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Robert Colbert
From Minneapolis, MN. Graduated from UW-Madison. Spending 5 months volunteering in Cusco, Peru with Fairplay. Traveling with Nic, Zach, Tony, and Jen. Check out Jen´s blog too: www.mytb.org/tenniferRob117
Travel Blog Posts
March 23rd 2011
Well I’m finally posting another blog, sorry for the long delay. These photos are of the volunteer project we’re working on, called Helping Hands Cusco. We are building a school in San Sebastian, a poorer neighborhood of Cusco. The goal is to create a sustainable school with a greenhouse to grow food for the students. Over the past couple months we’ve built an addition to the school that will act as a kitchen, cemented the ceilings and walls in the school, built a retaining wall of adobe behind the school, and painted the interior. The school is made up of two rooms, one for the class of 4-year-olds and one for the class of 5-year-olds. Classes started this last Tuesday and so far the kids have had tons of fun learning new songs and practicing English. ... read more
February 12th 2011
After almost 3 weeks in Peru, we finally made an excursion to Machu Picchu. From Cusco, we took a bus/train combo to Aguas Calientes, a.k.a. Machu Picchu Pueblo. The scenic train ride through el Valle Sagrado (Sacred Valley) was worth the price of the train alone. We rode beneath lush green mountains next to the surging river Urubamba. Aguas Calientes is a cute little town, but it's VERY touristy. The restaurants overcharge for average food and the train station opens up into the souvenir market. But we were able to find a few restaurants with delicious food. I had alpaca tenderloin that was better than any steak I've had in the U.S. We stayed in a hostel overnight in the town. Machu Picchu itself is made up of the famous Inca ruins, a lookout hill, and ... read more
January 31st 2011
We finished our first full week here in Cusco. After all the sight-seeing at the Inca ruins and salsa lessons, I was pretty worn out. It takes me about 2 hours to upload every batch of photos, so please enjoy. I didn't have time to make comments on any of them yet so hopefully I'll get around to it tomorrow. -R... read more
January 24th 2011
More photos of the Fairplay school and around Cusco. We also went on a day trip to a salinero, or salt mine, and to the ruins at Moray. At the salinero, there is a salt water stream that comes from the mountain. They collect the water in little square pools and allow it to evaporate. From the dry pools they harvest the salt. The ruins at Moray are about 500 years old. It is made up of many round terraces about 5 feet high. They were part of an agricultural experiment where they would grow crops on each of the different terraces. Each terrace had a particular soil and temperature. Now it's just a tourist hotspot. This week we have practice Spanish "lessons" where we go around to the various museums with the profesoras. They will ... read more
January 21st 2011
We have arrived in Cusco! We had two brutal flights during the wee hours of the morning hopping from Miami then to Lima. Sleeping on the plane was difficult if not impossible. Once we arrived in Lima, we bought a flight to Cusco and arrived here an hour and a half later. It is absolutely beautiful here, about 70 degrees, partly cloudy with a slight breeze. At the airport we met our program coordinator John, from Belgium, and he took us to the Fairplay headquarters. It is a great place with outdoor classrooms for people to learn Spanish, an entertainment room with big screen TV, and a computer room where we can go online and update our blogs. We spent our first night at the homestay, which is almost more like a hotel than a house. ... read more
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