LAST FRIDAY IN PERÚ

Today is our last Friday in Perú. I can’t believe how fast these last 5 weeks have gone by. I have met so many incredible people (Aida, Rosa, Sandra, Henry, Romeo, Abraham, and Eloy to name a few), seen parts of Perú I had only read about, and improved my Spanish to a level I never thought I would accomplish. I feel so lucky to have been one of the thirty two students chosen to be a part of this Dialogue. Although I will miss Perú, I am very excited to continue to study Spanish and explore other Latin American countries.  

As far as activities go today, some friends and I are will be going to the San Pedro Market in downtown Cusco to get the last of our alpaca sweater needs out of our systems. Afterwards, we plan on finally trying Chifa, a fusion between Chinese and Peruvian food. As a celebration of our last night in Perú, our whole program will be eating dinner together at a fancy restaurant that used to be a monastery. Hopefully, we can convince Monica to come out with us afterwards!

MACHU PICCHU

No words can really describe my time at Machu Picchu. It was an incredible experience and I feel so blessed to have been able to travel to such a sacred cite. Although it was fascinating to tour the city, my favorite part of the day was hiking up to el Puerto del Sol. It was from this point, the sun temple, that I was able to see a panoramic view of Machu Picchu and the mountains surrounding it.

VALLE SAGRADO

So far in Cusco, our days have been fairly short. But that changed today during our visit to el Valle Sagrado, or the Sacred Valley. Abraham and Eloy took to different areas of the valley, all of them providing beautiful views of the mountains. Our first official stop was at a llama/alpaca/vicugna farm, where we were able to feed and pet the animals. Another group of American tourists must have upset one of the llamas because all of a sudden one of the girls taking selfies was covered in llama spit. One can only handle so many selfies..

Afterwards, we traveled to another agricultural cite hidden in the mountains called Pisac. There, we got to hike to the top of the village and look out over the entire valley. We even saw some wandering Northeastern parents at the ruins.

Feeling rather ravenous, we headed to an all you can eat buffet!! They had just about everything one would want to try...even alpaca! After stuffing our faces and storing a few snacks in napkins for later, we explored the creek behind the restaurant. I didn't do so much exploring, rather I lay in the sun trying to digest the 6 plates of food I had eaten.

We continued the day with a tour of the temple of Ollantaytambo. Eloy pointed out many of the figures carved into the rock faces, including an Incan man with a feathered crown. Apparently if you were to hike up to the man, you could see that the territory of Ollantaytambo was built in the shape of a llama, one of the most sacred animals that the Incas sacrificed.

For the last stop of the day, we went to a traditional weaving market. We watched women clean, weave, and dye alpaca fibers. Everything was made with very simple wooden tools, llama bones, and natural dyes. After the demonstration, we had time to explore the market. Abraham and Eloy found a conch shell and attempted to blow into it to make different sounds. Eloy picked it up very quickly but Abraham on the other hand was struggling. Curious as to how to play the conch, Rebecca and I asked for a quick lesson. Much to our surprise, we were both able to make the sound on the first try! This really cracked Abraham and Eloy up. Mostly it just made Eloy laugh because Abraham still couldn't quite make the noise.

((Pictures to come when I have better wifi))

YO TE QUIERO CON LIMON Y SAL

Today we met our friends Abraham and Eloy outside the hotel at 8:00. We piled into yet another bus and drove 1.5 hours to see las Salinas de Maras, salt mines that predated the Incas. I was very excited for this stop because salt is one of my favorite foods. I had also heard that there would be free samples which is always a plus. When we got off the bus, we had to hike down to the salt flats. The only way down was through gift shops. Luckily, each gift shop had buckets and buckets of free salted corn nuts, banana chips, and my favorite, chocolate!!

The second expedition of the day was to an ancient agricultural cite called Moray. I had a lot of fun hiking around the upper terraces of the land and feeling the different microclimates that the Incas skillfully created. It was refreshing to leave the city bustle and explore Perú's mountain side.

FIRST AND SECOND DAY  IN CUSCO

Yesterday we left Miraflores on a 2:40pm flight to Cusco!! Although it was sad saying goodbye to Aida and Maya I was excited for the next chapter of our program.

Because of the EXTREME change in altitude (300ft to 11,000ft), we took the first day relatively slow. To avoid getting altitude sickness, I had a huge bag of coco leaves to chew on. They may have helped ease the effects of, but the taste that accompanied them gave me an entirely different kind of sickness.

After a much needed nap, some of us ventured out to find pizza and pasta! It was a huge success. It was nice to get back to my italian roots and indulge in some non-potato carbs :)

After a full day's rest (some of us) were ready to explore the historic capital of Perú. We started the day at 9:00. We met up with two Cusqueñan tour guides named Abraham and Eloy. They are a silly pair that like to threaten us if we don't move fast enough. Fo example today, one girl was taking too long in the bathroom and our guides told the bus to start to drive away. Little did they know, she may have had food poisoning!

Abraham and Eloy took us to five different archeological cites. These included; an ancient Incan sun temple; a Spanish cathedral; a spiritual cave; an ancient administrative site called Saqsayhuamán (sexy woman); and an ancient water temple. We also attended a brief lesson about the different kinds of alpaca wools. I quickly learned that all of the alpaca sweaters I have bought are not actually made from alpaca...but they still feel and look very nice so está bien.

That night, a group of us went to a club called Mama Africa where we learned some Peruvian line dances.

LOTS OF DÍAS

This past week has been very hectic so this will be a condensed (but thorough!!) post about my last week in Lima.

During our last week at UNIFÉ, we took a series of culture and history classes. We learned about Peru’s extensive food menu, churches in Cusco, and the influence of Latin on both Spanish and English words. Although each class had its perks (e.g., free food), my favorite lesson was on the small churches in Cusco. It was fascinating to learn how architecture during this time tied so closely with the city’s colonization.  For example, when looking at one of the churches from the outside, you wouldn’t think it had any Spanish influence as they were built with traditional materials of the region (Adobe and wood). However, looking inside the church, you could clearly see a European approval stamp with each renaissance painting of  blindingly white Jesus and gold leafed statue.

Each church was also built with a balcony in order for the pasture to preach to the “uncooperative” indigenous communities who refused to enter the church. Those who did enter the church, found ways to pray to their own gods instead of to those forced upon them.

After our lectures each day, we continues with our presentations and translations.

LAST DAY AT EL SOL AND UNIFÉ

For our last day of school, our history and culture teacher, Rosa, moved our classroom down the street to a restaurant called Crepes and Waffles. I ordered a beautiful waffle con frutas de la selva and ice cream, it was amazing!! Over brunch, we had a brief lesson about the Incas. The lesson didn’t last very long so we spent the majority of the class asking Rosa questions about her personal life. I think Austin was disappointed to learn that Rosa has a novio L

Heading back to El Sol, we were greeted with free sweatshirts and a fancy banquet. Yay, more food! It was sad saying goodbye to all of our professors, but after 4 weeks of  early morning classes, it wasn’t really that sad. In all seriousness, I learned a lot from each of them. I am very thankful for the care they put into each lesson and the extra time they took out of their schedules to help us understand the history and culture of Peru.

After a semi emotional goodbye, we headed to UNIFÉ. The remaining groups, including mine, presented their chapters. We then went to our graduation ceremony in the main meeting room of the university. As part of our cultural exchange, we taught the UNIFÉ students “Soulja Boy.” We were all pretty proud of ourselves until they followed our dance with some sexy salsa and a performance of the song “Contigo Perú.” Womp. All in all, it was a very sweet ceremony and I will definitely miss talking with the girls everyday.

Because we had the next day (Friday) off, we decided to go to a club called the Help. Sounds promising, right? Well it was! Walking into the club was like stepping onto “Step Up” set. The whole first part of the night consisted of 2 minute dance offs between all kinds of people. The winner got to take home 500 soles! Unfortunately, none of us had the moves to take home the dough.

FREE FRIDAY

On the last day of school, some of us had been asking our grammar professor, Romeo, if he knew of any good hiking trails not too far out of the city. In the process of asking, we managed to convince him to come with us. So, for my free Friday I went hiking with my professor and a few other friends!

We met Romeo at 1:00pm to drive to Pachacamac. The park we wanted to go sneakily had two names! Therefore, whenever we asked someone for directions to Cerro Verde, they brushed us off as stupid tourists and went on their way. It took us a half hour to realize that we needed to be asking for directions to Lomos de Lucomo.

The driving back and forth was worth it! We spent over 2 hours exploring the different paths. At the top, we had a cloudy view of the ruins of Pachacamac, the ocean and the small village below. We also saw a lot of cool rock formations which is always a plus!!

PRESENTATIONS

My classes seem to be getting more creative each day at El Sol. Today for example, we made clay replicas of tumis. A tumi was used by the ancient civilization, Chimu, during sacred rituals and sacrifices. My partner Ralzaly and I, spent at least thirty minutes making our tumi...and then class was over..!

Per usual, we then went to UNIFÉ as part of our cultural exchange. We broke off into small groups to talk about the theme of the day: dating. As a group of ten or so single women, we quickly decided to change the topic. Instead, we asked the girls about the night life in Lima. Apparently, our program has been taking us to all the "old people" bars. This makes sense when I look back on the places we have gone. The girls told us to go to: The Help, Muaw, and Bizarro. They all sound like they could be part of an SNL skit.

After chatting with the students and learning about the Republic of Perú, it was time for us to give our own history lesson. One by one, we presented various aspects of Peruvian history and culture based off our findings from the program's assigned readings. As we presented in Spanish, translation students translated our words to English. I didn't actually present today, I'll be in the last group to go.

You know what they say, save the best for last!!!

((Also PPK won the presidential election))