Sunday, December 10, 2006
December 5,6,7 Huaraz and the Cordillera Blanca
Remeber H is W and LL is Y...now try and pronounce it again...
I think I'm now seeing some of the real Peru. I have been protected and buffered til now. Being looked after so well by Andrew and Paola, living their life, which even for we first worlders is pretty flash. I haven't had to manage on my own with the language, food, transport, etc. They have been incredibly kind, generous and attentive. And it's been lots of fun. In fact - just what I needed. But now I'm seeing Peru how I saw other parts of the world.
I left the bossom of my family at the bus station in Trujillo on the night sleeper bus to Huaraz. Now, this service puts Oz buses to shame. In fact it puts the airlines to shame too. I had a 'bus bed' which is the equivalent of a business class seat in a plane. With full recline, 'inflight' catering, movie, blanket...There are only 3 seats across the bus, two on one side and one on the other. Second class is upstairs on the double decker. Now I tried this too on the return as the sleepers were sold out. And second class is still pretty good. 4 seats across with the aisle in the middle, blanket and 3/4 recline, movie and snack. First class was 50 sols (AUD$20) for a 9 hour journey.
Got into Huaraz at 6am, it was about 10 degrees and stayed that all day. Remember this is SUMMER, but we're in the mountains. The altitude here is 3100m (Cuzco 3300m, Machu Pichu 2500m) so it's pretty high. Spent my arrival day acclimatising. Until you experience altitude I don't think you can understand its very real effects.
I'm not particulary athletic, but I'm also not unfit and certainly would put myself in the above average category for normally active people. I took the altitude tablets I brought with me, tried cocoa tea (disgusting) and ate plenty of limes. Even so the street I had to walk up to my hostel which was no steeper than Simon Street had me breathing heavily. The key seems to be slow the pace, breath deeply and not to eat heavy foods or drink alcohol.
Wandered up to the local trout farm today and inspected trout from finglings to 18" long beauties. Then proceeded to sample the wares with a simple luch of grilled fresh trout with local boiled potatoes (yellow, rather floury and with a soggy outer 1/4 inch - yep that's just how they come I've learned) and salad. But...the trout was so fresh the head, spine and tail just peeled away from the flesh in one easy movement. (The only other place that has been the case was in Selime in Cappacocia Turkey, but that's another story) The little local 'restaurant' at the gate to the farm was run by a tiny old lady who prepared everything fresh. She kept her shop swept and clean. The kitchen was very clean (I checked) but I had to laugh...she had put trout fingerlings in little plastic bags of water and hung them around the servery opening. I'm not sure if they were for display or if she hoped to sell them as souvenirs (at home you would buy one to take home as a pet). But they had died in the tiny bags of water and she had just left them all there sunk in the bottom of the bags...
Walking back down into the town and around the Plasa de Armas (remember I said every town has one of these in its heart), I was struck by the poverty. This is where you realise it is easier to be poor in the warm. I'm sure the people of India and Asia are no less poverty striken but they are warm. These people have to find clothes to keep themselves and their families warm, find heating for their hovels and manage the intense cold while they perform their domestic duties. I watched women washing clothes in the mountain river that flowed through town with bare feet and hands. Air temp 10 degrees, water temp about 5 degrees.
The women are a study. Many wear traditional clothing which is very colourful and seems mismatched. They all wear slip on loafer shoes, with knee high stockings. Then over this they wear leggings of various colours. Then an assortment of colours and textures and fabrics in skirts layered, more and more thickly as they get older (or colder). So in this layering there will be a brodie anglise lace layer, cotton, wool, all different colours and patterns. Then as a top layer there will be something as an outer layer usually in a traditional pattern/weave. Many of the layers are traditional lama or alpaca wool. My guess is the layers rarely come off and more are added as the under ones wear out or it gets colder. They don't wear all these layers on the tops. Just under shirt, blouse, jumper and maybe coat. And then it is all topped off with a high peaked square wool hat with feather decoration. Now the hat makes sense after being snowed on as the brim keeps the snow out of the neck of your clothes and the sun off your face. All these layers make them look fat but they are not. They have skinny legs and normal upper bodies with no fat on their faces.
From what I could gather asking around and observing; the mountain women marry very young - many at 13. They have big families over many years and start to wear traditional dress after they have had children. All the young girls wear western clothes especially jeans. Contaception is available without presciption but costs money so they don't use it. Infant mortality is very high. This seems to be exaserbated by the altitude. Making carrying babies harder, child birth harder and the first two years of life very difficult. Any respiratory problems up here can kill a baby.
It seems Peru has 38% of its population under 18yo.
The other thing that has struck me through out Peru (and the world) is how short the people are. But I have to reassess. The French are not short and the East is not short. Not compared to Peruvians. And Coastal Peruvians are not short compared to mountain people. The women are commonly 4ft6in and the men 5ft4in. I'm sure this has to do with being born and raised at altitude. They are also incredibly worn. The cold and exposure ages them fast. Their skin is leathery and dark, their teeth bad. Women who could not be more than mid thirties look 70. They have babies slung across their backs and the stature of old women.
This shortness probably has influenced the city womens love of 5in heels!
Remeber H is W and LL is Y...now try and pronounce it again...
I think I'm now seeing some of the real Peru. I have been protected and buffered til now. Being looked after so well by Andrew and Paola, living their life, which even for we first worlders is pretty flash. I haven't had to manage on my own with the language, food, transport, etc. They have been incredibly kind, generous and attentive. And it's been lots of fun. In fact - just what I needed. But now I'm seeing Peru how I saw other parts of the world.
I left the bossom of my family at the bus station in Trujillo on the night sleeper bus to Huaraz. Now, this service puts Oz buses to shame. In fact it puts the airlines to shame too. I had a 'bus bed' which is the equivalent of a business class seat in a plane. With full recline, 'inflight' catering, movie, blanket...There are only 3 seats across the bus, two on one side and one on the other. Second class is upstairs on the double decker. Now I tried this too on the return as the sleepers were sold out. And second class is still pretty good. 4 seats across with the aisle in the middle, blanket and 3/4 recline, movie and snack. First class was 50 sols (AUD$20) for a 9 hour journey.
Got into Huaraz at 6am, it was about 10 degrees and stayed that all day. Remember this is SUMMER, but we're in the mountains. The altitude here is 3100m (Cuzco 3300m, Machu Pichu 2500m) so it's pretty high. Spent my arrival day acclimatising. Until you experience altitude I don't think you can understand its very real effects.
I'm not particulary athletic, but I'm also not unfit and certainly would put myself in the above average category for normally active people. I took the altitude tablets I brought with me, tried cocoa tea (disgusting) and ate plenty of limes. Even so the street I had to walk up to my hostel which was no steeper than Simon Street had me breathing heavily. The key seems to be slow the pace, breath deeply and not to eat heavy foods or drink alcohol.
Wandered up to the local trout farm today and inspected trout from finglings to 18" long beauties. Then proceeded to sample the wares with a simple luch of grilled fresh trout with local boiled potatoes (yellow, rather floury and with a soggy outer 1/4 inch - yep that's just how they come I've learned) and salad. But...the trout was so fresh the head, spine and tail just peeled away from the flesh in one easy movement. (The only other place that has been the case was in Selime in Cappacocia Turkey, but that's another story) The little local 'restaurant' at the gate to the farm was run by a tiny old lady who prepared everything fresh. She kept her shop swept and clean. The kitchen was very clean (I checked) but I had to laugh...she had put trout fingerlings in little plastic bags of water and hung them around the servery opening. I'm not sure if they were for display or if she hoped to sell them as souvenirs (at home you would buy one to take home as a pet). But they had died in the tiny bags of water and she had just left them all there sunk in the bottom of the bags...
Walking back down into the town and around the Plasa de Armas (remember I said every town has one of these in its heart), I was struck by the poverty. This is where you realise it is easier to be poor in the warm. I'm sure the people of India and Asia are no less poverty striken but they are warm. These people have to find clothes to keep themselves and their families warm, find heating for their hovels and manage the intense cold while they perform their domestic duties. I watched women washing clothes in the mountain river that flowed through town with bare feet and hands. Air temp 10 degrees, water temp about 5 degrees.
The women are a study. Many wear traditional clothing which is very colourful and seems mismatched. They all wear slip on loafer shoes, with knee high stockings. Then over this they wear leggings of various colours. Then an assortment of colours and textures and fabrics in skirts layered, more and more thickly as they get older (or colder). So in this layering there will be a brodie anglise lace layer, cotton, wool, all different colours and patterns. Then as a top layer there will be something as an outer layer usually in a traditional pattern/weave. Many of the layers are traditional lama or alpaca wool. My guess is the layers rarely come off and more are added as the under ones wear out or it gets colder. They don't wear all these layers on the tops. Just under shirt, blouse, jumper and maybe coat. And then it is all topped off with a high peaked square wool hat with feather decoration. Now the hat makes sense after being snowed on as the brim keeps the snow out of the neck of your clothes and the sun off your face. All these layers make them look fat but they are not. They have skinny legs and normal upper bodies with no fat on their faces.
From what I could gather asking around and observing; the mountain women marry very young - many at 13. They have big families over many years and start to wear traditional dress after they have had children. All the young girls wear western clothes especially jeans. Contaception is available without presciption but costs money so they don't use it. Infant mortality is very high. This seems to be exaserbated by the altitude. Making carrying babies harder, child birth harder and the first two years of life very difficult. Any respiratory problems up here can kill a baby.
It seems Peru has 38% of its population under 18yo.
The other thing that has struck me through out Peru (and the world) is how short the people are. But I have to reassess. The French are not short and the East is not short. Not compared to Peruvians. And Coastal Peruvians are not short compared to mountain people. The women are commonly 4ft6in and the men 5ft4in. I'm sure this has to do with being born and raised at altitude. They are also incredibly worn. The cold and exposure ages them fast. Their skin is leathery and dark, their teeth bad. Women who could not be more than mid thirties look 70. They have babies slung across their backs and the stature of old women.
This shortness probably has influenced the city womens love of 5in heels!
# posted by The Essence of Good Taste @ 7:56 PM 
