To the Andes

A one-hour flight from Lima took us to Cuzco, which is at an elevation of 11,000 feet. But to get us acclimated to the altitude, our destinations for the next few days are in villages at lower elevations — ‘only’ 9,000 feet. (Did you know it’s a little hard to breathe wearing a mask at high elevations)?

Our bus took us first to the village of Pisac, known for its colorful handicrafts market. The craftspeople showed us how to distinguish between baby alpaca wool garments and ‘maybe’ alpaca (synthetics). A sweater made from baby alpaca, which is the first shearing of the animal, not an actual baby’s ‘fur’, is heavy in weight and cool to the touch.

We also got an introduction about how to evaluate silverwork for purity of silver. These craftspeople like to use a higher ratio of silver to copper than in sterling silver, which means that it is less likely to tarnish—but it is softer. The knockoff silver (which may have a fake stamp indicating a high ratio of silver) has much more copper and looks nice and shiny now but is yellow-toned and will tarnish.

After a late lunch, we drove along a beautiful river valley called the Sacred Valley. The indigenous people believed that the river was the land counterpart to the Milky Way (because everything needs to be in pairs—sun/moon, day/night, etc.).

A curious thing we learned about home-building in Peru is that the owners often leave the top level(s) unfinished, with just some rebar sticking up (often covered with plastic water bottles to prevent rusting of the cut ends). The parents add levels to their homes for their grown children to live in. Until the children are ready to move out of their parents’ house, and while the parents save enough to afford the construction, they leave the levels unfinished. We also heard it’s a way to avoid the higher taxes of a larger finished home.

It seems we can’t escape wildfires. The farmers set controlled burns before planting to add minerals in the ash back into the soil. But this being a windy area, these fires often get out of control on the steep hillsides.Read more