An unusual day today.

Today, I planned to start my Quechua lessons up again for the final stretch, but after a difficult night of altitude-induced insomia, I woke up to (first) a broken shower in the house (no hot water), and (second), a call from Valerio, my Quechua instructor. The broken shower turned out to be not a big problem, because controversy over the privatization of rural irrigation systems had resulted in a transportation paro (basically a strike), which meant that Valerio couldn't get in to Cusco today from Calca.

On a related note, I was sitting in the Plaza Tupac Amaru yesterday, when the plaza was suddenly filled with people--mostly indigenous folks--running to catch buses and trucks to somewhere. I asked someone what was going on, and they said that the peasants were demonstrating against the proposed privatization.

Pretty bizarre, frankly. If I understand correctly, what the government proposes to do is aution of local irrigation systems (systems that were presumably built by the locals) so that the new owners of the irrigation systems have the right to sell the water back to the locals.

Makes the US "prior appropriation" doctrine look like a shining example of moderation and efficiency, by contrast. Hard to believe that it could be legal or politically viable.

But down here, anything is possible.

I took a walk mid-afternoon, and got a pretty good picture of Tupac Amaru in the plaza--none of my previous pictures have come out so well, so I think I'll post it here.


I like this picture--it really captures Amaru's angy expression (and also his 18th century clothing).

In some ways, a true social revolutionary, the plaque at the bottom of the statue , somewhat ironically, calls his rebellion the "precursor to independence." This is a little silly, because Amaru's 1780 revolution was a movement that hoped to overthrow the ruling (European) class and replace it with some sort of indigenous monarchy a la the Inca Empire. By contrast, Bolivar and San Martin basically replaced one aristocratic class (born in Spain) with another one (born in America). Trying to equate one with the other is a little strange. Amaru would have killed Bolivar and his family if they had lived at the same time.

I also wanted to show off another beautiful picture I took--I have no idea what the name of this peak is, but it really stood out today, shining in the sun, in contrast with the generally quite gloomy weather.