Paro!

On our return to Casa de Milagros, we did indeed encounter the paro, or stop!  It was a 2-day strike, again protesting the privitization of Macchu Pichu and other heritage sites.  When leaving the town of Ollantaytambo, it seemed we saw less tour buses than usual, but there was a combi van right in the plaza de armas heading to Urubamba.  There were rocks in the road, and at one point some kids yelled from their self-constructed dirt road block "señor, huelga!" (strike, mister!)  The bus station in Urubamba was obviously closed, but our driver said we could catch a combi to Calca on the other side of town.

We walked to the other side of town, the one traffic light in all of Urubamba, and maybe all of the Sacred Valley, where other people were waiting.  No combis were heading this way.  Most people seemed to be heading to Cusco, which is down a different road than Calca.  The taxi drivers were offering to take us to Calca for 50 soles, about $17.... finally we talked one down to 40 soles, then he talked to some other drivers, and said no, the road was blocked, he could¨not go to Calca.  We were wondering what to do, it was about 20k to Calca.. and then Casa de Milagros is still further out from Calca. After our Macchu Pichu adventure, we were ready for the adventure to end.  But, here we had another aventura... (A new adventure every day, has become our motto!)

 We finally found a taxi who offered to go for 20 soles, and were glad when a police officer got in the taxi as well. It offered a sense of security.... well, we made it maybe 1/3 of the way when we hit a giant roadblock of big rocks.  Get out and walk, follow the police officer, there will be cars on the other side, said the driver.  And he asked for 10 soles... we gave him about 7.

The police officer was walking fast, so we hurried to keep up.  There were lots of road blocks along the route, many small.  In one small town, the people had placed broken glass, giant tree stumps, even carts across the road.  An angry mob surrounded a truck that apparently had tried to pass a roadblock.  We hurried past, we only saw one other gringo on this walk, and yes, we were at times fearful of what could happen.

It was beautiful, too, seeing the towns and people and their animals, the clouds gathering above.  And inspiring... to think that the people united can create change!

It started to rain, and was getting dark, we were passing through small towns without hostels, not thinking about what was next except getting home!  Then the police officer passed us in a moto-taxi, get in!  He climbed up front with the driver, I sat in back with 3 kids, and Wade sat on the very back luggage rack!  They all got out in Calca, and we headed to Lamay.  There were still road blocks, and the driver hit one, getting a flat. He tried to drive on, but we soon got out to walk, in the cold and dark rainy night, to Lamay, across the bridge, and along the dirt road, where we finally made it to Casa de Milagros!  Aventura, indeed!

The kids and caretakers had all gone away to some hot springs, and the strike had prevented their return.  Kia was there, however, and we caught up on news and dinner, then to sleep!

The next day was our introduction to handwashing all of our dirty clothes, and I got to help in the kitchen, making a salad-- our first in Peru, hooray, all organic veggies from the garden.
The kids made it back late that night, they had had to drive through the roadblocks, and angry people slashed one of the cars´ tires!

Our next day we got to pick cauliflower leaves for the horses and weed the gardens.  We will be working alot in the gardens.  We also got to meet some sapos, toads, thanks to 2 little boys and were helped by a little boy and girl with the weeding.  What kind of  flower is that?  "A yellow one..."

We heard the strike closed the airport in Cusco and also the train to Macchu Pichu.  It may resume on Monday, if the government does not listen to the people.  We came to town today... It turns out the "big" town, Calca, is more like 5k from the orphanage... where we can visit the market and the internet. Lamay, is a 2k walk, but also has bus service to Calca.  We might also get to use the computers at Casa de Milagros, though the phones have been down awhile.... we are glad to be out of the strike area, but curious to learn what will happen!