Culture Acquired, Unexpected Lessons Learned in Machu Picchu, Pt. 3

Read Part 1

Read Part 2

Somehow, at some point in the 20th century, the narrative emerged in the self-flagellating West that American tourists are the worst, a perspective mostly promulgated by Europeans and American liberals themselves that has persisted.  

This is objectively nonsense.

As anyone who has been forced by circumstance to deal with such an entity can attest (ask any Thai tour guide, for example), one Chinese tourist is one too many โ€” a theoretical scenario, at any rate, because Chinese tourists almost exclusively travel in hordes of 20+ on discount tour group packages, led around the nose by a leader with a weird flag like some kind of Red Guard brigade.

To be sure, Chinese wandered around in tour groups here and there in Machu Picchu and Cusco with their ridiculous and selfie sticks in tow โ€” but, glass half full, there were far fewer than I had feared. The vast Pacific Ocean, it appears, even in the airplane age, still affords some degree of geographical buffering. Genghis Khan never made it here either.

On a tour of the areas surrounding Machu Picchu (there being many ruins and geographic delights in the region aside from the Big One) I asked our guide in poor Spanish what he thought of Chinese tourists, not prejudicing his answer in either direction by offering my own thoughts first.

โ€œNo me gustan,โ€ he said.

He didnโ€™t like them.

This appraisal he offered up hedge-free โ€” a bit off for a profession usually heavy on the international diplomacy, as badmouthing a major source of revenue is usually seen as bad for business.

I asked why, and he answered that they donโ€™t want to spend any money on anything.

This gentlemanโ€™s assessment is absolutely true; I have watched, as related in Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile, a pair of Chinese tourists haggle over a 50-baht ($1.75 or so) plate of Pad Thai on Silom Rd. in Bangkok. (It might have been even less than that; I canโ€™t remember exactly. In any case, it was super-cheap as far as Pad Thai with all the fixings goes, but nothing could ever be discount enough for a Chinese tourist.) 

—————————

I encountered on a visit to one Incan temple ruins an old abuela of the Andean persuasion, way less than five feet tall, her feet visibly blackened by the sun and dirt and hard living in the sandals she wore, clad in old-timey garb โ€” even though she didnโ€™t have a role to play, as she was selling nothing โ€” who sat crumpled near a tree and ate an apple with her three teeth.

โ€œWhat kind of a life has she had?โ€ I wondered.

At some point living in the Caucus Mountains, and having seen what hard living did to the Soviet-era relics there, it occurred to me to start a website called Babushkasoftheworld.com or Abuelasoftheworld.com or some such name โ€” a project I might embark on yet if and when I have more free time on my hands.

          Relatedโ€˜Tbilisi Prideโ€™ and the New Culture War Front For Eastern Europeโ€™s Soul

After watching those veterans of the Soviet Union โ€” whose husbands probably died decades ago in some gulag or fighting some war, or else from alcoholic fatty liver โ€” literally doubled over at the hip so that their torsos was basically parallel to the ground, walking aided by a cane back from the market with a potato and an onion to cook their soup or whatever, I gained enormous respect for this genre of person imaging what kind of adversity they had survived.

————————-

As she often surprises me with random literature as gifts, my wife picked up before our departure to Cusco for me in some Lima bookstore an old copy of Steinbeckโ€™s โ€œTravels with Charley: In Search of Americaโ€ โ€” an odd traveling companion to take with me to Cusco and Machu Picchu, perhaps, but one of the central themes being a relatable โ€œthe grass is always greenerโ€ kind of wanderlust:

โ€œI saw in their eyes something I was to see over and over in every part of the nation- a burning desire to go, to move, to get under way, anyplace, away from any HERE. They spoke quietly of how they wanted to go someday, to move about, free and unanchored, not toward something but away from something. I saw this look and heard this yearning everywhere in every states I visited. Nearly every American hungers to move…

When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked. Four hoarse blasts of a ships’s whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping. The sound of a jet, an engine warming up, even the clopping of shod hooves on pavement brings on the ancient shudder, the dry mouth and vacant eye, the hot palms and the churn of stomach high up under the rib cage. In other words, once a bum always a bum. I fear this disease incurable. I set this matter down not to instruct others but to inform myself….A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we not take a trip; a trip takes us.โ€

At times, he presciently predicted what might become of the nation โ€” this being written during the Golden Age of Americana in 1961, when optimism abounded and material wealth had reached its definitive historical zenith โ€” when the old-fashioned ways were given over to what some call โ€œprogressโ€ and what others might call โ€œtechnocratic dystopiaโ€:

โ€œI wonder why progress looks so much like destructionโ€ฆ

We, or at least I, can have no conception of human life and human thought in a hundred years or fifty years. Perhaps my greatest wisdom is the knowledge that I do not knowโ€ฆ

It occurs to me that just as the Carthaginians hired mercenaries to do their fighting for them, we Americans being in mercenaries to do our hard and humble work. I hope we may not be overwhelmed one day by peoples not too proud or too lazy or too soft to bend to the earth and pick up the things we eat.โ€

At many times, his observations reminded me of those offered by the Unabomber. Perhaps, in a different life, he might have mailed bombs to titans of industry as well โ€” we being, by and large, products of our environments and all of the influences therein.

          Relatedโ€˜Unabomberโ€™ Ted Kaczynski: The Psychological Origins of True Domestic Terrorism

Ben Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile, is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.

Follow his stuff via Substack. Also, keep tabs via Twitter.

For hip Armageddon Prose t-shirts, hats, etc., peruse the merch store.

Support always welcome via the digital tip jar.

Bitcoinย public address:ย bc1qvq4hgnx3eu09e0m2kk5uanxnm8ljfmpefwhawv

Read Part 1

Read Part 2

Ben Bartee
Ben Barteehttps://armageddonprose.substack.com/
BEWARE!!! Ben Bartee never minces words, so read at your own risk. Ben is a Bangkok-based American journalist, grant writer, political essayist, researcher, travel blogger, and amateur philosopher -- with opposable thumbs. He is the author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile.

Columns

Made-in-America Entrepreneurs See Opportunities in Global Tariffs

Itโ€™s more than just a label. โ€œMade in Americaโ€ represents pride and the national spirit, says John Roy, CEO of Dawson Knives in Prescott, Arizona.

Easterโ€™s Christian hunt

Easter isn't another benevolent Sunday. It's the holy remembrance of the salvific victory Jesus Christ had over death and is the defining moment in human history.ย 

The 9-11 Commission Report to Be Revisited?

Trump Admin should reopen an investigation of events of 9/11 as it appears it was a criminal act to conceal theft of trillions of taxpayer dollars!

Legal Battles, Accusations of Bias as Americaโ€™s Public Media Faces Uncertain Future

Voice of America says it shares a message of freedom and hope, while the Trump administration calls it โ€˜radical propaganda.โ€™

Are Liberal Democrats Faking Things These Days?

The โ€œFighting Oligarchyโ€ rally in Nampa, Idaho has even AI applications confirming suspicions the video of AOC and her new bogus accent are doctored.

News

Fed Approves Capital Oneโ€“Discover Merger to Create 8th Largest US Bank

The Federal Reserve Board has given its approval for Capital One Financial Corporationโ€™s merger with Discover Financial Services in a $35.3 billion deal.

Education Department Asks Harvard for Foreign Fundersโ€™ List After University Submits Inaccurate Records

Dept of Ed sent โ€œrecords requestโ€ to Harvard Univ after review of institutionโ€™s reports found foreign funding disclosures were โ€œincomplete and inaccurate.โ€

Supreme Court Blocks Deportation of Alleged Venezuelan Gang Members for Now

Supreme Court temporarily blocked Trump admin from deporting Venezuelan men currently in immigration custody who are alleged to be criminal gang members.

Appeals Court Halts Judge Boasbergโ€™s Contempt Order in Deportations Case

Appeals court temporarily halted Boasbergโ€™s order finding probable cause Trump admin was in contempt for not complying with order prohibiting deportations.

Judge Blocks Trumpโ€™s Order Ending โ€˜Xโ€™ Gender Marker on Passports

A federal judge ruled against the Trump adminโ€™s EO banning the use of an โ€œXโ€ on passports marked by people self-identifying as neither male nor female.

ACLU Seeks Immediate Stay From Supreme Court of Deportation of Alleged Gang Members

ACLU filed an emergency request asking the Supreme Court to immediately block the Trump administration from deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members.

What to Know About the Florida State University Campus Shooting

Florida State Univ became a deadly crime scene as a student opened fire, killing two and injuring six others before he was shot and apprehended by law enforcement.

Judge Bars Trump Admin From Deporting Illegal Immigrants to Third Countries Without Warning or Torture Review

Federal judge barred Trump admin from deporting illegal immigrants with final removal orders to countries they would face persecution, torture, or death.
spot_img

Related Articles