casa lena

we spent what ended up being just a few days at this lovely school called casa lena.  we had planned on spending a week here but then towards the end of the week it turned out it was peru's independence day, so the school was closed and many of the volunteers were traveling for the long weekend.  instead of sticking around by ourselves we decided to move on.  all of us felt sad leaving and we were so touched by the few days we spent there.

casa lena is a project started by this remarkable young woman from belgium, named stephanie. she was trained as a teacher and came to peru for an internship where she met her husband. they started casa lena about 5 yrs ago and it is astounding the program she has developed.  casa lena is located in curahuasi which is about 2.5 hrs outside of cusco.....still high in the andes and quite a beautiful place!

there are three parts to her project. the first being a program for children with special needs.  during our few days there we met kids with cerebral palsy, down's syndrome, autism, visual impairment, and other developmental delays.  the second part of the project is an afternoon education program for toddlers.  the special needs kids are included in all the classes in an effort to teach tolerance, and responsibility for each other.  the third part of the project was regular meetings with the teachers from the schools in curahuasi to work towards better education in general.

there were a gaggle of volunteers there, mostly from belgium with the exception of only us and another couple.  most had been there for several weeks, but a couple volunteers had committed to a year of service.

Stephanie (in the black sweater) leading class

riley and lucy were received joyfully by all the kids. they were both a huge help to the teachers.  todd and i helped out here and there but we were frankly not as useful as riley and lucy.

the kids we worked with were so loving and beautiful.

this is fernando who loves loves loves to ride the scooter. he has cataracts so terrible he can hardly see, so he puts everything close to his face. the good news is that he might be able to have eye surgery soon to correct this.

his brother lucho is probably about 18yrs old, and completely blind in addition to his other developmental delays.  their mother is an alcoholic which likely played a role in both boys disabilities.
todd helped to shave lucho one day....

lucho loved to swing....no hands!

hands down the kid with the best smile and laugh was a child with cerebral palsy named jean pierre.  his laugh just rang with joy and you could not help but smile with him.

razon was pretty severely autistic such that he had only a few words.  with the patience and direction of the teachers he was able to complete small projects that he was immensely proud of.

riley had his soccer ball out and the kids were so excited to play with him!

a few of the little ones just adored lucy and would hold her hand and follow her everywhere....

Asiti on the left was Lucy's shadow.  On the right is Stephanie's daughter named Sophie

lucy also made friends with clariza, another child with cerebral palsy.  clariza actually developed a little crush on riley and wrote him (or dictated) a note.  he showed some real kindness and maturity and gave her a flower in return. this of course made her day and was a very sweet gesture.

i am in general very appreciative of those who choose to teach.  spending even a few days with these young teachers i was again struck by their skill, their kindness and their patience.  especially in witnessing how they challenge and guide those kids with special needs.  i certainly do not have the disposition for teaching, but boy am i thankful for those who do!

we were all so moved by our experience at casa lena.  riley and lucy were really quite sad to go and loved being with the kids.  we plan to keep casa lena in our hearts and continue to contribute to the project in the future.

now we are in lima and i am playing a little blog catch up.  we will be heading north tomorrow.
hasta luego!

the sacred valley and machu picchu

the sacred valley is sacred not for religious reasons but because of it's unique climate and microclimates that make it ideal for food production (or so i was told by a seemingly knowledgable guide).  sacred or not, it is undeniably beautiful.  the valley follows the rio urubamba up into the mountains that contain machu picchu.

from pisac we traveled to ollantaytambo.  this turned out to be quite a charming little town with cobblestone streets and which was built upon the remains of inca ruins.

wandering through the narrow streets of current homes whose foundations are obviously inca stonework.   we were also enthralled by the ancient stone water canals running down the streets.

we stumbled upon this home with old inca walls still in use as an alter.....how many hundreds of years have people been praying here?

we stayed at a hostel a little outside of town that was set on the banks of a small river.  the garden and the sound of the gurgling water was super relaxing! we stayed here a couple nights which was very nice....not to mention the first hot shower we'd had in over a week!

on the hills in the backdrop of the town are the remains of an inca fortress and terraces.

at the top of which is an impressive collection of stone work and the unfinished temple of the sun (the spanish invaded the region before it was complete, so the incas had to stop construction and fight them).  you can just make out the shadow of the pachamama (earth mother) symbol in the stone.  most evidence of inca gods was destroyed by the spanish when they conquered the incas.

ollantaytambo is also where we hopped the train to machu picchu pueblo (also known as aquas calientes).....which is the town that serves as the gateway to machu picchu.
from our hostel we took a tuk-tuk (they are actually called moto-taxi's here but todd will forever call them tuk-tuks as they are in thailand). lucy was sooooooo excited to take a tuk-tuk!

then we boarded the train (which is basically the only way to get there)

on arrival the first thing we noticed is that the vegetation had changed and was almost sub-topical.....very different from the lower valley.  machu picchu pueblo is a town completed devoted to the masses en route to machu picchu.  for the first time in our travels we saw lots of other families traveling with children....not to mention the very nicely dressed tourists so different from the young backpackers we were used to seeing.

the next morning we got up very early as the buses up to machu picchu start running at 5:30am.  despite having seen many many pictures of machu picchu (and i'm gonna post another one here!) you would have to be pretty jaded not to feel a sense of awe upon seeing it.....so amazing!!

 todd, ever the colorado boy, always needs to get to the top of whatever and so we had bought the additional tickets required to climb machu picchu mountain.  after poking around the ruins for a couple hours we headed up the mountain.  it ended up being a very strenuous nearly 2 hr climb of stairs! thankfully we have been living at elevation for over a month and did a fair bit of hiking while staying at arcadio's farm or it could have been worse!

starting up the stairs!

riley taking a break on the way up

at first lucy didn't think she could make it all the way so the boys went on ahead. but then she got it in her head that she wanted to see the top and with dogged determination (she was even cheering me on at the end!) we made it to the top!!  the look on todd's face as she was coming up the last bit as they were headed down was such sweet reward for her!!
i usually curse my mountain goat of a husband on the way up but always once i get to the top i appreciate having been convinced to do the trek.  this was no exception as we were rewarded with a rare bird's eye view of machu picchu!

at the top!! see little machu picchu in the background!

coming down....somehow more painful than up as i get older!

after coming down the mountain we spent another few hours walking around and then finally headed back down on the bus to town.  the kids were awe-struck and remarked that machu picchu was the most amazing thing they had ever seen (us too!)

that is machu picchu mountain behind us....hard to believe we climbed to the top!!

the next morning we took the train back to ollantaytambo and then a bus onto to cusco.  we stayed in cusco for a couple days visiting museums and just wandering the streets.

cusco is really quite a large city and retains its inca capital feel

todd loves all the different traditional hats and spends a lot of time stalking women and little girls.....

on the last day i hiked up to some ruins just above cusco called sacsayhuaman (todd and the kids were ruined out so they stayed home). certainly not as impressive as machu picchu but interesting in that the huge walls were built in a zig zag formation (there is debate as to why).  and also on the backside of the ruins are these natural slide polished smooth from countless sliding bums.  i of course had to slide....when in cusco, do as the incas do!

the zig and the zag

chairs carved into the stone

weeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

our two weeks in the sacred valley has been divine, but it is time to move on.  our next stop is another volunteer stay.  we aren't going far as this is still in the andes just a few hours from cusco.  we will be helping at a school for disabled children.  additionally there is a daycare for toddlers and riley and lucy are excited to help play with some kids!
hasta luego!!

kausay punku and pisac

we just finished a week at a volunteer stay a few miles outside of a town called pisac (which is in the sacred valley of peru). we had a really great restorative week and it was so so nice to get off the tourist tack for a bit.  we were up in the spectacular andes mountains which are frequently marked by the remains of inca terraces.

we stayed at a farm called kausay punku which means 'door' 'life' in quechua (or it may be the other way around 'life' 'door') owned by this wonderful man named arcadio.  he has very progressive views on permaculture, natural building practices, seed saving, tradional medicines etc.   he and todd were two peas in a pod and they would become engrossed in long conversations dreaming about future possibilities for the farm.  arcadio was warm and welcoming and treated us like a part of his family....he told the kids that if they ever come back to peru they will always have a home with him (i hope one of them takes him up on that!)

there were a few other volunteers there as well. a couple from germany, a couple from brasil, and a couple from france (the french man was the spitting image of todd's brother (a 20 something version) so the kids called him uncle danny......his name was raphael).
the little huts were for the volunteers, though we stayed in small room in the adobe house.

there was also a structure for cooking, but no electricity so we made many a dinner by candlelight.  it certainly took todd and i back to our peace corps days of living in rustic conditions by candlelight (and the past 20 yrs did no favors to my ability to see in low light!)

everyday we would do a few hours of work in the morning and then again after lunch.  we did a number of different tasks. we planted, we mixed compost with soil, we harvested seeds, we watered etc.  it felt so good to work with the earth....i hadn't realized how much i missed gardening.  however despite being so far from home i laughed to find myself weeding in july!

sometimes the work was very chill. for example one afternoon we spent making dream catchers for the rooms and lucy also painted a flower on the bathroom wall.  arcadio was fully in support of any efforts to beautify his farm.

the kids with the german couple and a very excited uncle danny (aka raphael)

lucy's bathroom wall art

we also took the opportunity to volunteer at the local secondary school where we taught an english class one morning. 'head, shoulders, knees and toes' was once again a hit!

riley was able to play soccer nearly every day with the boys from the village.  he made some good friends and gave them his soccer ball to keep when we left.

a grass field! not to mention the inca terraces in the backdrop.

we hiked up above our village one afternoon to some inca ruins. generally speaking i am just facinated by the incas and although these pisac ruins are cool i know they will pale in comparison to macchu picchu.

serendipitously we were in pisac for their biggest annual festival for the virgen del carmen (i never really understood the religious significance of this particular virgin). the festival lasted four days and we traveled down to pisac for two of those days.  it was spectacular and like nothing i have ever seen! the first day was the procession. there are all these different costumed and masked groups, each having its historical/cultural significance and its own dance.

the spanish are not depicted in a particularly flattering way.....these guys are the spanish lawyers and judges...with fabulously huge noses!!

this little guy was also representative of the spanish but i can't recall his role...

the groups are all proceeded by these huge glittering banners

i believe this mask represented the chileans....pretty fun mask!

not sure who this mask was representing but he was quite animated!

there were also these guys in ski masks surrounded by lady dancers.....can't recall this group's significance either.

the africans who were brought over by the spanish also had a place in this fiesta

and let's not forget the devils (both the male and female variety)

lastly in the procession (which lasted about 3 hrs and went all through town) there was the virgen herself

the second day each group performed their dance in the center of the plaza. this was fun to watch too, but we all agreed that we enjoyed the parade more. we felt so lucky to have been able to see this very unique celebration!

several of the other volunteers had left and after a week we were also ready to move on.  we ate our last meal by candlelight (which ended up being popcorn and sliced veggies because the village shop had already closed by the time we got home....todd had to laugh because i probably ate popcorn for at least a month (maybe longer!) when i first arrived in the peace corps due to the fact that i didn't know how to cook much of anything and stovetop popcorn was a skill i had mastered in college....felt like the good old days!)

the next morning we said good-bye to arcadio and the farm. the kids said good-bye to the dogs wachita and osito.

we are now slowly making our way up the sacred valley towards macchu picchu which we will see towards the end of the week (so excited!).
hasta luego!