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.