My first encounter with Perú and the Andean people

 

 

As a boy 14 years old studying the Spanish language, the culture of Latin America was remote and details had to be memorized. Was it Cortéz or Pizarro? Is the country in Central or South America? Were the Mayas in México or Bolivia? It was complex, confusing and seemed irrelevant to learning the language. I was fortunate to have a close friend whose family spoke Castillian Spanish at home. Our parents were friends and her parents spoke to me in Spanish when we visited them. Castillian is the language of Spain. This helped me to score well on tests but the cultural aspect of the course with respect to Latin America was still unclear. It was taught with a Europe-centric view and the people of the Andes were reduced to a single word, mestizo. I remembered something about the name Pizarro and that he conquered was it the Aztecs or the Incas? I think it was the Incas.

 

In my college years I became fascinated with the archeology of ancient Egypt and frequently visited exhibits in museums in New York City. I was not a traveler and never went outside the United States until I was almost 50 years old. Thanks to publications like National Geographic, in later years I learned of the discovery of a remarkably intact Inca city called Machu Picchu. I read magazine articles and watched TV documentaries and eventually decided I would like to see it myself.

 

Life intervenes and keeps us distracted and the journey kept being pushed aside. By then my wife was becoming disabled and my dream of traveling together to Machu Picchu was over. Fortunately, Dennie pushed me to go anyway. My beloved daughter in law, who is a scientist with innumerable interests jumped at the chance to accompany me and my dear friend Jeff, who continually watches over this old man and is an accomplished photographer joined me as well. This is the tale of our encounter with the Andean people.