Consultant, Environmental Science and Policy

Agua o Muerte! Arequipa Peru, June 17 2002 [To property see the pictures, click here for the slide show]

If you are a news junky, you might have heard or read that there is a "state of emergency" in Peru, the epicenter of which seems to be Arequipa, which also had a #2 tremor last week. I arrived here about 3 weeks ago, for 2 weeks of spanish lessons, followed by a conference on watershed management. Although somehow, coming from Washington DC, this "emergency" doesn't seem like such a big deal, it seemed worth sharing a few first hand impressions of the place and the situation. Teachers were on strike for about a month, joined by several other sectors, mostly over issues of very low pay, but the real excitement was when farmers practically shut the country down by blocking the Pan America highway, preventing transport of goods in and out of Lima. Suddenly there were tanks in the main square, soldiers in riot gear all over the place, and a state of emergency was declared forbidding people to gather in protest, which, of course they did anyway. At the top of the farmers list of complaints is threats of water privatization. Seems President Toledo ran on an anti-privatization platform and is now trying to privatize or sell everything possible, including Macchu Picchu, as some tell it. As for the teachers etc, the line that there aren't enough funds to raise salaries doesn't go over well when the President of the country gets paid significantly more than most other Latin American presidents and at about what the US president gets, in a country where the cost of living is much lower - a regular topic of conversation. Anyway, after a student was killed and several injured, in the Puno province, suddenly there wasn't quite the same military presence anymore, though protests continue peacefully. The biggest reason for it might just be because they can, and because Toledo raised a lot of expectations, after all those years of Fujimori, who now claims Japanese citizenship and stays in Japan, to avoid being brought back for prosecution. Still, there are those who prefer order at whatever the cost - who reminisce that "at least Fujimori came in the middle of the night", some who say Toledo is no different, and others who are nostalgic for the Garcia era - when large loans were made available for investments in agriculture but were actually used by most to buy trucks and send kids to school in Europe, and never repaid, which led to a banking collapse. But a few days later, the biggest news story was a couple of clownish types, sniffing car fumes and giving out tickets in Lima, as part of world environment day. Undoubtedly, this was because it made a good TV "visual", as did the tanks in the Plaza de Armas not many days before. Though air quality here could also be the basis for declaring a state of emergency, as could a number of other factors like melting glaciers, unusually high winds from the coast creating dust storms, and the usual stuff, like poverty...

Valle del Colca

I did manage to get out of town one weekend, for a visit to the Colca valley and canyon where I saw much of what you would expect to see in the Andes - alpacas, vicuñas, condors rising out of what may be the worlds deepest canyon depending how you measure it, and terraced fields, against a background of snow-capped mountains, from which they get their water. I might have enjoyed it more had it not been for a bad case of altitude adjustment that prevented me from the afternoon walk, the dip in the hot springs, and also the food - the first day I couldn't even keep down a cup of coca leaf tea, which is suppose to help.

Left: Colca Canyon Right: Ampato Volcano

Back in Arequipa, more haunting than soldiers on the street in riot gear was a visit to the Andean Sanctuary Museum, which houses two well preserved mummies, out of about a dozen or so found in the past decade, probably because the glaciers are melting faster, although the best preserved one, "Juanita" (named after the archeologist who discovered her) came to light after a volcanic eruption melted the Ampato peak on which she was buried. These mummies are not of hunters out lost in the snow like the guy found in the Alps. These are 11-12 year old girls, who climbed those peaks, a feat that requires great skill, to be sacrificed on behalf of their people, as a way to appease the mountain deities in times of calamity (e.g., drought, starvation, pestilence, volcanic eruptions...). Somehow, they don't seem to have been appeased. Anyway, given all the visitors in town for two large conferences taking place this past week, and also to better educate the public at large, the town staged a dramatization of the story of Juanita and a reenactment of the sacrifice, at the local stadium. The special effects were great but the alpacas wanted none of it. Laughter erupted when one was carried out to the middle of the staging area by 6 firemen, who were also there to manage the effects - one of which was a volcanic eruption - the earth also talked and, a condor hovered around the volcano suspended from a balloon, and at the end, the spirit of "Juanita" was carried away by a balloon draped in her clothing. For this occasion, it was the people of the Colca valley who came to Arequipa to open the event with their traditional dances.

Smoking volcano! (3-D model of a micro-watershed under the Misti Volcano)

Our conference, on watershed management in Latin America, was opened by the mayor of Arequipa, who proclaimed "Agua o Muerte" and presented visiting dignitaries with passports to the Independent Republic of Arequipa (which one can also aquire, along with Arequipan currency, at all local bookstores). This was followed by drinks around an evening bonfire, fireworks, and a small smoking volcano - which was part of a large 3-D exhibit of a micro-watershed located just under the Misti Volcano, done in great detail - including the irrigation ditches.

After a week of working group sessions and a number of predictable keynote speeches, the conference closed with a show of the finest Peruvian horses, known for their steady and even gait, ridden by men in ponchos, white scarves and sombreros - one of these "danced" on horseback around the "Corazon de Peru" - a young woman in a traditional dresswho twirled her skirt and waved her handkerchief as he waved his sombrero. All of this was followed by a tradition said to be unique to Arequipa - a bull fight, i.e., a fight between two bulls - somehow, it doesn't seem much different from what cab drivers do at every intersection to establish their right of way? Having been in a conference all week, I have paid less attention to the news but the strikes seem to have ended without any significant pay raises. As best I can tell, the only "gain" was the reduction of the salaries of Toledo and other high public officials. In a bit of last minute sightseeing, I wandered into the municipal building, which happened to have a one-day exhibit of photos taken during the state of emergency exactly one year ago, when Arequipan citizens successfully blocked privatization of their hydro-electric plant - which provide some illustration of just how independent minded this region is. In that event, stones were pulled up from the streets to form roadblocks, many participated in a hunger strike, and two people lost their lives.

I have been staying with a family that hosts students who are here to learn spanish - in a 3 story house with a small courtyard and a wonderful rooftup with a view of the Misti Volcano, source of the lava of which many of the older buildings in this "White City" of eternally blue skies are built. I'm not sure if it ever rains here. The dry sunny climate sucks all the water out of a pair of jeans on a clothesline in about 2 hours. In town, if one goes where the locals go, one can eat a rather large and good meal for about 75 cents, which is less than a bottle of water. And I'm not talking about "Perro Caliente" - a sign I saw at a hot dog (?) place.... an experience I decided to live without - for all I know, it could really be dog meat - there sure to be plenty of street dogs.... Next door, was a sale advertised by a sign that says "Alucinante", which about sums it all up.

Oh, and then there is my new friend Pancho, the pet alpaca who lives in the back yard at the place I took my spanish classes, who sometimes eats fruit and roasted corn right out of your hand, and seems oblivious to all else.

Desde la Republica Independente de Arequipa, Sylvia "Tognetti", reportando.