Trip to Cancha Cancha

On Sunday i got up at 5 in the morning in the dark and cold to get ready to walk to Cancha Cancham which is a mountain community part of Huaran up high in the mountains. Everyone said to wear lots of clothes as there was likely to be snow there. I ended up in a t-shirt because so hot walking. We loaded up some horses with clothing donations and there was about thirty people because a lot of locals walked with us. Hauran is about 2900m altitude and cancha cancha is 4000m approx which means we ascended over 1000m in 4 hours. I was a little worried a bout my knee but in the end it was fine. Halfway up we stoppped for a snakc and everyone started coca leaves. I chewed some too but somehow i swallowed them all and after that i had so much energy i was striding ahead. We saw so many llamas on the way and followed a very rapid river the whole time. The view along the way was breathtaking as we were surrounded by steep mountains, and greenery, and the river and towards then end we could see snow capped peaks. At Canch Cancha it looked very small with scattered mud-brick houses around the place. It was so freezing there that i could barely do anything other than sit huddled. We sat utside for hours because they were making lunch for us and no one thought we might be cold! We had a gringos versus Cancha Cancha soccer game which of course they won. The clothing they wear is so colourful with bright pinks and oranges and puffy skirts and squarish hats. We eventually got invited inside for lunch. They had cooked about a hundred potatoes and just put them on a huge woven cloth in the centre of the table. There was also little tiny cut sausages and wedges of local cheese. The idea was you just grab a potato in your hand, grab a sausage and some cheese and just eat. That´s what we all did as we were so cold and hungry that we didn´t mind, plus it was tasty anyway. We had more coca tea for the altitiude and then started to leave. On the way down my foot was so sore from my boots so i was dragging it along. I kept thinking we were almost home but it kept going on and on. I was feeling really unwell probably from the altitide so i just kept walking and towards the end when everyone had split up and was walking at the ir own pace i was getting wierd looks from the locals and from the horses as i bolted down the path and scrambled over rocks i was so keen to get home and be first in the hot shower! Everyone was eventually back by early evening and luckily Frida had cooked dinner for us knowing that we would all be exhausted.

This is one of the trips that we will advertise for backpackers to come for. It is already a passing point for the hot springs nearby but we plan to make it a feature. It is definitly a walk worth advertising and one of the best walks i´ve ever done. Every time i blinked i saw a new photo!

The Laundry Incident

Well after being so excited on saturday about getting my washing done there was a whole adventure that happened on saturday afternoon after trying to collect my washing. Me, Bronte and Luisa went to collect our clothes at five o´clock after waiting patiently in urabamba for several hours. We got there and in Spanish we deciphered that the lady was telling us to that the washing would be ready in two days!! we were like no way, because i hade given them all my clothes except the ones i was wearing! Plus we had to get the bus back to huaran. So she brought one of our clothes out and showed us it was dripping wet and said they don´t have a dryer!! We waited there for forty minutes while they ¨dried¨ the clothes and put our wet clothes into plastic bags. She then overcharged us for our wet clothes and later ran after us three blocks away to hand us some wet underwear that she left out. Later we discovered why it took them so long because each of our clothes had a piece of coloured sewn into the label to tell them which was which. We were cracking because even every single sock had a string in it. That must have taken hours!! But it was wasn´t funny at the time because everyone had gone home, and it was dark and the last bus to Huaran had supposedly left. So we ran to bus stop and luckily the bus hadn´t left yet then stood there for 20 minutes squashed in the aisle with my wet clothes. We then got off and none of use had a torch so we walked up the pitch black path past the scary dogs and finally got home. When we got there no one cared and we weren´t allowed dinner because we were late!! grrr...later that night i hung out my wet clothes in the dark...i could have wet my own clothes...that´s the easy bit. i was looking forward to clena AND dry clothes.

My first week in Huaran

I have been in Huaran now for a week and three days and it is so good to come to Urabamba and use the net and hear about the outside world! The bus ride here was so squashed but i am getting used to the bus rides here where people don´t know the meaning of personal space or of personal hygiee sometimes. Buthten again i can´t really talk because this week i wore the same clothes three days in a row. at least. For the first week here i had no hot shower. every morning i tried and every morning it was icy cold. Pplus i was sick this week with a cold so that didn´t help. But then, one grand fine day i tried turning on the sink tap at the same time and the shower came warm and suddenly the world was a beautiful place again! That trick has now worked every day without fail. There is still the problem of getting my clothes washed. I hand washed on monday and the clothes got wet everyday as it is the rainy season still. So today four of us dragged our laundry bags onto the bus and found a little hole in the wall where we had to knock because appparently was a laundry and someone finally came to the door and we said lavanderia?? so my clothes are now being washed for three dollars. yayyy!

My roommate has typhoid! She got taken to the hosptial and no one knows how she got it...but apparently we can´t catch it from her. But it was a shock to find out the next day that she has typhoid. it is lucky they caught it early.

On sunday we got the bus to Pisac where there are some ruins and a town etc. It was a fun day but very tiring with a lot of walking up terraced hills to get to the ruins. On the way home we got off the bus about ten minutes before Huaran where there was a sunday arvo communtiy soccer game being played. There were a few hundred people there and everyone just stared at us as 13 gringos sat down and began watching. I have become very careful about taking photos around the local children because they are serioiusly ferocious with the cameras. On the request of two little kids i had to tka eabout twenty photos of them and they grab the camera off you and try to look at the photos and just won´t take no for an answer. There were about 40 or 50 kids eventually crowding aroiund us all and eventually i hid my camera! We then ran on the field at half time andplayed a game with the kids. Rathjer than actually playing soccer they just hold your hand and run around with you. One little boy attached himself to me and followed my everywhere and then gradually there was a string of 5 kids holding on. Naomi had a bag of oranges she had bought at the markets and she got the bag out and within 15 seconds she had been smwamped by all the kids and then suddnely they were gone and Naomi was lying flat on the ground with only the torn shreds of a plastic bag where the oranges had once been. I was shocked. When we eventually tried to leave all the kids were jumping on us and pulling us down and two kids jumped on me and i fell over backwards, did a somersualt into the mud then got up and ran for my life! All the adults behind were watching and laughing their heads off. It was really fun though and the kids are really cute.

On monday we started work on the Hacienda finally. I have never worked so hard physically on anything. By wednesday i could barley walk because my muscles were so sore. So far we have cleared the huge front garden artea of weeds. I did the pick-axing and shoveling. On tuedsay the guys and me were outside again compacting the path. we tried standing in aline and linking arms and then jumpoing along the path to flatten. Eventually the maestro got some huge rockes and tied a stick to them so we could lift them in pairs to flatten the path.

That reminds me, the head construction local guy is called maestro...we have to call him that out of respect! It reminds of that Senfled episode.

Every day after working from 9 till 1 we have a big lunch made by the community that we have paid for. They always serve a soup, a local main course and it is always the best part of the day...we are working so hard that i am always hungry!

By thursday we were mixing concrete for the front path for which we had constructed formwork for and i even got to do hammering with the maestro, hehe, and he said muy bien to me.

I ended spending two hours wheelbarrowing barrows of of concrete 100m back and forth for the maestro to shovel on to the path. All the guys and had gone inside because they were too tired so i was out there going back and forth and it was really fun. I think i am getting some muscles! That day we had a leadership change (in pairs we are taking turns being leaders for week) and the two outgoing leaders gave everyone a ¨certificate¨ and they gave me the ¨quiet but deadly¨award .

On wednesday we had our official first meeting with the communtiy to plan the lesson timetables. A lot oif people turned out fro mthe five communtiies that make up Huaran. There were about 60 kids, 20 youths, and 15 adults. We are going to teach english through tourism (a lot want to get into tourism) , art, sport, games and theatre. To introduce ourselves we did a fifteen minute theatrical performance that we had rehearsed. We acted out the story of how we came here and aboiut australia and sang waltzing matilda and other songs. There was alot of impromptu singing where they would just say get up and sing us a round, so got up and sang! Not something i would usually do but somehow didn´t mind because we were all together.

We have to take turns in cooking and whenever we cook the lady who owns the house always insists on being in the kitchen. I understand her point of view but it is really frustrating because i know exactly what i´m doing, but she comes along and starts and doing everything for us. We tried to make potato bake last week...but she didn´´t understand so it turned into potato stew or something grr. I end up standing aroiund with nothing to do while she does it sort of wrong. But she is a very nice lady and has welcomed us into her home and is kind to everyone. Every morning she boils up some milk from the cow and it tastes really good. The other day we had some really good meat and as we were all eating and going hmm öne of the cows appeared next to the window and she casually says in spanish ¨this meat is that cows baby¨- we all groaned a little but kept eating of course! It was so good hehe

Last night we went out for dinner to this local restaurant that is in the middle of nowhere. It is connected to a small but nice hotel .We had to walk there in the pitch black and freezing cold for about hlaf an hour. Walked through a cornfield in the dark and then suddenñy ended up at this beautiful restaurant overlooking a fast flowing river and with eerily lit mountians towering above the huge glass windows. We were all stunned as we had been living very basically for the past week. The food was really good and we even had dessert!

Tomorrow we are getting up at 5 and trekking up to Cancha Cancha which is a mountain communtiy that is one of the five Huaran communties. apparently they are the pooorest so we are going to strap all our donationsd onto some horses and walk up there. It will take 3.5 hours to get there. I think it will be a long day.

It is frustrating that i haven´t learnt as much spanish as i would like. People talk to you and all i can do i stare and say pardon. I defintley undeerstand how people feel when they come to australia and can´t speak english, it must be so hard, and you feel so stupid even though you aren´t!

i wrote this last week but blog was down

Here is an excerpt to get an idea of my arrival at Huaran last week...

I{ve been dying to use the net to tell you all about this place. I thought Cusco was cool but it was nothing compared to Huaran. We got three taxis to Huaran (because one person is sick and stayed in cusco so easier to get taxis) which was a hell of a drive. The driver was driving on both sides of the road to avoid potholes and overtaking cars all the time and beeping and the drive was very winding and hilly and steep cliffs on sides of the road. It was quite a ride. we even got stopped at a police checkpoint and our driver was takenb away and i got some good photos of scary peruvian police with guns. we thought they were going to take our driver away and leave us stranded, but then he came back and kept driving. After about an hour and a half of holding on for dear life we finally arrived at HUran, although it was difficult to see we had arrived anywhere. It was just a dusty gravelly road leading up to a beautiful old spanish church that is very dilapaidated. we waited for a while as one of the villagers went to get the village car! but it didn{t come so we piled our backs onto our backs and began the walk up the road to fridas house. Aoll the villagers came out and helped carry our bags in these colourful woven clothes...so much for hugh tech expensive kathmandu gear! No one carried my bag so i bundled it onto my bag and began walking. As soon as i arrived i was in awe of the natural surroundings. On every side of use there was massive massive mountians, very steep and very green - bright green, dark green, orangey rock, red rock, trees, some terraced fasrms perched precariuosly on the mountian faces. I was stunned, i had never seen something so beautiful. As we walked all the children who had come down from the mountains to see us began blowing conch shells to signal our welcome. We walked through the hacienda which is the hostel we will be working on. I was not prepared for how amazing this building is. I{m so excitewd to be working on it. It is in a c shape surrounding a courtyard with a wild and overgrown garden. There is a large vernadah the whole way around the c shaped building which is tiled with old colourful tiles that just need to be cleaned and polished. Every broken window you look out of is a million dollar view of these massive mountiains. While we waited for lunch that the commuynity was cooking for us we walked out the back and there was a huge orchard of pears and peaches that evryone picked and ate. We came back and the long table had een set with huge bowlsd full tomoato, carrots, caulifower, cucumbers and huge plates full of large quartered avocadoes (which are cheap here). They had arranged some flowers as well. Ithought this was lunch and was very happy but then sudfdenly they began hanmding out plates to each person with a large steak, potatoes, lettuce on it. It was such a delicious meal i ate everything and was like aggh. I thought it was alpaca steak (we ate aplaca steak on wednesday and it was one of the tastiest meats i ever ate). but it tunred out yesterday it was just cow. oh well it was still so delicious. They will be cooking lunch for us every day when we are working there. yayy.
But before lunch we took all our bags to fridas house which is further up the dirt road. We walked past many mud brick houses with tiled roofs. There were animals everywhere jusdt walking around, especially pigs, barking dogs, goats, cows, horses, chickens, geese, ducks.
I am sharing my room with two other girls, nicole and luisa. It is fairly spacious and has a concrete floor so last night i was very cold before i got into bed. I woke up this morning with a really sore throat. I went to the outdoor bathroom and was looking forward to a hot shower (got up early especially) but there was no hot water. so i freezed while i had an icy shower. Just metres from the house is a very rapid flowing river that sounds like heavy falling rain. We have to croos over two little wooden bridges to get from the dirt road to the house. The house has a farm with a cornfield and fruit trees. I was going to climb the moiuntian next to the house when we got there but tanya (fridas daughter) said it was too windy to climb today. i was dissapointed because i was so ready to climb, plus i wanted to be the first one there!
I ended up walking further up the road weith emily and saw more cornfields and people in their small mudbrick houses and smoke coming out. Group 1 was supposed to cook dinner but some of the community must have come over and cooked because they served us noodles and chicken which was so delicious. there must be something about being always hungry that makes food taste so good. We also ate a piece of choc for dessert from frida and everyone had been craving chocolate so much that we all sat there and savoured every morsel. I had my own stash of german chocolate that i bought in cusco that i didn{t dare tell anyonbe about because everyone was talking about chocolate all afternoon. Also everyone is a bit sick with sore throat etc.
Today we walked down to the Hacienda and tanya took some of us on the local bus to Urabumba (20 mins from Huran). we drove throught the corn capital of the world. This morning the tops of the mountians were shrouded in clouds. and yestrday evening the sun was hitting the slopes of the mountians and making them glow golden. I can{t get over how amazing it is. i will have to take so many photos. On the way to the bus we saw three pigs mating a thte same time. we all stopped and laughed and took photos, it was quite a sight if you can picture it. I think it was very clever oif them to be so coordinated. hahahahah so funny, i must get the picture from soomeone. Then a minute later we saw four gates chasing each other and then mating. It was a very different walk to work than usual!
I could keep wrtiting about this place for ages but i think i will just have to show you in photos. I was excited yesterday, but today i am tired and sick and weary, but i{m sure it will be better once we start working. But there is never a shortgae of inspiration in the natural surroundings. I can{t possibly feel too bad when i am in such a beautiful place.

Last day in Cusco...for a while

I have finally managed to put up some photos of what i´ve een up to so far. Hope it gives a good idea of the place. The computer isd really slow, so it´s taken me over an hour to put them up. This morning a bunch of us got up early and walked down to Jack´s which is a cafe that serves breakfast. We won´t have much good breakfasdt for a while and have been living on Inca cereal,,,which has an aniseed flavour and am so sick of it, and stale bread with jam. So we took ourselves to jacks and i got a massive stack of pancakes with maple syrup and it was aghhhhhhh so good. and a hot chocolate hmm. Last night we were going to go to a South America Cup soccer match against Caracas but could´n´t get tickets so went to salsa dancing instead. All the girls wore skirts with thermals underneath and looked like freaks. I don´t have nay thermals so i just wore my skirt and freezed.

Yesterday visited a school for disadvantaged kids. All we did was take photos and laugh around with them, so nothing particularly useful but everyone had fun i guess. Ooh i also bought a centiana jersey so i can wear it at the games. They can be my adopted team! Also this morning bought an alpaca jumper for 40 soles...i thiunk i got ripped off by 5 soles but i am getting sick of trying to bargain with poor people to save myself about 2 dollars. I need because the nights are getting very cold.

Tomorrow leaving for Huaran in the morning so i am getting eerything i need ready. We will be there for a month and only come back to Cusco once at the end towards easter for the big soccer game.

I am looking forward to starting the project. We are making an old spanisj colonial building into a hostel in this village that currnetly has no tourism. The project extends to all aspects of the business from constructing the hostel, to setting up a website and marketing, training locals to work in the hostel and getting to know the community and teaching english so that they can get on with tourists. Each person in the group has a special skill...for me i can help with the design and construction of the project while others have skills in other areas. I´m also going to be doing enlgish teaching at the school in the afternoon.

catch you in a few weeks!

the beginning of my trip...

This photo sums up my first three days after leaving Sydney which consisted of sitting on aeroplanes, waiting in airports with no sleep...and carrying over half my weight in luggage on three public busdes through miami to get back to the airport...aggh good times hehe. This is me waiting for the bus to arrive and about to fall over. But i was really surprised...so many ppl came up to me and asked me why i had so much luggage and hwere i was from and how to get to the aiport, and one skater dude guy even ran down the road and got the bus to stop for me becasue i was in the wrong place...i also got some wierd looks becasue i kept dropping everything everywhere

near san pedro markets

Yesterday walked back through this area and it was really fascinating and colourful, but very poor very...i was being very aware of my pockets and my bags as there were many poeple begging and walking very close to us.

Suqsayhuaman

Here is the statue of Jesus that the locals call ¨sexy woman¨. Iknow it sounds wrong but if you read further below all will be explained! Above is the view over Cusco from suqsayhuaman.

puffy street

This is one of the puffiest streets in Cusco. It´s not too bad now but at first it was a killer...actaully io´m on this street in the interent cafe, and on the left is the yummiest bakery...

The stairs to hell

I went for a walk up the stairs to hell...so called because it feels like a never ending stairs with the heat and the altitude makes it hell...i tried running at first and quickly learnt my lesson. But i got to the top and had this view out over Cusco.

Cusco

I went for a wander through the streets and got lost...so this shot is somewhere in Cusco...

This is the view from the hostel looking out over Cusco, and that is actually a road not a footpath...

Miami

stopped over in miami for a night...I walked along Miami beach on the one day i had there...in this photo i have not slept in two days...hehe. The beach was quite white but not as cool as i thought it would be. There were some cool beach shack things everywhere thoi that i took photos of...

Sexy Woman...

Yesterday i had a few adventures...after doing a few things in the morning like visiting a textiles cooperative and seeing weaving we met up at the central plaza in Cusco called Plaza dÁrmas. From there we went in taxis in geoups supposedly up to Suqsayhuaman which is an old Incan ruins above Cusco which looks out over the whole city. little did our group know that we were actaully going to the trout farm first, so our taxi took us striaght to suqsayhuaman.

OK before i go any further let me clarify the pronunciation of Suqsayhuaman...when you hear the locals say it it sounds exactly as if you are saying Sexy Woman. So when we first all heard this we had no idea what they were talking about and they would always point to the hill above the city where there is a massive white statue of Jesus (just near Suqsayhuaman) and say Sexy Woman. i couldn´t help it but i am so immature that i cracked up every time. i just thought it was twisted that all the locals referred to the Jesus statue as sexy woman, wrong in so many ways.

So anyway, the four of us ended up getting stranded at sexy woman while the others ate a massive lunch at the trout farm. We made our way to the statue after a painful climb up the huge mountain, the higher we walked the harder it got to breath without your lungs falling out. The view from the top was amazing. Luckily i had walked near there before so i knew how to get back to the hostel. We phoned Rob from the hostel and they had been freaking out that we´d drivne to theother trout farm 4 hours away. lucky for me i don´t like trout. So to make up for it Bon took us to jack´s for lunch and we got to live it up for 18 soles each!

The funniest part of the day was when we were waiting around for Bon after we dinally made our way to the hostel and discussing how they could have left us stranded at Sexy Mama. Will casually and unknowngly referred to Suqsayhuaman as Sexy Mama about three times in one sentence by which stage the other three of us we rolling on the gorund with laughter. Since that momnet and for the remiander of the trip Will will be known as Sexy Mama. hahahha

We went to a tradiaiotnal dance performance last night as part of our tourist ticket and it was okay and a little funny...well i made it funny in my head to pass the time. All the other things we have done with our tourist ticket (70 soles) has been really bad...all the museums except one that we have visited i´ve been like ís this even a museum or just room with thre photos in it?¨
Anyway, after the dance thing we went to a vege restaurant where i thought we would have vegetables. But no, we had amound of rice with a fried egg on top served with banana, cucumber and tomato. it was very odd and i couldn´t have made a weirder meal if i had tried.

We are heading to huaran on thursday to start the project working on rebuilding an old Spanish building into a hostel and setting up the marketing, website, staff training and other communtiy things so that they can have a share of tourism in their area. i have to go and buy some teaching materials as i will be taking an English class at the school...agghh, i have no idea what to do but i´m sure it will be fun!

still in Cusco...

Well i have now had two Spanish and am starting to understand bits of conversations, like a word here and there and putting it together, but still not great. The Spanish we did was really hard and somehow i ended up in the higher group, but then 5 minutes into the lesson there was a mysterious knock on the door and the teacher went out and came back and told me to swap groups! boohoo, that was so embarrassing i got bumped down to the intermediate class, but apparently it was a mistake but i stayed anyway to avoid further embarrasment. The lesson was quite easy and i already knew most of the stuff we covered, but it was still worth going over i guess.

I'm really surprised their is very little peruvian food to try. i was looking forward to eating some interesting dishes but so far all it has been is chicken and chips, or steak, or spaghetti bolognaise...aghhhh!!! apparently when we go to the village we will have more traditional food. For example, the other night we went to dinner a t a place called "surf and turf" ...yeh it's traditional Cusco tourist food.

I'm quite tired today because we had our official welcome dinner last night (even though i have now been away for exactly a week) where we went to dinner (i had steak of course) and the interesting thing about going out here is that if you order a drink they do not measure the alcohol, so if you have, hypothetically um say, gee i don't know, a vodka and sprite, then you get a big glass, and they free-pour the vodka till hypothetically (if this happened) it would fill up half the glass, and then the rest is lemonade. So you get about three drinks in one. At the dinner we met the family of the lady we will be living with in Huaran, they must have a big house to fit us all in. At dinner there was a group playing who were doing Columbian rap! After dinner we had our first big night out where we went to a club that is popular with the locals. There was a popular local salsa band playing and it was very crowded. The waiters carried the glasses on the ir heads instead of on a tray or, heaven forbid, just in your hands, and danced along as they walked about serving drinks! The band eventually finished but the music continued and there was a really good atmosphere and a lot of short Peruvian men looking for a dancing partner. Some of the other girls were about the right height but for me it would have been like Lauren Jackson (is that her name?) dancing with Frodo...that would be quite a sight! well i exaggarate but it is fairly common that poeple will approach tourists in the hope of gaining a australian passport or something...anyway, enough of that, it was a really really fun night.

Yesterday i had a really good experience at a church funded children's clinic just on the edge of Cusco called the San juan Clinic where there are diabled children who live there. It was saturday so they had free time and no therapy so a bunch were able to play with the kids. All are in wheelchairs so i ended up partnering up with a three old girl who was very cute but also i think very aware that she could make me do what she wanted. So she said parque, and i wheelded her outside to the elaborate play equipment designed for wheelchairs, and the ball pit with coloured balls. i lifted her out ofht e chair and then i realised i had to move her legs for her when she sat on the equipment. I was glad i learned some colours that monring in the lesson because it was the main way of communicating using the yellow, green and blue plastic balls we played a game. I found it very challenging as not only had i never looked after a disabled child before but also we had no common language so iwas using what very little Spanish i had to talk to her. I actaully learned some words from her too. I ended up wheeling her inside and outside and to the soccerfield and back and forth about five times in the hour. It must get quite boring and lonely for the kids so they obviously know how to make the most of visitors. I felt a bit guilty and heartless that other ppl in the group were crying a bit as we left the clinic, but i didn't feel like crying becasue i had just spent an hour laughing and playing with a child who otherwise would have been watching TV, and also the clinic is very well funded. They seem to have many volunteers that come to stay with them, so i actually felt very happy and optimistic.

i have to keep reminding myself i am in Cusco, in Peru, in South America, on the other side of the world... it's easy to forget that! wow

more in Cusco

The last few days have been very busy and interesting. I have had no appetite because of the altitude so have not been eating anything and still not hungry. But today nearly fainted so have decided to eat even if i don´t feel hungry because i think the altitude is tricking me.

Today we went to a local market called San Pedro and did an Amazing Race style competition and broke into small groups of four. We had to use just 10 soles to buy naharanjas, uvas, Platanos, manazanas. But we didn´t know what these things were so i actually asked someone in Spànish Tiene usted Uvas? Do you have any grapes...and she pointed at the grapes and we were all like oh ok grapes...then we bargained and bought some. We also figured out the other ones. We also had to count how many places sold meat and counted 61 and it was THE most meaty, smelly, bloody, vomitatious, yuk yuk yuk but very interesting place. For example there are piles of cows noses with the hair and everything on it. And a man was sawing a whole pig with a saw as we walked past, and every kind inner organ and meat product you can imagine. Makes the fish market seem like a lolly shop.
Then we had lunch at this cafe that is associated with a local orphanage and did some team building games. I am feeling quite overwhelmed with the level of social interaction. I´m getting on well with everyone but i often need to go off on my own and have a read or yesterday afternoon and i took myself up to the rooftop courtyard of the hostel and stood there for an hour and did sketching...it was soooooooo good. You would not beleive the view from this roof top, and the Cusco in general is so unique the mor i walk around the more i am amazed. The streets are all very steep and cobbled and i get very very puffed just walking up them, and the taxis squeeze thru these narrow streets and just beep at everyone and there are people everywhere selling things and begging for money. The city is in a valley so anywhere you are you look up and the the edges of the city spattering out and up dotting halfway up the mountains until all you see is just these huge mountains. The other thing we had to do at the market was find the dried baby llamas which are used by locals as a ritual for when something important happens. We also had to find the lady who sells frog juice...it was really nice...just kidding, i didn´t try it.
I have free time a thte moment...wonderful free time where i can do what i want! i have to go to the school in about two hours as we are having our first Spanish lesson at the San Blas school.
We are not leaving for Huaran until next thursday. Well, i guess that,s it for now, i think i should make use of my free time and go find a laundromat.

Cusco...finally

i have finally arrived in Cusco!!!! And it is the most amazing place although have not seen much of it so far. I was early becasue i managed to get an earlier flight and the people didn't know so two of us got a taxi and found our own way. The leaders felt bad but it was an adventure.

By the way, after writing the email yesterday i had a very different experience in Miami in the afternoon. I decided to take my bages to the airport and store them there. Just getting there was a physical nightmare as i got three different buses through different parts of Miami which took over an hour to get to the airport (me being cheap and trying to save 18 bucks! the bus there is so cheap - 1.50 to go anywhere!). I also got the bus from the airport into Downtown Miami. Once you get out of south beach you realise it is actually quite an interesting place. For example, Spanish is pretty much the first language and as a white person i stood like a sore thumb pretty much everywhere in Miami. The bus took me through parts of Little Havannah which looked really poor and run down but it was something a tourist would not ususally see.

Ok now back to Cusco. So i finally got my flight from miai. And they announced my name at the airport and said there was a very important message for me. I got really freaked out and my mind was racing. It turns out i had left my folder at the ticket office!! With all my tickets, bookings info, money etc...(so i walked back and got it luckily).

The flight to Cusco was stunning. I had a window and looked out and only a little bit below and next to me was these huge snow-capped mountains. Then i saw Cusco from above and was surprised how big it is, and saw this seemingly tiny narrow landing strip and started hoping that was not the runway! But it was.

I thought i was prepared for seeing Cusco, but i never imagined there is any place like this. on the plane i sat next to a Peruvian girl on her way back from Oz, and she wrote a huge list of foods i should try. The taxi took us thru these tiny narrow cobbled streets and everywhere on all sides is these huge mountains. Apparently its amazing at night, but i will see that in a few hours. The taxi driver managed to drive from the passenger seat for a minute while he adjusted the passenger mirror...that was scary!!

I just had a couple of hours sleep this afternoon. it was sooo good to sleep properly, which i not done since Sunday night! I've met most of the group now and everyone is really nice. And the hostel is beautiful...it is much more than i expected, it's about five minute up a steep hill just out of the main centre and i share a room with two of the girls. But there is this view out over the valley and the red-tiled houses and beyond to the mountians. People are cosntantly setting off fireworksd here...apparently for no reason other than they love firworks...wierd.

Oh yeah, and in Miami when i bussed back into downtown i went to Bayside Masrkets, and it immedialty reminded me of Darling Harbour (which is tourist central) i wanted to leave but i sat for a couple of minutes to sit in the shade (it was really hot). And there this guy singing salsa-y-jazzy type stuff and i was hmm ok he's pretty good, and then he starts his next song which is basically him ssinging along to a Matchbox 20 song karaoke style, and as if that wasn'r wierd enough he then broke into an Usher song, moves and all. Kinda sums up the touristy parts of Miami in a way.

Ooh soo tired...

Finally in Miami on way to peru after three days of flynig and airports and no sleep and no food...oh my gosh have never felt so tired before. I arrived last night after the the three plane flights and many hours of waiting at various airports. As soon as i got here i had a wierd feeling that i just wanted to go straight home and not do this. My 10kg bag of donation clothing was broken open when i picked ity up Miami. So when i finally get to the hostel and check-in, turns out that the actaul hostel is like several blocks away. So i've got my 15kg bag pack wobbling like crazy, my broken 10kg bag, and my backpack, plus a pile of sheets and towels and they're like, yeh just walk out there for a bit and you'll find it. So i'm walking with all this stuff through the back alleys of Miami beach and it is 12:30 at night and there are drunk people on the streets laughing and singing at me and eveything is dropping, and i'm totally lost and quite scared, and my whole body is shake with tired and hunger, as i had not slept in over 48 hour, and had not eaten anything through no fault of my own. So i'm about to collapse when i get the map out and figure out and then drag myself up twofiglths of stairs and open the room and discover there is no light and only one bed (top bunk) left over. So i scramble round in the dark and finally get to bed, but can't sleep because i swear there crawling things in the bed shudder...

But Miami is not exactly what i thought it would be. It reminds al ittle of Thail;and in a stange way. The art deco buidlings are quite cool, but the place is quite seedy in general, which is also interesting in a way, but more so quite dirty, and you can walk along whole streets and there si nothing...just dirty apartment buildinghs. The beach is interesting too, with its deck chairs for hire and wierd beacj skack things, but it didn't really want to make me sit. I'm glad i'm leaving Miami today. Might be better with people, but not own your own, I don't feel that safe around a lot of the streets. Can't wait to justy get Peru. Just two more flights, and another 24 hours and i will be there...finally. OK i must go and eat...and then think about how i will drag my stuff back to the airport. Can't wait to dump everything and carry almost nothing.