Perhaps you’ve laid eyes on a Peruvian textile, held it in your hands and admired its flawless threadwork, vibrant colors, and intricate design?  Or maybe your experience with the textiles of Peru extends only to the photos that fill the pages of your Google search results aiding you as you plan (or dream about) your tour of Peru? Either way, it’s important to know that Peruvian textiles are as embedded in the Andean culture of Peru as Huayno music, potatoes, and the Incas. In this blog post, we share the story and innovative spirit behind the Umasbamba weavers breaking the mold and putting their humble Andean village on the map through their art.

A Background on Umasbamba

Umasbamba is a small Quechua village of about 32 families located on the outskirts of Chinchero in the Cusco region. Like many Andean villages, subsistence farming and weaving put food on the table and a roof over their heads, however, unlike other Andean villages Umasbamba is a place where education has value and a better future is actually tangible. Why? The answer is buried within the fabric of their Peruvian textiles and, more specifically, the visionary Umasbamba weavers weaving them.

The Umasbamba Weavers

While weaving is a pre-Columbian tradition still practiced in villages throughout the Peruvian Andes, the Umasbamba weavers have taken their treasured skill and built infrastructures around it that go far beyond the Sunday Market in Chinchero —  many travelers’ only introduction to Peruvian textiles and the women who weave them, and a removed one at that.

In fact, what sets the Umasbamba weavers apart is their willingness to share more than their textiles with curious travelers. They were willing to share the world — their world — behind each meticulously crafted piece, from the simple adobe mud brick structures they call home to the fields that grow the food that fills their plates. This step in their journey has earned them and their craft newfound recognition and a path forward to previously unthinkable opportunities for such a remote Andean community.

The Umasbamba Textile Museum

After years of opening their hearts and homes to travelers the world over, the Umasbamba weavers again did something unprecedented. This past July, they opened the Umasbamba Textile Museum, a place that offers travelers to Peru yet another way to deeply connect with Peruvian culture on their Peru holiday. The museum is the culmination of a long unfolding project to share the story and the art of textile weaving in Peru and, more specifically, in Umasbamba. The museum is like a one-stop-shop for travelers to learn the history behind the Peruvian textile tradition, see the weaving process unfold and to purchase textiles straight from the weavers who wove them.

Travel with Kuoda to Umasbamba

Stepping inside the traditions of the Peruvian Andes is a special experience, never more so than through the Umasbamba weavers. This immersive cultural experience takes you behind the thread in a way that puts new meaning into the textiles you may purchase. Talk about the ultimate Peru trip souvenir! Contact a Kuoda Travel Designer today to begin personalizing your Peru itinerary with unique Peru travel experiences like this one.

Pablo Amaringo was an acclaimed Peruvian artist who was the originator of a genre of colorful visionary art associated with Ayahuasca and the magical life of the Amazon Jungle. His paintings explored the relationships between man, dreams, and nature, and included fantastical representations of creatures, plants, and humans interacting with the natural world and the dreaming state. He received inspiration for his art from the inner journeys he experienced after drinking the entheogenic plant brew, Ayahuasca.

Get to know Pablo Amaringo below. His art just may just inspire a new trip or stop in your Peruvian vacation itinerary.

Pablo Amaringo’s Biography

Mr. Amaringo was number seven of thirteen children, and was born in 1943 in Puerto Libertad on the banks of the Ucayali River near Iquitos. The family moved to Pucallpa to find work after becoming impoverished. Pablo suffered from severe heart problems after the move and became extremely ill; he couldn’t work for two years. He attributed his eventual cure to a local shaman, and also learned many healing techniques himself, gaining a reputation as a curandero and employing Amazonian plants as medicine.

During the period of his recovery, he began to draw and paint. He could not afford paints, so he used the materials he had at hand, including cardboard boxes for a painting surface, lipstick from his sisters, and a blue substance called permatex that his friend brought to him from the car factory where he was employed.

His work has been shown at galleries worldwide, and he was honored with the Global 500 Award from the United Nations environmental program in 1992.

Pablo Amaringo died in 2009.

Pablo Amaringo’s Start, Art, and Ayahuasca Visions

Mr. Amaringo had many ups and downs as an artist. At a time in his career when he was selling only the occasional painting and making a scant living from teaching English, Pablo Amaringo had the good fortune of meeting the ethno-pharmacologist Dennis McKenna who happened to be in the area working on a project. Mr. McKenna suggested that he paint some of his visions. These paintings became part of a book project entitled Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman, published in 1999. The included works are intricate and colorful, depicting jaguars, snakes, aliens, celestial beings, and spacecraft all converging and interacting among fantastically detailed jungle scenery.

In an interview for a documentary film about Ayahuasca, Mr. Amaringo spoke of the questing nature of man, and his need to discover meaning in nature. He described shamanism as a system wherein the shaman receives his or her answers directly from nature, and uses that knowledge for healing and educating those within his sphere of influence.

Pablo Amaringo and the Usko Ayar Amazonian School of Painting

Mr. Amaringo founded a school known as the Usko Ayar Amazonian School of Painting in Pucallpa in1988, and taught his techniques to a number of young artists, including his nephew David Esquibel Amaringo, who continues to create in this genre.

Add Some Art and Amazon Culture to Your Trip to Peru

One does not have to take Ayahuasca to be transported by viewing the artwork of Pablo Amaringo, a true Peruvian visionary artist. Paintings by other artists in Mr. Amaringo’s tradition can also be viewed and purchased in the Sacred Valley and in Iquitos, Peru’s largest Amazonian jungle city. For a peek at this style of art in advance of your trip to Peru, visit http://fineartamerica.com where you can find both original Pablo Amaringo works of art and reproductions.

In the mean time, get your tailor-made trip planning to Peru started with one of our knowledgeable Kuoda Travel Designers. Contact us today.

Main Photo Source: redespress.wordpress.com

Many travelers come to Peru for the ancient archaeological sites, world-renowned cuisine, and Amazon Jungle, but do they know about some of the important movers and shakers shaping Peru and Peruvian culture today?

In this blog post, we would like to feature famous Peruvian women and one in particular.  We’d like to introduce you to one of those so called movers and shakers: Hilaria Supa Huamán, the Quechua-speaking human rights activist, author, politician, and indigenous leader leaving a significant mark on women’s and indigenous rights in Peru.

Hilaria Supa’s Story

Hilaria Supa was born in 1957 and was raised as the daughter of a peasant family working on a hacienda owned by wealthy people in the Wayllaqocha pueblo of the Anta Province in Cusco. She had a grandfather who spoke out for farmers’ rights, and who was murdered in 1965.  She was forced to work as a maid at the extremely tender age of six, and subsequently experienced many abuses, including rape at the age of 14. In her book, Threads of My Life, she talks about how she survived and ultimately used these experiences to become a stronger human being. She eventually served as a congresswoman during former President Humala’s administration, as a member of the Partido Nacionalista Peruano political party.

What Hilaria Supa Has Achieved Already

Hilaria Supa Photo Source: Flickr-Congreso

Among Hilaria’s past accomplishments is the organization, along with other indigenous women, of programs to provide meals for poor children in the remote regions of Cusco during the 1980’s. She was also active in achieving legislation for land rights reform in Peru during that decade. In 1991, she became the Organizational Secretary of the Women’s Federation of Anta, where she was responsible for alphabetization programs, the preservation of traditional medicine, and for issues dealing with the use of pesticides on native lands.

In 1995, Hilaria Supa campaigned against forced sterilization, a racist health policy that affected upwards of 350,000 women and 22,000 men during the Fujimori administration. In 2006, she was elected to the Peruvian Congress, and became the first parliamentarian to take the oath in Quechua, an act for which she received criticism from fellow members.

Hilaria Supa Today

Hilaria Supa Photo Source: Flickr-Congreso

Hilaria Supa is the current Peruvian representative to the Andean Community of Nations. She is currently working to preserve Machu Picchu and other native sites, and to return them to management by indigenous people.
She uses and actively promotes the use of the Quechua language and has worked to promote the equal rights of Peruvian women, and to end sexual abuse and violence against women.

Threads of My Life

For more about Hilaria Supa Huamán, you can read her memoir, Threads of My Life, in which she recounts her experiences of growing up in a country where neither indigenous nor women’s rights are widely respected. In it she notes how her experiences are relatable to many women, and formats her book with provocative questions at the end of each chapter designed to stimulate readers to reflect on their own experiences, create dialogue with others, and join together to put an end to abuses in their own communities. The book has been translated into both English and German, with Quechua soon to come.

Prepare for your once-in-a-lifetime Peruvian vacation by reading up on important Peruvian figures like Hilaria Supa Huamán. It will introduce you to an important piece of Peru few travelers take the time to get to know and help you to better understand this beautiful and complex country while you’re here.

To plan your perfect Peru trip, contact a Kuoda Travel Designer today.

Main Photo Source: Flickr-Congreso

Perhaps another perk to Peru travel is the ten-year ban on GMO crops and foods. Beginning in 2012, the ban was put into effect to prohibit the import, production and use of genetically modified organisms in Peru. The law provides for a fine in the millions of nuevos soles (Peru’s national currency) and the seizure and destruction of the genetically modified product. The law’s purpose is to protect Peru’s famed biodiversity and to support local farmers, who are often growing crops from heirloom seeds and using agricultural methods that rely on diversity to grow crops. Thanks to this ban, you’ll have the chance to see this incredible diversity of Peruvian food products in the markets and on your plate throughout your private tour of Peru.

A Background in GMO’s and Peru

Many of us are already familiar with the controversy regarding GMO’s, or genetically modified organisms. For those who are not, a GMO is an organism whose DNA is altered to contain one or more genes not normally found there. Most often, the genome is altered to increase production, resistance to diseases or pests, or nutritional value of the resulting edible vegetable or fruit.

However, when a GMO organism, such as Monsanto’s BT corn seed, is introduced into a country with as many heirloom varieties of seed as Peru, the result can be the loss of the original variety as the GMO organism will cross-pollinate with the first organism, resulting in a vegetable that no longer retains the hardiness, nor the reproductive characteristics, of the native variety. If GMO organisms were to be permitted in Peru, for example, the giant heirloom corn variety, known as Yuracklallhua, the Giant Cusco corn*, could quickly be eliminated as it crossed with GMO corn.

*Ask your Kuoda Travel Designer about including a visit to Hacienda Sarapampa to learn about Giant White Corn, an important product of the local Sacred Valley economy.

Protecting Peru’s Biodiversity from the Unknown Risks of GMO’s

Alejandro Argumedo of the ANDES Association in Cusco notes that Peru is one of the world’s ten most bio-diverse nations, and as such, it needs to be protected from organisms that could get into the seed pool and alter that fact. He says that rather than looking to GMO organisms to solve problems of diseases and pests, Peruvian farmers should use other techniques, such as growing a diversity of crops. He notes that, “Once there is contamination, there is no going back.”

Antonietta Gutierrez, a biologist at the National Agrarian University, states that the law is not “against anything. It’s a law in favor of biosecurity. The idea is that there should be a responsible way of using technology, so that it helps us develop resources and at the same time, doesn’t destroy what we already have.”

Peruvian scientists have agreed that the safety of GMO organisms is still unknown and that studies to determine the risks of growing and consuming these crops are still in their early stages. They hope that there will be advances in understanding before the end of the ten-year moratorium that will help Peru determine how to go forward. Peru is the first country in the Americas to ban the import and production of genetically modified foods.

Experience Peru’s Biodiversity on Your Peru Holiday

For now, Cusco Giant Corn, purple potatoes, and other crops that have a lineage dating back thousands of years can still be found at the many outdoor markets in and around Cusco and other regions of the amazingly bio-diverse country of Peru. See Peru’s incredible biodiversity for yourself on a customized Peru vacation with Kuoda Travel.

Contact a Kuoda Travel Designer today to start planning.

Quechua, known by native speakers as Runasimi (language of the people), is the language spoken by South American indigenous people of the central Andes. You’re likely to hear it spoken on your private Peru vacation. These Quechua-speaking groups are found in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, and to a lesser extent in Colombia and Argentina. Quechua is thought to have originated among the people of the highlands of Central Peru, and is still spoken by as many as one-tenth of Peru’s 30 million people. In the department of Cusco, a large percentage of the population are still considered native Quechua speakers.

How Endangered is Quechua?

In spite of its widespread position as the first language of such a large population, Quechua is listed on UNESCO’s list of endangered languages. The reasons for its movement toward extinction are several. It is, first of all, a largely spoken rather than a written language. There are few books, newspapers and other publications in Quechua. There has also been a widespread negative attitude toward Quechua, in spite of its antiquity. It was thought of as a backwards language that was spoken by people mired in the past; this, in spite of the apparent pride that the tourism and government sectors take in the highly promoted culture of the Inca.

Equally significant is the fact that the language of power in Latin America is Spanish. In order to participate in the economy, government and educational system, many Quechua speakers need to learn Spanish. Spanish then becomes the language of the generation of young people growing up, many of whom forget Quechua or only speak it with their older relatives.

Reviving a Dying Quechua Language

Recently in Cusco, Lt. Mayor Silvia Uscamaita Otárola has begun new initiatives to advance the use of Quechua in schools and government. She is working to create a municipal office where Quechua speakers can seek help in their own language. The lieutenant mayor is also pushing for events in Cusco such as Quechua Week as well as Quechua book fairs and radio shows, and she is also set to launch a campaign throughout the city and in its schools to increase awareness and use of the language.

Another such effort is currently being implemented by Ms. Elva Ambia, a resident of Brooklyn, NYC, who was born in Peru and spoke Quechua as a child. She has gone to great efforts to advocate Quechua in the US. She founded the New York Quechua Initiative, which successfully raises funds to promote Quechua education. A film entitled “Runasimiwan Kawsay” (Living Quechua) has been released and is currently screening in the US. It documents Ms. Ambia’s efforts to speak, sing, teach and spread Quechua and to keep it a living language. The film had its world premier at the Margaret Mead film festival in 2014.

In spite of the fact that the government of Peru has now recognized Quechua as an official language alongside Spanish, a great effort on the part of Quechua speakers and supporters will be needed to keep it alive. To participate and learn more about any of these Quechua revival efforts on your exclusive Peru vacation, talk to your Kuoda Travel Designer for some ideas and to begin customizing your personal Peru itinerary. And keep your ear out while in Cusco and Sacred Valley to hear this ancient living language firsthand.

At Kuoda Travel, we like to find out what awed and intrigued our guests during their custom tour to Peru.  Time and time again, we hear about the surprise they felt to find such deep Asian influences throughout the country, influences that have become ingrained in the fabric of the culture. In fact, a proportionately large percentage of Peru’s population is of Asian descent, over 600,000 people to give you an estimate. That’s approximately 3-5% of the total population! Behind Brazil (a much larger country), Peru is home to one of the largest Asian populations in all of Latin America. In this blog post, we’ll prepare you for your authentic Peru vacation by bringing you up to speed on Peru’s two largest Asian populations, Chinese Peruvians and Japanese Peruvians, and the unique influences they’ve had on Peruvian culture.

But First: The Beginning of Asian Influence in Peru

Locally, Chinese Peruvians are known as Tusán. They were the first Asians to arrive to Peru in the mid-19^th century, coming to work the plantations that had originally been worked by African slaves. The Japanese immigrants, known as Nikkei, arrived later at the turn of the century seeking better work opportunities than they could find in Japan at the time. The circumstances weren’t easy and working conditions were arduous on the haciendas with many of the original immigrants dying from disease, poor medical attention, lack of housing, and malnutrition. Those that survived this rough patch eventually transformed their practiced resourcefulness into businesses, the start of a thriving Asian population in Peru.

The Byproducts of Asian Influence in Peru

Chinese Peruvian Cuisine

One of the most obvious Asian influences in Peru is of course through its cuisine. Every neighborhood in many of Peru’s cities, including Lima, Cusco and Iquitos, boasts its chifas, or Chinese Peruvian restaurants. On your custom Peru tour, delight in the exquisite flavors of chaufa especial, fried rice with Chinese vegetables, and your choice of meat, shrimp, and hardboiled quail eggs, or try the pollo enrollado, chicken breast pounded, flattened, then filled with asparagus and pork or other vegetables and meats, finally rolled up, fried or sautéed, and served alongside an aromatic black bean or Asian sauce.

One Asian-inspired dish you may find on menus beyond the chifas is lomo saltado, one of Peru’s most emblematic dishes possessing a distinct Asian flare. Its tender slices of beef, fried potatoes, tomatoes, and onions marinated in soy sauce bring to mind Chinese Wok cooking, from taste to technique.

Chinatown

Flick`r – David Berkowitz

Lima has an extensive Chinatown section located on Calle Capón where one can find a host of chifa restaurants and fascinating shops full of Chinese herbal medicines and imported foods and spices not found elsewhere in Peru. Talk to your Kuoda travel designer to include a guided visit of Lima’s Chinatown in your personalized Peru itinerary.

A Japanese Peruvian President

Alberto Fujimori – Taringa.net

Aside from the influence on cuisine, Japanese and Chinese Peruvians have had an enormous influence on Peruvian politics and on the economy. The most obvious example is the presidency of Alberto Fujimori, from 1990- 2000. He is the first Japanese person to be elected president in a country outside of Japan.

Famous Asian Peruvians

Mitsuharu Tsumura  – Gente.com.pe

Some famous Japanese Peruvians are the Japanese Peruvian poet José Watanabe; the actor and playwright Aldo Miyashiro Ribeiro; photographer and celebrity reporter Patricia Uehara, artist Venacio Shinki, considered to be one of Peru’s most outstanding painters, and renowned chef Mitsuharu Tsumura, owner and chef at Maido, currently considered one of the world`s best restaurants. Famous Chinese Peruvians include Pedro Zulen, philosopher, university professor, poet and writer; Victor Joy Way, former Prime Minister of Peru; José Antonio Chang, former Prime Minister of Peru; and Erasmo Wong, founder of the Wong supermarket chain.

Our Recommendations

On your private tour to Peru, we recommend weaving in some of these Asian Peruvian cultural experiences to your itinerary. Whether it’s taking a private guided tour of Lima’s Chinatown or sitting down for a delicious meal at a renowned chifa restaurant, food and sampling the flavors will be your best point of entry into Peru’s deep-rooted Asian influences. In Cusco, have a try at two of Cusco Restaurants favorites: Limo Restaurant (Nikkei – Peruvian Japanese) and Kion Peruvian Chinese Restaurant.  And while in Cusco you may have the chance to even meet Kuoda`s Founder & Director Mery and if you are in real luck, maybe even her beautiful Peruvian Chinese children!

Talk to your Kuoda travel designer about how you can soak up the unique Asian Peruvian atmosphere on your personalized Peru tour.

Might you be someone interested in witnessing an astonishing and highly unique Peruvian living tradition that harks back to Incan times during your tailor-made tour of Peru? I’m talking about something that only a select few tourists are able to attend each year and something that stretches the imagination of modern ingenuity: a hand-woven bridge, 33 meters long, 1.2 meters wide, and hanging 15 meters above the Apurimac river… made of pure grass!

Each year in the beginning of June, the Quechua communities of Apurimac come together to weave anew a hanging bridge in the Incan style called Q´eswachaka- “qewsa” in Quechua meaning braided rope from “qoya” a type of mountain grass and “chaka” meaning bridge. The result is a perfectly serviceable modern bridge crossing the Apurimac river, and the beloved tradition of reconstruction enthusiastically continues year after year to make sure the bridge is always stable and safe for use. In fact, each community must contribute a certain length of rope and the mayor even makes an appearance; failure to attend means a fine! Yet, with incredible sunshine, laughter and a bit of local beer, it certainly never seems like an event anyone would want to miss.

I had the very good fortune of being there for one of these constructions and am now convinced it is a must for anyone even slightly intrigued by the unique Incan engineering that lives on in Peruvian culture today; if you can’t make it in June for the construction, there are still ways to get there other times of the year to walk across Q´eswachaka and take in a peaceful moment by the Apurimac River.

Moving Away from Civilization

Our day-long adventure took us South, zipping out of the historic center of Cusco and past the sparse mountain flora with our chatty driver. We left the the city’s more modern urban areas behind, watching locals hurry about their daily business and hankering for a stop in one of the many pollerias, where spicy rotisserie chicken is served with hot crisp french fries, and plenty of cremas (condiments). Soon we were speeding through the small villages just outside of Cusco that each have a different culinary focus. For example, one is known for its bread and another for its cuy – the famous Peruvian delicacy – guinea pig.

Shortly, we emerged into the more agricultural part of the valley where golden fields sway and stretch out on either side of the road before bumping into the bases of the mountains that creep up suddenly like dusty green whales. While Cusco City is now starting to encroach upon the peaks that surround it, outside of the city untouched mountains tend to hem in the flats spaces. Farther away from civilization, the larger they seem.

We then skimmed along the winding road that follows a wide shallow river reflecting the incredible blue of the sky. We waved at the children herding llamas and sheep and honked at the dogs that insisted on ambling in front of our car.

As the day went on, the towns became smaller, quieter, and dustier, with mud-brick buildings hiding silent plazas. The last town called Pampamarca proudly proclaims itself the birthplace of the revolutionary Tupac Amaru. Here, we passed the legendary church where Tupac and his equally revolutionary wife Micaela Bastidas got married. Then we left comfortable roads behind and began to rattle our way up into the mountains. Some villagers had told us the bridge was half an hour away. Others said an hour and a half. In the Andes (as in my small Vermont home town) many things are “just over the next hill.”

Moving Closer to Nature – Into the High Altiplano

Our driver, undaunted, blasted his eighties mix and we just kept climbing up out of the valley, singing along with Madonna. When we reached the top, I gasped at the distance and sense of space that overwhelmed us. The high altiplano stretched away in all directions. The blue of the sky, the yellow and brown of the earth, stone… this simple palette truly creates a sense of wonder.

Now and again, a small house surrounded by fields and stone corrals built for sheep and llamas emerged from the landscape, and we spied the occasional person in the distance stacking small tents of hay. Just when the shaking of the car and largeness of the country became almost too much to fathom, a crevice seemed to open up in the earth and the Apurimac River shimmered below us.

We descended endless switchbacks (a bit harrowing, as guardrails are rare, however most drivers are switchback experts here) until we finally parked along the side of the road and stumbled into the midst of a local party.

Weaving, Cooking, Sharing, and Laughter

All party-goers/weavers dress in colorful traditional clothing and people of every age participate. The first day of the celebration is spent gathering the grasses (a very strong local variety) and weaving them into the ropes for the bridge. Much of this work is done by the women. Then, the next two days are spent constructing the bridge and much of this is done by the men. In fact, the women aren’t allowed near the bridge until it is complete. These types of complementary gender roles are still quite common in traditions that date back to Incan times, where men and women were both equally valued for the different jobs they put into tasks or events; the key word here is complementary, without one the other would not exist.

On each side of the river, ancient stone staircases descend steeply to stone footings for the bridge. Thick lengths of rope are strung across the gap with men from one community working on one side and men from another community on the other side. When enough ropes have been passed across to form the floor and handrails of the bridge, brave souls sit astride the ropes and begin weaving them together. They seem completely oblivious to the drop below as they inch forward.

With the smell of cooking smoke in the air, the shouts of the workers, music from rehearsals of dances, and the constant arrival of new recruits on motorbikes, it was truly an event unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The sense of community and tradition was so palpable and the landscape so hauntingly beautiful and rugged.

Engage with Tradition

What is appealing about Peru is that it is a large country with many places still relatively untouched by tourism: we were among the very very few “tourists” watching the building of this glorious bridge. In fact, in this context I would say our role became more than “tourist,” instead we became part of the experience and to that effect part of something very authentic.

Travel allows for us all to step outside of ourselves, to learn about new places and to return home with a fresh perspective. For this reason, I encourage all of you traveling to this wonderful country, for some family time, a romantic getaway or a solo journey, to take the opportunity to visit a small community. Go beyond the tourist track, meet local people, and find a way to do all of this in a sustainable manner. Ultimately, you will not only enrich your custom Peru trip but also your lives by seeing the “real” Peru! Reach out to a Kuoda Travel expert today to integrate this experience in your personal itinerary.