The past couple of days have been quite hectic and Ididn´t get a chance to see my messages so apologies to those who have written - I hope to reply personallysoon.
I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Urubamba with Neomy and Alfredo. We ended up staying two nights and in fact they stayed on longer as the wall reconstruction is taking alot longer than envisaged.On the first day we went for lunch at a cafe owned by Alfredo's nephew where the food was excellent and incredibly cheap - only 50 pence per person for a delicious soup followed by a main course and the price even included a soft drink. Alot of tourists come toUrubamba and many of the restaurants are quite expensive but these inexpensive eating places exist as well. If the menu is written in English one should avoid those places as they cost anything up to ten times the price.
In the afternoon Neomy accompanied me to Ollantaytambo and we had a lovely time, first a tricycle journey to the terminal and then a bus to Ollantaytambo. With two of us in the tricycle the little moped engine was working to the limit and had all our sympathy! We visited the artesania shops in Ollantaytambo and I bought a lovely woven tapestry for a really good price. I succumbed to the temptation because the weaver recognised me from a previous visit when I said I would buy something next time!
We declined on visiting the ruins though which involved a hefty climb but we managed to feature some of them in our photos.Finally we tried to find that little shop with patio where we enjoyed a beer last August but failed to find it. On the way we passed a cafe selling exotic drinks from the jungle but when we went in and were offered an afrodisiac drink we both politely declined!!!
We ended up in the inner courtyard of another shop and ordered a beer but when it came it wasn´t Cusquena so Neomy offered to drink that one and we ordered a Cusquena as well and spent a very pleasant hour enjoying the beer and the warm sunshine. The courtyard was full of flowering plants, including some unusual varieties of geraniums in red and black and not once or twice but three times these flowers were visited bya humming bird which looked so beautiful hovering and sipping the pollen with its bright irridescent green body and whirring wings. On the third attempt after frightening it away twice I managed to capture it in a photo but whether it is detectable among the greenery of the plants remains to be seen.
Back at Urubamba later the three of us went out fordinner and then had an early night. Life in Urubamba is very tranquil and it is completely safe to stroll about at night there. On Friday we visited the market which was a bit bigger than usual but not as big as it is on Mondays. I managed to find a couple of CDs which are incredibly cheap at these markets. I really enjoy exploring markets here and seeing the wares on offer. I ended up buying some dried aji amarillo chillis to bring home and a variety of spices. Then it was time for lunch and we went back to Alfredo´s nephew´s restaurant again and in the afternoon visited their other properties scattered throughout Urubamba. In one of them lives a lovely ginger cat called Miminita (even though it is a male!) He was delighted to see us and just loved being stroked. He came onto my lap and I enjoyed cuddling him for quite a while before we moved on, promising to come back with food for him later.Then we visited the cemetery on the edge of town to pay our respects to Nayru, Alfredo's twin daughter who died over 20 years ago, soon after her birth. The cemetery was the most incredibly peaceful place with the sound of running water nearby, a variety of birds singing, and the biggest concentration and variety of flowers I have yet seen in Peru - an incredibly beautiful place of rest.
Later in the afternoon Neomy and Alfredo put me into a bus for Cusco as I wanted to get back as not knowing I would be staying longer than one night I hadn't brought the things I would need.We negotiated a good price for me to travel in a colectivo (shared taxi) but after 15 minutes waiting for 4 more passengers to appear we gave up and I got the bus instead. An hour and a half later we were in Cusco where I got a taxi home and arrived there before nightfall. Then before it got dark I went out for a takeaway meal and spent a quiet evening at home listening to my new CDs.
Next day I went to Plaza de Armas with the intention of visiting Lydia and Gorky again. It was the hottest day so far (and there was me dressed in winter clothes!) and so pleasant relaxing in Plaza de Armas that I ended up spending the whole afternoon there after first enjoying a good lunch in one of therestaurants. Even just off the Plaza a really bargain lunch is available, especially if one opts for the menu del dia which offers a soup or starter, followed by a main course, often a dessert as well and a drink. I enjoyed mine sitting on a balcony and for just 2 pounds they even threw in a pisco sour as well.
During the afternoon various children came selling their finger puppets and I ended up buying a load more, plus a few bargain original CDs and a mother o pearl silver pendant with condor, alpaca and serpent inlaid with other semi precious stones. The children stayed to chat and ended up staying with me all afternoon. The youngest aged 4 really seemed taken with me and wanted to sit next to me - the other four were aged 6, 9, 10 and 11 and really cute and all of them loved to chat.When a couple of young boys approached they warned me to hang on tightly to my bag and other things as they were well known pick pockets. After a while I fancied an icecream and ended up buying 6, one for each of the children and when I later went to visit Lydia all fiveof them accompanied me, the two youngest holding my hands and Lydia was highly amused when the crowd of us arrived. Around 5 pm I wanted to get back so one of them called me a taxi and then all five wanted to give me a kiss before I said goodbye, having first arranged to meet them again on Monday at 12 noon. This time I will take my camera and take some photos of them.I was back in the centre again at 6.30 with time for another menu del dia, this time only 7 soles which is about one pound fifty, before heading for Chez Maggy Pizzeria where the band were due to play at 7.30.Saturday being busier than normal they played for about an hour and a half until 9 pm and I enjoyed a Cusquena whilst watching. Meanwhile Alfredo, Juan´s friend phoned and we invited him to join us and the three of us went to Fernando's bar for about an hour and it was lovely to see him and his wife again, who were also pleased to see me having heard I was in Cusco again.
Then by 10 pm we were in Kami Kase and just as well we arrived early as we got to share the only remaining table, right down the front by the stage. Two twin guys were sharing the table, having just been reunited after 15 years, one of them having lived in Miami all that time and was home for 2 months holiday, and we had alot of fun chatting to them both. The music in Kami Kase is pretty good, the DJ putting on a good selection of rock music, U2 etc, so waiting for Arco Iris to perform on stage wasn´t a problem. There was a promotion on drinks as well, three Cuba Libres for 12 soles which is about two pounds fifty and we enjoyed a few of these as the evening progressed.
Finally at ten past eleven Arco Iris made an appearance and I was delighted when the charango player from Puno - Jesus - recognised me and came straight over and gave me a hug. The concert which followed was amazing and lasted for almost two hours and I was in heaven - especially later when they played my favourite song - Milagro de Amor - and Juan and Alfredo got up and danced with me for the duration of the song.At the end, Jesus came over and joined us and stayed with us for the rest of the night - him being from Puno the same as Juan and Alfredo, so they knew each other quite well. Jesus has started to learn English and I am going to help him by email. He has played with the Huj Mayas in the past and is going to really try to get to Puno next year and perform with the Huj Mayas in the fiesta. By the time I got home it was 5 in the morning and we were among the last few stragglers to leave the club!I was just dying to fall into bed and sleep as I had to be up again at 6 and it felt as though I dived into bed on one side and dived out again on the other with so little sleep.
Neomy had come home from Urubamba to accompany me to Chincheros today as our plan was to go the mass in the little church there, where all the country people from far and wide go to worship and the whole mass is recited in quechua (the ancient Inca language, still spoken in villages here). From the house we took a taxi to Avenida Grau, tried to negotiate a place in a colectivo but ended up going by bus instead. After half an hour by bus we got off and then took a colectivo some distance and then another bus before finally reaching Chincheros about 8 am with a long hike uphill going as fast as we could so as not to miss the mass, only to finally arrive and find it would not take place until 11 o clock. We descended the steep streets to the market place which was alive with vendors and whilst there I was recognised by one of the children who was with me the day before and also by another vendor who is a friend of Gorky and Lydia. The weather wasn´t too good and the drizzly rain got more persistent so we decided against hanging around more than two hours waiting for the mass so took another colectivo and bus journey until we got toanother delightful village called Huaracondo which is famous for its roast pork on Sundays, the whole market area full of people with whole roast suckling pig sstill warm from the oven where people could go for breakfast and lunch. (Breakfast in Peru is often as substantial as a good lunch). The pork (lechon) was really delicious which we enjoyed with bread and tamales, followed by coffee, and we also bought a portion to take back for Alfredo. Leaving there we took another colectivo to the main road and thence a long bus journey to Urubamba. Unfortunately the bus was full to bursting and we had to stand a good deal of the way. Finally more than an hour later we arrived in Urubamba once again, around 1 pm. By that time it felt as though we had been driving all over the andean countryside, but I would not have missed seeing these places for worlds, and experiencing the real Peru.
Whilst in Huaracondo we managed to catch the last half hour of the mass there, but it wasn´t in quechua apart from all the women singing in quechua at intervals during the service.Arriving at the house in Urubamba I went to sleep for a couple of hours as it was pouring with rain by this time and none of us fancied going to Yanahuara in those conditions but fortunately at 3 pm it dried upand the sun made an appearance, so the three of us set off for Yanahuara, having persuaded a taxi to take the3 of us for just 5 soles.We then proceeded to thoroughly enjoy the afternoon, it being the 16th festival of peaches, an annual event, taking place in a large field, with country folk coming from far and wide. Inside it was like a huge garden fete, a bandstand set up at one corner with a variety of groups performing throughout the afternoon, cooking fires all over the place with a huge variety of food on offer. We eventually opted for trout fried over an open fire, really huge fish caught in the nearby river that morning, and somehow tasted even more delicious being eaten in the open air. Later we caught up with some friends who I met in Urubamba 3 years ago, and we shared a few Cusquena beers. We stayed until 6 pm and then I managed to negotiate another taxi to take us back to Urubamba for 5 soles,and then Neomy and Alfredo put me into a colectivo for Cusco which again only cost 5 soles. As you canimagine money goes a long way here at those prices.When the colectivo arrived in Cusco I was a bit nervous getting out as the terminal yard was closed up, but the driver said not to worry, that he would call a taxi for me and that driver proved so friendly and chatty that I was home in no time. It is amazing how curious Peruvians are about life in England and Europe.
