Day 19 en el Imperio Inca

The week in review: Last Sunday I went with Pat and Eric to Pisac for the day. We took the bus for less than a dollar, but paid the price of having the constant fear of plummeting over the edge of the cliffs. Despite that, the scenery really was pretty incredible going through the mountain valleys. It rained for most of the morning so by the time we got there, everything was soggy and slippery. We had some lunch, though the people forgot about me, and had amazing fresh juice. According to wordreference.com, maracuya (the juice I had) is passion fruit, which I didn´t know until just now. Afterward we walked around the market at Pisac which is pretty neat, with lots of handicrafts. It´s pretty quiet on a Sunday afternoon. We tried on some really amazing fluffy alpaca fur hats. I bought myself a purse with a llama on it to have something small for my wallet and camera when I go out, and a pair of earrings with parrots on them for less than a dollar. Then we took a taxi up to the Pisac ruins which was pretty far up the mountain and explored for an hour and a half or so. It was pretty muddy and slick from the rain earlier in the day and there was a lot of climbing involved (and I´m still not fully adjusted to the altitude I think), but it was a nice way to spend the afternoon and the views were incredible. Afterward we took a taxi back to Cusco since all of the buses were full at that time of day and more scary thoughts of taxi cliff diving insued especially when bus drivers decided to whip around and try and pass us. We made it back to the city safely and found a cheap restaurant for dinner. I tried alpaca steak for the first time, which was pretty delicious. And then we headed to a smoothie place for dessert and I tried plantain and maracuya together, which was really rich and delicious. On Monday morning before class I went to the Museum of Popular Art, which was kind of cool but really small. They had about fifteen paintings and another room full of ceramic miniatures and a lot of religious recreations in various mediums such as Jesus on the cross constructed out of cuy (guinea pig) bones and the nativity made from bent spoons and forks. Tuesday morning I met with my American friends to watch the inauguration at Andy´s house. I thought it was a really eloquent, good speech and I´m really excited about how things are going to be the next four years. I found the whole ¨when the yellow man can be mellow, man, and the white man can do what´s right¨ really bizarre and hilarious though. That night we went out to dinner at a restaurant called Obispo with couches and low tables and floor pillows. We played Jenga and chess while we waited for our food. Wednesday I visited the Museum of Contemporary Art, which was small too, but had a lot of good paintings that I liked and a photo exhibit of Machu Picchu. My favorite title was something very emo that I can´t remember now that had to do with the flourishing of the heart. It was a photo of a flower. Wednesday night we went out for a farewell dinner for a couple of people here at a good Italian place with really tasty wine and sangria and then out to bar called Indigo where we played Uno during Happy Hour. We went out dancing at a discoteca called Mythology and got home late, for which my host parents joked with me about the next day at lunch. At least they are mellow. I ended up being out late last night too, though unintentionally. I was still pretty sleepy from the night before, but decided to go out for a pub quiz, which is basically just a trivia night at a local bar. The money went toward a local nonprofit group called Bruce Peru. There were a fair amount of teams and four rounds of questions. My team, dubbed ¨No se¨ was pretty genius and actually won. Our prize was a liter of rum and some coke, which we all shared. Then we headed to a local hostel called Loki for a toga party, which somehow ended up being really fun. Afterward we went to a club called Mama Africa, and thus I ended up arriving home late again. I wanted to go on a weekend trip today that the school offered to Puno and Lake Titicaca, but they left at 2 today and I had class from 2:20 until 6:30 and they wouldn´t let me make it up. I was a bit disappointed, but I will probably just go next weekend anyway when I have morning classes. I really am not a fan of afternoon/evening classes. It feels harder to focus and I don´t like getting done so late. But I guess that is all for now.
Ciao,
Ashley

Day 12 en el Imperio Inca

So, it´s the end of week two. As was expected, time is going by pretty quickly. I´m feeling much better this week. Only a small remnant of a cough left over. I can even walk up the stairs in my house without huffing and puffing. Most of the time. I´m currently sitting at the school´s computer watching the rain and listening to the musical stlyings of Andy (some sort of traditional drum) and Cameron (guitar), two guys who go to school in New York. I was supposed to meet some people to go to an art museum, but the rain probably deterred everyone. On Tuesday a group of six of us took a taxi to the ruins of Tipon, about fifteen miles outside of Cusco. It was wonderful. Unlike a lot of tourist spots, there were very few tourists. It was pretty far up in the mountains (there was a lot of huffing and puffing), but the views were great and it was so serene. It´d be a great place to spend a day and picnic (which we probably will one day). The drive up the mountain was memorable as well. The road was very windy and it was slightly scary looking at the drop down the mountain. We drove through a little village on the way up and saw a lot of aloe plants (which are spiky, actually-who knew?) At one point, while exploring, a herd of sheeps, cows, and horses came down the path we were on so we had to move to the side so they could pass. After we left Tipon, we met some other students back in the city and went out for a meal at a vegetarian restaurant. There were probably about 20 of us and we took up the entire restaurant. Later on, we headed to a bar called Kamikase, where the dj played us some good songs to sing along to (Eminem, Dr. Dre, Britney) until a live band came on later. They were really good too. The next day, we had our second salsa class in the evening, which was a lot of fun. I don´t do too badly with it. My partner was an older guy from the Czech Republic, who mostly kept a stern expression, which was kind of amusing. Then we went in search of food and ended up at a Chinese (Chifa) restaurant, which was pretty tasty. Last night, my British friend Nicki had a get together at her host family´s house. They ordered amazing pollo and papas fritas and we played about five games of musical chairs (actually really fun), a strange game introduced by our friends from Holland including yelling out people´s names and being hit with a rolled up newspaper if you´re not fast enough, and a Spanglish version of charades. And now I´m here. I´m looking forward to going out to some clubs tonight since I missed out last weekend when I was sick. Hopefully the rain will stop though. It´s not the best weather to walk around in. I will probably do some more sightseeing this weekend and maybe check out some local markets. Next week my Spanish classes are in the afternoon/evening. I don´t know how I feel about that, but at least I can sleep in. I think that´s all for now.
Adios,
Ashley

Day 6 en el Imperio Inca

My luggage came! So for that I am very excited. Still not feeling great. My cough is getting better, but I still have general cold type issues. I chose to stay in last night instead of going out to a discoteca with the others because I knew I would have been dead on me feet and probably won´t get any better until I actually rest. We had our salsa lessons Thursday night, which were a lot of fun and yesterday we went horse back riding in the mountains around Cusco. The weather couldn´t have been more perfect. We rode for about 4 hours more or less but the views were stunning. My horse was named Vicuña and gained the reputation of not being very nice. She was very impatient and would kind of push her way through the other horses when they were in her way. And she also bit and kicked a few of the other ones. We visited the ¨Temple de Luna¨ which was just a big rock formation, but it sure winded me climbing up to the top. The air is
thin here. This afternoon I took in some markets with my Australian friend Liz which were pretty neat. I guess that´s all for now.
Ciao,
Ashley

Day 3 en el Imperio Inca

Hola!
I arrived in Cusco Monday morning around 11 am after two very grueling days of travel full of missed flights, jerky airline employees, and very sore shoulders from carrying around my backpack everywhere. Not surprisingly, my baggage didn´t make it to Cusco with me and still hasn´t arrived. I´m not really sure what I am going to do if it is lost forever. Pretty much all of the clothes I own are in that bag. I have been wearing the same couple outfits since I´ve been here and the lavenderia (laundry mat) never seems to be open when I go by. Cusco is very charming with incredible views wherever you look. I´m having a little bit of difficulty adjusting to the altitude I think. I was very sick to my stomach about 2 am last night. My host dad thinks it is because I had pizza for dinner. They never eat a big meal for dinner because it isn´t good for digestion in the altitude. So I think I definitely learned my lesson. My stomach is better today, but now I have a cough, probably because the temperature changes a lot throughout the day.
The other students are all a really great bunch. They hail from New York, Holland, Switzerland, Australia, and England. We all went out to a pub and restaurant for a while yesterday and I really enjoyed getting to talk with a lot of them. My host family seem really great so far. My dad only speaks a couple of words of English, but his wife speaks a bit more. Lunchtime is really fun with our Spanglish and listening to American 80´s music and the delicious homemade soup (today we had arroz con pollo which was fantastic). I have actually been drinking a lot of tea. It´s cocoa tea and doesn´t actually taste like tea. I even ate cocoa leaves in it today. But they pretty much believe it to be a cure all for everything and since I haven´t been in tip top shape, I´ve been drinking it at pretty much every meal.
Today the school had a program where we got to make chocolate in molds which was pretty neat and really yummy.

Tomorrow we have salsa lessons, which I am, of course, really looking forward to, and Friday, horse back riding, which should be really nice as well.
Spanish classes seem like they are going to be really good. Our classes are really small. There are only two others in mine now. However, my instructor at the moment (we will change weekly) seems to think my name is ¨Shayla.¨ I suppose it has the right letters in it so I´m not too bothered. I´m actually really happy with my Spanish. I´m communicating better than I thought I would.
I suppose that is all for now. I think I am going to stay in this evening and get some rest just so I´m not doing too much all at once. I hope very much that when I return home my luggage will somehow have magically appeared and the lavenderia will be open.
Hasta luego,
Ashley