El Mercado

My class, which consists of two of us, took a trip to an open-air market. They really do have everything, for tourists and locals. Clothes, fruits and vegetables, hallucinogens, dry goods, dried llama fetuses for religious ceremonies, food booths (which I´ve been strenuously warned away from) and meat. All kinds of meat, I saw so many penises hanging, I think each booth had one. There were cow snouts, whole piglets. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but I think I´m going to go back.

Alpaca Farm

Our school took a field trip to an alpaca farm outside Cusco. It´s a collective of people from all around the country who do traditional weaving using alpaca, vincuna and llama wool, using only natural dyes. There were many alpacas, llamas and vincunas; I don´t remember the differences in the three. You can go in the pens and pet the animals - if they´ll let you. I did get to see a couple of them spit, one very close to me, but not close enough to get wet, thankfully! Some of them looked like really big sheepdogs. I took a lot of photos and a movie that I can´t wait to share. The weavings were available to buy, but they were very expensive and not my style, though I did buy a hat/scarf combo.
The next night I went to dinner with some other people in my school and almost got the alpaca steak, but just wasn´t hungry enough for the huge meal. At least it comes in steak form.

First week in Cusco

i´ve been in cusco for just a little over a week now. 2 weekends and 24 hours of spanish lessons later, i´m starting to like it here more, though i do think that 7 weeks will be plenty of time. it´s a beautiful city, described by another student as a very large village. it is interesting to walk down the street and see inca ruins topped by colonial spanish architecture. Dora, one of the teachers/administrators at my school, said that there are very strict laws against doing anything to the inca ruins, even repairs. so they let structures fall and then they rebuild, which is sad.

my biggest complaint about cusco was the lack of a refrigerator. i asked dora on my third day if i would be getting one and she said that it´s too cold in cusco to need a refrigerator. as it get up in the 70s during the day, i disagreed but didn´t say anything. one of the reasons i had to leave my flat in san francisco was that i was tired of having to fight to get what i needed for my house. but then i found out that dora has a refrigerator in her house and that every other student renting an apartment has one. so i asked again, but this time asked juliana. she was more agreeable and i think i will have one within a few days. that will be nice! especially if it has a freezer because i´d like to be able to buy ice cream. now if they can just do something about the live wires in the shower so i don´t get shocked when i touch metal while showering....

i´ve only eaten out a few times with people from my school. mostly i cook, though i think that i´m going to try chifa (peruvian chinese food) for lunch or dinner today. one of my dinners out was very good trout, but i didn´t eat the head or tail, though they were on the plate. i wanted to try guy (guinea pig), but after seeing pictures of how it´s served, whole with head and feet attached, i don´t know that i can do it!

i´m still deciding if i want to do the 5-day trek to macchupichu or take the train to agua caliente, the closest hotel, and do a 2-3 hour hike. i have a few weeks to make up my mind.

that´s all for today. it´s a long ramble, i know. blame it on the lack of oxygen. seriously, i´m so light headed right now! also, maybe soon i will get used to the keyboard and be able to use capital letters with ease, which i don´t half the time anyway, so maybe not.

as soon as i figure out how to successfully download pictures i will post them here, including pictures of guy.