anecdotes from Cusco

Cusco has been treating me very well. The lack of blog posts is due to how ridiculously busy I have been. I was invited to play with all sorts of different bands (I guess it´s hard to forget the only cellist that comes through town), but I really wanted to put together one really good group of good musicians who were willing to put in some hard work. It worked. We are called Inkarry Quartet, Total Fusion. Profe on guitar, Luis Miguel on soprano and alto sax, Carlos on congas and cajon peruano and myself on cello. We´ve been rehearsing five hours a day on average, working on tunes that Profe wrote, arrangements of the local traditional music, and some jazz and bossa nova standards. We have shows almost every night of the week, even two shows on some days. Last night we played the first concert as a quartet (we had played several concerts with other musicians in the band who later ditched out) and the show was packed. We all had a great time and the audience loved it. Hopefully it will continue, as we continue to work hard and come up with new ideas.

Life at my Cusco home is great too, other than the fact that my favorite rooms are under construction! There are a lot of really cool artists living there with means that there is never a dull moment. There are several artisans, who make jewelry of all sorts, some jugglers, street performers, a guitarist and a writer/film afficianado. Pedro is from Pucallpa, Peru, a town in the Amazon that I will head to within the next month or so. He just started to travel and is experimenting with making jewelry and working at the restaurant around the corner. He has all sorts of interesting collections- of coins, stones, arrowheads... enough collections to make his room look like a museum. Then there is my friend Fernando who is a writer, runs a small indendent cinema and published an anthology of short stories and comics about a curious social phenomenon that runs rampant in Cusco (that requires a whole other blog post to describe). The family who owns the place is super nice, and I´ve seen the kids grow up over the past 8 years which has been really cool. They are all very curious and when I practice my cello in the morning, they often stand in the doorway to my room or come in a sit down to listen. It´s a beautiful thing.

The food in Cusco has also been great. You really can´t beat living in a place where you get a complete vegetarian meal- salad bar, soup, main course, desert and tea, all for $1.20. Of course, you do have to put up with the crazy Alpha and Omega propaganda that is on the walls... apparently all vegetarians come from outerspace and will return there with Jesus in a flying saucer... hmm. I still don´t understand that one, but while the food is good and cheap, I can´t complain.

Here are a couple pictures from around town. Soon to come are some photos from shows :)

A view of the Cusco from the bottom of my street:



The kitchen room at my house and in the background, on the second floor, my old favorite room which is now filled with construction materials. (Note the construction- mud and stick with tile roofs, super rustic!):

The new rooms that are being built, just to give a behind the scenes of how people build houses down here:

The view of the patio at the house from my door way:

Luis in rehearsal at Profe´s house:

Profe in action at rehearsal... actually, I think he was tuning, oh well:

A sunset view of Cusco taken from my favorite chicharia: