Another big day. A brief itinerary follows:
• Breakfast of bread and tea.
• Class. Briefly talked to friends and family, watched a bit of Peruvian TV, had class, went to Mercado San Pedro with Josie, and made it home without getting lost! Also kind of helped Jesus translate something for his business: “Function as a Eurocentre in all but name”
• Lunch with tons of people at home: Valeria and Augusto (nietos), sus padres (Raul y pareja), Patricia (I think), Dina, Raul, and Marcela. Lunch was sopa, arroz con papa y carne, choclo con queso, y jugo
• Exploring with Laura: museum and site of Qorikancha (the most dimly lit museum with the most confusing English I have ever been in…they tried to explain Incan cosmology), the bus station, the Pachahutec monument, the juice shop (frupasion and a pineapple, spinach, tomato, and cheese sandwich), and the folk music and dances (dance of bulls, two about birds, a two person dance called the mariner apparently popular all over Peruthough this one was from the north, etc.)
• RAIN! Taxi home
Today’s Lessons:
• Carry a copy of your passport
• Carry small bills and change
• Say “De nada” instead of “con gusto” for you are welcome
More:
Quechua is still beautiful and foreign. Today I learned about verbs. And some other new things too: alco is dog, michi is cat, and there is no word for horse in Quechua so the Spanish “caballo” becomes “cawallo”.
Today I sampled tuna (the fruit of the cactus) and bought some fruit from the market. The market is a very diverse place. It looks like a giant warehouse with aisles and aisles of goods fro sale. We started with artisan goods like sweaters ad hats reading “Cusco” and moved across to food and flowers. The market includes massive juice aisles (when you walk down them women call to you to buy their juice). There is another area full of these pizza-sized rounds of bread, all from the same town. The economic skeptic within me is amazed that they can all make a living with so little diversification. I saw dried potatoes (and later had them in my soup at lunch), fish eggs, and dried sheep and llama (these wide strips of cracked white meat hanging in stalls). Then there is the rest of the meat section. I am glad to have seen it, but cow mouths and pig carcasses (or their smell) can’t hold much intrigue for me now. I am excited to try the fruit I bought as well: cherimoya, Durazno, y …(una fruta parecida al melón)
The Pachahutec monument is cool. Laura likened it earlier to the statue of liberty, and I think it is an apt description. Imagine a twenty golden sculpture of an Inca staff in hand and cloak streaming behind him on top of circular building (like a nine story non-leaning tower of Pisa). He is big enough that all of our photos from the top only show parts of him. Inside of the Pisa tower, there is museum on the Inca Empire and Pachahutec. It talked a lot about the mystical legend of the Incas conquering another group, rivers, and Pachahutec. The monument’s most interesting characteristic for me is its total adoration for Pachahutec and the Inca Empire. The Spanish are referred to exclusively as invaders (which is accurate), but the Inca’s conquest is portrayed as a clear-cut good, a noble and powerful act. I don’t think it is that simple, but I admire the monument’s assurance of its mission. One wall discusses Inca legacy with spotlights on people with the last name Pachahutec. It also seems to feel connected to that legacy of mystical events of Inca history. It reported that when the monument was found lightening struck the building giving and three jubilant eagles appeared above. Maybe it did happen that way. More likely it seems to express a view of history as if through a blurry lens, as a mystical cycle full of signs, beauty, and contradictions.
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