Radio Urubamba was full of news of the disaster last Monday and by then many of the houses built from adobe bricks were collapsing into the flood water and it was sad to see so many families trying to rescue their belongings, themselves sitting amongst their furniture in the backs of lorries or pushing handcarts - none of these people believe in insurance so it was a real disaster for them. We heard about the mudslides in the suburbs of Cusco - many people build adobe homes perched on steep hills and many of these were destroyed. Alfredo paid two visits to the house in Cusco last week and the road was still passable to get to Cusco okay from here apart from many new large potholes appearing in the road - which I saw for myself when I went there for the day on Saturday.
Urubamba has the best climate in the Sacred Valley and despite heavy rainfalls at night during this flood disaster it was warm and sunny as usual in the daytime. We knew we ourselves would not be affected as we are far enough away from the river for it not to reach us had the situation got any worse. Although they were talking on the radio about what a disaster it would be if the reservoir up on Mount Chicon overflowed, which is where all our water comes from.
We went and took another look the following afternoon and things were worse even though the water level remained the same - many more houses had collapsed - some of them totally with just the roof tiles perched on top of a pile of mud which is all that remained of the adobe brick walls - other houses were listing dangerously and looked about to collapse, and one restaurant on the opposite side of the road from the river, where we have sometimes gone for lunch, was just about collapsed - see the photos I took which are being uploaded now as I write.
Fortunately after seeing all this on Tuesday the heavy rains stopped. After torrential rain all night long for 3 or 4 nights which brought on this disaster the rain stopped and we then had 4 days and nights of warm sunny weather and no rain at all and because of this the river levels receded leaving even more disaster in its wake. Nearly all the fields of maize were destroyed which is the main source of income of many families, maize almost on the point of being ready for harvest. So not only did their homes collapse they lost their livelihood as well. Local councils have helped - housing people in schools, town halls etc until other living arrangements could be made, and when I travelled to Pisac yesterday there were many people camped out on the side of the road in tents supplied by the military, and making a start on rebuilding their homes. A disaster like this hasn´t happened for 40 years and no doubt they will build on the same spot and hope it doesn´t happen again.
As I said we went to Cusco on Saturday and between Alfredo´s last visit on Wednesday and Saturday water ingressed into the house there and lifted all the parquet flooring in the dining room – Nohemy was devastated when she saw it and hopes that when it has all dried out properly that it will be possible to scrape off the old adhesive and stick them back down again. Whilst in Cusco we passed some opticians and I checked out the cost of glasses and when I realised how reasonably priced they were compared to back home I ordered a pair as they only had to look at my existing ones in the laboratory to know my prescription. I chose a lovely designer frame which only cost about 30 quid and had I gone for ordinary lenses the total cost was only about 50. I instead opted for variafocals and the total cost is about 125 quid and they will be ready for me to collect when I go back to Cusco tomorrow. I paid 360 for the pair I am wearing now so you can see what an incredible saving it was. With the two pairs I already have and these I can probably last out until I come back here again next year, maybe just having an eye test next year in case my prescription has changed.
On Sunday we decided to go back to the same restaurant for the roast duck lunch and were pleased to find it still standing and lunch on as usual - they had just reopened that day and had rented a nearby kitchen as their own had been destroyed. Some of their cooking is done on an outdoor mud stove but they had to borrow a nearby oven in order to provide the sunday roasts. We were shocked at the amount of homes that had been completely destroyed - in one still flooded area only the frame and the metal doors were still standing, the rest having collapsed into the river. I took a few more photos then as well, all of which can be seen from the link on my blog which will already be in place when I have written this entry – I am then nipping back home to change, and going to Tunupa restaurant for lunch as I have been meaning to go back there for 3 weeks but for one reason or another didn´t make it because of other things on each day.
I decided to go to Pisac yesterday to check out the damage, knowing that the river levels had receded. I had 8 books to exchange - I keep exchanging them so that I will leave 25 unread ones here ready for my visit next year. It was heartbreaking to see the extent of the disaster all the way to Pisac, and was especially worse in Qoya and the outskirts of Pisac itself. The bus didn´t go all the way into town either and there was a scramble for motos and colectivos so I decided to walk knowing it was no more than a mile and not being in any particular hurry. I took a few photos of the bridge and the damaged police station in front of it but couldn´t get close as the way was blocked with piles of sandbags to prevent people passing and a mountain of huge boulders which are obviously going to form part of the reconstruction of the bridge - knowing how slow things happen here I cannot imagine the bridge reopening for several months. One has to cross this bridge to get to Cusco which is about an hour from Pisac by bus. The only other way to get to Cusco is an hour´s bus ride to Urubamba and then either 2 hours on a bus to Cusco from there, or an hour by combi (shared people carrier taxi).
From the bridge I walked up to the Plaza de Armas and it was a different picture that met my eyes - only about a third of the market stalls were in place and the whole area, normally thrumming with activity and tourists, was practically deserted. I went to Ulrikes and exchanged my books and then had lunch, and visited Beltran in the jewellery shop, who said it was an unmitigated disaster for all the shops and market stalls as there were virtually no tourists. It started to drizzle with rain so I did not linger long and made my way back down to the bridge from where I was able to get a moto out to where the buses were waiting for passengers - along with colectivos and combis touting for passengers. I got on the bus but had to wait half an hour for it to start back as they wait until the bus is full before it makes its journey. I got back to Urubamba about 3 pm.
Nohemy and I then went to visit Metoya, an elderly musician who had had an accident 10 days previously, by falling off the ladder whilst doing something to his roof. He was still in quite a bad way, covered in cuts and bruises, some of which had required stitches. Nohemy had seen his son that morning and told him we would pay him a visit in the afternoon. His band are called Trio Imperial de Cusco, and they play guitars and sing. He gave me 3 DVDs of the band and said he was arranging for the other two members to come to Urubamba and give a concert just for us, mainly so that I had some kind of despedida (farewell party). We agreed on the date Saturday 13th February, and will all go and have some lunch, then come back and the band will play for us. I thought that was really kind of him to want to do that. Before leaving we said we would come back again this Thursday and bring my Spanish version of Scrabble so that we could play a couple of games and he liked the sound of that. Being virtually unable to walk and thus housebound any visitors are especially welcome.
Because of the flooded river, 2000 tourists were stranded at Machu Picchu which is probably why this disaster reached world news. Two even lost their lives, a guide from Cusco and an Argentinian tourist when a rockslide landed on them. All the Europeans were rescued and taken out by helicopter leaving the Chileans and Argentinians to be rescued by their own governments. Peruvians have no love for the Chileans since they were robbed of part of their land and many Peruvians massacred, in some war, I am not sure when
They tend to talk about Machu Picchu as being part of Cusco but in fact it is about 70 miles away. Ollantaytambo, the next village in the direction of Machu Picchu from Urubamba has a train station and one can get to Machu Picchu from there. Some people take the train all the way from Cusco and others go by bus or combi to Ollantaytambo and get the train from there. There is no road to get to Machu Picchu, and the train follows the river to get to Machu Picchu. The only other way in is by helicopter and that is prohibitively expensive. Even the train is very expensive for tourists, around 100 dollars or more return fare depending on which train – this compared to 2 quid for Peruvians on a local less luxurious train. It can be reached from Quillabamba by road, but that is a 7 or 8 hour bus ride from Cusco and few tourists go there as they would never stand the long bus trip. Okay if you are visiting Quillabamba anyway but not on if you have to get there from Cusco first.
I have only two weeks left here and although it will be nice to see all my family again I feel really sad about leaving - the warm climate being part of it, but also the tranquil worry free life and being able to live without having to work. When I go home I will have to look for work immediately as the cost of living is much higher there. I plan to return in early June 2011, in time for the Inti Raymi ceremony and the lead up festivities as I was only able to get here in June once previously on my first visit to South America in 2001, so will be nice to see it all again 10 years later. The journey home starting in Cusco with the layover in Lima, time in Madrid, time in Heathrow, will be around 33 hours long so you can imagine I am not exactly looking forward to it. We will stay in the house in Cusco on the night of the 17th so that we are handy for arrival at the airport on the morning of the 18th. My flight leaves Lima that evening at 8 pm. I am hoping I can arrange for someone in Lima to come to the airport and spend a few hours with me to take the boredom out of the long wait. Lima is far too dangerous to risk venturing out alone.
