Pisac and Ollantaytambo

Today was a really awesome day. In the morning, we took a group trip to the ruins of Pisac and Ollantaytambo. Ollantaytambo used to be an Incan fortress, and the architecture is just amazing. There are a ton of rock terraces as well as really interesting blocks cut out as doors and walls. Something I found really cool was that it took up to 50 years for the Incas to move one of the larger blocks to the top of Ollantaytambo. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be one of those people, knowing that your work for your entire life was based on moving a single rock. Something else I noticed at Ollantaytambo was that it was a lot easier to climb up and down. While I would like to think that this was because I was in a lot better shape and was completely ready for the Chicon hike next week, I realize that it is probably a mixture of that and the fact that Ollantaytambo is at a lot lower elevation than Cuzco.

After Ollantaytambo, we visited the Pisac ruins. Pisac, unlike Ollantaytambo and some of the other ruins I have visited, was constructed for living (some of the others were for battle and agriculture). The Pisac ruins reminded me a bit of Moray, as there were a series of grass terraces. However, the terraces were not circular. Additionally, the view was amazing, as the Pisac ruins are at a much higher altitude, around 12,500 feet.

From the Pisac ruins we went to lunch, after which we visited the famous Pisac Market. This market has a ton of different handicrafts. While I had heard that it had great selection, I did not know that the prices were going to be so high. I was really interested in getting an alpaca sweater, but I soon realized that it was going to be out of my price range. I did see a couple of hats and scarves, but thought that I could get these things at El Molino for comparable or lower prices.

From the Pisac market, we returned back to Cuzco, saying goodbye to the Urubamba kids until the Chicon hike. When we got back to our house, I realized that I was really tired, so I just went to bed.

Hikes and Reuniting with Good Friends

Today we woke up in the morning and hiked to practice for the upcoming hike to Chicon, one of the glaciers in the area. Since Chicon is at an altiutude of over 18,500 feet, I felt like I would really need some practice hiking to prepare myself both physically and mentally. To do this, our group decided to hike up to Sacsayhuáman, one of the Incan ruins we visited during the first week in Peru. We had the taxi driver drop us off at the base of the mountain, and then we hiked the rest of the way. The trip up took about an hour, but by the top, we were glad we had hiked. The view of Cuzco was amazing, and it felt even better to return to a place we had visited at the beginning of our time here.

After the hike, we went back home for lunch. Originally I was planning on visiting El Molino, the black market in Cuzco, but I felt so tired that I just took a nap for two hours instead. I think I may be getting a slight head cold, so I decided it would be best to rest. When I woke up, I felt a lot better and then packed my backpack for our trip to Urubamba. Later that afternoon, we left as a group from Cuzco and headed out towards Urubamba.

The drive to Urubamba was along the mountains, and was really relaxing. At the same time, the drive was a little bit curvy, and many of us got a little motion sick. Once we got to Urubamba though, it was flat. The first thing I noticed about Urubamba was that it was a much smaller town. While Cuzco has about 400,000 people, Urubamba has only about 40,000. In fact, Urubamba seemed really homey, and I definitely felt like I was in a large village. The town is not really that big, as it takes only about 15-20 minutes to go from one side to another.

Today we got to meet up with the rest of the Peru group, those who are working in Urubamba. We had a group bonfire, roasted marshmallows, and made smores. After this we played a game together. To end the day, I decided that I was really tired, so I turned in early for the night.

Occoruro, Ceviche, and Inka Team

Today was a really amazing day. I first went to Occoruro, where we conducted surveys for ProWorld. While it was a pretty easy job, considering all of the questions were already written down for us, there were definitely some complications. The first person we surveyed was a lady whom Lalo told us was known as the crazy lady. Truth be told, surveying her was really hard. She spoke to us in a mixture of Quechua and Spanish, and also mumbled the same sentence ten times throughout the survey. However, the next couple of people were really easy to talk to. The last person we talked to was Benito, a 75 year old man. While we talked to him, we were a little confused by his responses, since he responded yes to every question we asked, even when two questions were complete opposites. Only after we told us did we realize that he only spoke Quechua. At this point, we talked to Lalo and had him interview Benito, since Lalo is fluent in Quechua as well as Spanish.

After work, we had a group lunch at El Paisa, the best place to get ceviche in Cuzco. For those of you who aren’t familiar with ceviche, it consists of raw seafood marinated in a sauce of lemon juice and spices. This is the way they “cook” the seafood. Before you make a judgment on ceviche, let me tell you that it was amazing. I found the texture of the food to be really pleasing, and the taste of the sauce was really intense and flavorful. I also got the spicy version, which was great. The sauce that the seafood is marinated in is called leche de tigre, literally translated as tiger’s milk (no, there isn’t any tiger’s milk actually present). Thanks to a great experience, I will definitely visit El Paisa at least once more before I leave Cuzco.

After lunch, we relaxed for a while at the office before returning to the house. I then talked with Luis for a while before having dinner and then going out to some of the clubs in Cuzco for a belated birthday celebration. Today, I tried the Macchu Picchu (three layered drink with orange juice, grenadine, and mint tequila), a Maracuya Sour (passion fruit juice and tequila), and a Pisco Sour (the national drink of Peru, described earlier in the blog). I also got to try a flaming shot, which isn’t as crazy as it sounds. From there, we danced and partied at Inka Team, one of the best clubs in Cuzco. I really enjoyed it, as they played great music and had a vibrant and full dance floor. After a long and fun night, we returned to our house.

Good Times in Occoruro

I'm a bit behind on posting, so for reference, this is for May 19th.

Today I got up and went to the community of Occoruro. The job my partner and I had was similar to what we did on Monday. We had to finish lining the insides of an ecological refrigerator and we also had to cover the shelves of the alacena with cloth and make curtains for each individual shelf. Overall, it was a really simple day, as we had already done a lot of this type of work on Tuesday. However, we did do a couple of things differently. On Tuesday, we did every section of the ecological refrigerator separately. However, today we did the entire back wall of the refrigerator in one piece. This allowed us to cover more area as a whole.

With regards to the sewing today, the lady in the house originally told us that she wanted a curtain for each shelf. However, she then changed her mind, and decided on having a single curtain for the entire alacena. Overall, I feel that I have gotten better at sewing over the last couple of days. Now I can make the stitches a little smaller, although I think that I still need improvement in making the stitches straight.

After work, we went back home for lunch, seeing Luis and Lalo for the first time in three days (they were on a biking trip in Calca). We then relaxed for a bit before going to Spanish class. Thankfully, today was the last day of Spanish class for this week. I feel like I am going to have to think about what I actually want to learn, since my teacher keeps trying to teach me grammar.

Overall, today was a pretty relaxed day. At night, I watched a basketball game with the family before going to bed.

Feliz Cumpleaños!

By now, you’ve probably realized that some of these posts are really long. Don’t worry, they won’t all be this way. I just feel that for the first week in a new country, it’s really important to explain all the details, just to give you all a clear idea of what life is like. As I continue this blog, the posts will be shorter and more concise, not because I have less to say, but because more of the details will be inferred.

Today I again woke up at the new normal time of 6:30am. However, it was a little different since today is my birthday! I am so excited to spend my birthday in Peru, though I do miss my family and friends back home. Before I continue, I have to say that waking up early really isn’t that bad. As long as I go to bed early enough and get a decent about of sleep, it really isn’t bad waking up that early. Anyways, today was like any other day: I woke up, ate breakfast, and headed off to the ProWorld office. From thre we took our bus to Occoruro and started our days’ worth of work.

Today, I worked with a family on building an alacena. From the presentation we had on Monday, the alacenas didn’t look like they would be all that tough to build. I mean, come on. How hard is it to build a shelf? However, I soon realized that this would be a lot more difficult than I realized. The alacenas are composed of four different compartments, although there are only three shelves that are enclosed. Each level has adobe bricks on each side, with the width of the alacena being about 120cm. I feel like I should make something clear: adobe bricks are REALLY heavy! Each one must have weighed at least 40 pounds, and coupled with the uneven textures and the fact that we didn’t have gloves, I realized that it was going to be a tough days’ worth of work. The process of building the alacena was relatively simple: after each adobe, a layer of barro, or mud, was slathered on top to serve both as glue and to level out the uneven textures of the adobe bricks. Thus, this was a project that literally required you to get your hands dirty.

The first layer of the alacena consists of three adobe bricks on each side. Initially, we had a little bit of trouble making the heights on both sides even. However, using some ceramic roof tiles, pieces of wood, and the mud, we were able to even it out. After the three adobe bricks, we laid down the first shelf (this was just wood, nothing fancy). The next two three layers were all the same, two adobe bricks followed by a wooden shelf, with mud in between each building block. As we started to build up our alacena, it started to get really high. Each adobe brick is about 15cm high. Thus, after nine bricks and the wooden shelves, our alacena was a good 1.5 meters tall. This doesn’t seem like too much until you realize that we had to put the top couple of adobe bricks on top of mud while not being able to see where we were actually putting them. Thankfully, by working together, we were able to complete the construction process.

Next, we smoothed out all the uneven surfaces on the adobe bricks. This includes both the outer and inside surfaces. To do this, we used mud to conceal the breaks between the bricks and used the roof tiles and wood to fill in any unstable areas or gaps. After we finally finished, we washed off our hands and went to go talk to the lady who lived in the house.

For our hard work, the lady gave us a bag of freshly steamed corn. I was really thankful for this, as the residents of Occoruro are extremely poor. It is impossible for them to repay us in money (honestly, they don’t need to repay us at all, since we are volunteers), but they insist on repaying us in agricultural crops. Sometimes we will get a couple of potatoes, and other times we will get some corn. Completely disregarding the fact that I might get sick from eating the corn, I dug in. Definitely not a mistake, as the corn was absolutely delicious. As I mentioned before, the Andean corn has bigger kernels and has more substance. After going through an entire ear of corn, I relaxed in my seat on the bus and headed back to Cusco with everyone else.

When I got back to my host family, they had a surprise waiting for me. Not only was the entire extended family there (about 20 people), but they had also gotten me a cake. But that wasn’t even the best part. Lunch today was steak, rice, salad, and French fries. Everything was delicious, but it was even more special that everyone had come over to celebrate my birthday with me. This only reconfirmed my initial observations that meals are a social time, and that family is extremely important. After lunch, we cut the cake, which was pretty awesome. It was a chocolate cake with three layers, each separated by a layer of fruit preserves. I definitely tasted raspberry and strawberry. On top of the cake, there were peaches and a cherry perched on top of whipped cream. After devouring a slice of the cake, I was so full and tired that I had to rest for a bit before my Spanish class.

In between lunch and Spanish class, I went to a couple of the museums in Cusco. Today, I went to the Popular Art Museum and the Regional History Museum. Overall, I wasn’t all that impressed with the Popular Art Museum because it was rather small and didn’t really have a huge variety of art. However, the Regional History Museum was really great. It had a large variety of art and sculptures, and I felt that it really covered the entire of the history of the area pretty well. After exploring these two museums, I went to Kuna, the premier Alpaca shop in Cusco. However, the prices were a little too high for me (around 400 Soles for a sweater), so I guess I’ll have to find another place to buy Alpaca clothes.

Spanish was again relatively simple today, as we just reviewed my homework and studied some more of the present tense. By the end of the class, we were studying the preterit tense, which was definitely an improvement. After class, I came back home and had dinner with the family. Dinner was a simple chicken noodle soup Peruvian style, with different spices and condiments. After this, I relaxed for a bit before going to bed.