While others are traipsing around the streets for an hour, I sat on a shaded bench watching the world go by. Vendors stopped by selling woven trinkets and pineapples. They are not pushy, and work very hard whether weaving their bracelets or hauling their wares. It is not an easy life here, but people seem happy. The life expectancy in Peru is 75, but in these little villages it is closer to 80. We are told that is because there is less stress in the villages, but I think it is because they all do a lot of physical labor, eat a lot of vegetables, and probably have zero heart disease.
On the way here Friday morning we saw a sobering sight, one of the ubiquitous tour buses had missed the turn on the terrace road and flipped over. It happened since we made the same turn Thursday around 2pm. All that is left now (Saturday) is two broken windshields on a patch of grass outside someone's home.
Yesterday afternoon we made our way back from Machu Picchu traveling first by foot down the trail, then by shuttle bus down the mountain, then by train back up the valley to Ollantaytambo, then by tour bus back to Cusco. That took us about 7 hours.
I was struck by the fact that even at six pm which was after sunset and near dark, we saw people working in the fields, cutting and gathering barley by hand, loading potatoes into sacks which were hauled around on people's backs. Families were leading pigs and cows back to the pens with a rope around the neck of the animals as the young (both animal and human) ran along behind.
There is no social security here in Peru, nor is there any government health care. Everything people have they provide for themselves, and we have seen no beggars. Just very hard workers trying to make a few cents profit on watever they can. There has been a lot of government corruption which has made people distrustful of government rules and regulations.
Traffic is an adventure in the villages and a nightmare in the cities. Traffic lights, direction of travel, and lanes are all just a suggestion. There are no guard rails even on hundred foot drop-offs. We have seen two lines of cars nose to nose with each 'suggesting' that the other one back up so their line can go through. Never mind which side of the road it was on. Two lane roads can become three lanes of traffic at any time, and the direction of travel in the middle non-lane can be both ways at the same time. If there is a light, maybe they will stop. Left turns look like a marching band doing one of those reverse criss-cross maneuvers in cars. Parking is wherever you can find it sort of near the curb and sort of out of the flow of traffic.
This was the only tractor we saw in three days.
This is another bus passing us the other way...maybe two inches.
The roadbed we drive on is actually the old Inca Road.
All that is left of the bus crash.
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