¡Hola Friends and Family!
This week we were able to take advantage of all of the rich culture, delicious food, and quirky handicrafts that Cusco has to offer while also improving our spanish. We kicked off our first FULL week in Cusco with a group hike on Easter to the mountainous region just outside of the city. There we enjoyed a picnic full of comfort food (peanut butter and jelly, oreos…etc.) as well as traditional Peruvian treats and fresh fruit! The hike and picnic against the majestic, mountainous backdrop was definitely a breath of fresh air from the busy city and a nice way to relax before our busy week. A big thanks to captain Maggie for planning this picnic and hike for the group!
Tuesday marked the beginning of our week with FairServices Spanish School. FairServices empolys single mothers living in the area and gives them the opportunity to combine their fun-loving personalities with their talent for teaching the Spanish language. Every morning we took spanish grammar classes in partners from 10-12. This was complimented by spanish practice classes in the afternoon from 2-6. We split up into groups of four accompanied by two professors for these practice sessions. It was during this time we visited two medevial art museums in the San Blas district, a textile museum, as well as ancient Incan ruins including the Temple of the Moon and a series of caves. There was never a shortage of smiles, laughter, and awkward spanish translations (on our part) during these practice sessions with our hilarious and free-spirited teachers.
Tuesday night, our contact at FairServices, John, prepared a delicious group dinner of Spaghetti Bolognesa for all of the students at FairServices. This dinner was accompanied by a lecture from Paolo Greer who gave us an interesting perspective on the history of Machu Picchu. Wednesday night, John organized a night of cooking classes for Carpe. We spent our practice classes that afternoon in the San Pedro market learning how to bargain for the ingredients needed for Rocoto Relleno (stuffed pepper) and Palta Reina (stuffed avocado). We then spent the rest of the afternoon learning how to prepare these traditional South American dishes with the help of our very patient and talented teachers. Needless to say the meal was MUY RICO. We also managed to make crepes (a resurfacing group favorite) and finished off the night celebrating Rachel´s birthday with a giant chocolate cake. Our week with FairServices culminated in traditional salsa lessons at FairServices Saturday afternoon, which prepared the group for our night out on the town at a salsa club that night. A huge thanks to John and all of the wonderful ladies at FairServices for making our last week in Cusco such an enjoyable and exciting one!
Sunday we spent in the warm sun, just outside of the city on horseback! Though our group has VERY varied experience riding horses (scary sometimes) we definitely (and ultimately safely) enojyed our tour of more Incan ruins.
Tonight, we are preparing for our trek beginning TOMORROW MORNING to Machu Picchu. I seriously cannot believe that the end of the semester is almost here! We were breifed today on our trek specifically, The Salkantay Trek, where our hike will take us to just over 15,000 meters above sea level. We are enjoying the last bits of oxygen we can right now in Cusco…already 12,000 meters above sea level! I´m definitely looking forward to spending the next few days trekking and the next few nights under the stars!
More to come next week, hasta luego!
-Maddie H.