Connecting with the locals in the Colca Canyon

The early morning mist rises off of the Colca River. Photo by Megan Roltgen.

Have you ever gone on a tour of a place?  Did you find yourself reflecting upon it later and wondering how the local people view it?  Do they agree with the general script the tour guide fed you?  Or do they have their own stories and memories to share?

Brita, Lacey and I sat down to talk to a member of the waitstaff, Antonio, at the lodge we stayed at in the Colca Canyon and listened to his account of growing up in the region.  Antonio was born in a tiny town in the valley but went to Arequipa when he was 9 years old to go to school.  As he got older he studied hostelería, which prepares students to work in hotel and catering management.  When he was 19 he returned to Colca and found a job in a hotel and has been working hard ever since.  He began his job at the Colca Lodge in 2004 and was recently able to purchase 2 hectares of land for himself.  His wife, Lucía, is able to work the land and take care of their animals while Antonio works at the hotel.

Lacey spoke with Antonio one afternoon during his break at the Colca Lodge. Photo by Brita Dallmann.

Antonio has dreamt of opening his own restaurant for as long as he can remember, and thanks to his job at the lodge he has finally saved enough to start the process.  If all goes as planned, Antonio will be serving up delicious meals to the citizens and visitors of Chivay, a larger town in the canyon, by next year.

Not many people can say that they’ve chatted with the locals in such an intimate manner, but we are glad that Antonio and many others along the way were willing to share their stories with us.  Watch for a full story including video from our interview with Antonio on our website, which will be debuting later this semester!

 

Three views of the condor

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Ever see the old Robert Redford movie, “Three Days of the Condor“? Well, the actual condors we saw Wednesday over the Colca Canyon were far more majestic and moving than the movie.

Even though they weigh up to 28 pounds, adult condors can have wingspans up to 11 feet, and they rarely have to flap them. They’re “gliders,” especially here at Peru’s Cruz del Condor in the Colca Canyon, which is the deepest canyon in the world at 13,000 feet — more than twice that of the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

The 35,000 residents of  Colca Canyon worship the condor. They parade one through the streets every July 28, Peru Independence Day. They catch it without harming it by killing a horse, dumping it in an open hole and waiting for a condor to swoop down on the carnage.

Photos by Sharon Kessler and Mike Dorsher.

First look at Lima leaves lasting impression

As we prepare to leave Lima today and fly to Arequipa, we’re still haunted by our first encounter with indigenous Peruvians, on New Year’s Day, at the Plaza de Armas. As you can see in this video that Mike shot and Megan edited, the new year spurred a celebration of traditional dressing, dancing and singing. But like everything in Peru, it included a “mixto” of present-day European culture with centuries-old indigenous culture, manifest in this case by men wearing bright-red masks replete with oversized sunglasses. ¡Que fantástico!

A day in downtown Lima

Centro, as los limeños refer to the downtown area, is home to many of the historic buildings in Lima, although the majority are not the original buildings that the Spanish built after Francisco Pizarro founded the capital city of Peru in 1535.   On Sunday, Melanie picked us up from our hostel in a van and pointed out various buildings and neighborhoods along the way.

La Plaza Mayor

Our first stop was in the Plaza San Martín which honors José de San Martín who played a large part in liberating South American territories from their respective rulers across the ocean and helped Peru declare its independence from Spain in 1821.  From there Melanie led us to the Plaza Mayor, which is surrounded by the government palace, the municipal palace and a cathedral.  All of these buildings have been reconstructed because earthquakes severely damaged them throughout Lima’s history, but the original doorway of the cathedral has survived the test of time.  One interesting thing Melanie told us is that all government-owned buildings in Lima must be painted on a regular basis as required by law to keep them maintained.  Different buildings are painted various colors; those surrounding the Plaza Mayor are a vibrant yellow while those surrounding the Plaza San Martín are white.  We also saw blue and red buildings surrounding other plazas.

Making our way through the shantytown.

After strolling past a few more historic buildings, we found a bus that would take us to the top of the San Cristobal hill, the highest point of the city, to get a panoramic view.  Our bus wound through a large shantytown before climbing the steep hill.  The road that leads up to the top is only one lane wide and has a very steep drop off.  Needless to say a few of us had to cover our eyes as we made our way up.  We made it to the top and spent a half hour looking around, chatting with Melanie, and waiting for the next shuttle to come.  The ride down was just as scary as the ride up.  At one point our bus encountered an oncoming taxi and I’m pretty sure the whole bus was only centimeters from plunging down the side of the hill.  If you think I’m exaggerating, watch Mike’s video of part of the ride down.  We all let out a sigh of relief when we found ourselves at the bottom again.

After lunch, Melanie took us to meet Humberto who will be helping Melanie lead our tour, and we ate gelato with him and his family.  It was a lovely way to start off our adventures in Peru!

Past and present collide in Peru’s San Francisco

The Church and Monastery of San Francisco on Lima’s Plaza de Armas is an outstanding example of 18th-century Renaissance revival architecture — but the monks who still roam its chapel make some questionable calls, if you ask me. One is the kitschy-Christmas town scene right next to the high altar, replete with flashing lights that “sing” — crass Xmas songs about Santa Claus right along with sacred carols. That made it hard to take when a monk pseudo-sacredly accosted Lacey and Megan, asking them to leave the sanctuary because they were wearing shorts (as were Mike and Sharon, with middle-age immunity).

‘The Hill’ at UWEC this ain’t

Like many capital cities in the Catholic world, overlooking Lima is a foothill (about 1,300 feet high) topped by a large, lighted cross. In the past 20 years, these hills have become home to some 2 million people (out of a total metro population of nearly 9 million) — most of them really were refugees from the civil war then raging between the Maoist Shining Path terrorists and the government.

The road to Lima’s St. Cristobal shrine is lined with shanty homes — and sheer cliffs. Watch here for a quick trip with us up the mountain — and down.

Equipo Peru survives Lima clown cab

It's not easy finding a taxi in Lima on New Year's Day, so the entire Equipo Peru piled into one small Nissan taxi to get back from our initial sightseeing tour. We are (L to R) Mike (alone in the front seat to make it "legal"), Sharon with Brita on her lap, Lacey, Megan -- and Melanie, our guide fantastico! Luckily, this was before our gelato stop, or we would have never fit. The funny thing is, the first light we stopped at, we looked over at an even smaller taxi -- a Yugo, I think -- and they had SIX people in the back seat, albeit four were kids.

Minnesotan combines passion for textiles with love for Peru

By Lacey Weninger

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Click on the image to view a slide show of Melanie Ebertz's studio.