comments:
Thanks for the long post (Thanks to Google Reader, I know when you are going to update :-).
Of course, being me, I am curious to hear more about the sculpture festival in Tiwanaku, and which hotels are now open. When I was there in 2007 there was a hotel construction boom, and I'm curious to know which are now operating.
Happy travels!!
Well, if you saw an hotel being constructed in 2007, that must be the Hotel Akapana next to the train track, right? That's open, although it's not completely finished yet. That's where I wanted to stay with my parents. Then there's still Hotel Tiwanaku that was full too. I didn't try any harder, I was told everything was probably full. The biennal de esculptura took place in the plaza and they were doing sculptures like the ones already in the plaza, not sure what kind of stone it is, but pinkish. They used electric saws and polishers so it was noisy and dusty. Didn't see what the end result was...
Hi Claudine!! I am reading, your tree made a sound :) That sounds so great to be able to have some adventures with your mom- your pictures at the sites are really cool (esp the sepia tone one of you and your mom). miss you! xo Laura
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