Cuzco 3 - the house

Written on 7th March, 2012

I can’t remember what I said in my  previous bulletin but initially our house-hunting was very disappointing,   We saw some grim flats with views of tangled telephone wires and dark houses with thick bars on all the windows.  Everything was expensive and nothing was furnished.  It began to make Martha very anxious.

When we came back from a two-day visit to Pisac – more of that later maybe – we got one of the three brothers from our hostal to drive us round the likely areas.  It soon became apparent that Cuzco has a few small islands of quiet, genteel housing surrounded by massive areas of poorer, noisier, rougher accommodation.  However, out by the school, on the edge of town houses there are some houses with views of the hills and gardens.  We had thought we wanted to be near the ‘action’ of Cuzco but we started to change our minds.

The next day the boys went to be assessed at the school.  (They passed with flying colours and were particularly impressed that they could do so much Maths in their heads.)  On our way out we walked down to look at a house that had been advertised in the paper – opposite the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Temple. But we passed another house with a sign saying ‘for rent’.  It looked pleasant enough but it was behind a wall defended by electric wires and I thought it too prison-like to bother with.  But Martha got me to take the number.  The first house turned out to be right on the road and had no outside space and was, if anything, too big.  We told the owner it was not what we were looking for and rang the prison house to see if we could see it.

We found a tired looking lady with a small girl (and a baby somewhere) packing up.  They were off to Lima to join her husband who had found a good job there.  The house was lovely compared to all we had seen before; lots of light, wooden floors and a relatively large lawn. The lady was obviously very proud of the house which she and her husband had built. I thought it was promising but Martha started imagining herself moving in and making brownies while the boys played happily in the garden.  We left to buy the paper and see what else was around.

At lunch that day, Martha’s handbag was stolen and it was late afternoon before we could get back to housing. By now the germ of the idea had taken root and Martha wanted the prison house.  While I was with the police she went with Paulina, who works for our contact here and was helping us in the afternoons, back to the house to do a deal.  They agreed the rent and also persuaded the lady to leave a few things – fridge, cooker, our bed, kitchen table and six chairs, sofa, armchairs and a couple of side tables – in return for another $100 a month.  I think this wasn’t a bad deal but the lady liked us (and we her) and she didn’t have any other options.   Martha and the boys went triumphantly back to our hostal while I had come back an hour later to be shown how the locks worked.  There were an awful lot of locks and, tired after the excitements of the day, I think I said ‘Yes, yes’ to all her instructions without necessarily taking them in.

We were allowed to move in the following morning and the alarm men were instructed to come at 10 to instruct us in its use.  We arrived in two taxis, now with about four more bags than we came to Peru with.  We were let in by our landlady’s mother – our landlady herself had flown to Lima.  She was here with her husband, her downs syndrome daughter and their maid – an indigena the old man told me.  Mother and father were delightful but it came as a bit of a shock to realise that not only were they spending the day here doing the last of the packing up but they were also planning to spend the night with us.  (I should explain that the family were renting us the whole house minus one of the downstairs rooms, a sort of pantry outside and a garden shed.  These rooms were to be used for the storing of their effects.  For their overnight stay three of them would squish into the downstairs room while the maid would be on a bed in the sitting room. )  Anticipating a happy weekend home-making we were a little disappointed by this news but shrugged our shoulders; it was such a relief to know where we were going to live.

Once the alarm men had been we set off for Molino 1 & 2.  These are vast covered markets where they sell absolutely everything.  Our guidebook says it is all black market but tolerated by the authorities. We went with a long list and were met there by Paulina.  It was very crowded and rather hot and the poor boys very frustrated being told not to wander off.  We bought sheets, pillowcases, a bed, two mattresses (to be delivered later), pots and pans, a kettle and mugs (my essentials), crockery, cutlery, cleaning stuff (M’s essentials) etc.  Quality was generally poor.  I was amused at the perception of quality: lowest = nacional  or Peruvian; next best = importado or Chinese; next best = Colombian; best = Brazilian. Prices seemed to us quite high for black market Peru and haggling generally only won us a few percent.  They kept claiming they were charging us what they would charge Peruvians and Paulina said this was probably right.

Returing home in an advance party, Martha and the boys set the alarm off – inevitably because I had not shown her how to manage the system.  Luckily the landlady’s parents turned up to put things right.  I came later with the bed and a few more bits and bobs.  The mattresses arrived and we went out to to supper.  The next morning our lodgers went promptly at 10 and we had the house to ourselves.

The house comprises two large bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, a sitting room, dining room, loo (with shower) and kitchen downstairs.  We fit in very well and we think we can squeeze guests in comfortably – Dominics ? and, separately, Jo, Robin and Mani – for the odd night or two.  Outside we have a lawn, quite a lot of plants in pots and a small vegetable garden with some chard, lots of camomile and two strawberries.  We have been lent a hummingbird feeder and have had bought four fuchsia plants to help attract them. We have good views of the hills above the Cuzco and its airport below.  I no longer see the electric fence.

There are many little shops around the area but we  find ourselves patronising El Chinito.  It is run by a very cheerful lady.  When we go in she rushes around plugging the lights in so we can see what’s there.   She doesn’t have a counter so we amass items on the ice-cream freezer but it has a sloping top (to discourage use as a desk?) and things tend to slip off.  She writes down the cost of each item and grinds her way loudly but unerringly through the addition.  She seems to have almost everything one could want, though in very small packets.  She also takes in our washing and passes it on to some other lady.  We take it back wet and pay a little under £1 a load.

Up the slope from the house is a concrete football-come-basketball pitch, to which Zu gravitates in the afternoons.  The first day we went we found a campesino grazing her sheep on the verges.  So as not to frighten them we played down the other end but when a basketball player came to practice shooting, he gave her a right earful and his dog chased the sheep off.  Next day we had a good game with four kids of varying ability. One, called Evan,  found Zu again the day after, played some basketball with him and then came back to play hide and seek in the house.  He’s a friendly, confident chap and we hope Zu might learn some Spanish from him (though I find some of his Spanish unintelligible).

That’s about it on the house.  We are of course still in the process of making ourselves more comfortable and hardly a day goes by without another little addition or two – a mop and bucket plus tupperware yesterday.  Someone will do very well out of us when we go!

PS. I notice in one of the photos that Zu’s posters are visible.  He started packing these about an hour before we left home and we were very cross with him. The last laugh is his.

PPS Titus thinks the best thing about the house is the Jacuzzi bath.  However, we haven’t been able to use it much: the hot water tank is not big enough to fill it to the required level.

Zu and Titus painting in their room

 

The house from inside the wire