Salkantay, Cuy, and Shaving

I just ate guinea pig. A whole one, head still attached. All they really do is kill them, put a hole in their stomachs, and remove the insides. After that they are stuck in an oven and then served to you. It looks exactly like a guinea pig, all crispy and brown. Its good too, not incredible, but good. Ana ate the eyes out of hers, but I didn´t.

The salkantay trek was awesome. Including machu picchu it was about 50 something miles of walking between monday and friday. We started out in the mountains and the first night of camping it got below freezing, lame to sleep in. The second day we walked 10 hours, first climing up to Salkantay (big mountain) to the highest point in the trip, 4600 meters. It is really tough to breathe, and one guy brought an oxygen tank. If you take a quick hit of oxygen, its instant rejuvenation, kind of cool actually. Coming down the other side of Salkantay you enter into a big valley, the whole trip is lord of the rings ish. The valley turns into Jungle, and you walk along cliffs with the urubamba river about 1000 feet or so beneath. This is when mosquitos come out, and around 5 o clock on the second day we found our camp, which is reminiscent of predator, especially when we found carved out chunks of cow meat on the roof of one of the buildings. That night our tent wouldn´t close so I slept under the mosquito net.

By the next day some of the sand flies and mosquitos had bitten, and they itch like hell now. We walked another 6 hours or so the next day, through the jungle and down closer to the urubamba until making camp in Santa Teresa where there were nice hot springs. Thursday was a good deal of walking, though the ground was flat which made it easier, the previous days was constant up and down. We arrived in aguas calientes (the city outside machu picchu where you have to stay a night before seeing the city) to heavy rain and lightning. Its very yosemite looking, only the valley is narrower and the mountains steeper. I took my first hot shower since Lima, and on Friday we woke up at 330 to climb the 400 something vertical steps up to the entrance of the city. All in all, really cool.

Tonight we leave, a bus to Arequipa and then I´m taking one to Pisco. I´ll leave Pisco Wednesday for Lima and get on our plane Thursday morning. Woot.

Last Day in Cusco

The month has come to an end. Its really strange because it flew by. The only thing I will not miss are cramped bus rides. I´m going to eat guinea pig tonight if all goes according to plan. The only other strange food I´ve eaten here so far is cow heart, which you can buy on the street, and alpaca meat, which isn´t that strange but really good.

Tomorrow we leave on our trek for Machu Picchu which means that our trip is essentially over. We leave at 4 or 5 am and get back to Cusco on Friday night. Saturday night I´m leaving to go back to Pisco, where I should arrive on Sunday around noon. Then its Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday back to Lima for our flight out on Thursday morning. It is going to go by fast. The bus I´m taking first goes to Arequipa, and then to Ica and Pisco. A few days ago a bus crashed going to Arequipa from Cusco and 13 people died, and since it happened so recently I´ll probably be safe because there aren´t often deadly bus crashes in the same location twice in one week.

We went to lake Titicaca on Tuesday and Wednesday since we got 2 days off for Peruvian Independence Day. The bus ride was about 6 hours and we arrived at 4 in the morning and had to wait 2 hours or so to be picked up by our tour people. They took us to a hotel, where we sat in the lobby for about 30 minutes, and then a bus came and they told us to get on. The lake was cool, but not cool enough to want to hear about, except for the fact that there are people who live on the lake on islands they have made out of dirt and reed.

Friday was the last day of teaching. One class bought me cake and soda and a scarf and a backpack, it was pretty cool. This was the class that I had had to teach by myself for 2 weeks since a lot of the professors left. It was tough, but a good time, and I got cake and soda and a scarf and backpack out of it so it was all worth it in the end.

The trek to Macchu Pichu is 5 days. On the second day we hike somewhere around 15,000 feet, really high up. It is supposed to be ridiculously cold the first two nights, and then hot and mosquitoey for the rest of the trek. From everything we have heard, it is supposed to be awesome.

Theres lots more thats been done and a lot more to say, but I forget everything as soon as I sit down to write. I´ll have better stories when I get back.

Puaycartambo & Pisac

Last thursday we headed up to Puaycartambo for la salida del sol, it is supposed to be the most epic sunrise imaginable because the sun dances, and the only other place in the world you can see it happen is China. I wouldn´t know though, because when the sun rose on Friday it was cloudy. We took a 4 hour bus ride up to the city of Puaycartambo which is up in the Andes somewhere. On the way, our bus broke down twice. Ónce because it ran out of gas, the other time I do not know why. The road is dirt, windy, and bumpy, and habitually runs directly along cliffs that mean you die if the bus goes off. Its more or less a one lane road the entire way, so at times our bus had to stop and back up in order to get to a place where two buses or a bus and a car could squeeze by. The sunrise is accompanied by a celebration in pt for the virgen del carmen, which means that the entire town gets drunk and hangs out. This is what we found when we got there, but apart from seeing an almost fight, there wasn´t too much exciting. We took a cab 2 hours up to tres cruces where you watch the sunrise, slept in the cab for 2 hours once we got there, and then woke up to no sunrise at all. It was then a 6 hour trip back, and along the way we saw the bus we took up to PT pulled off on the side of the road, with the transmission laying on the ground next to it. It was a shitty bus, and a terrible trip.

Sunday we headed to Pisac, about an hour away from Cusco its got some cool ruins. It also has a gigantic market where you can buy almost anything Peruvianey, and a woman there sold the best tamales in the history of time. The view from the ruins is pretty nice too, they are at the peaks of the mountains around the valley, they´re cool in general. There were more bus adventures on the way back; When buses are full, the rule is shove until you are on the bus. We made it, but had to stand the whole way, sandwiched between people.

A lot of the professors at the school have been gone lately, which has meant that I´ve been the only teacher in classes. Its fun, but difficult, since I´ve never taught English and don´t speak spanish that well, but it seems to be working out. Teaching is cool in general.

Some friends of our from Pisco came up Saturday night. We went to a bar called the lek, its off the plaza de armas, and is overpriced compared to the local bars, where a large beer is about 2 to 3 us dollars. A magician came up and did tricks that even the 2/5ths of us who weren´t wasted found amazing. Again, the bars and night life in Cusco are the best.

I made a cake today before lunch (Mom, your recipe) and everyone loved it, but we had to replace the sour cream with cream cheese because sour cream doesn´t exist here. There are women on the street here who sell anticucho. Its the most delicious skewer you will ever eat, and its either beef or chiken with a potato on the end. They´re cooked on open grills in the street and cost about 75 cents. There are ones that I haven´t tried yet where the meat is pure heart, and apparently delicious.

Day 27 - Malaria Pills

Malaria pills are cool because they give you whacky dreams, and thats probably the only reason I still take them. This morning I woke up and hit the chair next to my bed yelling, ¨Who is under my bed?¨

We went down to some of the bars last night. The first one was a local place that was pretty cool, and the second one was a white people bar called Paddy´s where everything was overpriced but the garlic bread was pretty good.

Teaching english is a good time. I mostly work with the professor Ruben, who speaks decent english and is from Cusco. The classes are small, anywhere from 4 to 10 students. Classes are also way more relaxed and laid back than in the US, I got to my first morning class at 8 only to find that class doesn´t really start until about 8:20. A day in class usually consists of going over some part of the english language, then we joke around and talk and do nothing for a while, and then teach a little bit more. I don´t have very many hours right now, I´ll hopefully get more, because its not like theres something exciting to do with every available minute, theres a good amount of down time.

I should probably talk about colectivos. They are basically astrovans that have been converted to be like small buses. The are stop and go, very crowded, and can get hot. If you have to sit facing backwards its a test in how long you can avoid vomiting, and there isn´t space to sit really if you´re 6´2¨ which means I´m mostly mashed inbetween seats. I have to take them four times a day, 20 to 25 minutes one way, and its the only thing that I really don´t enjoy about Peru.

You can also see the milky way. Its not just a stip of stars, its this gray nebulous thing that you can see every night.

I waited 20 minutes in the internet cafe for the 3 minute replay of Jonathan Sanchez´s no hitter to load. The two things I miss the most from the states are without a doubt pizza and baseball. You can´t get either one here, because baseball isn´t on tv, and their pizza is shit. The sauce is always sweet and the cheese just isn´t the same, its not good. Billy who also works at Cipermum (the school I work at) is heading home soon, and said the first thing he will get when he returns is Pizza. I´ll do the same, and in fact, food is the number one thing I wish I had from the states. Other than pizza theres sandwiches and mexican food, really not that much, but the craving is so intense. The flavors of home food I definitely miss. I think as of yesterday or today we have exactly one month left, which is really strange, and tomorrow we will have been here for one month. Time flies.

Day Something - Cusco

We had our last day in Pisco on Saturday, we left around 10 on a bus to Ica, where we planned on taking a bus to cusco. When we got there we found out that cruz del sur was sold out of tickets until monday, and we were forced to take Cial, which operates out of a run down shady looking station far away from all the other bus terminals. Unlike cruz, it was only 90 soles, instead of 165. The bus food was terrible, but not nearly as bad as 17 hours on a bus. We were able to sleep most of the night. By the morning we were driving up into the Andes, which are rather snowless but very beautiful. A couple of passes reach 13,000 feet, which really just an unnecessary way to make passengers feel lightheaded, nauseous, and frustrated. The roads are all switchbacks which makes going to the bathroom impossible.

Eventually, 17 hours after we left, we made it. Our homestay mom Ana picked us up from the bus station. Her husband works in Juarez, I think, which is up in the north. She has a son, Carlos, and a daughter, Patricia, 20 and 19 respectively, I think. They do not speak any English either, as expected. A couple of Americans who had stayed with Ana just prior to our arrival came by and hung out with us, and then all of us plus Carlos went to the plaza de armas by bus and hiked up to the Cristo Blanco, a giant jesus statue overlooking cusco, which sits in a valley between mountains.

Put simply, Cusco is the most beautiful city in the world. We are staying in San Jeronimo, a barrio at the east end of the city, the plaza is 25 minutes west by bus. The outlying parts of the city are much better than what you would expect in South America, they are relatively clean, there are universities, bla bla bla. The plaza de armas is magnificent. The streets are all made of stone, many of them san francisco steep, and some just wide enough to fit a car. It is clean, there is lots to see and do, and it is very easy to understand why it is considered to be one of the most if not the most beautiful city in South America.

But when you breathe, you breathe nothing. All you get is a dry sensation in your mouth and nose. If you stick your hand out the window of a bus going 40, you don´t really feel that much wind, and frisbees do not function according to everyone here. At random times I will lay down on my bed breathe as if I had just run for 30 minutes. The altitude hasn´t really been a problem though, other than the lightheadedness on the first day here, which goes away after coca tea and a day of rest.

Spanish speaking is also difficult. Much easier in the morning when you´ve got energy, but more difficult later in the day. For the first 30 minutes of dinner I was having trouble keeping up with the conversation, but after that it flowed easily, and I managed to have an approximate 20 minute conversation with Carlos. Its weird, sometimes its easy, sometimes its impossible. There is an immediate switch from the feeling of knowing spanish to the feeling of being completely lost in the language. Our representative for our program came by, and she spoke relatively slowly and clearly, and I could understand 95% of it, but as soon as the pace and accent picks up, its much more difficult.

There are lots of gringos in the plaza de armas, which is comforting, but there are none in San Jeronimo. Its easy to feel very out of place initially amongst all the looks and stares, but after a day here it already feels pretty comfortable. The family we are staying with are all real cool, Carlos is in his last year of university to be a lawyer, they have a small dog named dodger who barks at almost all passing people and dogs, there are a couple cows that come by the house to graze in front of it, the sky is very very very clear, the constellations are different except for orion, its cold at night and perfect in the day. About 70 degrees. When the sun is on you you can feel it, its intense. Once you step into the shade or the sun goes behind a cloud, you are cold.

MJ, Billy Mays, Farah Fawcett, and Steve McNair (?) are all dead now. Many people listen to the radio station seta rocknpop, which plays about three things, the god damn apple bottom jeans song, anything and everything by the black eyed peas, and strangely enough the funkytown theme song.

Day 11 - Stuff

Its a three day weekend, today is the dia de los pescadores, I guess because fisherman are really awesome. Its a good thing too because working every day is really really tiring in the long run. There is a parade down the road about 20 minutes away for the holiday.

The project I'm working on now is building a house out of scrap wood in el molino, an area of town where most people relocated after the earthquake. The family there are fun to talk to since they understand that we suck at Spanish, and the woman who lives there, Maria, is a fantastic cook. Most of the dishes here are based around chicken and potatoes, usually accompanied with delicious sauce.

There isn't too much else to say, lots of people have left Pisco and others have shown up recently, theres a pretty high rate of turnover.

Pisco is awesome.

Day 6 - Pisco

Pisco is a pretty good place to be. After about 24 hours you know everyone here, which is a total of about 40 people. It has also been sunny every day and about 70 something degrees. Today 11 of us did a concrete roof pour, which is exactly what it sounds like. Normally these projects are supposed to take 3 hours, we ended up working from about 9:50 until 6:30, just moving concrete from the mixer on the street to the roof of a building. I partially fell through the roof twice while carrying cement, and now I have small leg cuts with cement in them. Along with that my left forearm is bruised from carrying buckets and a lot of the skin has been rubbed off, but its not that gross.

Yesterday at a work site I saw a kid, probably 4 years old, pick up a cockroach off the ground, a big one. He would pull off a part of its body and put it on the ground and let it crawl away. He would grab it again, tear off more cockroach parts, and then let it go again. He would even just hold it in his hand for a while with it squirming trying to escape. Eventually after he had picked off enough body parts, wings, e.t.c. he killed it. Peruvian toys are different than American toys.

Peruvian churros are also different than California churros. They are soft, kind of like croissants, but a little longer and narrower. They are fried and coated with powdered sugar and cinnamon, and the inside has something like a donut glaze, street vendors sell them for under 1 sole each.