Paradise…
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2005Damn, I´ve been out of touch. I´ll just keep this breif, but I´ve written 20 pages in my diary for 2 days worth of events. I´m not going to repeat it here, but probably when I get home, I´ll put the stories in the blog.
All I have to say is that I am having the most amazing time in my life here in Tilcara. It never ceases. This is truely paradise. I think that I may spend the rest of my vacation here, until I have to go to Buenos Aires. I´ve gotta be in Buenos Aires on Sept 1…sigh. Why leave such an awesome place? Tilcara has become my new temporary home!!!
My second day, I went with Nathalie to meet up with a guide named Carlos to do a tour of the caves. Long story short, Carlos never showed, we waited for another guide to come. His name is Tupa. We walked across a bridge on the way to the caves. He spoke to us about Pachamama, an indigenous celebration. There were straw houses in the river bed which were to be burned on Monday. Then he suggested..hey, are you interested in Pachamama? Of course, we said yes. He asked a pueblo if we could watch the ceremony. We were invited in. They let us participate in the offering to Pachamama, they thanked *us* for coming. Well, I have too many words to say about that day…it was fantastic, amazing. These people asked us for nothing, and were glad to share their culture with us. I was blown away…(full story to come when I get home).
They invited us to another ceremony the next day. Of course, Nathalie and I went. All 17 of us stuffed into a tiny combi, went about 20 km north of town, and hiked to a sacred ritual site of the Amarillos. There, we participated in a ceremony in dedication of their ancestors and another small ceremony for Pachamama. It was truely the most spiritual event in my entire life (again, full story to come later).
I can´t even begin to describe the experiences I had. These experiences, those 2 days, were not a tourist trap type thing to do. We were so privilaged to be welcomed into the indigenous community like that, and to participate in something so sacred and so private…was amazing. Wow.
Yesterday, Nathalie and I went to do the cave tour again, and again with Carlos, who never showed (again). We went with our Italian roommate Carlos . Since the guide didn´t show up, we went to Pucara instead in the morning, then would try to get the 2pm tour to the caves.
At Pucara, we had Ariel as our guide. Pucara is the site of an old Quechua village. However, the vast majority of the site itself is restored. There are fantastic views over the village and of the surrounding mountains.
After Pucara, we had a bite to eat, then waited for a guide at the tourist office. We got another guide named Kachamai, who would not shut up the entire hike to the caves. There was also another girl on the trip, Vanessa, who we later learned is staying at Malka as well. Our guide was a bit weird..he made us look at this hosteria and was trying to pitch us to stay there, rather than Malka. We even went on a tour of the place and saw two habitaciones.
The hike to the caves was difficult. Sheesh, I´m out of shape. Well, it´s partly the altitude, too. But hey, I gotta do this…see what my body does because this is a walk in the park in comparison to hiking up Mt Kilimanjaro!
The caves tour was fun. We went in one cave, shimmying through the tunnel, crawling at points, going by candle light til the end. The next cave we had to crawl on our hands and knees to get to the other side, and opening where the wind was coming through. When we exited the cave, the wind was so strong. The way down was pretty fun. The earth was so gravelly and sandy and inclined that we slid down the mountain in turns. Carlos, the Italian guy, we figured is a little weird or crazy. He had our guide film him as he hopped down the mountain. We laughed about it…so weird.
In the evening were festivties. Today was the day that they are burning the houses in the river, and marching from there to the plaza. We were a bit late…we met up with Kachamai, walked fastly to the river and saw the houses already burning, then walked swiftly to the Plaza to see the parade. It was like the entire village of 2000 people (during this time of year) was out. The various groups of people in the parade marched by, schools, people in traditional dress, caballeros, etc. Then there was a ceremony for the offering to Pachamama in the plaza. Well, it didn´t compare to the ceremony that Nathalie and I had experienced a few days ago. This was very touristy, being filmed, and there was a guy talking throughout the entire thing to the crowd. We strayed away from the Pachamama ceremony to find a little dog trying to hump a big one..the big one was begging for our hamburguesa and didn´t feel a thing, and the little dog was trying to hump the big dog for some 15 or so minutes. It was hilarious.
In the evening, we all went to El Nuevo Progresso, met up with more people, and listened to a band play.
Here I am sitting on a rock admiring the view of the surrounding pampas and the sierra across the road. 
Marisa