Fever Pitch

On Friday Andrew braved torrential rain and inadequate Spanish to buy us tickets for the soccer Grand Final last night – Cusco (Cienciano) v Lima Alliance. We got there late, as we had been waiting for El Presidente and VP of Peru’s Challenge to call us and arrange where to meet (we had bought them tickets as requested). They never did bother.

We got there to find our gate closed, and joined the rush to the next gate around. For a few minutes we didn’t think we’d get in, and we certainly didn’t think we’d get much of a view. But we found a great spot behind the goal (also behind a row of riot squad police enclosing the more rabid Lima fans), and the game was fantastic. Cusco scored the only goal towards the end of the first half, and the celebrations were incredible. The photo is a blurry mess, but you get the idea. And the kids got Cusco jerseys, so they were happy.

It was a wonderful experience, even the spatter of rain and hail at half time. When the rain came, everyone donned their colourful plastic ponchos, and the stadium looked like it was lined with fairy bread. The rain cleared for the second half, and only started belting down again just as we’d finally got ourselves a cab …

Now I am off to the markets to buy fruit and veg for tomorrow. Later we will go into the Plaza de Armas for the Christmas Fair and we are even planning to go to Mass, like the dedicated Catholics we are ...

Bad Santa

Feliz Navidad. For those of you who have remarked on Andrew’s likeness to Billy Bob Thornton, here is a photo.

We have had lots of Christmas festivities up at Pumamarca, with our trusty driver Benjamin playing Papa Noel, and Holden and Phoebe being Christmas elves.

The nativity scene with the live donkey was a highlight!

It’s now Christmas Eve here, which is when the real party happens here. At home it is the early hours of Christmas morning, so Happy Christmas to all. We would love to call people, but Peru’s Challenge neglected to pay the house phone bill, so we can’t make calls out, even with prepaid phone cards. We’re not ignoring you … But you can ring us, so please do (we are 16 hours behind and the number is lower down the blog).

We are supposed to be hosting Christmas lunch here, but as our kitchen has flooded for the last two nights, things are in doubt.

Picnic at Hanging Rock

When we first arrived in Cusco, I saw a flyer for the Sacred Valley with a small typo, rendering it the Scared Valley. Indeed. As many of you may know, I have a serious aversion to heights. Even more so to climbing two-foot wide stone steps carved out of a cliffside with a sheer drop of around three hundred feet to one side, in the rain. They are circled in red on the photo. (The other photo shows what awaits you when you’ve made it to the top of the steps.) But I managed, and by the time we had reached the bottom, I was feeling positively elated. I thought I might be on the way to curing my phobia.

Then, as we were driving down the mountain, I looked up. There was a bus in the lower car park, with the whole of its back end, bar the wheels, jutting over the cliffside, just hanging over a drop of a couple of hundred feet. I think that’s what did it. That night I had nightmares about heights. I’m not cured.

Cliff Hanger

Two days touring the Sacred Valley of the Incas earlier this week was an incredible experience.

It´s a cultivated patchwork valley through which the Urubamba river snakes; kilometre-high mountains stretch up on either side.

It´s not hard to see why the Incas considered this valley sacred. Everything grows, everything is beautiful.

There are Inca ruins throughout this whole region and many are in what seems impossibly remote - and high - locations. Our exploration of one such ruin near Pisac became quite an ordeal when hail, spectacular exposure to potential cliff falls and Phoebe completing the walk in her pyjamas, turned a two hour walk into an adventure. In the end it was all fantastic.

The more I learn about the Incas the more they fascinate me. The amazing success and sheer difference of their culture points to what might have been a very different path for the world. As it was they were defeated by Mammon in the form of the Spanish, and in time Mammon became the culture of the world. What might have been ...

My Life as a Dog

Not much happening here, as per Andrew´s post. So I might take this opportunity to blog about something that I find strangely interesting in Cusco. The dogs. Truly. And you all know how I am not exactly a dog person. (Pepe, are you reading this?)

There are many many dogs, especially in our barrio, Larapa. Unlike in Asia, where dogs are generally a variation on the starving dingo theme, the dogs here are incredibly varied. On our block alone we have dogs that look like huskies, boxers, terriers, german shepherds ... you name it, it exists. Then, of course, are the true mutants, the things that look like dogs crossed with cuy (guinea pig) or llama. I will post some photos when I can be bothered with the hassle of uploading.

A lot of the dogs seem to be pets, but even the strays don´t look too bad, although some could do with a haircut.

The only time we don´t like them is when they set up a chorus of barking up and down the hill, in the wee small hours. Unfortunately that´s just about every night.

We will blog again if and when something interesting happens. Or I may even reveal photos of my mural-in-progress, which currently features a strange possum and a koala. The Pumamarca kids were convinced that there had to be another word for koala because to them it sounds like it´s Spanish, and they were expecting something difficult for them to pronounce!

Hasta luego.

Singing In The Rain

Well, we´ve had a few computer problems and now we´re having weather problems.

Today our horse riding expedition was cancelled for the second time as we woke up to the first morning of rain since our arrival. It was cancelled the first time because our hosts stayed in Lima when one of them became ill and had to go to ¨hospital¨. Kids were quite disappointed, but it has given us time to do some Chrissie shopping.

Tiff has started painting a mural on one of the walls of the school in Pumamarca and I helped put up basketball hoops. This involved mixing cement which made me feel quite manly. One thing that didn´t make me feel manly was the way the welding machine was run by getting a ladder and connecting it directly to the wires on the main power pole. I couldn´t watch this particular operation.

On Monday we are off on an overnight expedition to the Sacred Valley which we are really looking forward to. Especially since our hotel is reported to have hot showers.

The only other resident in the Peru´s Challenge house at the moment is a doctor from Victoria called Elizabeth. For better or worse she gets to spend Christmas with us. (Luckily she seems quite patient) If you do wish to phone us our local number is, (270 412), but you will have to find the code for Peru and Cusco, because I don´t have it at the moment.

By the way, I can get email again, but only very occasionally. It seems I can´t receive email in internet cafes for some reason and have to go to the PC office.

Chao

Mr Holland´s Opus

Sorry we haven´t blogged for a while, but technology is not treating us well. I have no email and my last blog simply disappeared before I could save it. I won´t repeat it, but it was all about rafting down the Inca Sacred Valley. I´ll try to post some photos as they probably tell the story better than words.

We´ve just finished our first week of work at the school and while we are working quite hard, it is extremely rewarding. After a few disastrous classes, I think I´m getting into the swing of it and it is a great feeling when you see the kids get something. Last night I taught an English class for teenagers - thankfully with some help from Jane and Jared - and it really worked. Even though they are normal teenagers and play up a bit they are so grateful. There is no poverty in Australia the equivalent of that in Pumamatra, but they are proud and resourceful people with a very strong sense of community.

Peru´s Challenge volunteers have achieved great things in Pumamarca and, through the school, are helping a new generation access opportunities they could never have hoped for in the past. The village has only just been connected to electricity, but its children will be able to speak Spanish, read and write. Until Peru´s Challenge became involved many of Pumamarca´s kids had never even visited Cusco which is less than 10 km away.

It´s not all work though and this morning Hol, Phoebe and I went to town to visit an Inca Museum. It is also a public holiday and a parade of saints was passing through the Plaza De Armas. Incredible colour.

On Sunday we are going to watch Cusco ¨futbol¨ team play, which should be an experience. They are one of the top sides in Peru and only lost in the final last year. (Danny, Hol has been playing with the Pumamarca kids and holding his own - not so his dad, but that is another story)

I´m out of time. And hopefully this won´t disappear before it is posted.

School of Rock

Okay, actually school of adobe, but I´ve been sucked into Andrew´s film title blog name protocol ...

We saw the school for the first time yesterday, so here are a couple of photos which really don´t show it well - I will take more. It is really incredible, especially when you know that a year ago it was only one derelict building - there are now four classes, a kitchen and another building underway, plus an adobe brick wall around the whole of the school grounds. And they are about to start a kitchen garden! Imagine my excitement ...

I will also be putting a link to our Flickr account in the blog so that those of you who REALLY care can look at all our photos. Unfortunately uploading takes forever as we have to do them one by one in an internet cafe.

Today Andrew and Hol are white water rafting in the Sacred Valley and poor Phoebe is standing patiently by as I do tedious computer stuff.

Andrew and the kids had their first Spanish lessons yesterday - Hol is doing especially well. I can understand about 80 per cent, but look forward to starting lessons next week so I can actually starting TALKING.

Who is Killing The Great Chefs of Europe?

The guinea pig lunch is still settling and I am here to report that it´s kind of like a very bony rabbit, but I will let Tiff give you a far better description. It was tasty and the local potatoes were also fabulous.

Yesterday after our trip into Cusco proper, Holden and I went on a little adventure to the village where we will be working. We were shown around the local community Inca ruins and once again I am lost for words describing how wonderful it was. We have a picture of Holden on a real sacrificial stone and he disappeared into a cave, partly built by the Incas, with one of our fellow volunteers. Thankfully they couldn´t get too far because legend has it that it goes all the way back to Cusco.

Tomorrow Tiff and I will take our first classes at the school. Tiff has also been put in charge of the parents group (and she thought she´d escaped the P&C) and I will also be writing the newsletter and working on the website and ¨sponsorship¨Hmmm.

It was great to see Jane (Peru´s Challenge founder) for the first time in years and I´m looking forward to working with her again.

Great to read the comments and although I´m not with the kids right now, I´m sure they will be very excited when they get to read the OG comments tomorrow. They have both been writing post cards this morning.

Until tomorrow.

ps. If anyone is logging onto our home computer on my login, please don´t. It downloads my email and I can´t get them remotely. Cheers