certification

Thursday 21.7.2016

We took a late train back to Cusco and shared our experiences with Abril and Alejandra.  A fleet of taxis awaited our train, and Juan Carlos, our driver, shared a few Quechua vocabulary words with us.  It was a mind trip talking to a Quechua-speaking Peruvian taxi driver the day we returned from Machu Picchu, itself filled with white tourists who probably cannot spell Quechua correctly (myself included).

After returning to Cusco we took a bus to Puno on a whim and sat back for the long ride.  But I’d like to share some impressions of Machu Picchu while they’re still fresh in my mind.

1. Machu Picchu is the reason white people go to Peru.  It is an ancient world wonder and everyone I know who thinks that pre-Columbus Native Americans didn’t have their shit together needs to see it.  But Peru receives a massive amount of tourism from Machu Picchu, tourism which is only distantly followed by Coca Canyon near Arequipa and Lake Titicaca near Puno.
2. Because white people love Machu Picchu, Peru structures her economy to serve white people.  There are effectively two different sectors in Peru’s economy, those from Peru and those from abroad.  For example: Peruvians take collectivos (small dirt-cheap large vans with doors always open for passengers to hop on and off) around their cities.  Tourists take taxis, with large English signs littering the windows.  Peruvians eat at home or in small, unmarked restaurants owned by family friends.  Tourists eat pizza with ketchup or a plate of scrambled eggs for $10.  
3. Structuring an economy around tourists forsakes Peruvians.  Everywhere we go, poverty is apparent.  And I don’t mean “no TV” poverty, or what we call poverty in the States.  I mean real, hungry, broken-windows poverty.  Posters for the PPK, Peru’s right-wing and only legitimate political party, plaster desert sand-drenched concrete walls and non-functioning light posts, all of them promising to fix solutions. But the lights aren’t on.
4. Structuring an economy around tourists makes some Peruvians really rich.  Someone has to collect the licensing fees for all of those shops in Aguas Calientes.  Someone is Peru’s Coca-Cola representative, and he makes so much money off of the corporate sponsorships littering the country.  Someone owns the bus companies taking tourists (who pay close to $80 each) on the ten minute bus rides to and from Machu Picchu.  The Peruvian minimum wage is $253 a month, and most employed Peruvians sell wares on streets, where a minimum wage isn’t guaranteed.  Where does all that money go?
5. Going to Machu Picchu is important individually but disastrous systemically. Aside from the massive expense in upkeeping Machu Picchu, the economics of tourism in Peru, the widespread suffering in economic sectors detached from tourism, and the seeming lack of political solutions to these inequities, going to Machu Picchu tells Peruvians that “this is the way things are meant to be.”

And they aren’t.  Lima should be spelled “Limak” and still be a tiny sacrilegious site.  Machu Picchu should be bursting with organic activity.  Pollution shouldn’t be a constant factor every there Peruvians go. At every step, Molly and I have to remind ourselves how grossly out-of-whack (my vocabulary is escaping me) this entire system is.  Peru should be easy for Peruvians, not us.

Ranting complete.  The sights that spawned it don’t seem to be.