Day 10 - I ate a Guinea Pig

Wednesday July Eighth

     'Hola hola coca cola!' -one of my Kindergarten kids when I arrived at work this morning, haha! 

      We were pretty late this morning, maybe half an hour, as Hunter hates mornings, and I'm just incredibly slow! Apparently Matt of all people was mad at us for being late, I'm sorry you're 42 you can be at work by yourself! 

       The lack of sleep is really starting to affect me though. It was another late night salsa dancing last night. It seemed hard to do the simplest things, talk to the kids, grade their homework. I was even exhausted, just sitting there at my desk. Then things got worse, I drank some milk and rice at snack time with all the kids, but it did not sit well with my stomach. So then I was exhausted and feeling sick!

    I remember sitting on a bench in the courtyard just watching all the kids run around and scream at play time, and being like 'nope this isn't happening' Hunter came over and was feeling just as tired, and we agreed to go home in half an hour, an hour and a half early. 

     While I was sitting there totally out of it a little girl came over to me in tears, and was like I miss my parents! It made me think of last night, and I was like me too chica, me too.

      We left, and the ride home never seemed so long, we got home and I fell asleep almost instantly.

       I awoke an hour later to María knocking on the door. I was a little disoriented at first because I had had a dream where I was back in the U.S. 

    I had been dreaming my trip had already ended and I was so sad and confused and wanted to go back, and mum kept telling me all the amazing things I hadn't done. It was a relief, when I awoke to see that I was still in my little Peruvian bedroom. Then María called again through the door 'everyone is waiting for you two!' And I realized I'd completely forgotten we had all planned out to go out with Caroline's parents to try a local delicacy, Quoi.  

    I scrambled to get ready, but actually since I'm always scrambling to get ready here that's no surprise. And in truth, if we're being honest, I'm always scrambling to get ready even at home in the U.S. so that's really not that weird, and then I joined the others and we went out.

     We had do take two taxis there,where ours was to follow the other one, but we lost them after a bus hit us. 

      It finally happened, after all the close misses and centimeter gaps between vehicles, we crashed. It was nothing too serious, a bus just pulled into our land trying to go into the spot we were occupying, which of course wasn't going to end well. Our taxi slammed on the breaks but the back of the bus clipped the front of our taxi and we were all jolted sideways. It wasn't that big of a jolt, it was just awkward because I was lying across German Caroline in the back, yet again, that seems to happen so much! So I was jolted into the door at an odd angle. 

    The two vehicles then proceeded to pull over and I got to witness the Perunvian insurance system, they got out and yelled at each other. After a few minutes and with no sign that the yelling had accomplished anything, our taxi driver got back in and we continued.

     I was more scared than ever before of the dangerous roads! Before I had thought that maybe the roads were so dangerous that they heightened everyone's collision avoidance, and road awareness so that crashes were actually pretty uncommon, but I was under no illusions now! 

     Then the taxi driver turned around and asked us where we were going and I realized That we had no clue as we were supposed to be following the other cab. However after a few minutes of deciphering María's, as per usual, cryptic directions over text we managed to ended up at the right restaurant. It's always a nightmare trying to get directions from her.

     The restaurant was a small local one and the service was horrendously slow even though we were the only ones there. But eventually the Quoi, or guniea pig, arrived.

     And it was horrifying! It came out as the whole animal, and I couldn't look at its face, the open mouth with it's sharp teeth, and it's staring eyes! I was impressed with German Caroline though who just went right at it, hacking of it's head without hesitation!

U.S. Caroline wasn't as impressed

       The whole animal came out
       Hunter and I shared one, but there was hardly any meat on it, and you had to hack through an enormous amount of skin, bones, and internal organs to get to it. I felt like I was in science class dissecting something, yuck! It tasted okay, but it was hard to get over the fact that it had once been such a cute little animal!

Identical horrified expressions!

      After we finished, we were given a shot that helps you digest the tough fat. It was my first shot, and I was actually nervous about taking it, no one ever seems to really enjoy them, do they? They make that terrible face afterwards! However when in Rome! Down it went and it was actually not that bad! Very strong yes, but not unmanagable, and although it tasted of black liquorish, which I've never been a fan off, it didn't taste terrible! 

     Then in the afternoon, Me, Germany, Aton, Jorge, and Ana, went to see still more Incan ruins, just for a change! The bus ride there was about an hour long, and thankfully without any crashes! Phew! 

     The further we got from Cuzco, the more impoverished it became. I saw people on the side of the road making Adobe bricks out of the dirt they found around them, and I tried to imagine what it would be like to live like that, to not go to college, to not travel, to not have an iPhone, or a car, or so many of the tiny comforts we take for granted. Good shoes, new toothbrushes, ect. But I couldn't.

The rural village of Tipon, where this farmer was herding his animals right through the main square

      We took a taxi up the narrow winding path to the ruins, and around one bend a bunch of cows suprised us and the taxi had to swerve out of the way, so I almost got in a cow crash as well as a car crash!

      The ruins at Tipon were awesome, it was basically more terraced Incan farm land but it had this awesomely intricate irrigation system of small canals and waterfalls.

The Incas were such amazing engineers! And everything they did was so beautiful!

The Andes are always so stunning! 

What awesome people :) (Caroline took this photo)

I'm on top of the world! (Caroline took these photos)

Sunset on some beautiful ruins

These terraces put Moray to shame! (Another Caroline photo)

Aton looking off into the sunset!

     Back at our house we had planned a birthday party for three of the volunteers who have birthdays around the next week. U.S. Caroline and Ana who are both turning twenty three and Colleen who is turning 27.

      María had decorated the house and we played some fun games like blindfolded darts and a did a piñata. Although the piñata turned out to impossible to open, everyone took a swing at it including the guys, Aton, Tommy, and Matt but no one could bust it! They all walked up to it like it was going to be trivial but then had to walk away again and hand the bat over to someone else! In the end María just pried it open! There were a few sets of jacks in the piñata and so María taught us all how to play, she's really good! 

So much sugary food! Sugar overdose!

Party hats!

María is the one with light brown hair front and center

Hunter throwing a dart from behind the piñata!

    After dinner the music was turned on and María got her salsa on! First jacks and now salsa she keeps surprising us tonight! We all decided to go out and salsa dance afterwards as well.

     I am terrible at makeup, have only put it on about twice in my entire life, so before we went out U.S. Caroline and Hunter helped me which was really nice :). U.S. Caroline trimmed my eyebrows and gave me some concealer, and Hunter helped me with my eyeshadow and we were ready to go!

Feeling good!

    In the end only me, Hunter, U.S. Caroline, and Matt went, but Matt was so weird, just like in the kindergarten instead of jumping in and doing stuff, he just sat at the back drinking, and watching us..how weird! To clarify he does not drink at the kindergarten. So then it turned into a really fun girls night! I danced with this one guy who was really good but quite a bit shorter than me, we nicknamed him the hobbit, which was really fun except it was a little awkward when he tried to spin me as I would have to duck down! After about midnight we all decided to go home, but Matt said he wanted to stay, what?! He wasn't even doing anything！I think I'm in the minority in this but I think he's a little strange, and don't like him.

    

Day 9 - Dealing with criminals

Tuesday July Seventh

     I woke up but still felt like I was in a dream, was I really about to do a deal with criminals? Me who had never so much as skipped class? Well except to do other homework but I don't think that counts. Was I crazy?

      I must have checked my money a hundred times that morning, before me and María headed off for the overpass. María was a little mad at me for texting the criminals and giving them our phone number, (I just texted please give this back!), and so we made our way in silence to the bridge. My hopes were few as I could still taste the disappointment in my mouth.

     Up the stairs we went, and across the bridge. Me wearing my brown shirt and green hat that he was to identify us by. About halfway across the bridge a voice from behind me said 'Señora' I turned around, 'I have your phone.' He said in Spanish. María did the talking again, he handed me my phone, the case was the same but it was dead so I couldn't be sure. I was kicking myself for not writing down the production number so I could have been sure, but I payed him anyway, and just like that off we went in our separate directions hopefully to never see each other again. Just to be sure María and I took a taxi in the opposite direction from our house.

       On our way back I plugged my phone into a portable battery I brought, and it was mine! I was overjoyed and couldn't believe how lucky I was! Now that it has all turned out good I can laugh about it, and say that was one of the most exciting things I've ever done! Oh what a relief! What a story to tell, doing an deal with criminals in Peru!

         After such an exciting morning I kind of forgot I still had a regular day ahead of me! We went straight from the bridge to an unfamiliar apartment which turned out to be the home stay of a new volunteer. We were going to take him to work at the Kindergarten today to show him the way.

          Matt: A 42 year old ex-military, Air Force, married, father of three. Definitely not the typical volunteer. Especially once you consider that he doesn't speak any Spanish! I wonder if he is having a mid life crisis. Weirder still he doesn't seem to be that good with kids even though he's a father. 

      He was stationed in my classroom, but he mainly hung back and didn't really do anything the whole day. It could just be the language barrier though so well have to wait and see. I also find him to be a kind of odd person, his aviator sunglasses, long hair, and arm tattoos make him look like he's trying to be a rock star, but his personality is shy and a little awkward, I don't get it!

      Work is going well for me as my class is always busy, but Hunter said her class only does stuff if the teacher is not there, which is not how it's supposed to work! Her class also sounds crazy, the other day one of the kids was pinning others down and cutting their hair! I'm so thankful I only have a few trouble kids! 

Hunter and one of her adorable girls!

   In the afternoon I went shopping in San Blas, the old neighborhood, with Germany (our nickname for the Caroline from Germany) and got so much stuff! Everything is so cheap here it's hard to resist! Two pairs of earrings for $2, leg warmers and gloves for $10 an amazing knotted top for $16 and two scarves for $10! 

     As we shopped Germany told me that María had gotten very mad at Tommy for not saying anything about how he was displeased with his work at a local Medical Clinic (It sounds like the same thing as me, he just didn't feel useful) and then writing a bad review of the company. They were both a little in the wrong, Tommy for not saying anything, and María for getting mad about his personal opinion, but all this just makes me really nervous to tell María I'm not happy in my work either! 

     In the evening we went to dinner at a traditional Peruvian restaurant with the parents of U.S. Caroline. Who is actually a lot more fun than I originally thought! The coolest part about going to restaurants here is that you can have a glass of wine with your dinner, as there really isn't a strict drinking age! 

This is the face of betrayal. 

       We ordered a traditional appetizer of cow heart on a stick, and Hunter was the first to try it. She ate it and said it was really good, so I took a big bite, then she started laughing. It was disgusting! Oh god, and the texture was miserable, chewy, and terrifyingly squishy! It took me forever to swallow it. Once I did though I laughed too, I don't know how she managed to keep a straight face while eating that!

     Watching Caroline with her parents, I started to feel a little lonely for the first time. I think I've been to busy to be homesick before, but now seeing the familiarity and love between them three really made me aware of the unsure relationships I have with the other volunteers, I mean everyone is super nice and funny, and supportive, but it's just not the same, is it. We went Salsa dancing afterwards but I still felt lonely dancing with all those strangers. 

Day 8 - That time we almost didn't come back

The Monday July Sixth.

      I still can't believe I went to Macchu Picchu yesterday!

      So today I have a well earned day off for teacher appreciation day, I'd say that three days of work totally qualifies me for that! Me and Hunter used the morning off to explore the old neighborhood where a lot of the walls are actually ancient Incan walls made out of these huge stones, we even found one with twelve corners. We were going to go to the sacred valley with Germany in the afternoon but frustratingly she wasn't at home, so we waited as long as we could but then we decided we'd just have to try and go ourselves!          

     On the bus ride there I was still so tired from yesterday that I feel asleep thinking that Hunter would be awake to watch for our stop, which was like an hour away. However when I awoke an hour and fifteen minutes later, Hunter was asleep too! Then I looked outside and we were in the middle of fricking nowhere. I mean it was just field after brown field with barely a rundown house in sight. This all sent me into a panic attack, should we get off? Could we call someone? How would we survive the night in the open if we had too?! I woke Hunter up.

      We decided we had two options, get off and pray that a taxi would happen to come along even though we barely saw any other cars, or wait it out for God knows how long until we reached an urban center. The bus was coming to another stop, and we decided to get off, but just as we were reaching the front door the bus started moving and the door was slammed in our faces. We thought we were unlucky but when we saw that the next stop was the one we needed all along we realized just how lucky we were! Oh what a relief!

      We then got an extremely overpriced taxi to Moray, yet more Incan ruins. Where we promptly had to buy an extremely overpriced ticket. And then after all that money we were sorely disappointed, they were basically another set of terraces, used by the Incans as a kind of experiment to see at which level and corresponding temperature different crops grew best. Especially considering we'd just been to Macchu Picchu it wasn't that interesting. 

    However the boringness of Moray only amplified the awesomeness of the next place we went, Maras Salinas. They are basically hundreds and hundreds of naturally filling 'ponds' or Incan built rectangular pools with natural salty water from the surrounding mountain springs. Next to Macchu Picchu these were the most beautiful thing I've seen here!

Wow!

The locals here wait for the water to evaporate and leave the salt and then harvest and sell it! I got a lot!

So many!

Hunter being amazed at the salt :)

A very windy day!

More wind!

    On the way back we avoided another bus debacle by taking a shared Taxi. Me and Hunter discussed how even though we've only known each other for less than a week, we already know so much about each other, and feel like we've been friends for a long time! I guess that's what happens when you share a work, a room, and after work activities! It was a beautiful drive and I took lots of pictures on my phone.

In Cuzco we stopped in a square and the taxi driver was hurrying us out, and I was fumbling with my money belt trying to get the right change. However it wasn't until a few minutes later when we went into a beautiful church and I reached for my phone to take a picture that I realized it wasn't there! I couldn't believe it, it hadn't been stolen or broken, or got some virus. I had personally left in on the seat of a taxi. All the money belts and security measures in the world can't protect against stupid. I thought back to the moments after we had gotten out of the taxi with disgust, how had we run across the road laughing? The more time passed the more it sunk in, and the worse I felt. Had this really happened to me? What was worse was I had backed up all of my photos except for those from yesterday, Macchu fricking Picchu! I couldn't believe how unlucky that was.

      Hunter took me for coffee to help me feel better which was nice, but I knew I had to call me parents. They were very disappointed in and for me, and we talked a while about any way we could possible get it back, using find my iPhone, ect. 

       Then suddenly my Dad said, 'Hold on I'm getting a call from Adrianne' My heart jumped and I was so relieved, there really are good people in this world! The guy on the other end of the line spoke only Spanish so my Dad passed him to me, overjoyed I listened as he said 'how much are you willing to pay' my heart sunk, so much for good people. At this point my host mother María Elena took over and with a long conversation and a stern tone was able to negotiate $125 USD for it, and a meeting place in the plaza de armas that night. I will be forever grateful to her for doing that for me.

Back in my house in Colorado, my Dad could hear the whole conversation but couldn't understand any of it!

      So it was to be a swap. I felt like I was in some kind of spy movie as my whole house discussed the details. We decided to take as many precautions as possible. The five of us, Me, María, Hunter, Aton, and Germany where to go in two taxis, and me and María were to wait at the assigned location while the other three watched closely from across the plaza, if all went well María was to stroke her hair and then we'd all meet at Starbucks to put on our disguises so that the criminals couldn't follow us home and figure out where we lived.

      We arrived exactly at 8:30 and I leaned against the side of the assigned building thinking of how I would get the pepper spray out of my bra if needed. But all was not to plan, two police cars and four police motorcycles happened to be in front of the very same building. What rotten, rotten luck! I couldn't believe it, I knew that as soon as the Taxi driver saw them he would bolt, if he didn't believe we called them ourselves! And so we waited and waited, in the freezing cold, and the backup team went into the building behind us, none of us acknowledged get the others, but me and María stayed out in the cold. Forty five minutes later we gave up, he wasn't coming.

     We all meet back at Starbucks and everyone was telling me sorry, but they couldn't feel the bitter disappointed, my hopes had been so high!

    We went home in two different groups anyway just to be safe, and as I sat sadly on the couch the phone rang again. And it was him again, but I didn't let my hopes get up to much this time. María preformed another miracle negotiation and set up a new meeting point on an overpass closer to our house the next morning.

     As I fell asleep I reflected on what a roller coaster day of emotions it had been, and was apprehensive to do it all again tomorrow.

Day 7 - Macchu Picchu

Sunday July Fifth

     Brace yourself for pictures... It's the Macchu Picchu post!!!

    I woke up in our hostel with a surreal feeling, I couldn't believe I was actually going to get to see Macchu Picchu! Actually I almost didn't as our alarm didn't go off and we only had half an hour to get ready, pack, eat breakfast, and be out the door! It was like Dejavu of yesterday when Fransisco came to pick us up and we weren't ready! A very rushed and panicked half an hour later we made it on the bus just in time. 

    And up, up, up we went along this extremely narrow dirt road with a sharp cliff on one side and buses going both directions! That was scary.

    Macchu Picchu took my breath away both literally and figuratively, located atop a high mountain in the Andes, it truly does deserve to be one of the seven wonders of the world. I just saw one of the seven most amazing places in the entire world! That's crazy!

We were sad at first that it was such a cloudy day, but soon realized it made it even more magical!

Cecilia, Chelsy, Tommy, Hunter, and me!

So excited!

     The company I had gotten my trip through provided us with a tour guide who told us a few interesting things like how most of the buildings there are devoted to astronomy, which is why it's built at the top of a mountain, because the stars were a very important aspect of Incan culture,

Reflecting pools that help track the Sun's movement and can be used to look at the stars

These three open windows line up with the stars in Orion's Belt! 

This rock formation was made to look like a condor, with the slanted black rocks in the background being the wings, and the curved stone the neck feathers. Falcons were extremely important as they were thought to be the messengers between the earth and the gods in the sky,

The sun temple, you can see two windows that correspond exactly with the angle of the sun in the winter and summer solstices! I can't even imagine how complicated it was to construct it like that!

     The tour guide also told us that no bodies of children were found there even though there were both women and men which was interesting, and that the government is planning on closing Macchu Picchu to the public pretty soon as the enormous weight of all those tourists is making the ground sink! So if you haven't been go soon! 

      

A beautiful stone ally way, can you imagine how amazing this place must of been before?

These two people are so cool :)

We had a little bit of fun pretending to be real estate agents and saying things like, "well this one comes with particularly good storage for stones' or 'I wonder if this one comes with a llama-mower the lawn is just unruly!'

So many steps, so little air...

Terraces! I could totally see myself living in my own little stone house, farming my own little terrace every day, how cool would that be?!

Me in a window of a reconstructed house with a replica of the original thatched roof 

Oh Tommy! Haha :)

Happiness!

Who needs doorsteps anyway?

So many amazing photos!

Authentic modern day ladder, woah!

And quite possibly the most amazing photo of them all. Hunter you look stunning.

     After all this exploring we went and ate a good lunch and then went for a hike without Tommy, who being a Med student self diagnosed some tendon problem or other in his knee and had to sit this one out :(

      We wanted to go for this hike up to a sun gate that was supposed to take about three hours but we only had one and a half hours so we went double time, practically running after Cecilca who was a really fast walker up this narrow rocky Incan path! Luckily we lost Chelsy who is still as annoying today as she was yesterday. Not that I don't like her exactly, it's just she disrupts the group dynamic.

Llama jam!

He's so unimpressed with you right now...

Sun gate ruins

And the amazing view from the sun gate, you can see the windy dirt road we took on the bus to get up, and Macchu Picchu which is the area of un-forested mountain just above the road.

     Then we said goodbye to Cecilia, Tommy, and Chelsy who had an earlier train and then me and Hunter went on another hike to see an old Incan bridge 

The disappointing bridge

The really, really scary path!

    And then it was over. Just like that it was time to go back home, and me and Hunter sadly rode the bus back down. Back in the town we had a few hours to kill so looked around in the markets, the stuff was really cool, but our bartering skills could definitely use some help! I only ever managed to lower the price about five soles, or one U.S. Dollar!

      We had a late train and it was so uncomfortable neither of us could get any sleep! Then the car ride back was even worse, over the bumpy cobblestone streets, with cars honking all around! We fell into bed exhausted when we returned, what an amazing day!