YUYANAPAQ "to remember"

Buenos Dias,

     Week 2 in Lima has proven to be much easier to navigate, communicate, and I am beginning to make important connections regarding my research.  I have been around much of the city, and even visited the mountains in the outskirts of the city.  I have traveled all over Lima, by mini-buses that are not marked so you must be able to talk to the conductor to ensure they are going where you want, and often have to take 3 buses to get where you are going.  Even Peruvians have a difficult time navigating this chaotic transportation system, but I am doing quite well for a visitor! 

     On Friday I had the pleasure of watching Peru defeat Ecuador (I am sorry Maria, but GO PERU!) which was very exciting.  The atmosphere in the city was absolutely contagious.  The streets were filled with people, proudly wearing red and white in support of their nation, until 5 minutes before the game started.  Suddenly Lima was a ghost town.  Every person was in a bar, restaurant, shop, or home, celebrating and cheering on their home team, the sound echoed throughout the city for minutes after each play.  My friend and I went to a local bar to be immersed in the experience.  As it approached the last minutes of the game I began to feel pride, forgetting I am not a local, as if Peru was now my team.  When I got home I ran into my neighbor, who was grinning from ear to ear over the win.  In his broken English, he invited me upstairs to celebrate, but unfortunately I had to (in my broken Spanish) reluctantly decline as I had plans for early the next morning.

     Saturday I was invited to meet my friends Karina and Travis to attend a weekly Bio-fair in Miraflores, where they sell organic produce and products.  The fair was very busy and the aroma was delicious.  We then went to the park nearby to let Ethan, their son, attend an outdoor daycare.  There must have been over 50 children, with a choice of 15 activities designed to educate and peak interest in learning.  Next to them was a yoga class which many of he parents enroll while their children play and interact only meters away.  We then went to a vegetarian restaurant for menu, an inexpensive meal served at lunchtime at most restaurants, and had a delicious meal I am still not convinced did not have meat.  My friends Nick, Lona, and I walked to Trocha Sports, a hiking store similar to REI, where they set up weekly group expeditions to see what they have to offer, and stumbled upon Huaca Pucllana (Incan ruins currently under excavation).  The preservation was remarkable, and the location of the modern city surrounding something so grand from antiquity was interesting.  That night I practiced spanish with Lona as she improved her english.  We went to sleep early as the next day would be an early morning and challenging day.

     7am we wake up, chug a cup of coffee, and run off to catch a bus to downtown to meet Travis.  From there we take a taxi for an hour to the outskirts of Lima (27 soles which is about $10) to a more remote town where we catch another bus which takes us about another hour through the mountains (screeching on two wheels with each turn, no guardrail and cliffs on both sides) into the central Andes.  We arrive in a small village in the valley, so quaint and quiet, not a typical gringo tourist destination.  From there we began our hike up to Matukana Falls.  The hike was quite difficult at first as it is very steep and we are approx. 7000 ft above sea level.  I was very dizzy until I acclimatized.  As we hiked I had to periodically remind myself to look up and take in the breathtaking view (not an easy task when there is nothing protecting you from making one bad step, sending you down the nearly cliff like mountainside)  Along the trail we passed many terraced crops, outlined with pre-Incan stone walls, irrigation channels carved in the stone of the mountain, many livestock, and occasional colonial-era prayer shrines which marked especially beautiful views.  We finally reached the falls after a couple of hours, the cold fresh water was a well deserved treat after a long hot hike in the unshaded, thin atmosphere.  After about an hour of taking in the natural beauty, and some relaxation, we made our way back down to the farming village where we bought fresh home-made cheeses and had some conversation with local residents.  The ride home was long, as my legs were completly drained, but the bus was so full I had to stand in what could only be described as sweat induced humid hot box for over an hour.  Luckilly I don't have plans tomorrow so I can sleep in and recover!

     Nope! Up at 7am, just because, but I feel great.  I decide to visit some of the tourist destinations I had avoided thus far.  After all, they are popular for a reason, I just wanted to view them after having some cultural immersion, and not as a typical gringo visitor that only sees the stuff that is beautiful in pictures.  In downtown Lima, Nick and I visit the catacombs below the Franciscan Chapel.  The chapel itself is from the 17th century and is ornately decorated with woodwork, paintings, gold leaf, and tile.  The floor of the church has areas with grates between the pews, allowing you to see the remains below.  As we decend to the depths of the catacombs our tourguide reminds us there is no photography allowed (good! this will be a perfect opportunity to practice quick sketching which often reveals more of the character of the place than a photograph anyway)  There are roughly 25K aristrocratic colonial-Spanish bodies that were unearthed, documented, and dismembered to be organized by bone type by Peruvian archaeologists.  As we ventured through the crypts, a quote echoed in my mind that I could not shake,

"Mikey: Don't you realize? The next time you see sky, it'll be over another town. The next time you take a test, it'll be in some other school. Our parents, they want the best of stuff for us. But right now, they got to do what's right for them. Because it's their time. Their time! Up there! Down here, it's our time. It's our time down here. That's all over the second we ride up Troy's bucket."  -The Goonies (1985)

     After my Indiana Jones adventure, we went out for menu (ma-nu), when I noticed something interesting that is common in many restaurants in the city.  The kitchens are almost always at the front of the restaurant.  I pondered while I waited on my meal, how that detail changed my experience while eating and what possible purpose it could serve.  For one, the intoxicating aroma of slow cooked meats and vegetables draws you in, it somehow makes the place seem cleaner as you not only have the option to see into the kitchen but are made to walk through it, and perhaps most importantly it is nowhere near the bathrooms, trash, or utilities like so many are in the US.  This night I practiced spanish with a local, which I am working into my daily routine, setting time aside to practice on a phone app, with a dictionary, and with a person daily.

     Yesterday I visited San Borja, a district of Lima where the streets are named after artists and architects (seems like my type of place), littered with so many parks they can be seen from satellite imagery and home to the Museo de Nacion, a museum of Peruvian art, history, and archaeology.  As I approached the building I noted in my journal that it looks like a bomb shelter, possibly built as a defense during the Shining Path terrorism era.  The first exhibition I visited was of art, weaponry, pottery, jewelry, tools, textiles, and artwork of pre-Incan, Incan, and colonial times.  I was amazed by the perfect condition of such ancient artifacts, and the superb craftsmanship during a time of archaic tools and technology.  This made me realize how little credit we give to ancient civilizations.  They had many of the same challenges we face today, and while some of their methods were simpler, they were equally as effective, just taking a bit more ingenuity and time to develop.  I then saw the Inti Raymi (festival of the sun) exhibit, which had artwork celebrating the most important celebration of the Incan empire, honoring Inti (the most revered god of Incan culture) This celebration takes place during the winter solstice (shortest day of the year), June 20, for 9 days and is meant to bring good crops during the next growing season.  In 1535 the Incas celebrated their last Inti Raymi as it has been celebrated in all of antiquity.

    I then went up to the 6th floor to view the final exhibition titled "Yuyanapaq" which translates from Quechua (Incan language still used in the more rural regions of NW South America) to mean "To Remember".  At this point I could not have been prepared for what I was about to experience.  Remember this building looks and feels like a bomb shelter, because it was.  Like many buildings erected during the internal conflict of Peru, this building (which was originally built as military headquarters) was made to withstand guerrilla warfare.  The brutalist architecture, concrete walls, ceiling, and floors, dim lighting, and intentional disrepair of this floor brilliantly complemented the large photographs on mostly barren walls depicting the internal struggle of Peru ca.1980-2000 during the terrorist acts of the guerrilla groups, Shining Path and similar extremist groups.  While some of the images were too gory to view for more than a moment, they were necessary to accurately express the horror and pain of the Peruvian people during a time when you sent your children to school without knowing if they would ever return.

    Walking through the halls of concrete slabs created a cold, poinient atmosphere that sends chills down your spine, and as you follow the story through photographs, can not help but have the deepest empathy for the people of this region.  My friend Karina walked me past one of the major sites the Shining Path bombed on July 16, 1992 (the Tarata bombing), it was Lima's version of our 9-11.  She was living only 3 blocks from the site when it happened.  While 9-11 was unbelievably painful for our country, imagine how slow the recovery was for a country politically divided, in economic distress, and lacking the support of other global powers.  The city went without power for weeks, and some areas for months.  Thousands were forced to relocate, but for a people that don't have a government to assist during disasters and without homeowner or renter insurance, this was especially devastating.  This was one of the most appropriate reuses of architecture I have ever experienced, and one of the most moving exhibitions I have ever encountered. 

     I then had a meeting with Emir, a professor from the Universidad de Ingeneria y Technologia to discuss water purification in the Lima region.  Water purity is a serious concern, most significantly for those that live outside the densely populated areas, where wealth is dispersed very thinly and importation of basic necessities is more difficult (like the mountain farming village I visited, except they had natural springs which they have engineered irrigation and channels to direct water to the town during pre-Incan times)  We went over our background and discussed both of our projects, explaining our goals and methods of our research.  Emir is a young professor with a background in megatronics, charged with leading a class to design an affordable, household sand filter to be distributed to the community of San Juan Ranchero.  As this university is only in it's third semester, because of this the projects are somewhat sophomoric, but as the students progress in their studies, their designs will become increasingly effective.  As it is winter in Peru, they are coming to the end of their April-July semester.  The students have recently begun their proto-type stage of development, and will begin presentations (which I have been invited to attend) in mid-late July.  Emir is a wonderful contact for me to have while in Lima, and has already challenged me to think more deeply with my research and UTEC is a new university that could be a potentially beneficial collaboration.

     I look forward to continuing my research, and feel like I am picking up momentum with my focus of study.  This trip has already, in less than 2 weeks, peaked all of my interests and I imagine will only get more intersting as I pick up more conversational skills.

Adios amigos,
Jack
photos @ facebook.com/showcasejack

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