change of pace...

I appologize if this blog starts to sound more like a journal- but it is how I´m tracking my trip so bare with me. Wow, wow, wow. Yesterday was a day of adventure. Words cannot describe anything that I experienced or saw yesterday as we packed SO much into one day-but it was brilliant. It was the last day to explore a bit until i had to get down to business at Maximo Nivel. I started my TEFL course and will be taking Spanish classes in the evenings also. SO- lots to learn. I could write all day about yesterday alone-but here is my best attempt to give you an overview. I can´t post pics- but they would do a lot more justice to my day.

Alfonso picked me up yesterday morning after I had some mate de cocoa in my hostel and we went to Maximo to get assigned to a host family. Honestly I was a little nervous when they told me I´d be with a single mom.. as that was my situation in CR, but I got to the place and I couldn´t have it any better. My host mom is named Marina and she reminds me so much of my aunt Judy :). So sweet and likeable from the first moment. She has a cat that wanted me to hold it right away- so I felt at home pretty quick- as I´m used to having Mamba & Luna around. My room is great and she has two sons- 20 & 25 that live there too. I´m sure they´ll show me some good parts of cuzco. I was only there for about 20 mins before we hit the road and started off to who knows where- we left by 9:30 am and didn´t return until 8:30 last night. We went way outside of cuzco the heart of the land here. The land is unbelievable- I couldn´t stop taking pictures. I felt like I was in watching a movie. Alfonso told me we would start at 14,000 ft and go higher as the day progressed. We stopped in a village about an hour outside cuzco where they have a market that people walk to from all over for hours and hours with their stuff on their backs. I was the only gringo that I saw- and the peruvians were the ones you see in pictures.

As I said so much of this is impossible to explain without pictures- but we went to a temple there where the walls were painted with the oils of the vegetables- Alfonso gave me a tour right in the middle of a service- which felt wierd to me.. but you learn to go with it when you are with a local. We heard the people singing in their native tongue- which I don´t know how to spell but it is catchua... the other langugage of the people here. We tried some kind of food that was all herbs that they grew- the closest discription I have is spinach... mixed with other green veggies.

We continued on to a place that was a glimpse of what I´ll see in machu picchu- with the ruins and construction of the incas. I´ve learned more history in the past few days about Cuzco then I know in all my years of English History in the US (that may have something to do with my attendance in highschool-ops). It is utterly facinating... the gods the Incas had and how they worshiped the sun.. how they built their land to harvet different kinds of crops in levels. So much to learn. That was amazing as well... as pictures will later describe.

We met alfonso´s wife for lunch at this buffet where the food was typical- and delicious. It was a cute restaurant with live music with flutes of all sorts- and all of it only cost for the three of us 15.00- for a first class feast.

The drive alone was incredible- but the little places we stopped at and the people of peru have been the biggest culture shock I´ve had in my travels. Yesterday alone! We stopped by a few soccer fields on the way and one time stopped to visit a friend of Alfonso´s who was the ref of a game so we watched. There was a girls game going on on a tiny field and some of the girls (or women) were wearing skirts playing soccer. That was an awesome sight! Go women´s soccer!!! It seriously amazed me how we would be in the middle of NOWHERE and you would see a beautiful soccer field with a fence around it (okay not AS beautiful as DSGPark Dean:)).... they were everywhere. I don´t even know where the people lived that played on some of these fields- but I loved it! Beauty at its finest is when you can see a soccer field surrounded by majestic land.

We also stopped on the side of the road to watch a cock fight- you can only imagine how well I handled that... it was pretty crazy. They put knives on the cocks- and the fight was not even the worst part. I was trying not to watch but kinda had to- REALLY trying to blend in as the only white person there... all the while maintain my cool. I´m a pacifist- so I really don´t understand the joy in watching a cock fight. BUT it was a great experience culturally. The worst fight was afterwards when they had to kill the cock that lost... it took about 10 of the men to try and break it´s neck as it was bleeding all over the place from the fight... ISH! They killed it and started walking off- one man carrying the winning cock and the other holding the losing cock by his legs when it started to try and fly... STILL. After a broken neck.... that my friends was an experience I didn´t expect when I signed up for this deal- but like I said, important to see.

We went to send a message to the village via a piece of paper that we will be coming to bring supplies soon. I guess the people will walk from far away to meet us... after our drive and horse-back trek. I´m pretty excited for that.

We stopped at one more market so Alfonso and his wife could buy some fruit and then on the way back we went to a look out view on our way back into cuzco and saw the white angel statue that looks over the whole city and all of the lights- pretty amazing view.

I got back- had dinner with my host mom and another student and then went to bed pretty quick.

Today I´m at Maximo- I had orientation this morning and classes and took my placement test and start Spanish classes tonight. That is my life in the past day in a nutshell...

Sorry to be so long... Hope all is well. Please be in touch :)