Saturday January 15^th, 2011

This was a laid-back Saturday, but here are the highlights:  Alberto and I went to a market in the Plaza Tupac Amaru (it’s there every Saturday). There was quite a variety of things there—plants, belts, jewelry, furniture, books, etc. In general, the price of most of the items (when converted to $US) was CHEAP. They say you should always barter to a lower price, but that’s hard for me when it’s so cheap in the first place! I also tried “queso helado” at the market, which I guess means “cheese ice cream,” although it had a different consistency than ice cream and was still sweet. It was quite delicious—if you ever get the opportunity you should try it.

This is a photo of Alberto in front of the monument of Tupac Amaru (he was a hero), which is at the center of the Plaza Tupac Amaru.

In the afternoon I had the fortune of successfully finding a café with free Wifi. Pay for one coffee and use the internet for 2 hours—very agreeable to me.

In the evening Paty and I went to the surprise birthday party for Jisela. We were late (Paty always works late) and thus arrived after the surprise portion, but it was fun regardless. Peruvians seem to be quite a fun bunch, full of joking and dancing.

This is an action shot of Jisela and her husband dancing… and someone’s arm…

It seems that it’s also a custom at birthday parties for everyone to say something about the birthday person. Of course, I thought I would be exempted from this, but I wasn’t. I said something like ‘I met Jisela just recently, but in this time I already like her a lot!’ Although it was probably even more awkward sounding than that due to my continued struggle with the Spanish language. Around midnight we—you guessed it!—went to a discoteca. This discoteca was rather large and pretty classy (as far as discotecas go). We danced and danced until about 4am and then finally went home.

Sunday January 16^th, 2011

To be honest, I hadn’t been too keen on staying out late last night because this morning I had to wake up at 7:30am. I had made plans to join Jean-Jacques (director of Centro Tinku) and his friend on their weekly hike with their dogs.  Overall the hike was excellent. We hiked up into the mountains surrounding Cusco though rural parts, forested parts, past ruins, across creeks…

Beginning the ascent. Jean-Jacque on the left and Telma on the right.

My first sight of Inca ruins, up close and personal! Ika (Telma’s giant lab) also appears in this photo.

Jean-Jacques playing fetch with Korie (this is the Quechua word for gold because she’s a golden retriever!) Ika is in the foreground. These flat areas are the terraces built by the Inca’s, which are very convenient for playing fetch nowadays ;)

This photo speaks for itself. Me, happy as can be in the mountains with a donkey :D

Cusco

A taste of the scenery

More Incan ruins. This site is called the Cárcel de los Incas (cárcel means jail). This is where we stopped to snack. 

This was the worst part of the hike (the aftermath), but it was totally worth the pain. Now, before you go lecturing me, let me say that I was wearing SPF 30 sunscreen during this hike. The sun here is even stronger that I expected, so to fight back today (Monday) I bought SPF 55. If that doesn’t do the job, then I guess I’ll just have to admit defeat and cover every inch of my skin when I go for a hike…

Monday January 17^th, 2011

The highlight of today was learning how to wash my clothes by hand. Paty told me yesterday ‘If you have the money, pay to have your clothes washed for you because doing it yourself is horrible.’ But I said ‘No, I want to learn and if it really is horrible, then I want to have that horrible experience.’ In hindsight, she was mostly right. It’s not fun at all, but it’s given me a profound new appreciation for washing machines. It is my conviction that much of the cultural development in the arts, music, science, etc. has come about due to the time and energy liberated by the invention of the washing machine. I know I was especially slow at it because it was my first time, but my goodness! I think I spent a good 3 1/2 hours washing what would have been one load of clothes. Lucia (she cooks and cleans for the family sometimes) was making fun of me because it took me so long. She called me ‘super lavadora Laura’ and I responded with ‘super lento!’ It was all in good fun J I think tomorrow my rear end and back will be sore for having sat bent over a tub for so long! But I’m glad I learned this new skill and as long as I have the time, I think I’ll continue to do it during my time here. When in Rome… right?

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this yet, but Peruvians in general are shorter than people in the states. After this experience today, I’ve finally figured out why evolution here favored shorter people—less fabric to wash. So, if I come home wearing super skimpy clothing (shorts and tank-tops every day) it won’t be because I’ve taken a sudden liking to showing my skin, it will because I got sick of washing so much fabric!