Machu Picchu

My young Scottish friend Jarrod and I arose early today and began the train journey to Machu Picchu. Its time to forget about wells for a while. A series of switchbacks carries the train from Cusco up to 12,000 feet and the pass out of the valley. Then its a constant decent along the river until you finally arrive in the jungle at Aqaus Caliente. Our host recommended a hike to view the ruins from above. Well we just ended a three hour hike that was basically straight up. Some sections had primative wooden ladders almost vertical for hundreds of feet up. I post a picture but this internet connection is too slow. It was certainly worth the trip though as you reach the summit you look out across the mountains and see the most amazing and extensive ruins imaginable. Its hard to grasp why or how some ancient culture chose such a place and then built an amzing set of structures. I´m really looking forward to the close up view.
Tomorrow we tour the ruins with a guide and head back to Cusco in the afternoon. I hope my legs work after this workout. Aqaus Caliente is famous for its hot spring so its off to a soak to mend these calves.
I have much to tell about the last few days in Cusco but it will have to wait.

Alles Klar!

Mike

Road to Recovery II

Well this is the second attempt to update. My last post vanished into the ether when I hit send. I fell ill with some sort of flu and had to miss a day of work yesterday. Today was back to the well. As usual ir was full of water and sinking lower into the muck. The electric pump can no longer create enough lift to draw water so it was bucket after bucket by rope hauling. It is raining this evening so it may be worse off tomorrow. But we will plough ahead as we have reached the point of no return. Adrian believes that it has sunk enough to pour the last concrete this week. The opening of the orphanage has been delayed by about two weeks as it stands now.
Today Adrian invited us to join his family to watch his children perform in the local festival folklorico and then have Sunday dinner with them. They are very involve in the musica folkorico and the whole family takes part to preserve the ancient culture. Unlike the Spanish who came in 1532 and destroyed the amazing Inca archectecture to prove that the one true church should rule over all of the land. The people still carry the sadness that goes with losing one´s past.
I´m very dissapointed that I won´t be able to join them as I already booked a trip to Machu Pichu. Hopefully I´ll get close to thier culture there.
If you want to get a bird´s eye view of the worksite put these coordinates into google earth S 13.35.449 W 71.46.535. This should put about 20 meters from the well. Let me know what you think if it works.
Here are a few shots from today.

Quiet Sunday Morning

It is early Sunday morning and Cusco is very quiet today. I spent yesterday sleeping off the partying and dancing from Friday night and walked around town a bit. Did some people watching and wandered the local markets. Safeways can never be as fun.
The hole in the ground that I hope will be a well soon was filled with water again on Friday when we arrived for work. Back to the buckets for a few hours and we finished the day setting the rebar to reinforce the concrete we will pour on Monday. I´m certain in America a contractor would just tear it all down and start over but here we just press on hoping things will figure themselves out. They are actually hoping that the weight of the new concrete will settle the whole well a little more. Hoping the sinking ship will right itself. I guess if in the end it holds water that all is good.
Charlene, I brought a GPS so I´ll post some Lat-Lon coordinates on Monday so you can google earth it. But for now the town I am working in is Oropesa.
Tuesday night we are all going to the Cuy capital of Peru to eat Cuy al horno. Anybody care to guess what that it?

hasta la vista
Mike

Our Littlest Helper

Mila is always working. Just like her dad.

Don´t have time for a full report. Just continued emptying the poza and buiding rebar for the concrete pour on Monday. I have two days off so it time to be a tourist in Cusco for the weekend.

Mike

Pics

Lets see if this works.

Good Day Bad Day

Yesterday we ran out of adobe bricks so today was attack the well. They have already built a 5 meter coffer dam on a really shakey foundation and it has been sinking. We formed a bucket brigade to haul mud and water out of it and as we did it started to lean and sink in the mud more. It was obviously not set on the bedrock. Water continued to seep as we hauled and hauled. Adrian, who is running the job and living on site decided we needed some real refreshments if we were going to keep pace with the water so he broke out the coca leaves and sent his wife to town for some chicha-a homebrew made from maize. If was real good stuff, aged to perfection. Next he got out the Pisco, a local rum drink, me thinks. I´ll tell you for certain the mud gets lighter the more you chew.
When knock off time came we all put our heads together to see how we might engineer this thing back to plumb. Since know one understood the other it was a great excercise in non verbal communication. It will be interesting to see how we attack it tomorrow.
I have not had time to explore Cusco yet as they keep us busy for most of the day. I can say that Peru is an amazing and beautiful place.
I will find some time on saturday to post some pics.
Thanks everyone for checking in.

Mike

Deep in the Mud

So today was our first day of work.The clocks run slow in Peru so of course we started late. We are building a cucina(kitchen)out of adobe. The walls were half way up when we arrived. We were put to the task of leveling with a pick ax and our eyesite. What Adrian did not approve he fixes it in no time. But what can you expect from a first day apprentice trying to learn 10,000 year old methods. Next it was down to the creek or ditch if you prefer to haul the mud that will be the glue that holds this all together. As you spread a course of mud you must pick the pebbles out. This I found very theraputic. The Peruvians thought I was enjoying myself way too much. I will say it was the hardest work I´ve done in quite some time. And I don´tmean the digging for pebbles. If we get some help maybe we will finish in two weeks. That is when they will open this orphanage for 10 children.
I start my first spanish lesson in a few minutes. Two hours a night plus homework. Hopefully I´ll learn as much as I did today out in the field. I will attempt to load some pictures after class

hasta manana,
Miguel

The Navel of the World

I have safely arrived in Cusco after 11 hours of flying and assorted layovers. It is a beautiful day here today and my orientation starts in 10 minutes. I am looking forward to freshening up after that. They did promise me plenty of hard work in the next two weeks. Much more to follow!

Testing the waters

I just thought I test this feature of the blog before I hit the road. I bet you didn't know I like fishing. Mostly when the conditions are just right I'll give it a try. Click on the photo to see a larger image. Anyway come back and check in often and see what I'm up to in Peru.

Singularity

In today's SJMerc, the biz section featured a Q&A with a gentleman who deals in Artificial Intelligence and the concept of singularity. There is a total lack of intelligence in the whole piece. It has to do with computers getting so smart they they eventually take over the world. As an example how things change radically over time he mentions that no one could have predicted nuclear bombs destroying whole cities but it came to be. He fails to mention that man gave the order to be dropped. The bomb is not even the sum of its parts until man gets involved. He mentions how the future will be unpredictable and possibly dangerous to mankind. I guess nobody told him about global warming. Of course its going to be dangerous. Hello!
He goes on to state that if more people invested in this concept he wouldn't have to invest as much of his own money. Somebody please tell this rocket scientist that as soon as I have more money than I can spen in a lifetime maybe I'll start investing in nebulous concepts. In the meantime make sure to hire people who know where to shut the machines off.