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.

Not long to go...

I leave on Monday for my longgg flight to Peru via LA and Miami...here is my itinerary for the next four and a bit months...if all goes according to plan...

March 6th - getting to Peru, spend a night in Miami
March 8th - arrive in Cusco, Peru

stay in Cusco for a week, meet the group, learn some more Spanish (?!)

March 13th (approx.) - Huaran village...

stay for five weeks, work on construction project...

April 20th (approx) - One week rest at Puno, Lake Titicaca, Copacabana, Bolivia

April 27th - Amantani Island (in Lake Titicaca)

stay with a family for three weeks

May 15th - leave Amantani Island, coyple days in Cusco

May 18th - Inca Trail

hike for four days to Macchu Picchu

May 22nd - finish Inca Trail and return to Cusco

May 23rd - fly to Lima

May 24th - fly to New York, arrive on the 25th

May 31st - fly to Vancouver

June 3rd - bus to Vancouver Island, Tofino (Pacific Rim National Park)

June 6th - bus to Victoria, Vancouver Island

June 7th - Victoria Clipper ferry to Seattle

June 10th - depart Seattle with trek america (See map..)





June 11th - Mount Rainier National Park

June 12th - Montana

June 13th - Yellowstone National Park camping and hiking (Wyoming)

June 16th - Grand Teton National Park

June 17th - Nat So Pah (Idaho)

June 18th - Lake Tahoe (Nevada)

June 20th - Yosemite National Park (California)

June 23rd - arrive San Francisco

June 27th - fly to Savannah (Georgia)

visit Charleston (South Carolina)

July 5th - fly to Los Angeles

July 7th - depart los Angeles

July 9th - arrive Sydney