Cusco – Week 3 – We’re not in Kansas anymore!

Week 3 felt a bit like a transition from “visiting” to “living” in Cusco.  In addition to that, we started to lick our wounds and recover a bit after the shaky start here.  Ironically, doing “regular stuff” was the real impetus for us to realize just how different life here is!  Case in point… Parque Urpicha.

During our chaotic week 2, Rik, the owner of our Spanish School, had introduced us to a couple of other traveling families from North America.  A Mom and 6 yr old son from Canada, and a Mom with 12 yr old son and 5 yr old daughter from NE USA.  We struggled to get together until week 3, where we agreed to meet at “Parque Urpicha” (Quechua for “Small Pigeon Park”).  Quechua is the ancient language of the Peruvian hill people.  The park is in an area of Cusco that we had not yet visited, clearly a mile or so outside of our insulated “historic district”.  We arrived to struggle finding the entrance… the entire park (probably a couple of acres), is surrounded by 12 foot fences topped by barbed wire, spikes, or broken bottles.  What looked like main gates were locked, so we followed some other who looked like they knew what they were doing.  The second shocker of the day was the entrance fee, we paid 80 cents US (2 Soles) for all four of us!  It does turn out that snacks, the ferris wheel, and trampolines are extra tickets, but everyone was shocked by the price.    As a side note, not working for a year has been amazing for us for many reasons, not the least of which is we all (kids included) have finely tuned value meters.  A year ago, our kids would not have  batted an eye to spend 200 bucks going to Six Flags for the day… no concept of money nor value.  Today, Kane is excited when we find a “good deal” for lunch, and he weighs that in his consideration of where we should go.

Back to the park.  When we enter the park, and start looking for our new friends, we immediately come to a tiny zoo within the park.  Birds, chickens, rabbits etc, all in cages as if your neighbor reclaimed some chain-linked fence from the junk yard, and build cages in his backyard.  The park has HUGE slides, and Kane ran-off immediately to check them out.  He came back a few minutes later to let us know that he had to “crab-crawl” past the first 10 feet of the blue slide because the bottom of the slide was torn, and jagged metal was sticking up!  I may eventually stop making OSHA jokes some day as a result.  (not yet though).

After the kids ran and explored a bit, our friends arrived, and headed straight for the trampolines. Kane made an attempt to join them, only to be thwarted by the “trampoline nazi”. She sternly told him that he first needed to buy a ticket, and after he bought 2 tickets and tried to give one to Kat, he got scolded again. The trampoline nazi was frustrated, and the feeling was mutual, but I let him handle it on his own. Eventually they both got tickets and spent some time showing off the skills developed over the last year in Clayton with the tramp in the backyard.

I don’t have any pics of the ferris wheel, but you know the “portable” ones you see at school or city fairs? If ferris wheels played kickball, all of those portable ones from the US would be picked for a team before the “permanent” one at Parque Urpicha. The upside was one ticket seemed to get you about an hour on that sucker! Our kids were literally starting to worry that they’d be stuck on there all day…. hollaring down from the top “WE”RE STILL GOING!”, each time around with more anxiety. The most memorable event from the day, I think for the kids was, when they were stuck at the top of the wheel, they evidently witnessed some dogs being beaten with sticks in somebodies courtyard. They still talk about it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later that week, we got another taste of “change”.  We’d been forewarned that for two days this week (wed and thur), there would be a taxi strike.  It turned out to be an all out transportation strike.  I’m still not sure exactly what all the folks were protesting, but I’ve heard various versions of:

1. Gasoline prices egregiously high for Cusco.  Prices around Peru have dropped in recent months, and in Cusco they have gone up 16% since August.  The Government is bilking the tourists (or they assume they are), but in reality, it’s coming out of the wages of the workers.
2. There supposedly has been promised an “international airport” new Cusco in Chinero.  This has been ongoing for decades, and politics are keeping all travelers flowing through Lima.
3. There seem to be regular protests against corruption in local government.  This one seems to be separate, but you never know.
4. Kane thinks the farmers are protesting not enough land and not enough money.

No matter the reason, it was an impressive show of solidarity. Not a single car on the road (the streets had been blocked by debris and burning tires). 75% of the shops, including all grocery stores where closed. Hundreds, of not thousands of workers marching in the streets (in the rain actually), singing, setting off cherry bombs, and carrying scary looking props (like a casket with a politicians picture on it). Police lined the main square in riot gear, and stood at the ready with their plexiglass shields, batons, and mobile phones. I figured it was a hay-day for petty thieves as I’m sure every cop in Cusco was on riot duty!

 

 

We finished the week on a really good note, once again getting together with our new friends. We hosted everybody for a simple dinner, the kids played (soccer on the street, and dodge ball inside), and Kat learned to finger knit. We hope to learn to knit with needles etc, but this is a first step. It was a bit odd to have something so “normal” as having friends over seem so “non-standard”, but it was great. It was a good week! We also did the day trip to Pisac, but that is covered in another post by Kane!