Monday I was going to go to a village high in the moutains to buy hand woven textiles but the trip left at 8 and I missed it. So I climbed up to the ruins right above town to check then out. Then walked to the entrance of town and followed the old Inca trail thru the entrance gate and down about 1k to the highway overlooking the river. On the way back I watched some guys making adobe bricks. Then went to the foot of town and crossed a bridge to check out the start of a future hike. Afterwards I went back to my room for a post breakfast nap. I was soon awakened by drums and trumpets. That means one thing:procession. I grab my camera and run up to the square in time to catch a small group of people carrying a statue of the Virgin Mary. They are accompanied by a group of pre-school children wearing masks. Soon the kids line up in two lines and begin dancing frantically. It´s just too cute.
After a lunch of wheat soup and beans and rice for $2 I decide to go on a hike. I started up a street in town that followed a small river into the countryside. I continued up the road for a couple of miles until the valley opened out into an area of small fields and orchards. Itis very beautiful and I continue climbing. Finally its getting late and time to turn back before sunset. I asked a woman I saw on the side of the road if there was a trail back down to the main road. She asks if I am going to the ruins of Pumamarca. I didn´even know there were ruins there.I´m only a few hundred yards below them but time is short so I have to skip it. Walking down a steep trail and across the river I come to a small village perched between the road and the river canyon. I thought I might find a cold beer there but there is no store. Turning back to head to town I see a house with a red burlap bag on a pole. That is the sign that they have chibcha there. Its a drink made of fermented corn. A little girl leads me down into a compound to her mother´s house. Her mother is shocked to see a gringo at her door but invites me in. The house has 1 room and no windows and inside are 5 women of various ages. They are quite bemused to see me and offer me a glass. Its a little sweet and a little bitter. But its non alchoholic, as it takes 3 days to ferment to that level. I drank a little as guinea pigs scurried across the floor. It was getting dark and cold soon so Ieft quickly.
Hiking back down the road I soon came to a construction area where a backhoe and several dump trucks are working to clear a landslide. A guy hanging out on the side of the road tells me to wait a minute and I can get a ride back down in the next dump truck . Sure enough the driver stops and gives me a ride. And just in time too,as all I am wearing is a tshirt and its already getting cold.
For dinner that nite I decided to try stuffed pepper at a restaurant next to the hotel. While I am there I met a black woman from Baltimore who was with a group of people fresh in from a conferece in the jungle at Iquitos. What kind of conference do you go to in Iquitos, I asked. Ayausca she responded.Another guy in her group, Allen, overheard me say I was trying all the regional dishes.He says I must visit Iquitos, where he has lived for 20 years. According to him there are 7 women born to every man, due to the high acidity of their diet killing off all the y chromosone sperm.He says I would be a God there. Note to self: go to Iquitos.
I then found one of the few bars there. I walk in and 2 hippies are beating on large bongos. Igo to the bar and order beer and the bartender asks if I smoke. I said yes and he pulls out the roach he was smoking and offers it to me. Have I come to the right place! The hippies playing the bongos proceed to smoke me up. One even has the kind. After scoring a small amount from the bartender I smoke up the hippies. One of them is extolling the virtues of the hallucinagenic cactus San Pedro.He has done a lot of tripping on various drugs and we compare notes. Twist my arm, I´ll try it. About that time an American woman from Pittsburg walks in. She has been a participant in their San Pedro ceremony is is still fried. She is into some sort of esoteric fire rituals I have never heard of. She is blown away by the whole experience. We end up drinking until 1 when I left to return to my hotel. All things considered a stellar day on the tourist trail
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