The Quest for a Popener

Posted on January 21, 2014 by kdwyer27 under Argentina

Twenty-five years ago, when I was a college student living in Italy, my dad and I discovered the holy grail of religious kitsch: the popener a.k.a pope bottle opener.

JP Front

JP Back

At the time, Pope John Paul II ruled the Catholic church and we bought a couple of popeners with his image as my mom pretended not to know us. Shortly after my parents’ return to the US, I received a paternal directive – buy a dozen more popeners and send them home with my friend, Maria, who I would see over Christmas, so my dad could give them to his friends (it is possible that my mom also saw the beauty of the popener by this time). So Maria and I embarked on the first popener quest when we went to Saint Peter’s square two days after Christmas. We scoured every kiosk and trinket stand but no popeners. Eventually I asked a vendor if she had any and after a few furtive glances, she shooed us behind her stand, turned her back to the near-empty square and pulled some out of her pockets. A chorus of angels possibly wept as we bought her entire stock.

Fast forward to September 2005, a few months after Pope Benedict XVI was inaugurated as pontiff. Matt and I were on a mission trip to Rome as guests of the Sisters of the Divine Savior, on whose nursing home board I served. Maria and my siblings were clear – come back with new popeners. While the quest this time did not involve back alley transactions, Matt and I were surreptitious in our purchase for fear of offending the Sisters (who rank among the most impressive and interesting women I have ever met and likely wouldn’t have been offended at all). Our task was easily accomplished as popeners were abundant.

Benedict Front

Benedict Back

The current pontiff, Pope Francis, hails from Argentina and is the first South American pope so I was confident it would be easy to find an updated popener in Peru, which is approximately 90% Catholic. I was wrong. I abandoned the Peruvian popener search, but once in Buenos Aires, I renewed the quest. Matt and I went to the San Telmo street market on Sunday and I rummaged through every tchotchke stand. There were pope keychains, pope lighters, and pope matchbooks, but no popeners. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity at the market but was likely only about an hour and a half, I found it. Not a popener, but possibly better: the three-in-one pope bottle opener, nail clipper, key chain. Or as I like to call it, the popenipperain (poe-pen-nip-per-ain). These must be a hot commodity because I was only able to find three in the entire market. But as an added bonus, all three have different images of the pope. My favorite is the one without the glasses.

Popenipperain

3 Popenipperains

I will continue to search for the Francis popener as I prefer the traditional style, but I will also keep my eyes open for more popenipperains as I know they will be in hot demand by my family and friends.

Don’t Cry for Me – I’m in Argentina

Posted on January 20, 2014 by kdwyer27 under Argentina, Peru, Wisconsin

After a wonderful 3 1/2 weeks in Wisconsin over Christmas, Matt and I escaped the bitter cold for Buenos Aires, Argentina. We have literally gone from a low temperature of -17 degrees Fahrenheit to 100 degrees F. For the first time I understand why people think we are crazy to live through Wisconsin winters – I’ll take the heat over the cold any day.

Our time in Wisconsin was non-stop as we packed every moment with visits with friends and family. It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I had all but two of our days booked before we even got to Wisconsin! As an added bonus, the frigid temperatures allowed us to spend those two unplanned days with Shannon and Kieran whose school was closed. We spent our last weekend in the US with friends in San Antonio, Texas – a good way to ease back into warmer temperatures and a less hectic pace. Here are pictures of some of the fun we had in the US.

Puzzle Success

The Domes

At Little Green Lake

Winter in Wisconsin

Bloody Marys in San Antonio

Yummy

Fun with the Cousins

Peter’s First Admirals Game

Family Dinner

Supporting Mick

Mick the Human Hockey Puck

And then we were off to Argentina, via a 24-hour layover in Lima. Because we have been to Lima a handful of times, we decided to take it easy and spent a leisurely day walking through some parks and along the coastal cliffs before we headed to the airport for our midnight flight.

After what seemed like endless travel and waiting (our connection in Chile was delayed), we finally landed in Buenos Aires. While both Matt and I still have a lot of Spanish to learn, we were proud of how well we navigated Argentine immigration and customs. Unlike other countries we have entered, the Argentine government took our mug shots and thumbprints. As Matt pointed out, we have no idea what the US government does for non-citizens, so maybe this is similar treatment. Our flight had been delayed about two hours so we were relieved when a driver holding a “Matt Geiger” sign was waiting for us. Franco took us to our apartment in Palermo Hollywood, a very nice, vibrant part of the city, where we met our landlady, Norma. Norma was headed to Washington DC to stay with her daughter for 6 months and spoke excellent English, which was a bonus for us after a night of little sleep and travel. As we are in Buenos Aires for 3 1/2 weeks, we opted to get an apartment because it was more economical than a hotel and would give us more space. We are happy we did so and have settled in nicely to our new digs and neighborhood.

Our apartment is a duplex, which means we have a downstairs living area and narrow staircase up to the second floor. The second floor has an office niche that we are using as a luggage storage and clothes drying area, an awesome walk-in closet, bedroom, another patio, and a unique bathroom area – a small, separate toilet area, a nice open area with the sink, a bathtub and a bunch of open shelves and then the shower, which is a narrow 5×2 foot area that has the patio door at the end of it. While the door is frosted about halfway down, I think I may be flashing the neighbors when I shower! There is also a typical European shower in the downstairs powder room toilet area – a hand held shower and a drain on the floor, but I will stick with flashing the neighbors rather than showering over a toilet in a 3×2 space. The upstairs is too narrow for photos, but here are pictures of the downstairs.

Living and Dining room

Dining Room

Plant Patio

Pool on Patio

Kitchen and Breakfast Bar

Living Room

Living Room and Patio

Galley Kitchen

Buenos Aires is amazing – we love the vibe here and are having a great time despite the heat. The food and wine are delicious and the dollar is strong. More to come soon…

Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 25, 2013 by kdwyer27 under Uncategorized

Merry Christmas!

DIY – What Was I Thinking?

Posted on December 12, 2013 by kdwyer27 under Peru

As part of my mission to make our Peruvian house a home, a bedroom makeover was top of the list. Here is why.

Clash of the Colors

The duvet cover was ours, but the rest of the room was this hideous when we arrived (and the balcony doors had full-length, red and blue curtains too). I couldn’t stand waking up in such a horrible space and when I returned to Peru in September, I resolved to have it redecorated by Christmas. But I wasn’t sure how to start – when I was in the central market I would stop in curtain shops and look at fabrics but didn’t see anything I liked and wasn’t sure how to find more options. As luck would have it, a departing Peruvian teacher friend, Jocelyn, offered to sell me a gray curtain and sheers. Because I also needed a shade, Jocelyn graciously offered to take me to the central market to buy the fabric and have the shade made. And so it began…

One curtain replaced…

We went to the market and Jocelyn took me to a particular shop on a fabric street. One interesting thing about the central market (which after much confusion and discussion I determined is really just the main shopping district in Cajamarca) is that similar stores are clumped together – so the stores on one block all sell cookware, and the stores on another block all sell fabric, and on another block they all sell eyeglasses. It was odd to us as we initially expected there to be a variety of wares on a block, but apparently that isn’t how it is done here. It makes sense on the one hand because if you are looking for an item you can go to one street and look in all of the stores for it. But it’s a huge hassle when you don’t know where that one street is! So while I had found a street with curtain shops, they weren’t exactly the fabric shops I needed as those were on another street. Jocelyn was amazing in action – I had learned to barter with handicraft vendors and taxi drivers, but I had no idea that one could barter in a fabric store. But barter Jocelyn did and we left with 5 meters of the same fabric as her curtain for $36. Then we went to another shop around the corner where Jocelyn introduced me to Jhon who Jocelyn said would make my shade for a good price. John said he would have the Roman shade ready by Tuesday and would come to my house to install it, all for $24 – sold! The last time I bought a Roman shade in the US it was 1/3 the size and cost over 3 times as much.

My excitement was short lived when I realized that I needed to paint the room before the shade was installed and I had 4 days to do it. Matt wisely wanted no part of this project and urged me to hire someone to paint the room. But we were booked most of the weekend, so we wouldn’t be home to let someone in the house and supervise him. Matt then suggested I move the delivery date of the shade to give me more time to hire someone. But I was too excited to get the room renovated so I stubbornly forged ahead.

I went to buy the paint on Friday morning. First stop was the hardware store around the corner from our house that has a large sign out front advertising paint. After some confusion, despite the word for paint being “pintura” they say “latex” here, I was informed they had two colors: white and beige. On to the next store down the block. There the clerk gave me paint brochures and I picked out an okay color only to be told that they had two colors: green and white. What the heck? Wouldn’t it make sense to tell that to me before showing me the brochure and discussing the color I wanted? At that point I gave up on buying from the mom and pop shops and caught a cab to the “big box” hardware store. I quickly found a color I liked and the guy started mixing it – by hand with a 2×4! It took about a half hour. When I asked about a stir stick to mix the white paint I was also buying, he had no idea what I was talking about, which should have been obvious to me as he was using a 2×4 to mix the paint. I rooted around my backyard and found a 1×1 stick that I used. Matt and I got a good laugh about how quaint this process was until I actually went to use the paint. Obviously, that 2X4 had been frequently used as my paint had old dried paint pieces throughout it. It was awful – with every paint stroke I had to pick off the paint chips. It definitely made me regret doing my own painting. Of course, if something like that had happened in the US, I would have returned the paint, but 1) something like that wouldn’t happen in the US and 2) I didn’t see managing that conversation in Spanish. Despite the setbacks and the need for 2 base coats, I managed to have the room painted by Tuesday.

Taping

First Coat

An hour before Jhon was scheduled to arrive, he called and asked if he could come on Wednesday. About an hour after the appointed time on Wednesday, I called Jhon and he assured me he would be there in 20 minutes. Over an hour later he arrived and installed the shade. It looked great, but by then I had realized that I needed a new curtain rod for the curtain that had started this project, so Jhon, Matt and I discussed what we needed and Jhon said he would be back on Friday with a new curtain rod. A no-show on Friday, Jhon said he would be over on Saturday afternoon. Saturday morning I happened upon his shop while I was in the market, so I stopped in to see if he was coming over later. He showed me the rod and then asked if I wanted the supports for it. You think? So that delayed the project until Tuesday. You guessed it, Tuesday came and went and another call to Jhon confirmed that he would come on Wednesday. Delays are the norm here, so it honestly didn’t bother me much when Jhon didn’t come when he said he would. But then he did arrive and this is what he brought.

What the heck?

Mismatched

He seemed genuinely confused that I would want the curtain rod and supports to match. He also neglected to put the knob on the end of the rod, but by this point I was so sick of waiting that I had Jhon install it and planned to deal with it later. About a week later, we ordered a rug for the room from a department store, so that gave me the incentive to pull out the paint and finish the job. The date for the rug delivery came and went and when we called we learned that our order was canceled. Matt went to the store and then was told that the rug wasn’t available in Peru! So I am considering the room done for now, even though we would still like a rug. Lesson learned: next time I think DIY – don’t!

Almost Done

Much better

Done

And if you are wondering about the bare bulb, I am not even going to try to find a light fixture here as most houses have bare bulbs throughout and I do not know whether there is a street in the market carries fixtures!

Another Sunday, Another Beautiful Walk in the Country

Posted on December 2, 2013 by kdwyer27 under Peru, Scenery

Matt, Mistina and I set off for Llacanora on Sunday afternoon with the goal of finding the waterfalls near the town. Matt and I had previously embarked on this trip but were sidetracked by the cave art of Callac Puma. A worthy diversion, but this time we wanted to reach the waterfalls. Mistina, a teacher from Nebraska, was game to join us and was tasked with keeping us on track to our final destination. What a great time! It was about a 5 mile walk on picturesque country roads from our house to the small town of Llacanora. Once in Llacanora, we saw a sign for the waterfalls, but the directions subsequently became unclear so we kept asking everyone we saw, which included a guy walking down the street, an old lady minding a store, a lady who was actually there to go to the falls for the first time and didn’t know where to go either (we told her once we found out) and a couple of guys getting drunk sitting outside a shop (on our return trip, one guy was passed out and the other had inexplicably removed his shirt). You follow the the road above Llacanora and eventually turn left down an unmarked dirt path. It’s about another kilometer to the first falls. We never figured out what is referenced by the 1000 meters on the sign – perhaps the turn off.

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Once on the path, we knew we were on the right track as we passed “tourist restaurants” and knick-knack stores. Eventually, it became even more obvious due to the amount of other people enjoying a day in the countryside. The paths were well traveled and generally easy to navigate. We arrived at Hembra Falls and were impressed.

Hembra Falls

Picnickers

Path

Ladies selling snacks

Sign for the first falls

We kept climbing upward and eventually arrived at the even more spectacular Macho Falls, which are about 30 meters high. Due to their size, we couldn’t get a photo of the entire falls with our i-phones.

Macho Falls

Pool Beneath Macho Falls

Matt, Kerry and Macho Falls

Above the Hembra Falls

Alta Vista

On our way back, we decided to walk on the other side of the river. We arrived at this aqueduct, which we either needed to cross or go back down and around to cross the river. Mistina mustered up her courage and went across.

I took one step and chickened out. A man standing below starting shouting up words of encouragement and succeeded in shaming me into crossing. I started across in a most undignified fashion as my coach yelled specific instructions (in Spanish) to me. I froze at the wire I had to step over, a maneuver that required me to actually stand up a little.

Pathetic Kerry with Cheerleader

Under the direction of my drill sargent, I made it across and then Matt came skipping over. Okay, maybe he wasn’t skipping, but he certainly had no fear – note that he is walking on the edges of the aqueduct and not with his feet in the middle!

Fearless Matt

Matt Crossing

We left Llacanora, but not before watching two little kids zoom down a steep hill on a skateboard. The younger one clearly wanted us as an audience and gave a little wave as they set off and then again upon arriving at the bottom. Super cute. We headed back on the road to Baños and stopped at one of the restaurants along the way. These “campestre” or countryside restaurants are very popular and usually open only on the the weekends. They generally have large grounds with play areas for kids, huge tables set up under multiple pavilions and a nice, family feel. We chose one that in a valley that had about 50 cars in the parking lot and cheerful music and felt we made the right choice when Matt and Mistina saw several of their students with their families. We only had one glitch when the waiter tried to seat us in a table off in a alcove. I think he meant it kindly, but nobody puts these gringos in the corner and we asked to sit with the rest of the clientele, a request that was granted. Unfortunately, they were out of about half of the items on the menu as we arrived around 3:00, but Misitina had fried trout, Matt had grilled beef and I had a delicious stewed kid (as in baby goat, people!) dish. We ended our meal with picarones, fried squash/sweet potato doughnuts, and as we had already walked about 7 miles, walked back up to the road and caught a cab home!

Kiddie table

Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on November 26, 2013 by kdwyer27 under Celebrations, Peru

I love Thanksgiving. It falls around my birthday so the 4-day weekend always feels like a special birthday present. I come from a family of great cooks and the Thanksgiving menu has evolved over the years to include the traditional favorites along with an awesome pumpkin curry soup (thank you, Nikki) and my grandma’s antipasto (because we cannot have a family meal without an Italian dish). For the past decade, Matt and I escaped to our cottage the Friday after Thanksgiving to relax before the rush of the Christmas season. We would pull out the sofa bed and watch movies, eat turkey leftovers and not have any company. A real treat! This year is obviously different. Matt is working on Thursday as Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Peru (although I noticed that the stores do have “Black Friday” sales). So I am feeling a little bereft about missing Thanksgiving, while at the same time recognizing that my life is one long weekend and we have a lot to be thankful for.

Because I am not the only expat to feel this way, the American and Canadian expats held a Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday night. My friend Sarah, the school librarian, and I went to pick up the turkeys on Sunday morning. We took them to the host’s house to clean them and get them in the oven. While Sarah and I were each cleaning out the inside of a turkey (no tidy giblet bag here!) and plucking stray feathers, I realized my turkey still had its head! Thank goodness Sarah is from Alaska and no stranger to cleaning animals, so she gamely lopped off the heads of both turkeys. Interestingly, the feet were already off but included in the bag.

Sarah, the turkey slayer

Gobble gobble

Robert, our gracious host

Ready for the Oven!

The feast was really nice; everyone chipped in with a dish or two and we had a traditional meal. A few Peruvians were invited as well as a peace corp volunteer, Michelle, who Sarah met at the grocery store. (When you hear someone speaking English around here, you tend to strike up a conversation.) My favorite non-traditional part of the meal was a pineapple salsa that Michelle’s Peruvian host mom made for her to bring to the event. Delicious and perfect with turkey. If I am ever home for Thanksgiving, I might just have to make this dish a new staple on the family menu.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yummy

Food

Kevin and the Women

Canadian-American Alliance

My favorite part!

So those of you at home, enjoy it all: the Macy’s parade, football, friends, family and food! Happy Thanksgiving!

Why I Flunked NaNoWriMo

Posted on November 22, 2013 by kdwyer27 under Writing

I initially thought I flunked NaNoWriMo* because I have perfected the art of procrastination. Just ask my college roommate who watched me furiously write my senior thesis in about two weeks after researching and talking about it all year. Or my legal mentor who would give me a fake deadline for a brief, knowing full well that I would talk my way out of the deadline, but still manage to come up with a good final product just in time to make the court’s deadline. I like to have things percolate in my brain before I actually start writing, so my excuses seemed typical, almost predictable for me. First, I was on a bus snaking through the Andes Mountains at 12:00 on November 1st, which surely absolved me from beginning my novel at the challenge’s official starting time. Said bus took me on a three day vacation packed with sightseeing and quality time with Matt. Upon our return from the trip, I had to run household errands and then volunteer that afternoon. So I started on Tuesday, November 5, and wrote and rewrote an excellent first page. On Wednesday I wrote a terrible second page. On Thursday, with a whopping total of 908 words, which I would write as “nine hundred and eight words” if I were still doing the NaNoWriMo challenge, I threw in the towel and decided to paint our bedroom, which was a four-day endeavor. I actually didn’t admit at that time that I was throwing in the towel, but as I haven’t written another word of my novel, that is exactly what I did. The ultimate irony? The working title of my two-page, draft novel is Surrender.

The surprising part is that I don’t feel bad about my white-flag-waving retreat from novel writing. And I have no excuses whatsoever for quitting. I don’t work by choice and good fortune, so I am not looking for a job or anxious over not having one. I don’t have kids. Given that we have only lived here a few months, I don’t know a lot of people or have a lot of time commitments. Our small, Peruvian town in the Andes mountains has few distractions. In short, if I can’t write a novel under these perfect conditions, I am not cut out to write a novel.

And I’m not cut out to write a novel. At least not right now. I love to write and I write in some form every day, but not a novel. To create real characters, plausible ones, even if they are trolls or serial killers or goddesses or teenagers or ghosts or whatever, you need to draw on all of your experiences, which includes the people you know. Friends, relatives, enemies, mere acquaintances and the person you overheard in line at the grocery store. Even though my intended novel is not remotely autobiographical, its characters have the traits and nuances of those I know. Distorted and magnified, but still there. And I’m not ready for that. I’m not ready for a friend or relative to recognize herself in my writing. I’m not ready to write uncensored. Every word on this blog is self-censored. Matt once expressed some discomfort over two lines I wrote in a post. Before he told me which lines, I already knew because I had worked and re-worked them a half dozen times to cause as little offense as possible while still conveying my thoughts. But you can’t write a good novel, a novel with honesty and integrity, if you fear offending your Great Aunt Mabel who just might recognize herself in a minor character.

Is this just another procrastination technique on my part? To forgive myself for my failure by writing about a plausible excuse for it? I don’t think so. While I recognize the arrogance in speculating that I would be fortunate enough to publish a novel and that people I know would actually read it (my blog stats showing me that the latter might actually be less likely than the former), this fear of offending hamstrings my writing.

But that is only half of the truth. I also have a fear of exposing myself. To write honestly, you must expose your heart, mind, and soul. Put on paper your greatest fears and your greatest loves. Open yourself and the world and characters you create to criticism and ridicule. A mother may tell you that is exactly what it feels like to send a child off to school. But it isn’t. At some point a child becomes separate from her parent and responsible for her actions. Your characters don’t – you decide what they do, what they think, whom they hurt and who hurts them. You decide how they will be presented to the world and that, in turn, presents you to the world (even if that world is limited to the 5 people who read your book). My favorite writing quote is Red Smith’s in which he responded to a question about whether writing a daily column was a chore with “No, you simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed.” I thought writing a thesis or a legal brief was hard, but they really only require good research and strong writing. A novel requires so much more. And I’m just not ready to bleed all over the page.

*NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and is a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel (or part of a novel) during the month of November. http://nanowrimo.org/

1st Communion, Peruvian Style

Posted on November 16, 2013 by kdwyer27 under Cajamarca, Celebrations

“We’re going to the first communion this weekend,” Matt said when he came home from school one night.

“Okay, whose first communion?” I asked. Having been to plenty of first communions in the States, including my own, I was interested to see one in Peru.

“I don’t know. The fourth graders, I guess,” he replied. “I have an invitation somewhere.”

“All of them?” I was confused. Davy is not a Catholic school and while I know Peru is 85-90% Catholic, I didn’t understand why first communion would be associated with the school as opposed to a parish.

“I don’t know, but I’m the principal so we need to go.”

Fair enough. So last Saturday Matt and I put on church attire and headed to Iglesia Belén (Church of the Nativity) in the center of Cajamarca. (Once at church I discovered that if I owned a micro mini skirt and stiletto heels those would have been equally appropriate attire for a first communion although I am not sure how I would have sat down…) We arrived and knew we were in the right place by the host of little angels all around us.

Nervous and Excited

Church Square

3 Angels

Boys Looking Angelic

Girls

Church

Matt was in hot demand for photos. Mainly with the girls – like in most countries, the boys stay farther away from the principal. But Miss Mistina, a fourth grade teacher, was sought after for photos with boys and girls and, in one case, the family scurried down the street after mass to catch her. We chatted with some parents who spoke excellent English and the mom explained that the children usually make their first communion with their school. She added that 48 children were participating today and that 1 other student already made her first communion in Lima and the remaining 3 fourth graders “were not participating.” It was clear she did not approve of the three non-participants. She also explained that the children dress alike to avoid the “miniature bride” factor and competition. That seems like a great idea and probably an easier sell in a country where uniforms are the norm.

Matt and Jimena (who told us her head itched from the flowers)

Matt and Girls

Matt and Katia

Matt and Favianna

Gloria

Matt and the Girls

Matt with the Twins

The same mom kindly led us into church and to our assigned seats – places of honor on the side, right up front by the children. Not my usual back-of-church choice, but we were not alone as the teachers were similarly honored. The priest even came down to greet all of us before mass, and I almost had a giggle fit when the priest said “Que Tal” to me, which is an informal “How’s it going” greeting. I managed to stutter back “Buenos Dias” as he continued down the line of teachers. Then I looked up at the dome and had to stifle my giggles again as the cherubs holding up the dome look like they are making “Nanny-Nanny-Boo-Boo” faces. Look and tell me if I am wrong:

Nanny-Nanny-Boo-Boo

While the service lasted two hours, it was very pleasant. Our years of Catholic education certainly helped as Matt and I generally knew what was going on. There was also a handy written program, so I could even say the responses (the shorter ones or I got lost) and sing in Spanish. The Our Father, which should have been easy, was confusing, so I am not exactly sure what was going on for that. All 48 children participated in some fashion by reading petitions, bringing up the gifts etc., which was nice. I had considerable anxiety during communion when everyone was taking the wafer directly in the mouth, a practice long discontinued in the US. So I intently watched the line and was relieved when I saw one woman extend her hands. Then I saw she was noticeably pregnant. Was there some special pregnancy rule? By the time we were headed up to the altar, I had seen two other women, neither who appeared to be pregnant, do the same, so I held out my hands and was awarded my host (and not whacked with a ruler by the nun dispensing communion). Whew. Poor Mistina, who is not Catholic, was being urged by the children to take communion. She explained that she was not Catholic and received stunned, uncomprehending looks. So on Monday she had to explain where her Christian beliefs and their Catholic beliefs intersect and diverge. She said the kids are still a little shocked that she isn’t Catholic.

Altar

Presentation of 1st Communiants

Chuch

Procession

Program

Our Father

After church we wandered to the Belén museum and ended our outing with a baby mummy and a skeleton. All in all, a lovely day!

Baby mummy

Skeleton

Tambo Colorado (Vacation Part VII – Final Site)

Posted on November 14, 2013 by kdwyer27 under Peru

First, my apologies for the lack of posts in the past few weeks. We went out of town (stayed tuned for posts on Huanchaco and Truijillo), I painted our bedroom (never again) and we have had more social/school events to attend. Matt and I both have stepped up our Spanish studies, supplementing our weekly lessons with watching Destinos, a cheesy miniseries designed to teach Spanish to Americans, and Duolingo, an on-line language learning program. I also started taking yoga twice a week, which I love. The instructor is great, there are only 5 of us in the class (two whom I knew prior to class) and it is another Spanish immersion event for me. So life continues to go well for us in Peru.

Our last tour in the Paracas area was a trip to Tambo Colorado, which roughly translates as “red place” or “red resting place.” Built in the mid to late 1400s during the reign of the Incan Pachacutec, Tambo Colorado is believed to have been an administrative site used when the Incan ruling class travelled on the Inca Trail from Cuzco, the historic capital of the Incan empire, to other parts of the empire. It is strategically located on the road that runs between the coast and the mountains and built into the side of a mountain, overlooking the Pisco Valley. Due to the desert conditions, the site is the best preserved example of adobe construction from the Incan era and is famous for retaining some original red, yellow and white paint on its walls.

View from the Top

View from the Main Square

Almost There!

View from the Square

Walls

The pictures don’t do justice to the site, which quite large and impressive. If memory serves me, starting from the river, there was a burial ground, then buildings that were believed to house the lower class workers/animals, the large public square, and then living areas that ascend the hill and end with the ruling class’s quarters at the top. The architecture has typical Incan features, such as trapezoid wall niches (double niches in the ruler’s quarters), trapezoid doorways, and geometric ornamentation in the ruling class’s quarters. The layout of the rulers’ quarters was really interesting and designed with security in mind: rooms with two doorways, so a quick get-away could be made; narrow hallways that allowed only one person to pass; sentry niches at the doorways believed to be the ruler’s bedroom; and two very nice baths, complete with irrigation systems and drains.

Window and Niches

Ornamental Niches and Color

Sentry duty

Matt in the Bath

Colors

Finally, the site had the added bonus of our first view of the Inca trail (in the picture it winds up the hill). While it is possible that we have seen it before, this was the first time we realized what it was. The Incans had an amazing road system, with two main North-South arteries, connected by many branches. The most famous part of the trail is the hike to Machu Picchu, something we intend to do while we live here.

Inca Trail

The Birds and the Beach (Vacation Part VI)

Posted on October 31, 2013 by kdwyer27 under Paracas, Peru, Scenery

The two main draws for tourism in Paracas are the Ballestas Islands and Paracas National Reserve, and neither was a disappointment. The Ballestas Islands, dubbed the “poor man’s Galapagos,” are a group of rocky islands teeming with birds. Those with ornithophobia beware: the pelicans, terns, boobies, and cormorants are everywhere, swooping, gliding, diving, soaring, cawing, trilling, tweeting and pooping. Oh yes, pooping. We were forewarned to wear hats and while the trip ended with only a small splatter on Matt’s sleeve, others in our boat weren’t as lucky. Guano is a big cash crop for Peru and the islands have a guard to protect the poop.

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In addition to the flying birds are Humboldt penguins and sea lions. As an added bonus, the boats pass the Paracas Candelabra, another gigantic sand figure, believed to date to around 200 BC.

Candelabra

Double Keyhole

Napping with Pals

Who’s the Boss?

Lounging Sea lions

Sea Lions

Rock Formations

Brrr

Go Away!

The day after the Ballestras we toured the Paracas National Reserve. I really had no idea what the reserve was and assumed the tour was to see animals of some kind, but I was wrong (except for a few seabirds). Instead we saw amazing yellow and red sand beaches. Poor Paracas – when it was hit by the earthquake in 2007 its landmark, a rock formation called the Cathedral toppled into the ocean. The guide still points it out, but now it is just a couple of rocks jutting up from the ocean. In addition to guano, another Peruvian marine export is seaweed for cosmetics, and we saw men in wet suits exiting the ocean with bags of seaweed. We met Peter and Annie, a couple from London who now live in the Falklands, on the excursion and joined them for a few drinks at the upscale Doubletree after the tour. (Check out Peter’s blog at http://www.peterspenguinpost.blogspot.com.) All in all, a pleasant day!