A few things to think about

I am back now in the U.S. but there are a few things I found really interesting about Peru, and that I have been thinking a lot about.  I'll leave them here, and you (students) can think about them as well, for us to follow up on and discuss more at our next meeting.

Cusco, Cuzco, Qusqo, Qosqo, and the Indigenous and Spanish encounter
This plaque is in the central plaza, the Plaza de Armas.  If you are a Spanish student you should try to figure out what it says before you read the translation underneath!

It says "After five hundred years: glory and honor to the anonymous victims of the invasion, and for the heroes of the Andean resistance.... and they will not be able to kill us." Qosqo, October 12, 1992.  

"Cusco" is written "Qosqo" here, and is also sometimes spelled "Qusqu", both of which are spellings that get closer to the original pronunciation of the word, which is used in Quechua but originally from Aymara (both languages still spoken widely today in the Andean region). The original written rendering of the name by Spanish conquistadors was "Cuzco," but as pronunciation in Spanish and Quechua changed, it became inaccurate, and the Spanish spelling was officially changed to "Cusco" in 1976 (thanks, wikipedia!)

October 12 is the day we usually celebrate in the U.S. as Columbus day, and which in Latin America is known as "El Dia de la Raza."  It both commemorates the Spanish heritage of Latin American people and condemns the loss of indigenous heritage and the indigenous peoples' subjugation and oppression at the hands of the Spanish during the conquest and for hundreds of years thereafter. There are often protests on this day throughout Latin America.

Soles, dollars, gasoline, and the economy

There is an official minimum wage in Peru, which is 5 soles per hour, or about 800 soles per month, a little less than three hundred dollars per month. Logically, the cost of living in Peru is considerably less than it is in the U.S., which is reflected in prices for food, lodging, clothing, and transportation. Gasoline, however, costs almost five dollars per gallon in Peru - even more than it does here. One day on the weekend I hopped in a taxi in the city center - I was going to take the taxi to the bus station, then a bus around to different sites in the sacred valley, and when I explained all this to the driver, he said --but you won't be able to get where you want, get out and look at stuff, it will be really complicated, but you could pay me and I'll take you everywhere you want to go, and you can take your time. He asked for 150 soles, or about $50, and we drove around the sacred valley, seeing the archaeological sites, talking about cultural differences, rural communities, the origins of place names in Quechua, his family, his daughters lives' in Lima. It was fascinating, and he was right - I had a much better time than if I had taken a bus. But when we got to talking about the price of gasoline, which I had also seen listed at the gas stations, we agreed it was hugely expensive relative to the Peruvian economy, and I calculated that the price I would pay him for the trip was barely more than what it would cost him to refill his gas tank when we got back.(We spent ten hours driving around, I learned a ton, and I ended up giving him more money than he had asked for).

Vasilia and David, in a picture from a previous post, live in an isolated area and make a living with the hats, bracelets, scarves and sweaters that they make and sell to tourists. When I wanted to buy something from Vasilia, I wasn't sure I had enough soles in my wallet, though I did have U.S. dollars, which can be used in Peru as well, without having to exchange them. When I said I had dollars, Vasilia told me what the exchange rate was and how much the dollar equivalent to the price in soles would be -- the two interesting things to me here are that the U.S. dollar is an equally used currency in Peru to the Peruvian Nuevo Sol (in fact, in some places, prices are listed in U.S. dollars instead of soles), and that despite geographical isolation, people have a pretty intimate connection to the international economy.

Agriculture, and the Inca sites

This photo on the left is of Moray, a place I visited on my day out in the taxi, and which we'll visit in April. It is believed to be an Inca agricultural experimentation station - the temperature variation between terraces would allow the study of how crops react to being grown at different altitudes and temperatures. This site and many others in the region, which have stood for hundreds, and some for thousands of years, have in the last few years suffered damage from extremely heavy rainfall.

Here's another photo from the same region, and I don't know if you can see well enough, but the terraced plots of land for growing crops go all the way up to the very top of the steep mountains around the town of Urubamba.

Last photos

I know it's a priority for a lot of you to see a llama when we're there. It will happen, and here's a preview:

Next, if you are one of my Spanish students, I'll expect you to explain to me what the "S" and "H" stand for in this next photo (we've been talking about these double-letter abbreviations in class...)

Adios, Peru, nos vemos en abril!

Cusco from above

On my last day in Cusco, I climbed up to the hills above the city, where there are both the ruins of Sacsayhuaman, and a statue of Cristo Blanco, as they call in Cusco the huge white statue of Jesus, similar to the one in Rio de Janeiro that we are probably most familiar with. There are actually many of these statues througout Latin America.  You can see Cusco's Cristo Blanco in the far left of one of the panoramic photos below.

It is quite a hike from the central plaza in Cusco up to those hills, for those of us not used to the altitude, but it's worth the trip. It's also possible to get up to these same places by taxi, though, too.

fin de semana 22 - 23 febrero

Since it was the weekend and all the schools and offices were closed, I just took some time to travel around this incredible landscape and visit some of the places we will visit in April.  The Inca stonework in the third photo is in the town of Ollantaytambo (which has some of the oldest continuously occupied homes in Latin America, dating from the 1400s), where we will spend two days, and the last picture is of Vasilia and David, who helped me out with some directions, and from whom I bought an amazing new hat for the Spanish classroom. The weather has been sunny, and rainy, and hot, and cold, and sometimes going from town to town is a change of several thousand feet in altitude.  It has been a beautiful two days and again I am so excited for all to see it on our trip!

¡Hola desde Cusco!

Hello from Cusco! I have to start by saying that I am happy to be here, and so excited for our trip in April! I'm also grateful to Language in Motion at Dartmouth for the grant that has made it possible for me to finalize the trip planning on the ground here - it makes a huge difference and I really think will result in the best fit for our group.

It is a long trip to get here, but once you're here it's easy to relax - it's a unique and picturesque city, and even though the streets make a lot of twists and turns and the traffic is pretty hectic, it's very easy to get around both on foot and by taxi, and there are beautiful views on all sides.

I arrived Thursday afternoon and spent a few hours strolling, taking it easy, and getting my bearings in the city. The altitude is no joke, and coca tea, napping, and going to bed early were all in order. Today (Friday) I met with some of the organizers of our tours and homestays. This is Jesus, from the Amigos Spanish school, who has arranged our homestays, language and cooking classes, and a tour of Cusco where we'll visit a school. He's super friendly and excited about working with us, and I know we're in good hands:

In the next couple of days I'll finalize our itinerary and send it out. I'll probably take a bus to a few of the sites we'll visit in the Sacred Valley in the next couple of days and post more pictures and info here. Send any questions or comments my way through my Rivendell email, and have a good vacation!

Atentamente,

Profesora Rizos