Un momento!

Riding in the taxi on endless dirt roads, there's nothing on both side, just vast land stretching on the horizon and patches of rice paddies, there's 5000m snow cap mountains in far distance of the valley, the sun is providing warmth and the wind is blowing it off.

"STOP!!!!! un momento!" 

I grabbed the camera then opened the door to run towards the sheep, donkey and cows coming our way. It's the most beautiful scene. Majestic. They move slow, placing each step firmly on the ground. They are scared but their masters hurry them off, passing the taxi, continuing the sunset road. 

Out of control, snapping shots one after another. This experience touched me. It touched me more than any of the Inca ruins. It's life. Life in its real simple form. I love this connection with nature, with all forms living on this land and soil.

The shepherd turned as he passes us. Hugging his little sheep in his arms, he turned around and smiled. He stood there smiling at us, allowing us to take a few photos of him and his lovely flock. 

I end blogs this way too much. I'm thankful for this experience. Thank you for letting us meet you, for sharing this beautiful moment and for welcoming us to your land.

an accidental angle

Peruvian fashion

Sketching began to be my hobby on long bus rides. I notice the traditional outfits for women are somewhat similar. It is a mascular culture there women are mainly in charge of keeping the house, cooking, taking care of kids and sometimes sell their hand made assesories to help out in the family.

• Top hat is a must, the ones that look similar to an Englishmen's gentlemen hat in wine red, dark green, dark brown and black.
• Large piece of textile for carrying stuff. Any stuff. Children, clothes, groceries, ANYTHING. The textiles are made with their traditional textile techniques and symbols. 
• It's chilly at night so they usually wear knit sweaters, sometimes simple and sometimes its complex like the textiles.
• They wear folded dresses and knit socks to keep warm, some wear tights underneath as well. These are in solid bold colours.
• Their shoes are not in particular traditional fashion but most of the time are sandals.  
• The women are broader and stronger but they all have black long braided hair.

Peruvians definitely live in less comfortable conditions than us. They look older than us and give birth younger than us. I see women who would look in their late 40's be taking care of youngster the age of 5. At first, I was guessing it could be the grandmother taking care of the kids, but then it was not the case. It shows in their eyes, skin, hands, expressions and the way they walk. We should be thankful for our living standards. It may not be what we dreamed of or aiming for, but its definitely not the worst. 

Chinchero, Moray and Salineras

We left Ollantaytambo the next day to Urumamba and immediately negotiated with a taxi driver to take us up to the high ground for a day to visit few sites...

Chinchero is "the rainbow village". Its got a catholic church built on a Inca ruin which they discovered in the past decade. The church is situated in front the main plaza with lavish decorations inside. The history of this place is intertwined with Incas, Andeans, and the Spanish invasions. In present day, there isn't much activity going on around town except the Sunday market packed by tourists. The locals survive by raising stocks and farming and many by selling souvenirs to tourists. 

Moray, an Inca site, is possibly the experimental site for crops. Moray is multiple big terraced oval/circular depressions. The guess is the Inca's used this site to experiment the crops with different wind, sunlight, and water level. It is truly a mind opener to be walking here, it seems too unrealistic. The dedication put into gaining knowledge is something that I need to learn from them. How was it possible to produce crops on such unique land? What have they learned? Is it recorded? Is it passed down? Similar to many other empires, too much myths and unknowns. 

Salineras, a natural salt production perched on the cliff side, shinning down on the sacred valley. It's an ancient way of getting salt coming from the mountain streams. From far away the site looks like white rice paddies but they are all little ponds of salt water drying up to forming mineral salt. Locals come here every day to gather the dried salt for sale and further production. Some run pass the entire site to go back home. They hop and skip in between the little ponds under the setting sun. I got really excited about their salt and spices mixtures and spent a ridiculous amount of time hopping between the taster samples picking and choosing which ones to load onto my already overweight fat backpack.... Mineral salt, paprika, garlic, coriander mixture. mmmmm mmmm mmm so YUM.

Ollantaytambo, Inca village

Ollantaytambo is probably the my favourite town out of the places I visited in Peru and it is located in the Sacred valley of the Cusco region at approximately 2700m altitude above sea level. Ollamtaytambo was used by the Inca Emperor Pachacuti as royal estate where he built the town and ceremonial centre. In Spanish conquest period, it was a stronghold for the Inca resistance.

The afternoon that we first arrived from Cusco to here, we were dropped off at the plaza of the town. Around the plaza, there are many restaurants and cafes ready for tourists to visit. The sun was blazing down and so we quickly found a spot outside a cafe to enjoy the view of the mountains surrounding us. That was the first time I can actually see how Peruvians live.

After we came back from Machu Picchu, we stayed overnight in Ollantaytambo to explore the town. We headed away from the plaza and the main street, into the small alleys to further explore. According to the books, the village has an layout of four street crossed by seven parallel streets. All the residences are courtyard style. Every property has its own little yard in the middle, plus a guard dog that very often roam around the alleys. There's a water system to prevent flooding, thus you will notice that one side of the village is on higher ground than the other. It's really beautiful to see the water floating down on the side of the alleys. We climbed up one mountain in the afternoon to take a bird's eye look at the village. The little path way up got extremely narrow and steep that I thought about giving up. The Inca storehouse ruins standing on top of the mountain was amazing and the view from top was extraordinary. The village was serene with little cobble road alleys, dogs roaming around, the plaza in distance and the Inca ruin in the background with the river running along side with the train tracks. Ollantaytambo is a much better place to stay and experience the Peruvian life than Cusco. There is not much nightlife here but you can truly experience the serenity and simplicity of life.

The travel buddy, Allen.

He taught me the first Spanish words.
He travelled with me for 2 entire weeks.
He dealt with my constant fear of darkness at night.

Allen, a scout boy spending his time in united states for the summer and then decided to take a dip in Peru before heading to Canada and eventually heading home, Taiwan. We met then quickly became travel buddies as we are doing the same stuff and get along quite nicely (mostly because he is a very chill out guy).

"Jenny, you need to get more clothes and especially, a better pair of shoes."

"Jenny, here, take my 4gb memory disk. You can return it in the future."

"Geezes, you are going to Amazon and you don't have a torch? Take mine."

"I'm thinking whether to accompany you to Bolivia, see if I can get through the border with my Taiwanese visa."

We talk about everything and anything day and night, about family, work, relationships and future directions. We talk about our loved ones, our family and their personalities. We talk about photography. We also discuss the local culture and fellow travellers we meet. He tells me his knowledge on travelling gears. I sponsor face moisturising mask and sunscreen to him. He is extremely organized with his backpack. He records everyone he meets on the journey and their background. He owns a expensive camera and carries it everywhere with him. He is a IT programmer but after seeing the IT world and spending the summer in the states, he redrafts life goals to get in the marketing field.

For the first 2 weeks of the trip, I am very, very grateful for having Allen as a travel buddy.  He helped me get through culture shocks and eventually comfortable enough to travel by myself on this unfamiliar continent. It's these encounters that makes travelling memorable and create great lasting friendship. It's hard to imagine travelling with a stranger for so long but hey, its possible.

Thanks, friend.

fooling around in San Pedro Cusco market.