Greetings from Cusco

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Hola mi familia!

It´s Sunday just over one week from when Melia and I arrived in Cusco. We have finished one week of spanish classes. Melia is doing extremely well and I am beginning to understand the basics. Our host family is extremely nice as are all of the people here in Cusco. Yesterday, we hiked 5km to the ruins called TIPON. They were absolutely beautiful. It is amazing to see the construction techniques used and it is crazy to think that the rocks were all carried up the mountain manually. Don´t know how but clearly the people were stronger than those today.

Melia and I are taking dance classes on Monday and Tuesday night. We are learning to the Merengee and Salsa. The classes are very small which is nice since as you all know I have two left feet. The teacher empahsises the need to have fun and not care about the results and then smiles at me as I am usually lost with the steps. Last Thursday we went to two discos. One was for locals and the other was for the backpacker crowd. It was fun to try out or attempt to try out the steps we learned in our classes.

Now it is Tuesday..... Melia and I went on field trips with our classes today. Melia went to a famous statute (pachacutq) while I toured the town with my amigo Marshall y mi profesora Maria. Despues the field trip Melia and I went to the Palicio de Justicia (local court house). It was very interesting to see the court house here. First off for criminal (penal here) cases your case is heard before three judges. No jury trial!! Corruption is rumored to be very high with bribes the norm for the affluent and jail for the pobre or poor.

Melia and I are planning on going to Machu Picchu this weekend. I will keep you updated on the events and eventually figure out how to post photos!

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