From Puno to Cusco

I expected to travel along mountains high and dry and sparsely populated, however, much to my surprise, the road from Puno to Cusco is surrounded by green mountains and valleys, heavily cultivated and with a string of little towns all along the road.

Once we entered Cusco I realized my second mistake. Instead of a little colonial town we found a big city built around the old colonial town.

The same as in all Spanish colonial towns, there is the “Plaza de Armas” surrounded by cathedrals and administrative buildings. Let’s remember that Cusco was the capital city of the Inca empire, therefore the Spanish town was built on top of the old Inca's constructions.

Cusco has many museums that document the Inca's period as well as the Spanish conquest, the colonial period, the independence from Spain, and the new republic. We really enjoyed the degree of craftsmanship and the quality of the art artifacts left by incas and pre-incas’ cultures. A few examples:

El descabezado

Cuencos en forma de búho y escalonados al estilo Inca

Bastones de mando hechos de madera con figuras talladas de animales

Mi favorito: con pocas lineas lograron una figura abstracta estilizada 

With the Peruvian people, we, Argentinians, have not only a common history but also a common present. We share the same corrupted political system, an equally corrupt ruling class, equivalent popular struggles for the dignity of the people, the same need for work, liberty and equality. On the day of our arrival we saw a demonstration in front of the City Hall by unemployed construction workers. There were about 30 workers and 30 heavily armed police agents, men and women with tear gas, automatic weapons and dogs to contain a peaceful protest. The workers only asked for work but the police was ready for the worst.

Driving through Latin America we see the number of good and bad things that we have in common with our latinamerican brothers.

Puno, Perú

Puno is a city on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the largest lake in South America and the highest navigable in the world, at 12,500 feet.

Puno is an international tourist destination, probably by the same people that also come to visit Cusco and Machu Pichu. It has a few museums, many hotels, and plenty of trips to different parts of the lake. The street traffic is as crazy as all over Perú and takes a lot of skills to drive through the city. Very popular is the local version of the auto rickshaw:

Being so close to the lake we were anxious to take the tour of the lake and the islands. First we landed on the floating island of the Uro people. This people inhabited the shores of the lake until the arrival of the Incas. At this point they decided to build islands using the reeds growing on the shores. That allowed them to put some distance with the unwelcome visitors.

With time they started the reeds not only to build the floating islands but also to build boats and houses.

Today these people lives out of tourism, and they have well prepared shows to keep the tourists interested.

Our next stop was in the Taquile Island. This is a real island inhabited by some 2500 people. 

They live out of agriculture and a little out of the tourists. They grow all sort of vegetables like corn, different varieties of potatoes and wheat and complement their food with fish and some chicken. The island is very clean and they make full use of the available land by terracing the slopes of the hills.

Life is hard in the island. They struggle to make the most out of limited resources but maintain strict ethics to preserve their life style. As an example, they forbid the tourist from giving tips to the local kids, otherwise they will skip school trying to collect more tips.

It looks like a paradise, however I don’t know whether I would like living in such a remote place.

From Potosí (Bolivia) to Puno (Perú)

From Potosí we drove to Oruro. It is not a long trip and the road is excellent, but there are so many mountains and curves that it took us some 8 hours-drive. Unfortunately Oruro is such a bad place that we stayed just one night and run away.

From Oruro we targeted La Paz, where we planned to spend a couple of days. However, we were affected by the altitude and didn’t like the La Paz traffic at all, so we decided to keep moving north and cross to Perú at Desaguadero. The border crossing has two aspects. On one hand the work of the officials in charge of immigration and customs on both sides of the border, is excellent, fast and professional. The bad aspect of the crossing is the multitude of people that crowded the streets. There was a feria a few meters from the border on the Bolivian side but we couldn’t proceed because the police cordoned the streets to protect the feria. Finally we risked a bit through the crowd and crossed to Perú.

Roads in Perú are no as good as in Bolivia. A shocking detail: if there is a pot hole, they cover it with rocks, come as big as 18 or 20 inches diameter. If we are not aware and hit them we can destroy the front of the car. One never know what is worst, whether to hit a pot hole or a rock.

Our next stop was Puno, on the shores of lake Titicaca. It is a tourist destination, well kept and with several things to see. That will be the subject of my next post.

Andean flicker (colaptes rupicola) on Tiwanaku ruins (West of La Paz)

In Bolivia – Villazón to Potosí

As could be suspected, the southern part of Bolivia is similar to northern Argentina. Green mountains and plenty of life, with small villages bordering the full length of the road. People use every drop of water to grow traditional plants or maintain their flocks of goats and llamas.

In 1545 the Spanish conquerors realized that Cerro Potosí was packed full of silver and other metals. Then started an exploitation as brutal as the rest of Spanish colonization. The city grew at the base of Cerro Potosí, and the mount serves as the frame for all images of this city.

In this picture we can see the monument to Alonso de Ibañez, a native of Spanish ancestors, who fought for Potosí’s independence. In 1617 he was captured and killed by the spaniards, and is considered and honored as the first rebel of the Spanish colonies. In the background we see Cerro Potosí and, at mid altitude, we can see another of the many cathedrals presiding over the pillaging and crimes of the Spanish invaders.

Potosí is a beautiful city, with a colonial layout, narrow streets and walkways, balconies with flowers, colorful buildings plus the dresses of the people.

On April 1 they celebrate the foundation of their city and through the city marched hundreds of students with their music bands. The private school guys all dressed on their school uniform, while the public school use the standard white coverall similar to those used in Argentina. The uniforms are very formal and seem to be very expensive.

It seems that people is proud of their city and its customs. They are kind wth the tourists and they make you feel comfortable walking the streets.

We visited the mint house used since early colonial times. At the entrance there is a big patio showing a big mask made by a french man but the museum guides could not explain its true meaning and the twisted smile in its face. 

The first coining machines were brought from Spain. They were humongous wooden devices activated by muscle power: mules, indian slaves and African slaves. To extract the silver from the mineral they used mercury brought from Huancavélica, Perú, and it was handled without any caution or protection. The workers in charge of this process were constantly exposed to mercury fumes and they died, blind and poisoned, after some three months on the job. The entire mining and processing procedure was bestial and inhumane.

The museum only admit guided visits, and it called my attention the lack of critical analysis on the part of the museum guides, considering the mayor drama carried away in the area. The extraction of silver from the mine took some 8,5 million lives, and I think that it should deserve more than passing comments from the guides in order for the tourists to understand the real magnitude of the tragedy.

Inside the museum there is a display,not very large, of objects made with silver mined in Potosí. Personally I saw I real life size carriage entirely made of silver in one of the churches in Burgos, Spain. The immediate questions would be ‘Were Spanish people aware of the real costs of that silver? ‘Would they care?’

Finally, it called our attention the number of civilian music bands, marching with military steps and blasting their music through the city center. One of them carried banners reminiscent of the infamous ultra-right Argentinian organization “Tradición, Familia y Propiedad”, with calls to the honor and discipline of their members, something that resembled the marching of European fascists youth in times not long gone. One cannot less than question the value of these organizations and think whether their ideology is a consequence of the country’s poverty or, on the contrary, their poverty is a consequence of such ideologies.

SUCRE

We were not planning to visit Sucre but we made a quick decision and only assigned one afternoon to visit this wonderful place. It is a typical colonial Spanish city, with a central plaza surrounded by churches and government offices. Contrary to the organic growth shown by Potosí’s streets, Sucre shows a well planned development following the Spanish colonial tradition, a well aligned square grid of streets.

Freedom House is a museum located in the same place where they signed the independence of Bolivia. It is well preserved and with an abundance of historic documents. It shows how the Alto Peru played a mayor role in the process of liberation from the Spanish rule. It is sad that the history taught in Argentinian schools doesn’t show more clearly how much we owe to the Bolivian and Peruvian patriots’ for their support and efforts during the liberation campaign.

Chile, from Osorno to Atacama

 We entered Chile through Paso Samoré, the border crossing just across from Villa La Angostura, and our first stop was Osorno. We went from rainy Osorno to the Atacama desert and, as we moved northward, the landscape changed constantly. Southern Chile is flushed with water from rain, river and lakes, while the northern part of the country becomes one of the driest places in the planet.

  

Water scarcity also means less population and production means. In the South they have cattle farming, agriculture, and forestry, while at the North they resort to big scale mining.

To support the many mining projects they built enormous photovoltaic and windmills complexes and distribution lines. At the same time, those projects consume most of the little water available in the region. Except for people working in the mines, one can drive hours and hundreds of miles without seeing a single person or an animal. The same hundreds of miles show the scars left by decades of mining projects in the Atacama region, not to mention the trail of pollution which nobody takes care of cleaning.

Some questions remains: ¿what would happen if, instead of providing energy and water to mining projects, the government provides energy and water to promote and sustain traditional activities such as agriculture? ¿Is it conceivable such type of development?

Transportation is very expensive, with a toll booth located every few miles (average one every 84 miles along 1932 miles. Average 4,50 U$S each). At the same time, in such a long country, public transportation is also very expensive. Chile is still a poor country, but to live and move in Chile is out of reach for the common person.

We drove from Osorno to Concepción, Santiago, Copiapó, Coquimbo, La Serena, and Antofagasta. Instead of keep going north on route 5 we turned NE to the border with Argentina at Paso Jama. The driving was exciting but difficult as our car couldn’t afford the high altitudes (around 15,000 feet), lost power and forced us to move much slowly.

 Volcano Licancabur, in the border between Chile and Bolivia

 The landscape changes significantly on the Argentina side. There is more humidity in the air and in the high mountains we started seeing some small bushes and vicuñas.

 Our objective was to stay overnight in Purmamarca, Jujuy, and then travel north to Bolivia. However we got there during Easter and the hotels were crowded. Confronted with the problem we kept driving north to the border city of La Quiaca, and tomorrow we will cross to Villazón, on the Bolivian side.