I was invited to stay with a Peruvian family in the sacred valley through an Australian friend. Perfect timing as Cusco was on strike for a few days.
Peruvians living ouside of the cities are still very much in touch with nature and are worried about climate change. Peru has been identified as the region which has the most to lose from global warming. It's glaciers are retreating fast and it is estimated that by 2025 Peru will be the first south American country to experience "permanent water stress". Travelling though the valley you notice the destruction caused by the mud and land slides in march. Some villages were completely destroyed and the roads are still very thin in some places.
The family I stayed with owned an organic farm so I got to taste some amazing vegan food. I loved just listening to theirs and their friend's stories about the country and learn about all the healthy living that is just part of Peruvian life. All the herbs, oils, tinctures, vegetables, teas and other products that you can only find in "fresh and wild" and other overly expensive so called organic shops in Europe; they are all part of daily living here. They still dye their clothes in natural dyes which means going up the mountain and picking leaves, insects and flowers. Beautiful Lila who is my age and 5 month's pregnant with her third child was telling me about how when the girls were small they used to live high up in the mountain with no electricity or running water. She used to have to walk 500 meters to get the water which if she did not treat it properly; the babies would get parasites. But somehow she was so happy with only a clay stove and one room and growing all their own food in the garden, that they did not need anything more. I was so impressed watching the girls do their homework, they were writing and reading better than any children I have met in Europe that age, Who needs private schools??? Above all; the children still had the innocence that somehow have dissapeared in our society.
Me and a Peruvian girl staying with the family hiked up to Huchuy qosqo ruins a few hours from the village. I was embarassed at my slow pace as she was practically running up. But when we arrived there were a group of french hikers sleeping. We went to have some coca tea from the guides who told us that they had taken 5 hrs hiking up, so then I felt better... It was magical sitting on the top of the mountain drinking tea whilst looking out over the vast mountain ranges, the ruins filled with lamas and watching the arcaeologists working around you trying to find some more answers to the Inka magics.
I left the family the following morning to go to a neighbouring town called Pisac which has a great market and again, yet more ruins. From there I managed to hitch a lift with a tourist bus for the day around the valley to different sites: the most famous being the stunning Ollantayambo. Unfortunately my camera was on the wrong setting and the sun was so strong that most of the photographs are too light. We had an excellent guide who was trying to explain the whole story of the Inka empire and how they really only existed as an empire for 94 years yet they managed to build over 3000 sites. Then of course the Spanish came and ruined it all. It was such an interesting tour and so remarkable to hear how everything that was built was based on astronomy. I attach a pic from a book showing how the river around the sacred valley follows the milky way and how they planned Ollantayambo around that and made sure that winter solstice on the 21 June lights up different important areas of the site but only for 3 min once a year! Imagine that!
We then continued to a village called Chinchero where all the locals still live on their handicraft and were happy to show us how to dye and which plants they use.
Ollantayambo
