Finally have internet, sorry for the delay!

Thursday January 6^th, 2010

I have finally arrived in Cusco, Peru! It’s 7:39pm and I am sitting on my bed in my room, which is small, but that doesn’t bother me—I’ll think of it as cozy J I’ll give a brief summary of my trip, which ended up being much more exciting (aka stressful) than I expected.

I arrived at the Grand Rapids airport around 10am with plenty of time to catch my 11:50am departure. I would then have plenty of time in Atlanta to get to my departure for Lima at 5:15pm. But apparently that wasn’t meant to be. Instead, the plane arrived 3 hours late. The Delta employee told there was a good chance I’d miss my next flight and that my options were to stay overnight in Grand Rapids and book the same flights for the next day or to go to Atlanta and attempt to make my connecting flight. If I didn’t make the flight I would stay in a hotel in Atlanta for the night. Of course, I decided to go for it. I changed my seat to the front of the plane and when I got off in Atlanta I literally ran to my next gate. If you’ve ever been to the airport in Atlanta, you might appreciate how long the run was from terminal C to terminal T, and of course both gates were at the very end of each terminal!

But in the end, luck was with me. I arrived red-faced and out of breath at gate T1 to find that they were boarding the last group of passengers. It was a group of 18 Japanese tourists who were also late for the flight. Because of them the flight was delayed 10 minutes, and because of them I made the flight. I’ve never been more grateful for Japanese tourists.

During the 6 hour flight, my transition into the Spanish-speaking world began. All of the people sitting around me spoke Spanish and most of the flight attendants were bi-lingual. To be honest, it scared me a little and I was very nervous to speak Spanish to anyone, so it was a very quiet flight for me.

I arrived in Lima around midnight, which left me with 6 hours to kill before my flight to Cusco. This turned out to be a very good thing, because I spent a couple of hours doing everything wrong in the airport. My biggest mistake was this: when I checked my baggage I asked if I would need to transfer it when I changed airlines in Peru and they told me no, that it would arrive at the city on the tag, which was Cusco. That turned out to be completely wrong (thanks so much Delta airlines). So when I went to check into the airline LanPeru, they told me I needed it and I had to be escorted by an employee backwards through the airport to get my bags. Very embarrassing!

Overall, I found the Lima airport to be very confusing and poorly laid-out, even though most of the signs were translated into English as well. If you ever travel to Peru, contact me and I can help describe the airport a bit so you’re not as lost as I was! But eventually I figured things out and made it to my gate with plenty of time to spare and finally boarded my flight to Cusco around 6am. I slept for most of the 1 hour flight, but when I did look out the window, oh my, the mountains were incredible. They were so huge and mostly covered in snow. Some were so tall that they made the clouds around them seem very low to the ground. And flying into Cusco itself was incredible, too. It truly is a city nestled in the mountains, surrounded on all sides.

I was picked up by a couple of people who work at Centro Tinku, which is the language school where I will be taking classes, starting Monday. By the time we arrived at my host family’s house I was thoroughly overwhelmed and also a little out of breath. My heart was beating faster than normal in response to the new altitude of11,000 feet above sea level.

My host family is a father (72 years old) and daughter (30 years old) and they are very kind. They gave me coca tea, which is supposed to help with the adjustment to the altitude, and we had some breakfast. But I couldn’t eat much and was still very overwhelmed, especially with trying to speak and understand Spanish. I have to be honest, I felt like an idiot and eventually started crying at the table (like I said, I was thoroughly overwhelmed). Great first impression, right? But in my defense I hadn’t slept in 24 hours. I went and lay down in my new room and slept for 3 hours and felt much better when I woke up. The first thing I heard was a little scratching at my door and when I opened it I found dogs! I had been told that the family had 2 dogs, but they actually have 5; to me, the more dogs the merrier J They’re all smaller and very cute—I love them all already. The daughter, Paty, adopted them all from the streets (there are many “perros abandonados” or abandoned dogs here—it’s sad).

But my favorite thing about the family’s dogs is that they don’t speak and I don’t have to speak to them. Furthermore, I have a greater understanding of what it’s like to be a dog now, to hear conversation all around you but to understand nothing. That’s not to say I never understand, but often I have to ask people to repeat things, talk slower, and look up words in my pocket dictionary (life saver!). But of course I know I will learn, little by little, and be less frustrated.

I have already met many friends and family. A friend of Paty, Miguel, joined us for lunch. He seemed very nice and already asked me if I would teach him English! I told him I am not a teacher but that I would try. After dinner some relatives came over. I’m a little confused as to how everyone’s related still, but they were all very nice, too. And there is a woman who cooks for the family sometimes, Lucia, who I chatted with (to the best of my abilities). Alberto (my host father) and I also went to the market nearby to pick up some gloves (so I can help with the dishes) and a few other things.

Those are the basics of my first day in Peru. If my writing seems strange at all it’s because already it’s feels weird to think/write in English, and it’s only been one day! I don’t want to think about how hard it will be after 3 months…

Friday January 7, 2011

I don’t think I’ll be able to use the internet until Monday when I go to Centro Tinku, so I’m just going to keep writing and post as soon as a can!

I slept quite a bit last night and felt good in the morning. My only complaint is that I was a little sore because my bed is quite firm. The best comparison I can think of for my bed is a very compacted futon mattress. Anyway, here are the highlights of my second day in Peru:

At 11am, Paty and I took a taxi to the Mercado Central because we needed to get dresses for the wedding. Her brother is getting married in a small town nearby (they said about a 4 hour drive) and apparently it’s necessary to wear a dress. Taking a taxi is very cheap. It was 3 soles, which is about $1, to get there. The traffic and driving is terrifying though. It seems like the ‘rules of the road’ are pretty loosely followed and several times I thought we were going to hit or be hit by another car. I don’t even want to image myself trying to drive a car here!

But we made it safely to the market and found the dress shops. The stores are very small and I didn’t really know what was going on most of the time. The first dress I tried on fit, so I stuck with that, not wanting to try on any more. Paty tried on a few at two different stores and finally found one. I assumed we were buying the dresses, but I eventually figured out that we were renting them and are going to return them on Monday! I was confused and surprised by it at first, but it seems like a perfectly sensible system.

I was originally told that we were going to leave for the wedding today at 3pm, but I recently found out that we’re going to leave tomorrow in the morning. It doesn’t make much of a difference to me, but I am excited to visit this smaller town and excited for the wedding—it’s bound to be an interesting cultural experience.

Sunday January 9, 2011

It’s 8:00pm and we just arrived back in Cusco. We left yesterday morning; Paty, Alberto (my host father), Regina (Paty’s cousin), Miguel (Paty’s friend), Alberto (my host father Alberto’s son), tía Maria, tío Flabio and me, all in a van. The wedding was in Abancay, which is a 3 to 4 hour drive in the mountains. As you can imagine, a drive through the Andes mountains is very scenic and beautiful—I took a ton of photos. But as you probably can also imagine, it’s VERY curvy and terrifying at times. For example, you’re rounding a hairpin turn and suddenly a semi is coming straight at you in your lane (I guess they like to take the corners wide). Tío Flabio drove and did a great job, but I wouldn’t say that he drove smoothy or took much care to brake BEFORE we got to each curve. And when there is hairpin turn after hairpin turn, let’s just say it’s not all that comfortable. Mom, I’m positive that if you’d been in the car you would have demanded to be let out and would’ve walked instead.

As a side note, I think I’ve figured out the most important rule of the road here. As I mentioned before, the driving is crazy, but I’ve figured out how they determine who has the right of way: whoever honks or honks first has the right of way. If a person is crossing the street and a car is coming, the driver honks and then the pedestrian has to run to get out of the way. Likewise with other cars; if someone honks it means get out of my way or watch out because I’m coming up on you fast. And they honk a lot.

On the way we pulled over for some fast food in one of the small towns we passed through. And by fast food I don’t mean McDonalds, I mean we pulled over to the side of the road and bought choclo and cheese from a street vendor. The best description I can think of for choclo is corn but with much larger kernels and it’s quite good. There’s a photo of the one I ate.

Despite the crazy mountain driving, we arrived in Abancay safe and sound. Previously I described Cusco as a city nestled in the mountains, but this description suits Abancay much better. When I first saw the city it was from the top of the mountain we had just driven up. Looking down at the city was quite a view (sorry, no picture because I’d lost my camera in the van by this point and it was dead on the way back L). It’s smaller than Cusco and is surrounded by taller mountains—very beautiful.

The wedding was yesterday evening and it was really not much different from other weddings and receptions I’ve been to. I think that has everything to do with the Spanish bringing Christianity to Peru—it was a Catholic wedding. Most of the non-religious things were the same, too, including the bouquet toss and garter! The reception was quite fun once the formalities were out of the way. There were lots of appetizers followed by dinner, then champagne, then wine, then beer, then whisky, then rum and coke (no lack of beverages!). There was a live band and lots of dancing. We staying until around 3am and then Miguel, Paty, Regina and I went to a discoteca (nightclub). For the record, this wasn’t my idea. I was already quite tired, but I’m glad we went. You know me—I loooove to dance J We didn’t leave until around 7am and by that time I was practically falling asleep on my feet. These Peruvians are wearing me out already!

For breakfast I had pineapple juice, which was made with pureed pineapple and water—very delicious, highly recommend it. After hanging out in the Plaza de Armas, taking some family photos, and having lunch with the newlyweds plus family/friends, we hit the winding road once again.

Of course, having slept for about 3 hours last night (and it was impossible to nap in the car, what with being tossed back and forth constantly) I’m pretty tired. I’ll get some good rest tonight so that I’m ready for my first class tomorrow! I’m excited to finally see the school and start my studies. I’m learning a lot as it is, but I think classes about the language will help move me along much quicker.

I enjoyed the wedding and getting to know the family. Furthermore, Regina (she’s Paty’s cousin and just a couple years older than me) lives in Arequipa, which is another major city of Peru I want to visit. She said I can come to Arequipa and stay with her—I’ll definitely be taking her up on that!

Overall, I had a great time this weekend—me divertí como chanco, as they say here. This roughly translates to “I enjoyed myself like a pig”…  I don’t understand the expression, but I like it :D