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!