fluence, though the winds of modernity are already blowing in. We got to know these full-blooded Quechua-speaking Indian people quite well in this short time, thanks to the extraor dinary good will and excellent rapport which the Franquemonts and previous Earthwatch volunteer teams had built up over a period of seven to eight years’ part-time residence in the community. Also not to be forgotten were two very knowledgeable Andean area botanists, Calvin and Stephen, and two excellent native informants, Graciano and Genovevo, who were pleasant, energetic, amazingly well informed about native flora and fauna, and obviously enjoying their role in this prestigious scientific project. In the Lima area we visited with Otterbein alumna Sandra Urteaga de Biffi (1968) and her family. Sandy was the Spanish language assistant and a psychology major/sociology minor here at Otterbein fourteen years ago. She teaches English and her husband has his own architectural business. We were also able to stay at Machu Picchu overnight before coming to Lima. In between rains and fog (clouds) we saw this magnificent Inca fortress city at its typical summer mystic best, especially from atop Huayna Picchu which we climbed with two toerh Ear thwatch volunteers the morning or our second day there. Eunice’s slides tell the story of this visit as well as trips to other Inca ruins, such as those at Pisac and Ollantaytambo. While in Lima we enjoyed visiting a number of museums and places of historic interest as well as the fishing village of Pucasana where Sandy’s mother has a summer cottage. The Urteaga’s and de Biffi’s warm hospitality was typically and graciously Latin American. An Excerpt from My Peruvian Journal
My journal entries, January 30, 1982 to February 26, 1982, usually written at the end of the day or early the next morning, covered about thirty-four pages and contained approximately 15,640 words, few of them immortal or eeirth shaking. But let me quote the entry for the last day in Chinchero. Here, as occasionally before, I seemed to be in a mellow philosophical mood: February 19, 1982 (Friday) “Today is our last day in Chinchero and it is with mixed feelings that we pack before breakfast. We failed to master even a few Quechua phrases that, had we spoken them, would have delighted Chincherinos. We did not always do our jobs with maximum effect.
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