High into the Mountains of Cusco, Mobility for the Poor, and Machu Picchu

10 June 2018

Our journeys this week took us to Cusco, high in the Andes Mountains, where we performed wheelchair interviews and took a few days off with our daughter and son-in-law to visit Machu Picchu and other ancient Inca ruins.

Misty clouds during our break at Machu Picchu

Wheelchairs in Cusco

Last year in Cusco, we helped with a donation of 100 wheelchairs. We returned again this week to perform followup interviews with the recipients. This is part of our effort to interview a percentage of all wheelchair recipients to ensure the donation process is functioning properly and that the wheelchairs are still in good shape.

A photo of our 2017 wheelchair donations in Cusco last year. We returned this week to conduct followup interviews.

Cusco sits at 11,000-ft elevation high in the Andes Mountains. It was the former capital of the Inca Empire. Since the days of the Spanish conquest, it has grown into a major Peruvian city.

Disabled people in wheelchairs face special challenges getting around in this ancient city - narrow cobblestone streets with no ramps for their limited sidewalks make it hard to traverse by wheelchair.

Cusco's Plaza de Armas, the center of this major Peruvian city high in the Andes Mountains.

Cusco sits in the Andes Mountains halfway between Lima and Bolivia.

We traveled all over Cusco to visit wheelchair recipients in their homes, verify that their wheelchairs were working properly, and ensure that the donations had been made at no cost to the recipients. As we entered their homes, we saw some sad cases and also some endearing outcomes.

One poor family had a severely handicapped 35-year-old daughter. Their house had dirt floors, plastic sheets for walls, and chickens and guinnea pigs (cuyes) living indoors along with the aged mother and the handicapped daughter. The donated wheelchair provides the daughter's only access to the outside world on the limited times when she can leave the house. Her mother, age 85, cried as she told us how hard it is to provide constant care for the daughter and how she feared for who would care for her after the mother was gone. An aunt was the only family member who would come by to help. At least they can transport the daughter with her wheelchair, a blessing they never had before.

Handicapped woman with her wheelchair - her only means of leaving the house. Her aged mother and an aunt provide her with the constant care she requires.

Another woman, named Aydae, is paralyzed from her waist down and constantly relies on her wheelchair. Last year her husband carried Aydae on his back to the donation site to receive her wheelchair. This year we interviewed her in the wheelchair she has been using now for over a year since then. She told us how her wheelchair serves as her legs and gives her access to everything in the world that she could not access otherwise. Her husband beamed with a smile as Aydae described what the chair means to her - it also means for him that he no longer carries her on his back when they leave their home - a definite plus for both of them.

Aydae in the wheelchair that gives her access to the world (and relieves her husband of having to carry her on his back).

LDS Charities provides free wheelchairs to the poor throughout the world, improving the lives of the disabled in the poorest of places around the globe. We feel fortunate we have been able to play a small part in this work to help those who need help in such a desperate way.

Around Cusco

Since we were going to Cusco and our daughter and son-in-law (Rochelle and Sam) were coming Peru for a visit, we took a few days off from our normal labors to visit Cusco and Machu Picchu, the hidden city of the Incas. (Aside from our weekly days off on Saturdays and a few holidays, this is the only break we have taken on this mission - it was a welcome relief).

Cusco is a beautiful city filled with Spanish churches and buildings built on the foundations constructed by the Incas.

Cusco Cathedral, built on the foundation of a destroyed Inca temple.

Original Spanish balconies and stone columns line the Cusco's Plaza de Armas.

Overlooking Cusco from above the city. Tall mountains surround this high-altitude city.

Cusco was capital of the Incas, and the city has been built on top of the original Inca city. Narrow streets make it hard for cars to get around.

Steep cobblestone streets in Cusco were never designed for modern car traffic.

Andean culture is everywhere in the city, and most residents speak Quechua as their native language (in addition to Spanish, which they all learn in School). Tall mountains surround the city, many of them snowcapped.

Snow-capped mountains surround Cusco on all sides. Here are some Andean women with their festive alpacas. We paid each woman a Peruvian Sol for the photo op.

Andean woman with her alpaca outside of Cusco.

Mountain scenery around Cusco - rugged and inspiring. 

Machu Picchu - City in the Clouds

Discovered just 100 years ago, Machu Picchu has captured the attention of the world and is probably the most famous site in all of Peru.

Rain clouds and mist made our trip to Machu Picchu all the more mysterious.

Views from around Machu Picchu are hard to describe - they are so magnificent your mind can hardly take it all in. Sandy and I came here in 2014 on vacation, and the second time visiting here was as good as the first.

Windows of stone looking across the misty canyons.

Trapazoidal-shaped doors and windows were designed to resist earthquakes.

Steep 10-ft terraces cover the mountainside. The Incas imported all the soil to the terraces in order to grow crops high in the mountains.

Machu Picchu's terraces for growing crops at altitude.

Magnificent views of the many terraces surrounding the ancient city.

A chilly and wet day to explore the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu.

Trumpet flowers and other plants in the gardens of the Machu Picchu complex.

Stone work at Machu Pichu took over a century to build.

The Incas built road systems that extend  thousands of miles from Argentina on the south to Colombia on the north. Many of these roads converged at Machu Picchu. The Incas carved trails right into the sides of steep cliffs. One of these trails is called the 'Inca Bridge' - a trail cut right into the cliff face (tourists can't cross this bridge, only look on in wonder).

Inca Bridge - part of the network of roads and trails extending for thousands of miles up and down the Andes.

More Inca Ruins - Ollantaytambo

Inca ruins are found throughout Peru. Everywhere you go in the Andes, there are massive ruins of temples, terraces, and buildings as evidence of this incredible society. Ollantaytambo is a city at the end of the road before you catch the train to Machu Picchu. Thousands of Incas labored for years to haul all the stones for the construction.

We felt like dwarfs climbing the massive terraces.

Each stone was cut by hand and hauled on the backs of Incas up the mountainside.

The ruins of Ollantaytambo are magnificent but are virtually unknown outside of Peru.

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Peruvians call Ollantaytambo the most Inca city in Peru. The entire city is built from the original Inca plan, and most houses incorporate some part built by the Incas.

Sandy, framed in the doorway of antiquity.

The Andes Mountains loom over Ollantaytambo and the rest of what they refer to as the Sacred Valley.

And so we returned to Lima, ready to travel again next week for the Saving Mothers and Babies courses in two cities. 

Our time grows short - less than 6 weeks remain until we finish our mission. 

Now that the end is in sight, we sometimes feel like we are half Peruvians!