Oh, What a Life.

And what a week it has been! After returning from the Amazon, we have enjoyed just about 2 full weeks in Cusco. This Wednesday we head out on a 17 day excursion throughout Peru—down south to Lake Titicaca and Colca Canyon, where we’ll live with families in rural homestays for a week, and then up to Lima. We’re all so excited to go, but I know I’m going to miss Cusco when I’m gone. As much as city life drives me insane, I truly love Cusco and I have loved getting to explore so much of the area around me.

Speaking of exploring, last Saturday a small group and I embarked on another adventure to ruins.  This time we took a bus to Moray, an unbelievable site.  We hiked for about 2 hours through the glorious countryside with the mountains at our side until we reached the ruins. And these ruins were fantastic! Moray consists of circular shaped ruin walls in one of the valleys outside of Cusco. It’s unclear what exactly the ruins were used for, but they are unbelievable nonetheless. I have loved exploring places close to Cusco and this was a fantastic adventure. The hiking was also a huge high for me—it felt so good to get out again and see those mountains I am so desperately in love with.

The rest of our two weeks have been filled with the learning of Quechua, the major indigenous language in Peru. And let me tell you, it’s rough. The language is nothing like Spanish and I feel like a first grader in class every day as we go over basic words like dog (alqo) or how to say hi (Allianchu!). Although the language is incredibly difficult, it’s awesome to have a small amount of knowledge of something that is so important to this country. This Sunday we all attended a Quechua mass at 6 AM and despite the early rising, it was awesome. We also went on a short field trip on Tuesday to a community in the mountains that speaks Quechua (pictures seen below). I’m really glad that I’ve gotten to learn even more about this amazing country and hopefully I’ll be able to communicate some more with the families in Colca (who speak Quechua and Spanish).

Craziness hit our program on Tuesday night, when 8 of us went to the clinic to get tested for Salmonella. Somehow (we’re assuming in the jungle), a bunch of us managed to contract Salmonella, which still seems so bizarre to me. On Tuesday morning, we learned that 4 of the kids on our program had been diagnosed with Salmonella, so we all headed to the clinic to get tested that evening. After about 5 hours of being poked and prodded, I lucked out and scored a negative for Salmonella. But alas, it didn’t stop them from diagnosing me with a throat infection, most likely strep. It’s been years since I’ve gotten strep, but I embraced the diagnosis and am just about done with antibiotics. The final count of “Salmonellitas” (as our assistant director Donaldo calls them) was 9, 2 with Salmonella and Giardia, and 3 who had to spend the night in the hospital. Nuts! We’re all almost back to healthy so hopefully we’ll make it through this big excursion with little medical problems. Cross your fingers!

Our other major excitement was our overnight trip to Calca, to a local art and music place. We worked with this unbelievable couple—a Swiss woman who speaks perfect Spanish and her husband who speaks Quechua as well. The woman taught us all about pre-Columbian art, which included us having the opportunity to paint outside on their gorgeous property.  The guy taught us all we could ever want to know about local music and it was awesome. I’m pretty damn good at the Zampona now and it was amazing to learn some real native songs. We even ended our excursion with a musical performance around the bonfire outside at night… as we danced and played our musical instruments, I had a moment of realization about just how lucky I am to be doing this in Peru right now. So thanks Mom and Dad J

This weekend was low key in Cusco with lots of Christmas present shopping which was great. We’re getting amped up for our next big adventure, which should include many stories and tales about the new places we are venturing off to. I’ll have Internet again in Lima, so I’ll update y’all then on all the things we’re doing. Paqarinkama! (goodbye in Quechua!)