The Sacred Valley in Peru

I forgot to mention how early we started this day- 4am! Our teacher's group descended to the Sacred Valley and stopped at Awana Kancha of the Andes. This is a native Andean cooperative to preserve the ancient textile arts of the Inca Indians/Quechua (Ket chew ah) people of the Cusco area. The original animals were the Vicuna which were selectively bred and resulted in Alpaca and Llama breeds from the camel family. The Vicuna have very sweet and pretty slender faces and have the highest quality wool. They are a protected animal so the next best wool for products is baby Alpaca. A newborn Alpaca kid had just dropped when we arrived and the mother was licking the baby. This baby had not even taken the first step. The organic dyes used on natural shaved Llama and Alpaca were on display. The wool is spun by spool using fingers only by the Andean Indians. After this short stop to view, pet and shop we arrived at our paired school-Bernardo Tambohuasco School in Pisac in the Sacred Valley. When we arrived so late due to airport delays, the children had been waiting for two hours! This is summer vacation, but quite a crowd showed up to meet us. The school serves 500 students from elementary grades through about age 17. Not too long ago Bill Gates funded 5 computers for the school. The headmaster had the students line up along the center walkway with the girls on one side and the boys on the other. We entered down the middle and stopped to be received by the adults of the school. The principal gave a welcome speech and so did the old and new Home and School/ PTA president. They went to SO MUCH trouble to make us feel appreciated and at home in their school. They took the suitcases full of supplies to unpack for us while we attended a special ceremony by an Incan Priestess. It was a ceremony of blessing on the school, the schools we represent and on all of the traveling teachers. The Incan Priestess started the ritual with a prayer to the Lord God and asked permission to perform the ceremony making many signs of the cross. The native Pervians have an interesting mix of Roman Catholic and ancient Indian beliefs. The Priestess was dressed in beautiful traditional Indian clothing and knelt on the floor to build the gift of offering to Pachu Mama the Mother Earth with coca leaves in sets of 3. Each step of the ceremony was blessed with the sign of the cross and had great symbolism in Indian culture. She made a package/gift of coca leaves and different objects carefully placed in a circular form and then tied in a neat package to burn as an offering to Pachu Mama to invoke blessings and good luck. The priestess had a sweet and beautiful face that showed reverence for both faiths- it was fascinating to watch and listen to the explanation through our interpreter/guides. A side note here: There was a large picture of Pope Benedict in this room directly over the shoulder of the Priestess even though this is a public school! After the blessing ceremony was completed, we were escorted into the room for our PTO lunch of native foods. Roasted Guinea pig, pork, yellow potatoes, Inca corn, salad and tortillas were served family style in a room that also contained their mini-museum. They had on display an Incan mummy and her child, an ancient comb, large metal decorative pin and other interesting artifacts from their location. The local residents watched us eat and made sure we were well served, then they began to eat some of the "party food". There was the craft fair outside the lunch hall that we all supported with purchases of their items for sale. A few children stayed to say goodbye to us before we left the school. This school is not considered especially poor in Peru, however there was 1 toilet for 500 students and the bathroom was in terrible condition. They did have the blessing of 5 computers, but the principal told me he needed 2 more! There is so much more this school needs in this remote location. After the school visit we returned by bus to Cusco for more tours of famous colonial buildings like Cusco Cathedral ( Pizzaro's Cross is here). We saw the Lord of the Earthquake crucifix on a side altar dedicated to the protection of Cusco from earthquakes. The interior was ornate and in three beautiful sections- much larger than one would expect. Some of the stones used in construction came from ancient Inca temples. One interesting twist on Catholic tradition is the dressing of the saint statues for the processions. Families take this on for the year and make beautiful changes of costume for the feast day of the saint. The next stop was the Dominican Convent of Santo Domingo from the 17th century. The architecture is noteworthy because there is an almost Renaissance feel to the courtyard and Inca walls and doorways from a much earlier Indian temple on the site. If you read about the Spanish conquest and Pizzaro's capture and ransom of Atahualpa that ended SO badly with the Inca's murder, the gold ransom came in a large part from Cusco and this building. It took the Spaniards 3 months to melt the gold they found here down into gold bars for transit to Pizzaro. The art treasure was lost forever! Even the adobe parts were gold leaf and overlaid. Tomorrow we get up even EARLIER to go to Machu Picchu! Stay tuned for that adventure!