So last week is a blur of waking up around 7am, having a rushed breakfast in Yoni´s house (usually drinking yoghurt and a roll), then powerwalking up to the bus-stop to meet Jenny at 8.30am. We'd sit together in the van trying quietly to remember the words and actions to Hokey Pokey, discussing whether Duck Duck Goose is too violent for the playground, and trying to think of other activities that would work beyond the language barrier.
After placement we'd catch the bus back into town and walk to our seperate houses for lunch. Peruvian lunches are the big meals of the day, usually vegetable soup and then rice and chicken, or potato and chicken. After lunch I'd walk or taxi (less than a dollar) up to Plaza de Armas to meet Scott and we'd go exploring or shopping or just have a drink in the shade if we were already sunburnt. He knew his way around really well because he spent most of his days exploring the streets!
Then I'd go to Spanish class at 4pm. My class has only 4 people in it (including me) and is so much fun. There´s 2 American girls with Jenny and myself, and we're all about the same language level and all do childcare in the mornings, so spend quite a bit of time asking the teacher for vocab like 'stop hitting' which we all scribble down! Haley, one of the girls, works in a daycare centre with 3-5 year olds and was excited to learn the word '¡comparte!' for 'share!', but told us the next day that when she confidently told this to a child, the child just looked straight up at her and said 'no!'
We learnt regular and irregular verb conjugations last week, so I can finally start making sentences that I haven't learnt as a phrase. Our teacher Esthe is great and it's a really relaxed and fun learning environment, so far away from the stress of uni French tutes!
At 6pm Scott would pick me up from school which was cute, the sun sets around now and it suddenly gets cold. We'd have dinner around Plaza de Armas then I'd taxi home, so tired that I'd be in bed by 9.30pm, and he'd hang out at his hostel.
Chris and Jake arrived on Wednesday, and had a couple of days to acclimatise before we went to Machu Picchu on Saturday!
On Friday my package arrived finally yay! I went straight from placement to the Post office and got there at 12.39pm, but they didn't want to give it to me because they only give out packages from 8.30am til 12.30pm. I was a whole 9 minutes late. I begged and pleaded in Spanish, so they let me through to look at the package, but I didn't have my passport (I'd brought my license instead) so they again didn't want to give it to me. More begging and pleading and trying to explain that I needed it today because there was a replacement bank card in there and I needed access to money before Monday! Finally they allowed me to tell them my passport number (luckily I'd memorised the new number of my emergency passport) so I could take the package.. What a victory! So now I have a debit card for the first time since it was stolen in Mexico. And Mum sent me a camera charger so I can charge my camera for the first time since the charger was stolen in Belize! Just in time for Machu Picchu.
On Saturday morning it was a bumpy 2 hour bus ride (through amazing scenery.. up so high the clouds hanging over the valleys were level with us on top of the mountains) to Ollaytaytambo where we got a 2 hour train to Aguas Calientes which is the town at the base of Macchu Picchu mountain. A scary bus ride up the mountain (sometimes so close to the edge of the road we couldn't see the road out the window.. just a sheer drop) with almost Avatar type mountains opposite.. except they weren't hanging.
Up the top we could walk straight into the ruins. The words Machu Picchu actually mean 'Old Mountain' and is the name of the huge mountain behind the ruins (not the one you see in the classic photo; that one is called Huayna Picchu and means Young Mountain.) There were a few tour groups around but the place wasn't crawling with tourists like I've heard it is in June- August.
We learnt some really cool stuff and I was glad we had a guide because otherwise we would have walked straight past rocks that he described as used to be covered in gold and worshipped, etc. There were cool things all over the place like windows that the sun shines directly through at dawn on the 21st June, casting light over a certain rock that then casts a shadow in the shape of the Andean Cross.. and the sun also hits a certain rock at the same time which then appears as a Puma... etc. Saw places of llama sacrifices, an open area with amazing acoustics, a sun dial by which they knew when the solstices were so when to sow and reap crops, so much cool stuff and we got some awesome photos!
We walked around to the Inca Bridge which is a scary structure across a sheer mountain face, it's closed now because someone fell to their death, but scary enough just sitting on the edge of the cliff. Couldn't fit the whole cliff in my camera viewfinder. Then we hiked backwards along the last couple of k's of the Inca Trail, to the Sun Bridge where the hikers get their first rewarding view of the ruins. It was really tough going uphill, even though Machu Picchu is at lower altitude than Cusco I struggled!
On Sunday I explored some more of Cusco, like the San Blas hippy/ artist district where I bought an amazing necklace from a traditional Inca healer dude.. this is a whole story in itself but he was all on about my aura being green and orange instead of a harmonious purple, so I needed this energy balancing fire opal necklace... haha anyway it's beautiful and the back has (apparently) rocks from Machu Picchu and Huana Picchu to help trap bad energy and transform it into positive... and noone is allowed to touch it for the first 10 days I wear it so they don't mess with my energy! Anyway that was a fun conversation.
After placement we'd catch the bus back into town and walk to our seperate houses for lunch. Peruvian lunches are the big meals of the day, usually vegetable soup and then rice and chicken, or potato and chicken. After lunch I'd walk or taxi (less than a dollar) up to Plaza de Armas to meet Scott and we'd go exploring or shopping or just have a drink in the shade if we were already sunburnt. He knew his way around really well because he spent most of his days exploring the streets!
Then I'd go to Spanish class at 4pm. My class has only 4 people in it (including me) and is so much fun. There´s 2 American girls with Jenny and myself, and we're all about the same language level and all do childcare in the mornings, so spend quite a bit of time asking the teacher for vocab like 'stop hitting' which we all scribble down! Haley, one of the girls, works in a daycare centre with 3-5 year olds and was excited to learn the word '¡comparte!' for 'share!', but told us the next day that when she confidently told this to a child, the child just looked straight up at her and said 'no!'
We learnt regular and irregular verb conjugations last week, so I can finally start making sentences that I haven't learnt as a phrase. Our teacher Esthe is great and it's a really relaxed and fun learning environment, so far away from the stress of uni French tutes!
At 6pm Scott would pick me up from school which was cute, the sun sets around now and it suddenly gets cold. We'd have dinner around Plaza de Armas then I'd taxi home, so tired that I'd be in bed by 9.30pm, and he'd hang out at his hostel.
Chris and Jake arrived on Wednesday, and had a couple of days to acclimatise before we went to Machu Picchu on Saturday!
On Friday my package arrived finally yay! I went straight from placement to the Post office and got there at 12.39pm, but they didn't want to give it to me because they only give out packages from 8.30am til 12.30pm. I was a whole 9 minutes late. I begged and pleaded in Spanish, so they let me through to look at the package, but I didn't have my passport (I'd brought my license instead) so they again didn't want to give it to me. More begging and pleading and trying to explain that I needed it today because there was a replacement bank card in there and I needed access to money before Monday! Finally they allowed me to tell them my passport number (luckily I'd memorised the new number of my emergency passport) so I could take the package.. What a victory! So now I have a debit card for the first time since it was stolen in Mexico. And Mum sent me a camera charger so I can charge my camera for the first time since the charger was stolen in Belize! Just in time for Machu Picchu.
On Saturday morning it was a bumpy 2 hour bus ride (through amazing scenery.. up so high the clouds hanging over the valleys were level with us on top of the mountains) to Ollaytaytambo where we got a 2 hour train to Aguas Calientes which is the town at the base of Macchu Picchu mountain. A scary bus ride up the mountain (sometimes so close to the edge of the road we couldn't see the road out the window.. just a sheer drop) with almost Avatar type mountains opposite.. except they weren't hanging.
Up the top we could walk straight into the ruins. The words Machu Picchu actually mean 'Old Mountain' and is the name of the huge mountain behind the ruins (not the one you see in the classic photo; that one is called Huayna Picchu and means Young Mountain.) There were a few tour groups around but the place wasn't crawling with tourists like I've heard it is in June- August.
We learnt some really cool stuff and I was glad we had a guide because otherwise we would have walked straight past rocks that he described as used to be covered in gold and worshipped, etc. There were cool things all over the place like windows that the sun shines directly through at dawn on the 21st June, casting light over a certain rock that then casts a shadow in the shape of the Andean Cross.. and the sun also hits a certain rock at the same time which then appears as a Puma... etc. Saw places of llama sacrifices, an open area with amazing acoustics, a sun dial by which they knew when the solstices were so when to sow and reap crops, so much cool stuff and we got some awesome photos!
We walked around to the Inca Bridge which is a scary structure across a sheer mountain face, it's closed now because someone fell to their death, but scary enough just sitting on the edge of the cliff. Couldn't fit the whole cliff in my camera viewfinder. Then we hiked backwards along the last couple of k's of the Inca Trail, to the Sun Bridge where the hikers get their first rewarding view of the ruins. It was really tough going uphill, even though Machu Picchu is at lower altitude than Cusco I struggled!
On Sunday I explored some more of Cusco, like the San Blas hippy/ artist district where I bought an amazing necklace from a traditional Inca healer dude.. this is a whole story in itself but he was all on about my aura being green and orange instead of a harmonious purple, so I needed this energy balancing fire opal necklace... haha anyway it's beautiful and the back has (apparently) rocks from Machu Picchu and Huana Picchu to help trap bad energy and transform it into positive... and noone is allowed to touch it for the first 10 days I wear it so they don't mess with my energy! Anyway that was a fun conversation.
I met up with the guys and we checked out a couple of markets; San Pedro market where there are witches stalls selling potions and spells and dried llama fetuses, then El Molino, the 'black market' where you can buy anything from soccer balls to flat screen TVs to Nike shoes. Then we just chilled out at their hostel before an all you can eat Indian dinner, then they hopped on an overnight bus to La Paz. Won't see them until we're all back in Australia for Christmas!
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