Uhhh, yes it´s been three weeks

Seeing as I only have eight days remaining in Peru, I figured I should add another blog. Unfortunately, I´ve sort of lost the "blogging" spirit so it´ll likely be short and sweet for once (or perhaps NORMAL by everyone else´s standards).

I spent last week in Taray, a TINY town in the Sacred Valley. I think there may be 100 residents there, and that would be pushing it. Myself and eight other students stayed in a house owned by the school. We had all our meals there and took classes with our teachers in the mornings. In the afternoons we went on various excursions around Taray. Taray is a 20 minute walk to Pisac, a reasonable sized town, with internet, shops, and cold beer. We´d walk to Pisac almost everyday for one reason or another. It is a beautiful walk down a dirt road along a river with gorgeous mountains surrounding you on all sides.

The house was great, complete with a pool (although the water was WAY too cold to swim in), a pool table, a pingpong table, and some great hammocks. Our excursions included a trip to some nearby saltmines, the ruins at Pisac (which I had already seen but were once again beautiful), and a pretty much Emmakate Young guided tour to a waterfall. We had great fun at the house and all became pretty close given the circumstances. OH!! One afternoon included a game between a Peruvian teacher (40 years old probably) and me against two Dutch boys who were convinced I couldn´t play. Despite the hinderance of the altitude, Rudolfo and I easily put away the orange-boys, won beer for the night, and I once again showed a third-world country that women can play futbal. It was GREAT!

We got back and I decided not to temp fate and remain with Carrolla at my former homestay. She´s VERY nice, lets me practice Spanish, feeds me decent enough food, has a semi-decent shower (despite a horrible stench that sometimes make me gag while brushing my teeth), and the house is safe. So I stayed with her and it´s been great.

Tonight I´ll take an overnight bus to Lake Titicaca with four other girls I know (two I know, two are friends of one of them). For the seventh week in a row (more or less) I still have a horrible cold and a stuffy week. And for the first time I´ve given in to antibiotics. One of my travel buddies for tonight is a doctor and she took me to the pharmacy to get a z-pack. Hopefully I´ll be better in a few days, otherwise, I´ll try to get to a doctor next week before I return as an uninsured nomad to Atlanta for a month or two.

Tomorrow night we´ll all spend the night on a man made island of floating reeds, I think, or atleast we´ll visit one. The island we´re staying on doesn´t have hotels, so you basically get off the bus tomorrow morning and families are waiting there to take you in for a small fee. It should be fun.

Next week will include some frantic shopping for presents for my immediate family (sorry everyone else, I´m broke :)), 20 hours of one-on-one classes, and a few dinners with friends.

I thought about writing this whole thing in Spanish. It wouldn´t have been this detailed, but I could´ve done it. Read up on your Spanish cause an all espanol blog is in your near future. :) Love to everyone. - EKY V.