Life around Cusco

So to fill in a few blanks about the last few weeks, Cusco is wonderful!! Just like people said I´d like Cape Town and they were correct, people told me I´d like Cusco and I love it! IT´s much bigger than I imagined, but it´s still just a city pearched in the mountains. There are thousands of houses stacked on top of each other, all with red tile roofs. There are 360 degrees of mountains surrounding you and some snow capped peaks off in the distance. Most people don´t speak English, a little bit, but I´ve been able to use broken Spanish and French with a twist to get by just fine...really well actually.

The train ride back from Aguas Calientes after the Machu Pichu hike was BEAUTIFUL!! You rode through the sacred valley following the river the whole way back. The ride was very comfortable and enjoyable, even a few complimentary snacks and drinks. At one point some VERY loud music began playing. Laura and I were in the very last row and actually faced backwards out a huge window at the back of the train. I turned around upon hearing the music and there was a man in FULL costume, complete with a scary mask and hat, dancing up and down the aisles with a fake little llama, or "llamita" if you will. This routine went on for a good ten minutes, including a moment when he reached us at the back and made a strange noise on behalf of his llamita into Laura´s ear. We had a good laugh and settled into our seats once the music was over. Until... more loud music...a fashion show!! These Peruvians are ALL about the mid-ride entertainment.

Another fun story, we planned to take a public bus up to Pisac, another town nearby, known for it´s beautiful ruins and great twice-a-week market. We went to where the hotel people told us to catch the bus, much the bus under the underpass of the highway in Lima, I assumed we´d say Pisac a few times and people would point and eventually a bus with Pisac written on it, or a man yelling Pisac from it´s doorway would appear. No such luck. At one point we got into a really nice van and the guy was going to take us up, but said we had to wait for two more people, we left. Prior to this moment, after much questioning and furrowed brows, peopled pointed to this scary, dodgey looking blue doorway. As if we were going to go through some doorway into a building to catch a bus to Pisac??!!!?? Upon realizing what they meant I think my exact words were, ¨No way! Yeah right! We´re not going in there!" After getting out of the nice van, we decided that we might as well just look into the doorway, low and behold it led into a gravel parking lot and like the joy of seeing the McDonald´s arches at 4 am we found a huge, nice giant bus with individual seats waiting to take folks to Pisac. Luckily we were some of the last people to get seats and we took off relatively quickly. The market was great, I did some comparative pricing and will go back, and the ruins were beautiful! We took another public bus home after dark and arrived safely at our hostal.

Most restaurants in Cusco are Pizzarias. It´s not real pizza though, sometimes there is no sauce and sometimes it´s almost ketchup. But we´re had some good meals. The rest is chicken and rice. On Friday night, we treated ourselves to a nice Italian restaurant and I actually had a CHICKEN CESAR SALAD. It was incredible to have vegetables. Since it was a nice place I risked having the local produce and was totally fine.

We met our family yesterday, and by family I mean a 55 year old woman and her 27 year old son that she hides in his room. "Carrola" is nice enough, but the 50 minute WALK TO CLASS is not so nice. Laura and I will split the cost of cabs for the week, but next week things will change. I just don´t want to have to deal with walking 50 minutes or paying for a cab about three or four times a day. So I´ve created an INCREDIBLE solution!!

Next week, at no extra charge, I will take Spanish classes in the Sacred Valley. It´s absolutely beautiful and will be nice to be away from the city for a little while. Then when I return I´ll move in with a family closer to the school so I can walk and get some exercise. Then my third weekend I´ll go to Lake Titicaca for the weekend and my last weekend, I fly back to the ATL!!

I have my first class this afternoon! I´m very excited! Then we have a welcome dinner tonight and lecture about a Inca ruin nearby that we hike to last week. Another night we have salsa lessons, cooking lessons, I think they´re showing "Frida", and some other activities as well.

Okay, I´m getting overrun by other students. Adios! -EKY V.