Cuzco and the Start of Our Month of Volunteering (09.08.07­~ 10.08.08)

Saturday morning we took an early flight from Lima arriving in Cusco at 11am. Needless to say flying is definitely the best way to cross the Andes; it’s safe and about as spectacular as any commercial flight can be. Soon after taking off and climbing above the clouds that blanket Lima 10 months of the year, the rocky front of the Andes broke through and rose high above those clouds in a jagged line that stretched as far as the eyes could see. Descending into Cusco we flew down a valley with mountains on either side before making a sharp left hand turn and landing on the valley floor that is Cusco.

An hour’s flight south east from Lima, Cusco is at the heart of the once mighty Incan empire. Cusco itself is said to be built in the shape of a Puma. Surrounding it are significant Incan archeological sites such as those at the “Sacred Valley” and the “lost” city of the Incas “Machu Picchu”. Cusco (Qosq’o in Quechuan) was the most important city in the Inca\Quechuan empire until the Spanish arrived in 1533. Many of Cusco’s Spanish colonial buildings are partly constructed from Incan carved stones that once adorned the pagan temples, fortresses and castles.

We were greeted at Cusco airport by Peru’s Challenge volunteer coordinator Mark (from Canberra) and driven 10 minutes to the volunteer house in the suburb of Larapa, about half an hour from Cusco centre. We settled into the volunteer house where we would spend the next month and then met for an official introduction to the our group and the Peru’s Challenge staff.

On staff were Jane (Australian) and her partner Selvy (from Lima), the founders of Peru’s Challenge. There is also Mark, who was a volunteer for 3 months in 2007 and has been on staff for about 6 months.

The volunteers were Chantelle, Christy and Julia from Melbourne; Terry and partner Fiona, Ross and wife Sue from Perth; Susan from Sydney; Fiona from Newcastle; Christine from Canberra; Bill and his wife Elizabeth and their 16 year old daughter Sophie from the US and last but not least Tracey a pom.

Post group intro, Mark took us for our first volunteer field trip – learning how to catch a local minibus known as a 'collectivo' into town. For 70 Peruvian cents (about 25c AUS) you can jump on a minibus that heads into town. They leave every 5-10 minutes, making them cheap and convenient. Occasionally they are also very crowded with up to 15-20 men, women and children crammed into the back of a 1980s hi-ace – the bus is never too full to stop and pick up more passengers. The minibuses are named according to the route they follow. To and from Larapa we catch the “Batman” or “Rapido” (would be more funny if it was called Robin) buses, both stopping metres away from the volunteer house. Other minibuses have names such as “Espresso del Santiago”- Coffee from Chile? and “Aroma de Anis” – No idea what that means though I’d hold my breath if catching that bus! When you’ve enjoyed the “aroma de crowded bus” long enough you yell “Ba-ha” which means “get down” (it effectively means: “I’d like to get off this crowded bus now please”). You then scramble, squeeze and push your way to the open slide door and tumble out, hopefully before the Batman driver takes off again.

That night we met our 4 housemates (1 big volunteer house but 3 separate units) for the month: Terry and Fiona – lawyers from Perth, Beth (Nurse from Adelaide on a 3 month volunteer program) and Erin (Salsa dancing coppa from Melbourne, also on a 3 month program).

On Sunday morning Beth took us to the weekly fruit and vegie market where all the local farmers sell the crops they have spare. Only the wives do this work. There are no big commercial farms in the Cusco area. Rather they are all family run subsistence farms, most no bigger (and some much smaller) than a quarter acre. Most of the sellers bring their wares to market, carrying them on their back in colorful woven sacks as they walk from far away (most unable to reduce their measly profit by catching a $2 taxi). For these women it’s over an hours walk down the mountain from their communities – if they fail to sell everything they must carry it back up again.

On Sunday afternoon we caught the Batman to town and visited the much recommended “Jacks café”; a Cuscovian café run by an Australian and selling Australian quality coffee and good BLTs. A continuous irritation for us in South America (other than the deadly bus rides, excessive amounts of dog-poo on foot-paths, lack of English channels on cable and contaminated ingredients on BLTs causing diarrhea) has been their poor standard of coffee either because they don’t have an espresso machine, don’t know how to use it, or use UHT milk for their cappuccinos/ lattes. “Jacks” has a coffee machine, they know how to use it, and probably use deceptively good UHT milk (we can’t tell the difference). Their sandwiches have on occasion caused diarrhea, but I’ll let that one slide – it’s the coffee that counts.