Lucy Rose's South American Adventure: Cusco and Lima

A girl called Veronica had messaged me last year asking me to come to Lima to play music, but not only that - she also wanted to travel with me around Peru, taking me to Cusco and Machu Picchu. We’d been talking for months and eventually our flights were booked and there was no turning back. I think this was the first time it became real to my husband Will what type of journey we were on. He asked to know a little more about the person who would be waiting for us at the airport and I knew nothing. I had no idea what she looked like, how old she was, her job or where she lived but just her name - Veronica.

Sure enough she was waiting with her husband and a sign with my name on and all our worries disappeared. It can be hard meeting someone for the first time in such an intense situation - there’s no getting to know each other beforehand - but we went straight to their house where their two sons were sleeping and went to bed. Veronica had previously been on The Voice in Peru and got to the battle stages and is now pursuing her own music career, starting with supporting me at my shows in Peru. It sometimes feels in the UK that trying to make a career in music is almost impossible - you hit wall after wall of rejection with no success and it can feel hopeless - but here in Peru, it is so much harder, especially if you are playing acoustic music like Veronica.

The most popular genre of music in Peru is Huayno which is traditional folklore music but it's nothing like the acoustic folk music I know. It’s all pretty similar and takes up around 80% of the music market here which means life for musicians like Veronica is very difficult. Despite all this, she's determined to play her songs, carry on writing music in those spare moments when her children are asleep and I was honoured to be part of the beginning of her journey as a musician. Look her up, she’s called June.

We spent the day with her family at her mum’s house who cooked a delicious traditional ceviche - raw fish lightly cured in lime. Again we were being welcomed into a new family with open arms and they were so proud of their food and culture. It was fascinating.

That evening we played our first gig at Kokopelli hostel as Veronica knew the owner and he was willing to have us play music in his bar. However, no-one could not have predicted the number of people that would turn up, which meant around 150 people got turned away on the door. I was gutted they couldn’t get in but I knew I had another gig in two days so knew they could get in there. Again it was like no show I’d ever done before. There was no sound engineer, just a six-channel mixing desk that no-one knew how to use. So after having a quick play with the desk, I was the sound engineer for the evening, doing both Veronica’s sound and my own. It didn’t matter though, it was just thrilling and a completely new experience to be in Lima, playing music and seeing how things work here.

The main thing I learnt that evening was the time has a different meaning in Peru. Things don't run to a schedule here, they run to Peruvian time, which often meant things happened about two hours later than planned. For example, a man from the street, unannounced, came to the bar with a cajon drum and started playing traditional music at the time I was meant to go on stage. I soon realised I needed to chill out and just go with the flow - Peruvian time.

I played for about an hour to a small intimate bar full to capacity and met some wonderful people afterwards. We talked a lot about the journey we were on, everyone was very curious about what was going on, why I had decided to come to Lima and when I would return Lima to play more music. We headed home, elated that the gig had gone well and more importantly Veronica was hugely relieved that people had come who loved my music.

The next day Will and I explored the city with a couple of fans we had met the day before called Irving and Christin. They took us to the beach, we had lunch and spent the day talking about the music, culture and what it is like to be a woman in Peru. They lived together in a small studio room on the roof of a building with a shared bathroom with their four neighbours. A modest life but one they both loved. They explained that it’s extremely rare in Peru for a couple to be living together who aren’t married. Most people live with their parents right up until they get married and rarely do people move out of their family home to live independently. But it does seem to be becoming more and more popular, they explained times are changing. We sat on their roof drinking Pisco sours (a classic Peruvian drink) that is scarily strong and Irving sang me one of his songs on guitar. In the evening we headed to Miraflores to meet another fan I had met the night before called Andrea who was also so lovely and kind and took us to see Huaca Pucllana, a pre Inca ruin made by the Limas.

We spent the evening with Andrea, Irving and Christin and they immediately became friends. I’m realising, more so as the journey continues, how unbelievably lucky I am to be in these different places and have people there who want to show me around, take me to the best local restaurants, in this case salsa clubs and show me where they live and all I have to do in return is play some songs. I’m hoping all of them will come visit London and I can repay the favour and have themto stay and show them around.
The next evening I played a gig at Victoria Bar in Lima and I never in a million years expected what happened. After I finished soundcheck at 7pm and left the venue (capacity 200) there was already a line of 200 people waiting outside. Immediately I was overwhelmed with joy: people in Lima know my music and not only that they are queueing three hours early to make sure they got in to see me play. But soon I became anxious about all those people that won’t get to see me play. I’ve flown all this way to meet them and to play music to them and now I won’t be able to. By the time it was 9pm and time for me to go on stage there was 600 people there, I was shocked. I came outside to apologise to everyone who couldn’t come in, played them ‘Shiver’ and headed inside to play the hottest, most amazingly intense, funnest gigs of my life. EVERY WORD, honestly all 200 people inside the tiny venue knew every word, to songs from both my records. An experience I’ll never forget, not just because I’m so far from home and in a city I’ve never been to before, but because I really didn’t think my music could have this sort of impact.

I’ve come to believe over the last few months that my career wasn’t going ‘to plan’, maybe I wasn’t selling enough records to please my label and I had been losing faith in myself and my music. That night was so important for me and made me believe I should continue writing music. People have connected to my songs and it gives all of this meaning. I don’t know who was more shocked, me or Veronica. I had tried to get gigs in Lima through my booking agent but no venues or promoters would have me to play because I wanted the shows to be free entry. Veronica went and found me a venue that would allow me to play a free entry show - I have no idea how she did that but I know it can’t have been easy.

That evening I promised I would return to Lima six days later and play another free entry show for everyone that couldn’t come to the first show. But the fun didn’t end there: only four hours after the show had finished, Veronica, Will and I were in a taxi to the airport to catch a 4.50am flight to Cusco. Out of the two months travelling, Cusco was the place I was most anxious about going to because of the altitude. Just before Christmas my brother-in-law had been critically ill with altitude sickness and they had to cancel their trip to Cusco as it would be too high for him. I took an altitude sickness pill just before we landed and prepared myself to take it extremely easy and not be surprised if I felt breathless and weak.

Cusco is approximately 3400 metres above sea level (3.4km), an hour and a half flight from Lima, and is known as the belly-button of the world. My lungs felt like tiny old crisp packets but the tablet definitely helped and I wasn’t sick. Veronica’s friend Fernando picked us up from the airport at 7am and took us to his house where we were staying. He had even given us his bedroom and was sleeping at his girlfriends. We all went straight to sleep. It had been a long night and we were exhausted. I thought I only had the one show in Cusco but when I woke Fernando told us we better get ready for tonight's show…tonight’s show? There had been some miscommunication about dates and gigs and it turned out I had one that night too. I wasn’t sure if I could do it, I was completely exhausted and I had only landed that day. I had heard you needed at least a couple days to acclimatise to the altitude and I was scared I wouldn’t be able to sing.

We went to the Supertramp hostel where I was meant to play that evening to apologise and say I wouldn’t be able to play and they told me that people had stayed extra nights at the hostel to see me. I felt awful, it was a mind of matter situation and I was just going have to play that evening despite how I felt. I couldn’t come all this way and then let people down. But of course it was lovely. My voice had a tone to it that it had never had before - very breathless - and my lungs felt like they may explode at any moment!

The next day we explored Cusco, learning more about the Inca culture and that evening we played the gig I had been advertising in Cusco.

Veronica had mentioned she didn’t think that many people would be at this gig as we were in a remote part of Cusco and the likelihood of people knowing my music here would be rare. The venue was called Ukukus, a nice bar just off the main plaza in Cusco. It was pretty empty when I got there but luckily my lungs were feeling much better. I sat outside warming up for the gig and a group of girls and boys came up to me, asking for photos. They had come for my show and I couldn’t believe it. Soon the venue was pretty full with about 100 people, requesting songs and singing with me.

After the show I met everyone individually including a girl who started crying. I spoke to her for a long time. She explained she had been through a tough time and my music had helped her through it. Any musician out there knows this is the biggest reward of writing music but it also comes with the sadness that we all know how each other feels from time to time. Life is difficult at times and if a song I wrote in my bedroom at a certain time in my life helps someone so far away from home, well that’s an amazing thing! I’m in Cusco and a girl here can relate to me and my feelings and I can relate to her. We know nothing about each other but feel connected in a way that's indescribable. I found it really hard to say goodbye to her and her friends and she kept saying, "I don’t want you to remember me like this", but I remember her as the lovely smiley girl who came up to me wishing me good luck before the show and the girl who opened up to me after the show. Even if she was the only person in the room, it would have made the trip to Cusco worthwhile. I was so grateful I could thank her personally for all her support and explain that people like her inspire me to keep writing.

The journey here in Peru just got crazier: the next morning we left Cusco and spent the day travelling around the Sacred Valley.

I could write an essay on all these places, they are so interesting but I’ll leave you to discover the amazing history of this country.

We stayed in Ollantaytambo in a hostel and then next morning boarded the train to Machu Picchu. Unfortunately Veronica and Fernando couldn’t travel on the same train as us as we were on the foreigner's train and they had to go on the train for Peruvians which was about ten times cheaper but not as nice (well that’s what they told us). Again our accommodation was covered in Machu Picchu town by Supertramp hostel and in return I played a gig on their roof terrace that evening along with Veronica and Fernando. I tried to go to sleep early that night but the monsoon rain was hard to ignore.

Our alarm went off at 5am and we were on the bus up to Machu Picchu at 5.30am ready for the gates to open at 6am. Lots of people had recommended we walk the three hour trek up to Machu Picchu which was our intention but luckily the night before, after the gig, a couple of travellers told us not to bother and instead walk the hour trek up to the sun gate once we were in Machu Picchu and take the three hour trek down to the town after. So we took their advice. We spent seven hours walking round Machu Picchu, I cheekily tagging along to any tours to gather as much information as possible. I probably shouldn’t go on and on about what an amazing experience all of this has been, but just to conclude, it’s been incredible! And mostly because of the beautiful people I’ve been travelling with.

This morning I flew back from Cusco to Lima, after having a huge argument with the airline company after they tried to charge us a $300 penalty fine because Veronica had bought Peruvian tickets and we need foreigners' tickets to fly. Crazy?!? I leave this evening at midnight on a flight to Antofagasta, Chile and my time here in Peru is sadly over. But in-between these flights I’ve promised to do another show in Lima this evening for all the people who couldn’t get into the last gig. So it’s time to say goodbye again and I don’t want to.

I feel forever indebted to all the people I’ve met here for giving Will and me this amazing experience. I know our memories will always tie us together.