The view from Larapa where we are in Cusco:
Three months in the land of marvels, as Peruvians proudly call it, and even after this relatively short time, I think I agree with them. Coming back from the centre of Cusco in our usual combi, I couldn’t help but notice the difference with how I am feeling being here now, compared to the first few weeks. Getting accustomed to something new is usually a very gradual process, so much so that you don’t notice changes for a long time, until you have a specific moment of clarity where you make out the changes.
Living here, you are a lot more in touch with basic provisions and the earth in general, in different ways: it’s not uncommon to have water cuts, for up to 10 hours a day; there is no gas network, your gas to cook with comes from a container underneath the hob, which doesn’t sound like a big deal, but if you run out of gas at night when it’s cold and you’re dying for a cuppa tea, it hurts!; here in Cusco there is no hot shower, so it’s back to heating water and crouching over a plastic tub; mining is a considerable stream of income (even though many foreign companies completely rip off Peru in terms of pricing), and agriculture is also a lot more noticeable, even in Arequipa, a big city, you sometimes have to wait patiently for the cows to cross. Also, there are many families living with very little money, which means they for them basic provisions have a lot more value than for us spoilt westerners.
Other ways people are more in touch with earth is in the spiritual sense, generations have been living and still do to date, working the land, and have great respect for nature. There are many shamans here offering sessions with natural drugs, which mostly serve to feel more as one with nature. The old tradition of offering the first drop of a drink to Pachamama (the Quechua word for mother earth), is being carried on by Peruvian youth until today.
We´re now only days away from going to Puerto Maldonado in the jungle, where there is a job waiting for me, along with the mosquitoes.
