Twentieth report from Peru.
Well, Jim and I are into the home stretch now since we fly home in a
week but we are still having adventures. Yesterday, Jim went to
Macchu Pichu and I sketched for the day around Ollantaytambo. The
first thing I did was try to borrow a stool from the hostel. I
emptied out a pop crate and sat on it and kept smiling and saying
please and eventually I walked off with a stool.
I did allot of sketches of the women in the market. It was hard work
since they kept moving about but I did my best. In the afternoon, I
did streets and doorways and it was great because they didn´t move.
Last night, I had supper by myself at the Heart restaurant. Not only
was it a fantastic vegetarian meal (the first in a long long time),
brown rice, vegetables and two veggie sausages, but the money from the
cafe goes to assist kids that aren´t growing due to malnutrition and
parasites. This morning, I took Jim back there for breakfast and we
invited the English woman who started the project to join us. http://www.livingheartperu.org
After packing up we went to the market and got a collectivo for
Urumbumba. What is a collectivo??? It´s a minivan for locals that
inexpensively takes people where they want to go. The down side is
that they cram in absolutely as many people as could possibly be
crammed in and then they stop road side and pick up others. Jim and I
were facing a sea of wonderful faces. I thoroughly enjoyed the
collectivo ride. Jim was not sure he enjoyed having his head hit the
roof of the van and being squashed between three large adults and not
having a back rest or anything to hold onto. Of course he could have
been one of the poor folk that got picked up along the way and had to
stand bent over for trip.
After arriving in Urumbumba, we got a mototaxi ( a tuk tuk) to drive
us up the mountain to the Foundation Ninos Del Arco Iris. This
foundation started by a dutch woman works with over 200 homeless
children. They have eight expensive posh rooms for rent and all the
money goes to the project. Needless to say this is a far far cry from
our usual accomodations but I told Jim that he could just consider it
my trip to Macchu Pichu. I was at Macchu Pichu four years ago and it
is so expensive I decided not to join Jim on his day there.
Anyways we arrived at the Foundation Ninos Del Arco Iris and its
Sunday so nothing goes on there today and also there are no meals or
shops to get food. Litterly it´s at the end of a mountain road in the
middle of no where. I was a bit disconcerted by the armed guard at
the cate, but eventually he let us in. After settling in, we got a
taxi back down the mountain and I took Jim to the area that I painted
four years ago. One of the highlights of that trip was discovering
salt fields, where the water comes out of the mountain hot and salty.
The locals have made hundreds of small dyked fields which they flood.
Then they rake their fields daily and eventually harvest a crop of
salt which they transport down the mountain in sacks on the backs of
donkeys. Anyways I dragged Jim to the special spot this afternoon.
He is less that enthusiastic about big heights but he got there. (Of
course I was the one that huffed and puffed and stopped often on the
path up the mountain).
Then we tried to flag down a mototaxi to take us to Urumbumba to get
food but no luck and we walked most of the way. Finally we found a
restaurant and I ordered american vegetable salad for 20 soles. The
waitress assured me that the vegetables were caliente (hot) A plate
of beef, rice, french fries, eggs and uncooked cabbage, avacado,
tomatoe and cucumber arrived. Yes the waitress assured me this was
the American vegetable salad!!!!!! So much for a healthy meal since I
couldn´t eat any of the fresh vegetables because they are washed in
polluted water. Another meal of eggs and rice!! Home cooking is
looking ever so appealing.
