Now I can drive like a local

I drive myself around every time I'm here, but I have always pretended that I'm in a different mental state, or at least a different road. I can connect my iPod to the stereo and sit patiently at 25 km/h behind ancient belching trucks. I shake my head at bus drivers that overtake into oncoming traffic. I rely on the 4WD's size and weight to force my way through the clouds of Ticos that dart randomly around intersections.

Then yesterday, coming back from the farm, there was a stench of burning oil. It's a common smell, so I ignored it, at least until Ithe rear vision mirror suggested that the cloud of smoke was mine. I pulled over to the side of the road where a number of helpful pedestrians looked under the bonnet, checked the oil and water, and told me I needed a mechanic. I started the car again and crawled the rest of the way to Ica, half on the road, half off, slower than the slowest of the bent or broken trucks, spewing smoke, and feeling that I fitted right in.

The Toyota is now with the mechanic, and I am driving the farm pick-up (i.e. ute) which has completed my Peruvian driving experience.

Leaving the farm, some workers asked for a lift. I said yes, of course, and in moment the tray had a full complement of passengers. I'm not sure whether it's legal, but this is the way most workers seem to travel. Forget about safety, forget the seat belts, forget the seats. Of course I drove very carefully, slowing right down for the worst of the pot-holes. Earlier in the week I hit a pothole and two of the office staff in the Toyota banged their heads on the roof. A similar strike in an overloaded pick-up could spread our work force over the road.

So, while I'm not quite a naturalised Ican, I now identify much better with the drivers.

Fire on the Inca Trail

This isn't supposed to be just a 'natural disaster' blog BUT I can't resist recording my impressions of the fires burning between Cusco and Macchu Pichu.

This week I traveled through the area by train both going to and (2 days later) returning from Macchu Pichu. The first time the burnt area was small, and we were uncertain as to whether it could be a controlled burn-off similar to those in Australia, but coming back it was much more dramatic and menacing: scattered spot fires flared all over the mountains and the valley was filled with smoke. Massive blackened mountainsides loomed on both sides and in places the valley was burnt right up to the train line.

A gale was pushing the fire front along way up on the ridges, while spot fires seemed to be starting lower down where embers had dropped down almost vertical mountainsides.

The terrain is incredibly steep, a narrow, terraced valley surrounded by rugged, steep mountains, and it was hard to see how anyone could hope to bring the fire under control. News reports say 600 fire fighters are out there, and walkers report the firemen are filling Inca Trail campsites, but I'd guess their efforts would be limited to keeping the fire from burning properties. The firefighters I saw had no trucks, and probably very little access to water. They need Elvis, but there was no sign of him either...

The fire was almost certainly started by a local farmer clearing his fields by burning off, a common practice, but also one discouraged by large signs posted in the area.

The train pushed through the smoke and I'm now back at work after my break. I trust there will be no more natural disasters to report. Or unnatural. The biggest risks here are not the earthquakes or fires, but the drivers.

More History: After the quake

If you haven't read the previous post, this post may make more sense if you have read that one first. This is a year-old email.

I’m just back to Lima after a trip to our farm, through the centre of the earthquake-affected area (the province of Ica, south of Lima) so I’ll give you an update right away.

Actually I’m too tired to write or think much now, so I’m afraid this is a messy collage of impressions, opinions, and facts.

We took 2 cars (4 WDs) to the farm, loaded to the gills with food and blankets for the workers on the farm, ALL of whom had lost their houses in the quake. We also sent tents down by freight. The road was not a problem – some cracks, very rough repairs in a few places, and a drive across a river bed where the bridge has been badly damaged (luckily, it is the dry season so river itself could be redirected through a couple of pipes) but the trip was slow, with a lot of traffic, including overloaded trucks and other vehicles looking to be carrying relief supplies. For about 150km damage was minimal, mainly toppled walls, a few landslips, but when we reached Chincha, about 180km from Lima, it got very messy. Side streets were filled with rubble, roofs were down, and the highway was lined with of dolls-houses - their front walls having fallen outwards, exposing abandoned living rooms. Wherever there was space, it was filled with clusters of tents, streets, basketball courts, an archaeological site. Someone had made a canvas home on the median strip (of the Panamerican highway). The tents ranged from high-tech hiking tents to plastic-bag patchwork over an a-frame of stakes.


The poorer areas, where the construction material is mud-brick, had been devastated, but in other places everything looked fine. Modern reinforced concrete and brick houses and businesses were undamaged. There were exceptions to this where the land had fallen away, but as a generalization the difference is stark. The poor are homeless, the better off merely inconvenienced. If there was a surprise, it was at how little affected some areas are - media reports in Peru and presumably elsewhere have only showed the areas of worst damage. To give an example, in the area of Ica where we have an office, not a single house was visibly earthquake-damaged, and services (phone, electricity, water, internet) are all working again. In contrast our workers, living just a few kilometres away, have all lost their houses. Yet people are patching, or rebuilding, using the same materials.

On the farm we distributed the goods we have brought and gave the workers the rest of the day off (they had already had the previous days off, but had come in for the morning). There were plenty of smiles all round, and it felt a bit like Christmas. The farm escaped damage – one partly constructed wall for the planned chemical store had fallen over, but by the time we got there it was back up. The well, our main concern, seemed fine. Our nursery reservoir, which is about 3 metres deep and is usually kept half full, lost most its water when it sloshed about during the quake, spilling up and over the sides. I guess that was a 2-3 metre tsunami in a meter and a half of water. Amazing.

One question everyone is asking by phone is whether aid is getting through. I’m not well equipped to judge, but it seems so. It must help that the badly affected towns are only a few hours from Lima along the country’s major highway. We saw tankers distributing water, the army handing out supplies, and many, many vehicles coming in carrying everything from fuel to bamboo (to build shelters?). The big problem early on was water, but the tankers are everywhere. I saw tankers delivering water to shanty towns that have probably never had piped water. Shops have half-empty shelves, but there is ample food about (Ica is an extremely productive agricultural area.) In Chincha, the first of the badly-affected towns you come to travelling from Lima, there were beggars on the highway, with signs asking for help (‘I’m cold’, ‘please’, ’support us’), but in Ica there was none of that, just a lot of activity clearing wreckage, burning rubbish etc. Many workers were out in the fields again, harvesting the paprika, asparagus, or other crops grown there.

OK, that’s about all for now. I’ll go on-line and send.

Thanks everyone for your interest and concern. It is great to have contact & support in an on-line community.

John

History: Did the earth move for you too?

Following is an email I wrote in August last year, just after a real earthquake struck the area around the farm.

I'll also post a later e-mail describing the damage, and when I get time I'll give my one-year-on impressions of reconstruction.


Hi all,

I’m back on-line in Lima, and the flow of ‘are you ok?’ emails is growing so I thought I’d get in first with my ‘yes’ answer as reassurance to anyone else who is likely to care, is interested in Peru, or seismology, or happens to be in my contacts list.

Yes, there was a major (just upgraded to richter 8.0) earthquake in Peru, and it hit the area of our farm (between Ica and Pisco) very hard. I was lucky enough to have left the farm the day before for Lima so I was in the city office meeting our GM when the building started to tremble. Windows shook, the floor vibrated, and the blinds swayed enough for me to peek at the next building to check for any visible movement. There wasn’t. This went on a while and we kept talking while I was thinking ‘They have these regularly in Peru, don’t they?’ and keeping it cool. Eventually the sounds of pounding evacuees on the stairs stopped. When we realised we were alone in the building the GM and I started to feel a little uneasy at the same time. We managed to keep it to a brisk walk down the stairs to join the crowds.

The street was really weird. A moving building is a bit like a train, plane, or boat: you can adjust, but to feel the earth seriously wobbling, to see trees flopping back and forth without apparent cause, undermines any sense of what you can rely on. When I finally asked ‘Do you often have quakes here?’ the answer was ‘Yes, but never before like this.’

All that seemed to go for a long, long time - two minutes we later learned. When the earth stood still, we went back in and resumed the meeting, but without much interest. I gave up for the day, drove back to the hotel then went for a walk. Everything seemed so normal (admittedly, normal means utter chaos on the roads) people were shopping eating, strolling, despite the odd after shock. These shocks continued all night – the paper says there were over 100 minor tremors, though I only woke up for a few of them.

(Another aftershock is hitting as I am typing now – the building is swaying but the window is just tik-tiking, no full blooded rattles any more)

Today we have been trying to contact the farm staff, who reported via email that they are OK and taking the day off to help out our very pregnant nursery manager, whose house is badly damaged. In the area, phone lines, most mobile networks are down, power is off, but somehow email gets through.

In nearby towns, large numbers of houses have been destroyed, (though these are mostly DIY adobe buildings) See the email below from the daughter of our neighbour on the farm.


Hi John, I hope you are fine. Here in Lima we are ok. All my family, father, mother, brothers, etc.

my sister in law was alone in Pisco, with the two little children... we couldnt contact her until midnight (my little nephew had a mobile phone he got as a present for his birthday, and THAT was the phone that worked!).. they are ok, buy they didnt sleep in the appartment, they slept in the car in the street.

my father and my brother, drove to Pisco last night, by they could cross the bridge, it collapsed. so they chose another route... and I still dont know if they finally arrived to Pisco.

80% of the houses collapsed in Pisco. is a horror.

Thanks God, friends and family, up-to-now are ok, without home, but ok.

Note everyone is so lucky. Last reports were that 500 are dead in the region. Public buildings have collapsed, including churches, a hospital, a jail (hundreds of escapees are still loose) and with classic bad timing, the morgue.

Next week we have 40,000 trees arriving and will need to get them to the farm and into the nursery, so I’ll be heading into what the president has declared as a disaster area. With luck the pan-americano (highway) will be open by then.

So, if you were going to ask, there is your answer. However I love email so please don’t let it stop you mailing to say hello. I’ll even put you on the list for any further bulletins.

John

A little shake in Ica, Peru

An earthquake hit us early this morning, like a stampede on the verandah. I was about to shower and had to pause and ponder earthquake etiquette. Does one rush naked to the 'safe zone' or dress first? I decided that in the worst case I didn't want my body pulled naked and unidentified from rubble, so I looked for my jeans. They were inside out. By the time I had them on and was at the door, it was all over. For purposes of research I did continue outside to check whether anyone else had dashed out naked but all the quick movers wore dressing gowns. Note to self: IN CASE OF EARTHQUAKE KEEP DRESSING GOWN ON HOOK ON DOOR. Need to purchase dressing gown and hook.

Much initial discussion of earthquake in the office but it was very small, unlike last year's. I may post my email description of last year's quake. Are retrospectives like that allowed in blogs? Tell me, all you experienced bloggers.