Learning from Lucho

Yesterday we spent the morning with a master potter named Lucho, learning to craft hand-built clay pots. As with our basket-weaving escapades, we realized that you can´t learn a craft in one morning when people devote their lives to perfecting the art. But we had a good time getting our hands dirty, and learned a lot more from Lucho than we´d expected.

We arrived at 9 a.m., wearing dirty clothes and ready to make some pots. Lucho met us in his workshop, which is an open-air structure with a roof under which he completes every step of the production process, from washing dirty mountain clay to selling finished works of art.

Before we even looked at raw clay, we admired Lucho´s finished pots, gleaming in rows on shelves in the shop, where they retail for a couple hundred dollars. They came in all different colors and shapes, although most were smaller than a basketball, as he caters to tourists passing through on their way to Macchu Picchu. They were all beautiful.

It was an intimidating way to start, but Lucho quickly put us at ease, handing us hunks of gooey, wet clay to play with. He explained that he dislikes throwing pottery on a wheel: he thinks hand-building is simpler to teach and more authentic in the Peruvian pottery tradition.

It wasn´t exactly simple. Kelsey´s pot almost fell over a few times, and Lucho had to do some major ¨surgery,¨as he called it. But with his help, we created fairly decent-looking vases that we plan to return to later in the week to finish. 

When we made baskets with Pancho, he spoke very little English, so we spent a lot of time laughing at ourselves and our pathetic baskets. But learning ceramics from Lucho was very different. He speaks English almost as well as we do, and he spent several hours talking to us about every aspect of his craft, as well as his own relationship with ceramics over the years.

Probably in his fifties or sixties, he was born in Peru and taught himself the basics of ceramics at age ten. He moved to the United States in the 1980´s, where he lived briefly in San Francisco and for many years in Santa Fe. There he learned from Native American traditions still in use on reservations. He produced pottery for museums and private ownership, before returning to Peru shortly after 9/11.

He was determined that we learn more than just how to coil a pot, and learn we did.

He got out a pen and paper to diagram the chemistry of clay, which he learned while studying at Berkeley for a short while. He talked about the impact of tourism on his trade and the degree to which Ollantaytambo has changed in recent years. He talked about the difficulty of making a living in the United States as an artist. He explained that by using local, cheap products, he can create his works of art for almost no cost and make a decent profit. He showed us an original Inca pot and explained that the Incas were more focused on stone than clay, as evidenced by their relatively rudimentary pottery. He explained the difference between earthenware and porcelain. He described the evolution of pottery throughout world history, and regional differences in technique.

In short, it was an education in the art, history, and science of ceramics as much as a lesson in the technical process of creating a pot. Which is just as a lesson from a good teacher should be. 

Kelsey and me chatting with Lucho´s apprentice.

Lucho´s pot is looking good, even in the early stages.

Jarrard made a mushroom before abandoning clay for his camera.

Jarrard chilling next to my pot.

I made a face out of clay. It was fun, but turned out creepy.

Kelsey working on her pot, as Lucho spins away in the background.

The finished pots in Lucho´s shop that are for sale.

Toiling away in Lucho´s workshop.

Lucho kindly fixes Kelsey´s pot.

My pot from above.

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Amazing Race Across el Mundo

Today Kelsey and I arrived in the Plaza at a leisurely 9 am to find a huge crown of people looking really excited about something. As college students, the idea of people being excited about anything before noon on a Saturday is incomprehensible, so we went to investigate.

Turns out, they were filming part of the South American version of the television show ¨The Amazing Race¨ in Ollanta this morning. I´ve never seen this show before, but after this morning I began to think I should start.

There seemed to be six teams of two people, each team with its own camera man. All the contestants were speaking very rapid Spanish so we had no idea what was going on, so we had to guess, which actually made it more exciting.

Each pair was ripping through balls of yarn while women in traditional garb looked on. Frankly, I think they were laughing at the ridiculous scene. The teams seemed to be finding something of interest in the yarn balls, and every once in a while they would run off and hail a taxi, only to return shortly thereafter. It was very confusing and very funny. Occasionally the contestants would ask local children for directions, who would begin laughing so hard they couldn´t respond. Kelsey and I spent at least an hour following these people around the Plaza. It was like extreme people-watching.

Running around the Plaza. Silly.

 

Statue of some dude in the Plaza. Going to figure out who he is, since he looks importante. Un poquito.

 

After the Amazing Race people left.

Sitting in the Plaza is a fun way to see what´s going on in town. There´s always an old woman selling bread in the same place every day, children climbing under benches and picking flowers, and policemen looking bored and patrolling the scene. Taxi drivers constantly ask you if you want to go to Urubumba or Cusco, and we´ve learned to give a very convincing ¨No, gracias.¨

In the afternoons, tour buses pull in with people visiting the ruins at the edge of town, so in the late afternoon and early evening they positively flood the Plaza. Today some tourists from Japan took pictures with Kelsey and me. I´d like to think that we´re beginning to look like authentic Peruvians, but there´s no chance of that. Plus I think that promptly after posing with us, the woman had her husband take her picture with a trashcan. Very strange.

The connections you make with other people is really quite miraculous. Suddenly everyone who speaks English is a friend, and if you learn you and the stranger both hail from the United States, greetings are exchanged as if you two are long-lost friends. You´re from Colorado? No way! I´m from D.C.! We´re basically neighbors!

But it´s not just us trying to make connections. In Ollanta alone, we´ve met TWO UNC alums. We even made the connection without sporting Tar Heel apparel or that tell-tale shade of blue. But the true miracle occurred two days ago, when we spent some time hanging out by the river in the morning.

The train from Cusco to Machu Pichu runs through the Sacred Valley, along the UrubumbaRiver. Jarrard´s taken some beautiful videos of it passing by, and we always get really excited to see the train. So when it passed by that morning, Kelsey and I gave it a huge wave. Being across the river and at least 100 yards from the train, it was unlikely that anyone would notice us. Jarrard mocked our juvenile behavior.

But we were vindicated. We knew that another Morehead and friend of ours, Tyler, was planning on visiting Machu Pichu this summer while we were in Ollanta. Turns out, he was on that exact train and saw us waving to him from below. We screamed out loud when we read his email it in the internet cafe the next day.

Now we´re making Jarrard wave at ever single train that goes by. Every one. Because you never know who will turn up.

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