Three Condors Circling the Valley

A year ago this past spring, perhaps you saw in the newspaper a tiny article about the mudslides in Peru and tourists visiting Machu Picchu being unable to leave Aguas Calientes.  What was a few lines in US papers was a national disaster in Peru.

People might see one or two condors flying high in the mountains but never three and never in the valley. But that is what happened a week before the rains came.   Some say it was a sign...

When the rains came, they washed away many of the homes built with mud and straw bricks in Cusco.  At MP, parts of the winding road to the site were also washed away or the road was impassable because of mud and landslides.  Landslides took out parts of the railroad track to Aguas Calientes.  The reality was that those in AC were hemmed in with no way to get out.  The only way out of MP was by hiking out on the Inca Trail.

One of our guides was in MP at the time of the flooding.  Helicopters were brought in first to evacuate the tourists, then the local elderly, infirm, children, and women. In the meantime, the price of food and water skyrocketed since  there was no way to bring in enough provisions.  Guides were left to fend for themselves.  Rubin said that the situation became so desperate that he and several others hiked out - even then being forced to go through water up to their waists.

Regardless of what you believe about global climate change, the reality is that the weather in Peru has changed dramatically.  The glaciers are melting at an alarming rate.  Torrential rains like those of a year ago have literally never happened before.  I would like to somehow have we in the United States experience what the locals here in Peru experienced a year ago and understand that their experience really is tied to our lifestyle and the choices we make about our resources.  We are not alone and I don't think were ever meant to live in anything other than community.  We are all part of the same sacred web, dependent on one another and the choices we make.