A lot has happened over the past week…………..Warning, this is a long entry, so it may take a while to read.

Cuy, Heart & Alpaca

I have eaten roasted cuy (guinea pig), beef heart on skewers and alpaca (a lamb like ). Alpaca was my favorite, the closest thing to it in taste is lamb. Cuy tastes kind of gamy, it does not have a lot of meat, but the meat is closest to chicken. In the pictures above, you can see me chomping down on some.

Cactus fruit and more

I have eaten some strange fruit. The green thing is cactus fruit and it looks and tastes like a Kiwi but with the sourness of a lemon. The other are grenadine and another strange fruit

Colca Canyon and Condors

Last weekend, I went to the largest canyon in the world, or so they say in Peru. Colca Canyon is near Arequipa which is 10 hours south of Cusco. There, we trekked around the canyon for a few hours and bird watched for Condors, the largest birds in the world.

THE WEEKLY BREAKDOWN

Last Wednesday a few friends from my church in C’ville (Brian & Stephanie) just happened to be traveling around Cusco and they took me out to dinner. We had dark Cusquena’s and all of the great meat mentioned above. They will probably the only people I see from my normal life during my trip. It was great, there was also a show and we saw a few teens (which happen to be the best) do a dance flipping around with scissors in their hands. This was contrary to our western thinking, which tells children not to do anything with scissors in their hands. I was slightly homesick when they left. They did leave me with a nice North face jacket which was great.

Thursday, I had the best bus ride in my life. Here the night buses are wonderful, we (Julie, Elizabeth and I) left at 8 pm and arrived at 5 am. There is so much room, the seats go almost all the way back and there is even someplace to rest your feet. On this buses, they give you dinner and drinks like on a plane. We arrived comfortable in the morning. The only glitch was that they took some sharp curves which woke me up every now and again.

Conversely, the way back was the worst ride of my life. Here are the misshaps – it was 11 hours, we made at least 20-25 stops along the way, there was no bathroom, for the first half ladies with two babies sat behind me and they were talking and cooing, kicking my chair and knocking me in the head the whole time, there was a man who tried to sell something for the first 45 minutes (mind you the bus left at 7 am), there were about 20 people who got on at random stops trying to sell things – the best was a women who got on with the big black plastic bag and begin to cut up whole chickens into pieces with a very large butcher knife. This was done on the stairs of the bus. The chicken pieces were then put in a plastic bag to sell for 8 soles. Classic Peru!!!

From Thursday to Sunday, I visited Arequipa, which is the second largest city in Peru. It is nicknamed the “White City” because many of the building are made of white volcanic rock. Its often overlooked because people usually go to Lima, Cusco or Puno, but its a wonderful city. There, we visited the main plaza, a museum where we saw one of the only frozen bodies in the world (an incan girl that was sacrificed on one of the mountains hundreds of years ago), an elaborate monastery and saw the sun set at an mirador (outlook) overlooking the city and El Misti (an active volcano). I ate corn and queso and drank Arequipena (beer).

On our second day, we rose at 2 am for a very bumpy 4 hour bus ride to Chivay to have breakfast and then drove to the Colca Valley which is rather dessert like in the dry season, but is grand. Can I say it was absolutely freezing in the morning and very hot in the afternoon. I reached 15,000 feet above sea level, my lungs and head were not happy about it either. I was panting the whole way trekking around the canyon. I am not sure where these people live or how they get there, but in the middle of the dessert people were selling things on the side of the road – food, sweaters, bags, wallets and more………….

Throughout the day and on the ride home, I saw llamas, alpaca’s, donkeys and cows in the pastures, on roadsides and sometimes they were blocking the roads ahead of us. We passed rivers, lakes, mountains and many small towns. In every town there is a entrance large sign and a round about with a statue in the middle. It was Sunday on the way back so almost every town had a market going on. Women got on and off our our bus at every stop selling chicken, bread and cheese (literally with 4 barrels of cheese in their bare hand),a bucket full of juices in a bag and an assortment of junk food.

On the way home, I kept thinking, “I am going to die on the bus in Peru” because the bus drivers drive so fast and lay on their horn like they are about to crash every 10 minutes. One of our drivers was hugging the cliff all day and at one point we came about 1 foot from crashing into a tractor trailer. Always and adventure.

Monday was the first day of my new placement. I am excited to have my own class. There are like 45-50 thirteen year old boys in my class which is absolutely crazy. I am teaching them family members in english along with adjectives for describing them. It was fun. The volunteer director stopped by and seems to think I am a pretty good teacher. The boys are loud and rambunctious, but they call me ¨profesora,¨ stand when I enter the room and when class is over, they thank me and a few of them gave me kisses on the cheak.

Arequipa

When the moon separated from the earth

it forgot to take Arequipa

for she too is clothed in white and dazzles all night

The prince of Peru´s 2^nd bride

set apart and often cast aside for greater highs

but if you search beyond the naked eye

you will see that she is irresistibly sexy and electrifying

with a spicy nightlife

Over centuries she has plagued the heart of Peru with eruptions and earthquakes

For some, her wild terrain is hard to take

yet others cant wait for a taste of her salty lakes

to take a dip in between those hot springs or

to mount her Andean peaks

but this princess ain’t cheap

her altitude is high

enough to make a grown man shiver, gasp for air or even cry

while overlooking those voluptuous vistas

Yes, I am talking about Arequipa

Not only an intellectual powerhouse and fashionably sheik

the woman is deep

Her canyons are the grandest in the world

Yet her being holds two tales

Urban form strung together by natures white pearls

Her body is built by pure volcanic rock

The center of her being is spotless, flawless and blazing hot

On the flip side

her rugged nature can not be denied

You would be truly amazed that

in her youthful days she was raised

beside snow capped volcanoes, rivers, valleys and caves

Putting even the most skilled outdoors man to the test

Even so, in the princes´ eyes she is always second best

but in Colca country

her wings span wider than that of a condor

which is why she should never be forgotten

and can not be ignored

Randomness

It costs .50 cents to go to the bathroom and there is s never any tissue and never anything to dry your hands with.

The best deal of the trip was a happy hour 3 mojitos for 10 soles, which is like $3.5.

This is really random, but here, most people do their laundry at a laundry service which costs between 3-5 soles a kilo. When I got mine done, they conveniently forgot to give me back my only long sleeve t shirt. It was a mini miracle to me, but when I went back, they actually found my shirt. I only have 10 shirts, so loosing one is a big deal. I did buy more socks, underwear and another pair of pants.

They other day, I had the most fun doing a salsa line dance. It was kind of like a moccorena mixed with the electric slide. Soooo much fun, I have to take salsa lessons before I leave.

I am still an anomaly here and people walk up to me daily and ask where I am from with much amazement and excitement. I must say that they are usually disappointed when I say the US. On my way to the bathroom at my volunteer center, another women stops me and asks “where are you from.” When I reply the US, she says “you must tell me about your people and your culture.” The other day a Quechuan women came up and talked to me while I was sitting on a park bench. She is from Chincero, about 2 hours from here, has 5 children and comes down to Cusco about 2 days a month to sell merchandise. Here name is Margarita. She was interested in how long I had been growing my hair. Its been 19 months and I can kind of make a small ponytail.

In and around Cusco, there is always a holiday, parade, construction or a strike going on. Today is independence day, the one day that should have a parade and me and my house mates waiting 2.5 hours for nothing. On the main avenue they are digging up the sidewalk/road with sledge hammers and icepicks. Its pretty impressive but that’s what you call hard labor. Yesterday, there were are rumors of a strike (no one drives or goes anywhere because people throw rocks at cars), and independence day is celebrated today and tomorrow, so I don’t have work or Spanish, which I am excited about.

On Friday morning, me and 3 of my housemates are going by car and train to Machu Picchu. I was initially thinking about doing a 4 day jungle trek in which you ride bikes for 3 hours one day, walk between 5-8 hours for the next two days and 3 hours the last day. I decided against it though, given that I am usually winded after a half hour walk to work and think I would probably faint. On Sunday there is a Pachamama (mother earth) festival I am excited to go to.

Oh and roll call – if you read this, say hello in the comments section, it gets lonely out here in blogger land. I’d like to know who is at least reading all this mumbo jumbo.