Sidestreets

I have so much to say I can't type fast enough!

Ok, First, I arrived in Cusco yesterday afternoon and I am staying in the same house I was in before. Although, the house is full of new people. Fun and different.

Play by Play for today: I am starting to understand (a little bit) why foreigners fall in love with this city and want to live here…

1. Today my roommate was leaving (after being here for 3 months) so there was a lot of last minute packing and shopping to do! In true Duffy fashion I tagged along and made a list of things I liked and scoped out prices. Always searching for the best deal.
2. Experiencing a little packing drama has made me very eager to leave lots of my stuff here- then maybe I will have enough space for presents!
3. I took Laura to the airport to see her off. On the way back from the airport I shared a cab with a friend of Laura’s who is Peruvian. Her name is Karla and she was super nice. I just got dropped off where she needed to go and figured I would walk the rest of the way home.
4. This is the first Saturday that I have had totally free since I arrived (I think) and I decided to take side streets that I have never explored and I found a gold mine! I happened to stumble upon the “Arts” district! (most of the city is arranged by type of store. For instance, if you needed to buy a mattress you would go to one street that is lined with mattress stores) I was surrounded by bolts of fabric, ribbon, paint, bead stores, you name it. Seriously, heaven. This was perfect timing because I saw a dream catcher in the Jungle and decided that I could make some to take home with me. My last day in the jungle I cut roots to make the frames and collected river stones to go in the center. So, needless to say, I bought a ridiculous amount of string, wire, and a pair of pliers and I will soon get to work!
5. Then I ventured through a market (that I have walked by at least 4 times a day, every day I have been in Cusco) and found fresh fruit, fresh flowers, handmade wooden spoons! It had everything! I also saw a shop that had live frogs next to a tray of TOTALLY gutted frogs. Maybe gutted is not the right word… the skin was missing from these particular frogs and just their bodies and guts were out on display- it was fascinating … and gross. The lady behind the counter was not happy that I wanted to take a picture and thus you will not have the honor (or maybe you will be spared) from experiencing this with me. At least for now, have no doubt, I will go back and do my best to get photos. There was a large section of the market full of butchers… who also would not let me photograph them.
6. I am currently watching a Spanish soap opera (novella) and it is quite distracting. Not my cup of tea.

I am having an internal struggle against the structure, commitment, and responsibility that will accompany Monday. There is still so much exploring I want to do here! I have yet to see any of the ruins that are close to Cusco or visit any of the museums and historical sites!

I will write more/post pictures of Salkentay and the Jungle soon!

In the Jungle, the mighty Jungle...

Hi Hi Hi

Ok, scratch the title of that last post... I now have 2 more ¨New Favortie Places¨. The last 2 weeks have been totally amazing.

First, hiking throught the Andes and camping was a blast. I was hard work but totally worth it. We ending the trip by hiking to Machu Picchu, which for the record, it super cool. Overall, I think I was there for around 14 hours, hiking and looking around. There is so much to see!

Now I am in the Jungle, reaching 2 weeks on Friday doing jungle conservation. Basically just planting and measuring trees. In the afternoon we nap, read, play cards, chat. All the food is vegetarian, there is no electricity, no hot water... no walls... and it is really great!!!! We have 2 pet monkeys and a parott but I have not seen much other wild life. Thousands of butterflies, one snake, a jaguar kill... yep, that covers it. The closest town with internet/phone access is a 2 hour walk away... and my computer time is up (please excuse the grammer/spelling errors!).

Love to all!,

C

A new favorite place

Yesterday, I went on a "self-guided (aka by Lonely Planet)" tour of Cusco and in the process was introduced to many new areas of the city that I had not be exposed to yet. So totally awesome! I went with a group (Brittney- Niagra Falls, Kali- NYC, Andrew- Pittsburg, Brendan and Chantell- Canada) from a differnt home-stay (our house has traveled with them a bit before.) We had yesterday off from volunteering (as well as today) because of strikes. The majority of cusquenians are participating in the strike and not going to work because the government wants to mine and export oil and natural gas from Peru... so, the people here won't benefit from lower prices... ? This is what I have understood from broken spanish/english conversations... It gave us time to explore but also caused for modification of our tour because of safety. The police asked us (very kindly and sternly) to stay near the main square because it wasn't safe for us to venture out into less touristy areas. I think it would have been totally fine but a group of gringos does stick out quite a bit. However, we discovered the San Blas area of Cusco (you can look it up if you like, it's pretty well known) and like many other tourists, I loved it! It is all small cobblestone streets (more similar to alleyways) with resturants, pubs, and shops tucked into every bit of free space. I am still amazed when I duck under a door expecting to enter a teeny space and low and behold a whole courtyard emerges! We spend lots of time just walking around and shopping! My spanish is improving a little and I am having more success with bartering! Yay! Last night I also went over to their house to watch the Lakers and Celtics play... of course, I really wanted to just see what another house/part of town looked like. I was nervous to take a taxi by myself, but my fears were pretty much totally unfounded. On the way there (I had to cross the city, ha which took maybe... 7 minutes) I had the cutest taxi driver. He was about 70 years old and was very patient with my spanish. : ) I think I should seek out more elderly and young people to attempt conversation with, they are much more forgiving. The childern at my placement are so funny when I try to have converations with them, however it is becoming much easier to talk to as well as understand them.

Tomorrow at 4:30am I am leaving for Salkentay, a 5-day hiking adventure around Machu Picchu. All in all, about 35+ hours of hiking in 5 days plus hiking around Machu Picchu itself and climing Huayna Picchu. It will be hard work but I am super excited!

More pictures to come soon!

Love to all!

C

Looks appetizing right...? It's holiday season... so Cuy (yes, guinnea pig) is everywhere. Yum, Yum!

Me and my roomie, Laura (Australia).

The Andes.

Me at Moray. We picnicked right in the center.

Our families dressed us up in traditional attire and took us to a fiesta (with all of the other tourists, who were also dressed up)! Me, Elizabeth (Florida), Sarah (Canada), Sabrina (Toronto), Heather (Flordia)

It was colder than it looks and Yes, that hat and every one of my 5 layers were neccesary! Here we are on the top of a mountain/island in the middle of Lake Titicaca. We climbed to the top to see an ancient temple. Me, Heather (Flordia), Sabrina (Toronto).

How cool is this! This animal skin had just been sheered off! It was just hanging out in the yard to dry! I was totally facinated.

The view from our roof

The Flight of the Condors!

This morning at 6 am I arrived back in Cusco after a wonderful trip to Arequipa, Chivay, and the Culca Canyon. On Thursday night we (me plus 4 of my housemates and 3 other friends) boarded a night bus to Arequipa, in southern Peru. The bus was very plush, with huge leather seats that reclined to an almost horizontal position, and dinner provided. The trip took about 10 hours, putting us in Arequipa just in time to see the sun rise. Arequipa is in the Andes mountains, about 8,000 feet above sea level. The (inactive) volcano, El Misti, overlooks the city. We did a little more sleeping in the hostel, and I took full advantage of reliable hot water and decent water pressure (if you know me at all, you know that it was reaching crisis point on the shower front). Then I ventured to the Santa Catalina Monastery, the most important religious monument of Peru. It was so beautiful and serene. It literally used to be a city within itself, with almost no reliance on the outside world. I don’t want to become a nun, but there is certainly something appealing and at the very least, thought provoking, about living simply. We stayed in Arequipa for dinner and woke up bright and early Saturday morning to continue our trip to Chivay, located a little higher, at 12,000 feet in the Colca valley. I really enjoyed this town. It is considerably smaller than anywhere I have been in Peru thus far. The town is much less touristy than Cusco or Arequipa, a very nice change. We had lunch here and then rested up for the hot springs. We spent an hour or two Saturday night relaxing in pools of naturally occurring (approximately) 85 degree water. Then I had dinner at a traditional restaurant and I got to participate in an offering to Mother Earth to bless our meal! Totally cool! I had to eat Coca leaves in front of the whole restaurant! They taste exactly how you would expect leaves to taste; I waited until I got back to my table to politely dispose of them in my napkin. It’s an acquired taste I think. They do wonders for the altitude though. Sunday we were up around 5 am so we could complete our drive to the Colca Canyon in time to see the flight of the Condors! These are huge, HUGE birds that still “rule” the area. I’d guesstimate that they have a wing span of 5-6 feet. We’re talking really large birds. So beautiful, they just glide through the air. We saw around 20 of them fly around together for a while (apparently a rare sight…) Then we took a short walk around the outside of the canyon and began traveling home. Another 2 bus rides, a short stop in Arequipa for dinner, and then another 9 hour ride and we were home!

Pictures coming soon! If you have access to Facebook, check out the recently posted photos from our Sunday picnic at Moray!

Love to all!!!
C

My First Big Adventure!

Photos are coming I promise! I just need to figure out the best way to get them to everyone… any suggestions… ?

I had my first big adventure last weekend! I traveled to Puno and Lake Titicaca (southern Peru, lake Titicaca lies between Peru and Bolivia) There is much to tell but I will keep it short. We took a night bus (double decker, coach bus style) and arrived in Puno (on the coast) at around 5am. We had 2 and a half hours to clean up, eat, and nap at a hostel before we began our tour of the lake. First we visited the Floating Islands. There are 52 (maybe 53) islands that are home to anywhere from 10-50 people each. Normally one or two families per island. The islands are manmade. Very cool. Then we traveled 3 and a half hours to a much larger island, Amantani, that is home to 10 communities. Here we spent the night with families. I stayed with 2 other girls from our trip with a super nice family. Traditionally these families speak Quechua but the father and daughter of our host family spoke Spanish so that made communication much easier! The inhabitants here have very limited electricity. The compound we stayed in only had a few light blubs. We used candles in the bedroom. The food was fantastic! All of it was grown on the island and so delicious! All of our meals were vegetarian because they only eat meat on special occasions. At night they dressed us up in traditional clothing and we went to a fiesta with the other tourists and host families! We also hiked to the top of the island/mountain to an ancient temple to see to sunset. The next day we traveled to another island, Taquile, to hike and have a look around. You could see the shores of both Peru and Bolivia from both islands! That’s the super short version!
Both places were absolutely beautiful and made living simply look very appealing. Although I felt as if the main livelihood of all of these communities was tourism. I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were exploiting them.
The last week has also been great. I am now working with the 3-4 year olds at my placement and finally starting to feel at home! We do either one or two exercise a morning. I am normally in charge of photocopying to assignments… we use stamps to replicate the same image for everyone. That means lots and lots of stamping! We spend most of our time eating breakfast, snack, or lunch. I have started bringing extra snack for me and any of the children who forget theirs or are still hungry. They have lots of fruit; plantains, oranges, Clementines, apples! I am continually amazed in the order in the daily chaos. I am hoping to find out more about the day-care/pre-school center next week.
Also, Corpus Christi (a huge Catholic celebration) was Thursday so the whole city came out to celebrate! Everything was cancled for the day so everyone could celebrate. The parties started Tuesday night, the parades Wednesday, and Thursday was the big celebration. It was super crowded but also a really great experience.
Everything else is going really well! … I’ll update soon. I’m headed to Arequipa this Thursday!

I have a Schedule!

So I am now going to my volunteer placement and Spanish class’s everyday! I am working at a day care center in a poor neighborhood in Cusco from 9-12:30 every day. The kids are ages 0-5 and full of energy! The last two days I have been working in the 5-year old classroom. Given my lack of Spanish and the children’s total lack of English communication has been quite the comedy. There are four other volunteers at my placement, but I have only work with one of them. We spend about 3/4th’s of the morning eating. When I first arrive all of the children are eating breakfast. Then there is an extended period of time where it doesn’t appear as if there is anything to do. Yesterday we went to the park (details to follow). Today we traced circles and then made paper airplanes for about and hour and a half. So, the park. Here, there is an entrance fee for the public parks. However, the park so super cool! It had little slides, and huge slides, two merry go rounds, a trampoline/bounce house, many swings… and all other typical playground amenities. It was an experience trying to cross the street with fifteen 4/5-year olds, even with four adults. I’m not actually sure I count as an adult given that I basically can’t communicate. Overall, it was pretty fun!

I had a bit of trepidation about my Spanish class, especially given that it falls in the middle of my nap time everyday and it lasts for TWO hours! I go to the volunteer headquarters from 4-6 pm. This is the highlight of my day! I am in a class with only one other student (Andrew, the guy from the plane) and my teacher, Anna Maria, is great! I started in the most basic class so I could get a better handle on my pronunciation and such. The first day we played hangman so we could practice our letters and then bingo so we could practice out numbers! This is also fantastic because I am able to ask all of my questions about Cusco! Today we talked a lot about education. What a surprise. If you’re interested, in Peru (and most of South America I think) Students go to primary school from 6/7-12, then 12/13-16. They do not have college here, just University. University is free but very very competitive. Students have to take an entrance exam, often there are only 60 or so spots with over 600-700 applicants. It seems as if there are entrance exams for specific schools (Medical, Architecture, Teaching, etc.)

Comedy of the day: I have about a 35 minute walk from my house to my placement in the morning and afternoon. Today, I was asked a number of times (maybe 6) if I wanted a “lady massage… with a happy ending”. Now, keep in mind that Cusco is a very touristy place given that it is where all tours of Machu Picchu begin from. I highly doubt that natives are being offered such... deals, and I am clearly not a native. I’ve been told that if I get a tan I will be given better deals at markets and with cabs because it won’t be as obvious that I’m not from here… I’ll keep you updated. : )

Tonight we also participated in Trivia. The rounds were titled -
1. Geography of World Cup nations
2. TV and Films
3. World Cup Nation Flags
4. Latin American film stars
5. Common Knowledge
6. Superheroes girlfriends

So if you are wondering,
1. Paraguay and Bolivia are the only 2 land-locked countries on the South American continent
2. Silence of the Lambs was the only film before 2009 to win best film best actor, and best actress in the same year.
3. Slovenia is in the world cup.
4. Requires a video clip.
5. In the game Clue, the only room that can be reached from two secret passageways
6. And Plenty O’Tool was what superheroes girlfriend? Hint- she wasn’t the only one. POSTCARD FOR THE FIRST RIGHT ANSWER! (Believe me that should be an incentive. I went to the post office today and it cost 7.20 soles to send a letter/postcard. That’s about $2.50. E-mail it is!)

Love to all!
C

Orientation and Such Things

Hello Hello. I don’t start volunteering or going to Spanish class until Wednesday so I have a bit more time on my hands and therefore time to keep you updated! Cusco is more beautiful every day. It reminded me very much of Reynosa, Mexico when we first arrived. Although, walking around this morning, I would not have made that comparison at all. Maybe the sleep deprivation was playing tricks on my mind. Cusco is in a valley so at any given moment you can look up and see civilization fading away into the mountains and hills. From a different perspective, looking out from out roof-top terrace (yeah, cool huh?), which is about four or five stories high, it appears as if the city has absolutely no organization. There are buildings perched close together, far away, precariously on the side of hills, and lights everywhere. Despite its appearance the city is actually pretty organized, grid style. The majority of the roads are cobblestone. I am actually quite surprised that I haven’t twisted my ankle in an effort to avoid being hit by a car. Pedestrians defiantly do not have the right of way here.

I had orientation this morning with lots of other people, including a big group of dental students. I found out where my volunteer placement was although the name has totally slipped my mind. One of the directors is taking me there tomorrow to introduce me to the staff and show me how to get there on my own. Then I met up with Andrew, the one from my plane, and we went with his roommates (he is living in a house with 4 other volunteers) to a travel agency to book a trip to Machu Picchu for this weekend. It is so easy to meet people! I now know people from Canada, Russia, New Zealand, Australia, England, and lots of northern states. After being up for a mere four hours, it was quite necessary that I go back to sleep. Between traveling, a late late night (there is always a reason to go out and celebrate- last night my housemates excuse was “There are new volunteers in the house!”), and the altitude (it really does mess with you), I have been quite exhausted.

Our entire house goes to pub charity on Monday and Wednesday nights. I’m not sure who owns the restaurant, The Real McCoy, but if was full of foreigners. My group teamed up with two guys from Argentina who were super nice. We didn’t place though. : ( I think a group from Australia took first.

Oh, and one last fun fact. Peru has over 3,000 native types of potatoes. So yes, we have potatoes with every meal. Sliced potatoes, grilled potatoes, cut up potatoes, fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, you name it. Also, lots and lots of beef. Yum Yum!

Post Numero Uno!

I'm safely "at home" in Peru! Here are a few little things you might want to know!

Where in the world is Carson Duffy?

I am in Cusco (there is no international spelling- it can be Cusco or Cuzco-but everything here says Cusco). On the map that's in the lower-ish, right hand corner.
Population- about 360,000
Altitude- 11,200 feet
It's day one and I already have plans in the making to visit/hike Macchu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, maybe go to Chili and Bolivia for a few days. Might as well explore right?!



I am staying in a house with 15 other volunteers, so far we represent the USA, Canada, New Zealand, and Russia (I think). I am living in a room with a girl from Washington, DC and a girl from Ontario. We have a "staff" who cook all of our meals and clean up after us.. I know.. a bit ridicuous right?! Everyone here is super nice. The grace of God can certainly be seen in the kindness of strangers.

I start volunteering on Tuesday, I'm not sure what my placement is yet.. hopefully I will be able to walk!

Ok, a few other things..


The Time Difference

North Carolina – Peru = + 1 hour (Peru 8:15am , NC 9:15am)
Tennessee – Peru = the same time!
Morocco – Peru = + 5 hours (Peru 8:20 am, Morocco 1:20pm)
Argentina – Peru = + 2 hours (Peru 8:20 am, Argentina 10:20 am)

Alright, dinner time! Everyone here wants to go out for guinea pig after dinner... I haven't decided whether that or an early bed time sounds more appealing...


Love to all!