It’s easy to get wrapped up in the visual aspects of culture and landscape.
We see beautiful Peruvian pottery and clothing made with colorful dyes from the likes of purple corn “chicha morada”. Machu Picchu, or a landmark akin to the Statue of Liberty embody culture in a familiar and distinctive way.
What’s harder to find is spirit. Real cultural spirit, untouched by any effort to put on a facade, or be presentable in any other way but one’s most authentic self.
I found this in the mountains on this day, watching this man ferry loads from the closest mountain town and into the fog.
These towns have no roads and no way to access goods and services, and so they are ferried by donkey on a daily basis.
Here, there is grit in necessity, and vigor in culture.
