Field Report 15:
Peru - May 16, 1999

By Jeff Bell
 

If there's one thing that jumps out about people thrown together from around the world, it's that everyone has a great deal of pride about their homeland. Peruvians are no exception, and within the country their is local pride that runs just as strong. It was a surprise to me to learn that South American countries have deep seated rivalries which still occasional erupt into small border wars. In Iquitos a couple weeks ago, people were protesting in the street because President Fujimoro had ceeded some 300 sq miles of jungle land to Ecuador. "Somos (we are) Peru" (written inside a heart) is a slogan that can be seen on walls all over the country.

Today I took a day trip to 7 sq. km Trujile island on Lake Titicaca (I was calling it "pretty ca-ca" in my mind most of the morning as our boat skidded along at no more than slow jogging pace, turning the day into a 3hr out, 3hr back trip). Even the Trujilians have their own deep sense of pride about being from that island. On this particular island, men do the knitting and everyone wears elaborate, but nearly identical traditional clothing. Every day.

Between periodic gasps for breath and runs to the W.C. (I can't spell the "d" word, but I know I got it), I am typing on a computer in a restaurant in Puno on the rather bleak shores of Lake Titicaca (means "stone Puma" in Quechua language by the way, a name that.. well, you get the idea). The establishment is billed as "restaurant-internet", and it's actually is a comfortable, stylish little place.

The lake is enormous, surrounded by barren hills, some of which are snowcapped. At 13,000 ft. or so, I could probably hike up one of the nearby "mounds" of rock and dirt and be higher than any point in the continental U.S. The town is a bustling place, more well to do than the many towns that line the train tracks between here and Cuzco, and is supposedly a lot better off than nearby Bolivia. And it's cold here, the boat ride out across the lake was under a clear blue sky, but cold air, and cold lake water below.

Machu Pichu and the Inca Trail

There is a distinction that deserves being made between traveling and vacationing. The aim of vacationing is... to get away from the life you are leading, to take a break. Traveling...you ARE away, that is the life you are leading.

There's a grey area where these two activities overlap. The 3-5 week time frame might be a fair defining zone, and in all the tourist destination, people from either camp can be found.

The trouble with traveling is that you need a lot of time to do it. Time which most people, Americans, find difficult, if not impossible to free up. And if you can't do it, it makes sense to push it out of your mind. Ignore it as an option. Debase it's value if you must.

I bring all this up because prior to coming to Peru a perfectly sane, intelligent, Wall Streeting, vacation-only friend set me up, set me up by asking if I was going to Machu Pichu. Off guard and not finding a clever or witty reply in my brain, I responded with some banality about how I was looking forward to it, had always wanted to go. (note: Machu Pichu is billed as South America's most popular tourist attraction.) To this, my hard lining friend reply that he had heard that Machu Pichu "wasn't that great."

Long story, but expectations are important, I had should thank my good friend (or feel sorry for him), because Machu Pichu exceed my expectations, even in spite of ignoring this one negative review. Getting there is often the best part, and the 4 day trek on the Inca Trail which finished at Machu Pichu was the perfect build up to the amazing Inca city.

The Inca Trail climbs over a spectacular 4000 meter pass on the second day and the night that followed in a steep valley campsite was my favorite. After dinner, our guide gathered us up like schoolkids, to try to explain to us some of the more mysterious dimensions of the Inca legacy. He described a series of tunnels under Cuzco which were purported to have a large civilization living in them. A group of 5 university students were supposedly lost in the caves, and the legend has it that one appeared 1 year later with two pieces of corn laced with gold, prove of the civilization below ground which kept him alive for the year. Unfortunately, he died upon seeing the daylight.

Another story had to do with mysterious lights in the sky seen in Cuzco and on the Inca Trail, lights which zig-zagged across the sky. We looked up at the sky and within 5 minutes saw a blinking light cross the sky (satelite). When it disappeared near the horizon at a couple of stars known as the llama's eyes, our guide was jumping up and down. We had seen evidence!

Later, I carefully asked if he felt as if he received some sort of power by being on the Inca Trail, passing the ruins. "Of course", he said softly. I was caught off-guard, this fellow felt all the mystery and power that had somewhat faded since my school days studies of the Incas. All that mysteriously difficult stone masonry. The Incas were transcendental people, according to our guide, perhaps extraterrestrial.

The sky that night was remarkable. At that altitude, with no moon and no city lights, it appeared that there were stars literally everywhere. Between the bright stars, there were a solid faint splattering, a blanket of stars. The walls of the valley we were in turned the sky gave us a single opening directly above and a long funnel of stars in front of us. We were so high up that we could look across at stars, at an upside down big dipper. Mars was particularly obvious, being an entirely different color than all the rest of the stars.

A few minutes later we saw another satelite, very faint, cross the sky.

Rather than put their cities at practical locations, it seemed that the Incas put their cities at the most magical and wonderful locations possible. There is a large, terraced set of ruins before you get to Machu Pichu, on the Inca trail, which you access from a series of basement stairs-like steep pitched stone steps which cascade some 500 meters down the steep Urumbamba river gorge. The ruin is almost as spectacular as Machu Pichu itself, and we came upon it at dusk, with the valley filled with patchy clouds. As our guide talked, patches of clouds opened and closed to reveal tremendously steep walls, sharp, overlapping ridges and the snake-like brown river far below.

After a rainy night at a dingy, squatter-like campsite, we got up before dawn and walked across and over the ridge to Machu Pichu. The transcendental moments in the song "Let it Rain" were stuck in my head, and the final unveiling of clouds around Machu Pichu, at the classic vantage point that you see on postcards and pictures, was a great moment.

The icing on the cake was the Machu Pichu ruins themselves, which are far more interesting and extensive than I had imagined. Our group spent an overnight in the Gold Rush-like town of Aguas Calientes and a second day at Machu Pichu before taking the long train ride back to Cuzco.

Summing it up (or trying to)

Lots of people visit, have visited, will visit Machu Pichu. If you do the math, however, perhaps 30,000 people do the 4 day Inca Trail trek per year. Lots of folks, but in this big world of billions of people, it's a rare honor. It was certainly as dramatic and more interesting overall than the 4 days I spent on New Zealand's Milford Track. But than comparing is just...all wrong. There are a ton of things in life which are better than ANY trek can ever be. On the other hand, you'd have to be horribly numb not to be touched by a trek along the trail built by a mysterious, ancient people.

It's said that the Incas had three rules, which if broken could be punished by a horribly torturous death. Don't be lazy, don't steal, and don't lie. Our values are somewhat similar, somewhat, so where does traveling fit into the scheme of things? On this trip, I've been advised by strangers (1) to not waste my life and get on with it, (2) quit escaping and face it (not sure what), and (3) a suggestion that I have too much time on my hands (reaction to my cell division theory of universe multiplication I believe).

Chris Kostman posed the question to me awhile ago, and the answer I came up with was I was traveling for four reasons (PEAS principle): Prespective, escape, adventure, and surfing.

Joking about surfing, a California-ism there. Actually "S" would be something like "seeing other people, getting a sense of their spirit". (Wow, how deep. Lately I've noticed that I actually say "wow", a lot.) All of it could be classified as a sort of spiritual feeding. Really. I've been told it will be hard to make the transition back to the old life (at this moment I don't feel that, traveling can be tiring too), but this is living, a form of it that is, can be, very satisfying. Riding on the feeling that there is something fundamental about exploring the one world you were born onto.

I've noticed that some, not all, but a good handful, of Americans seem to be uniquely ill at ease on the road. It's as if they've left our shared American cocoon, the network nightly news wallpapered room that we all live in and suddenly find it difficult to shift gears, uncomfortable with no longer being surrounded by yes men, having to feel at ease with perspectives (some completely wrong-headed certainly) which are 180 degrees from your own. And dealing gracefully with your own stereotypes.

It's as if these Americans have been attending the same church all their lives and suddenly they have to attend someone else's church and find themselves fumbling for the usual thread of comfort.

There was a group of Peruvians I spoke to and asked what they felt about the deforestation of the rainforest. They looked at me as if I was from Mars, with perhaps just a bit of contempt. This is not even on their radar screen, like asking if we all shouldn't be wearing light colored shoes for some obscure caloric conservation reason. They are fighting for some of the riches we take for granted and what is our concern? That they shouldn't mess up their forests. I guess it's human to tend not to listen to an unseen people's request, like the Ayers rock climb. Brazil's attitude to our pleas to not cut down the rainforest is "it's ours, we'll decide." Very human, same pattern again and again.

Plunder

Goods are cheap here. This is a country which knows about plunder. Goods are supposed even cheaper in Bolivia. A hat which supposedly takes 20 days to knit I saw on sale for the uncharacteristically high price of $20. I saw a handknit sweater go for 15 soles (less than $5). A watch I bought cost $7. How much of this stuff do you buy? Buy just what you know you actually need? Get into trying to haul around gifts for friends and family? Is it a form of greed to buy something you THINK you might wear, but probably won't, but since it's so cheap, what's the risk?

Adios Amigos! Hasta Luego!
Jeff
 

To read more Field Reports, click here.