Peru: First impressions

(Cusco. Scott took this photo on his iPhone, out of his hostel window.)

Scott & I arrived from Guatemala City and stayed overnight in Lima on the 13th November because due to winds picking up in the mountains in the afternoons, there are no flights to Cuzco after 4pm. I met up with Flick (and her new volunteering friends) for dinner that night which was great and caught up on everything we´d done since we saw each other last at Oktoberfest! But that´s all I saw of Lima; taxi rides to and from the airport and a night in Miraflores.

We got to Cuzco around 11am the next morning; the landing was exciting as the plane came down into the city which is in a tiny bowl surrounded by mountains, and the overall colour was brown brown brown. As soon as we got off the plane a group of elderly tourists scurried to an oxygen stall in the baggage hall and strapped on some masks.

I was shown around the language centre/ volunteering program office where I´ll be spending a lot of time over the next month (I´m here right now) and then dropped at my homestay, and Scott wandered off to find his hostel.

I´m staying in a woman called Yoni´s apartment, with 4 other people. There´s 2 beds in my room but so far I´ve got it to myself, it´s about 15 minutes walk to the language centre, and Yoni (in her 60s) is lovely. But I was a bit disappointed that there are no other young people in the house... one Polish lady is in her 40s and the other three (an American and a French Canadian couple) are all over 60. They´ve all got much more Spanish than me and are able to converse and express opinions amongst each other and with Yoni in Spanish, never speaking in their first languages.

I´m torn: I´m absorbing lots of vocab just by listening to them at meals, and I´m able to understand the gist of all conversations but not produce it yet, so I know staying with them will help me language-wise, which is what I´m here for. But on the other hand, I´m really wanting to travel on the weekends with people my age, and make some friends to do things with in town. So I don´t know whether I want to ask the program to move me to a ´volunteer house´ of which there are 3 or 4 in town and they´re full of people my age (they must have been full the day I moved in) or whether I should stick it out and be as immersed in the language as I can at Yoni´s.

Anyway. The altitude affected me a little for the first few days as I got lightheaded going up the tight wobbly spiral staircase to my room on the 3rd floor, and when I walk quickly up the road I get out of breath and feel like an asthmatic. Also woke up with headaches that stuck around all day for the first 3 days, but nothing as bad as the French Canadian gent in my house who had to spend 3 days in hospital attached to an oxygen mask!

Impressions of the town:
To get to Maximo Nivel (language centre) I walk past a gorgeous cocker spanial X pup who I pat every day. Then the first market I pass has street food out the front (deep fried batter like some kind of doughnut, fruit, chicken rolls, some kind of coloured drink scooped out of buckets, & mystery meat skewers.)The worst bit of the walk is next; dusty path always under construction next to a busy road so my lungs fill up with dust and exhaust fumes. Then the second market I pass is the Artisan´s market and I struggle to not stop and look at the knitted beanies, scarves, jumpers, and very touristy keyrings and things. Alpaca´s on everything. Then the path gets interesting as for some reason they have pulled up random patterns of tiles on both sides of the road, so it´s like a game of hopscotch, tiles wobbling precariously over muddy holes and puddles. This is now the main street and I´m hopping past restaurants, mini markets, travel agencies, a bank, a post office.
Avenida del Sol

If I keep walking up Avenida del Sol (main street)past Maximo Nivel right to the top, I get to the main square Plaza de Armas. It´s gorgeous around here; cobbled roads, cathedrals, fountains. But this is the most touristy spot, and you can´t walk 5 metres without being offered massages, paintings, shoe shines, menus, jewelery, and even photos with women in traditional costume holding baby alpacas!
Kids & baby alpacas (had to pay them for this pic)

Plaza de Armas

Cuzco is called ´the bellybutton of the world.´This makes sense when you notice it´s in a bowl, hills surrounding the town. In daylight ´Viva Peru´and other signs are visible carved/cut into the hills, and at night the lights in all the buildings on the hills appear like stars in the darkness surrounding the city. It´s so beautiful sitting in Plaza de Armas at nighttime as the streetlights show up the churches and cobbles and arches,the lights on the hills like stars all around, and real stars above.



The daytimes have been really warm and sunny, or warm and cloudy. I got sunburnt despite being warned to wear suncreen. I guess being 3.5kms closer to the sun really does matter. But as soon as the sun goes down, it´s cold. Cold enough for woolly jumpers, beanies and gloves (all of which I bought pretty quickly from the artisans market!)

I´m running out of time before I have to go to Spanish and don´t want to rush writing about my volunteer placement so that will have to wait til later. Unfortunately my camera cables and chargers were stolen back in Belize so I can´t upload any photos until I get home, and can´t even take any photos on my big camera until I recieve a new charger in the mail! But Jake and Chris arrived yesterday, and Scott is still here, so if I don´t get my charger before Saturday (we´re going to Machu Picchu then) hopefully between us we can get some good pics!