All About Pisac

From Iain: Since we're living here for three months, here's a little more about Pisac.  It is an Andean village of about two thousand people that lies about an hour northeast of Cusco by road (a paved road that winds up and out of Cusco past the Incan ruins of Sacsaywaman, Q'enqo, Pukapukara, and Tambomachay before descending into the Sacred Valley - Pisac is some 600 m or 2000 feet lower in elevation than Cusco).  The main part of the village is centred at the Plaza de Armas, which contains a huge, very old-looking pisonary tree.  Radiating out from the main square are narrow streets arranged in small blocks, perhaps 8 by 10 blocks in total for the main core.  The streets are busy at all times of the day with people walking, dogs lounging, and occasional vehicles passing - moto-taxis, bicycle-powered carts, a few cars, and every now and then a tourist bus squeezing through to park in the main square.  The streets have a narrow drainage channel running down the centre and no sidewalks, just two-storey buildings or walls on either side that give the streets an enclosed, maze-like feel.  Despite stray dogs constantly peeing and defecating, the streets are kept remarkably clean - that unpleasant odour of sewage and garbage that can be all-too common in populated areas in developing countries isn't too overpowering here.  The following photo gives a birds-eye view of the main part of Pisac.

View of Pisac

Every day of the week - at least at this time of the year - a huge craft market sets up in the main square and surrounding streets.  The market is a little larger on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and larger still on Sundays when food stalls and lunch vendors fill out the rest of the space in the main square.  Many of the crafts on sale are of a very high quality, including ceramics, clothing, woven goods, hats, belts, bags, paintings, etc., although many stalls offer an identical array of items.  I think the struggling world economy must be impacting the market because although we wander through the market almost every day and see plenty of tourists wandering around, few people seem to be actually buying things. It is difficult to see current demand even coming close to matching the huge supply of goods available here.
Walking uphill from the market you come to the trail that leads up to the Incan ruins above Pisac (the trail that also goes past Kusi Kawsay school).  We've not ventured up there yet because it costs an unbelievable US$28 per person to visit the ruins (although this price also includes additional Sacred Valley ruins at Ollantaytambo, Chinchero, and Moray - for an additional US$24 you can add on the ruins near Cusco and various Cusco museums too).
Pisac is surrounded by steep mountains, many etched by horizontal lines indicating past terracing.  The River Urubamaba flows past the village and onwards to towns further down the Sacred Valley, including Calca, Urubamaba, and Ollantaytambo.  Around Pisac are many agricultural fields, most being ploughed and prepared for Spring planting just now.
The weather while we've been here has been mostly warm and sunny in the day (highs of mid-20s Celsius or mid-70s Fahrenheit) and cool at night (dropping down to 4 degrees Celsius or 40 degrees Fahrenheit on occasion).  There has been the odd overcast day and two or three brief rain showers, but other than that it has been pretty idyllic.  Now, if only something could be done about the mangy stray dogs this would be a paradise on earth.

Karate Competition

From Sierra: Today we went to Taray and saw a karate competition. At first it was boring but towards the end it was more exiting. Lots of children from my class and Bethany's class came to the competition. And lots of people were selling food and drink so we bought jello, some popcorn, tuna salad, an avocado sandwich, fish, and two stuffed peppers with two baked potatoes. It was a lovely day and after the competition was over we walked home for dinner.

Karate Competition in Taray

Flying Kites

From Bethany: On Friday the school organised kite flying in Taray, a nearby village. At first when we started flying kites we tried to use Sierra's kite that she made at school from bamboo, plastic bags, and wool. But after a few tries the kite broke so we had to use the kite that we bought at the store. Even with the store-bought one, it was still hard to get it up in the air. But when we did finally get it in the sky we only got a little bit of time to fly it before we had to go home.

Flying Kites in Taray

Settling in to life in Pisac

From Iain: We're in our third week in Pisac now and feeling settled.  On school days the church bells wake us at six (if the packs of roaming barking dogs haven't woken us already) and we're generally up and breakfasting by seven.  Tanya accompanies the girls on their 15 minute walk to Kusi Kawsay, through the market as the stallholders are setting up and then up the moderately steep path to the Incan ruins, which passes the school entrance.  If the wireless connection is working at our hostal (sometimes yes, sometimes no, always a little hit and miss), I log onto my online statistics course that I'm teaching to respond to any overnight student questions.  When Tanya returns she makes some coffee in the moka pot (caffettiera) that we bought in Cusco, which we drink up on the hostal's rooftop terrace looking out over the Sacred Valley.  We spend the rest of the morning (while the girls are at school) trying to learn Spanish using Rosetta Stone on the computer and researching our onward travel plans in Guatemala and Belize when we leave Peru at the end of October.  This research has been taking an inordinate amount of time partly due to the erratic internet connection and partly due to the fact that our plan to visit Mayan areas in northern Guatemala  and western Belize happens to coincide with celebrations and activities connected with the Mayan calendar transition on December 21.  A lot of our accommodation choices are either booked up already or priced out of our reach.  However, we're getting closer to figuring out an itinerary now, the details of which we'll post here in the months to come.
We walk to Kusi Kawsay to fetch the girls in the early afternoon and then have lunch together in the mercado.  About five or six local women bring food that they've cooked at home and serve it up to locals and adventurous tourists alike for a very reasonable price.  We generally go to the same woman (helped by her 10 year-old daughter), who usually has vegetarian soups and main courses of mixed vegetables (often various kinds of potato) with rice and lentils.  Sometimes we'll get a piece of smoked and salted trout on top of our plate.  On Fridays we've got in the habit of going to one of the fresh juice stalls instead.  After lunch we generally spend the rest of the day back at the hostal where the girls work on their daily homework, with a little help from the computer to translate some of the instructions and answers.  I make dinner in our little kitchenette - I've managed to come up with a menu of dishes that I can cook with a single saucepan and frying pan and I just rotate this every week.  Since we're all in the same room, we have a pretty early common bedtime after the nightly story (we're making extensive use of e-books on my iPod Touch).

Our Room at Pisac Inca Hostal

First day of school

From Iain: It was the first day of school at Kusi Kawsay for Bethany and Sierra today.

First day of school

From Sierra: At school first I went into my classroom with my teacher, Professora Rosaura, and read a book in Spanish.  Then I wrote and drew a picture.  At recess I played with a girl on the monkey bars and rope swing.  Also we played "spiders and flies."  At another recess I played tag with a few children.  We ate snack outside.  There were twelve children in my class (grade 3/4) today.
From Bethany: First we lined up at the door, then when the bell sounded we went into the classroom after shaking the teacher's hand (my teacher is Professora Jessica).  Then we passed a crocheted ball filled with beans among one another.  After some lessons we went outside with our snacks and to play.  There are five girls and three boys in my class (grade 5/6).  At recess I played with all the girls, including tag and dodge-ball with beanbags.

Day trip to Urubamba

From Iain: Sun Aug 5 - We went on the bus to Urubamba (45 minutes away) for the day.  There was a pleasant little "Ecofair" happening in the Plaza de Armas, not unlike markets in our home town of Nelson.  We also visited the local market, which had a huge amount and variety of food available.

Urubamba Mercado

We stocked up on a bunch of staples, including beans, rice, quinoa, flour (corn, quinoa, and kiwicha), coffee, pasta pura de cacao (chocolate for making into a drink), herbs, and spices.  We even got some seaweed and locally-made tofu (from a stall at the ecofair) for soup later.  When we got back to Pisac - after riding on a rather over-stuffed bus - we had a wonderful dinner of Japanese-style seaweed and tofu soup, freshly made croutons, and hot chocolate made with the pasta pura de cacao.