Blogs from Ollantaytambo, Cusco, Peru, South America - page 12

A weekend in Moray, Urubamba, and Ollantaytambo I’ve been to my first Incan ruins now. A group of us students have made taken a tornado tour through some of the Sacred Valley, leaving early in the morning to see what should probably be a full weekend worth of sites. Our first stop was at Moray, an Incan agricultural site. Here the Incas constructed terraces following the contours of three bowl-shaped depressions seemingly far removed from any of their settlements. Common thought is that the Incas used this place for agricultural experiments, to see what sorts of crops could grow in different conditions. The temperature and microclimate changes with each terrace and there is a marked difference between the temperature and humidity at the top as opposed to the bottom. There is an apparent mathematical precision to ... read more

We departed from the hotel at 8am, was met by our new guide for the next few days, Julio. We had to bring a day bag from now on, to be used for the Inca Trail, and were given a bag to carry no more than 5kg for our other essenstials. We first visited an Incan site on the edge of the City, a former Incan military site named Saksaywaman. We then drove on to the Sacred Valley. Again the views are incredible, the film The Sound of Music could almost be filmed here. We drove to the small town of Pisac. Pisac has a big local market, so we were given time to do the touristy thing and do some shopping. Then on to another amazing Incan site ( cant remember the name ). We ... read more

Dont be afraid children, its only Rich in a dress! I know he looks like the bastard child of Les Dawson and Pat Butcher, but a bet is a bet, and thats Ecuador and Peru´s national dress in the bag, so to speak! Good work Rich! Anyway, in terms of what other adventures we´ve been on lately, well we´re back at school here in Cusco. In between dodging ´happy hours´and various free beverages smelling like meths, we are learning more spanglish, and quite enjoying it. We are also getting to see more than our fair share of ruins. Yesterdays adventure was to a place called Ollantaytambo. Now, these places are BIG! This one is special for two reasons: 1. Its the best example of inca town planning. 2. Its one of the few places where the ... read more

On Monday I took several of the lessons myself, as Angelica was precoccupied elsewhere in the Coleigo. Angelica is good at keeping the students in order, and giving them moral lectures as and when necessary. But unfortunately my Spanish is still quite basic, which makes these elements of classroom management pretty difficult when I teach solo. Things got a bit noisy today. My teaching plan for the durration of my stay is to focus on 'Interests'. So far we´ve covered Sports, Games, and I´ve now moved on to Music with some of the classes. My strategy has been to use these topics of interest to develop dialogues and particularly conversational skills. It also gives the kids a means to talk about themselves and their interestes. We´ve covered numerous conversations including 'favourites' and 'justifications' (why?/because...). The general ... read more

- FOOD: Nothing much to report here for once. - AREA: High season and fully booked up. Not used to this. Ollantaytambo is a small village with a relazed feel with a fantastic Inca fortress, old Inca plaza and hills to climb (steep and hard work though). Cheap, nice hostel. - PEOPLE: Chatty locals. Wish I could chat more than the basics with them. Old man begging for money and crying. Heartbreaking. Cute local boy who decided to be my guide for climbing the hill. Other cute locals who demand money! - WEATHER: Burning sun. Thur 16th: I left my backpack behind in the hostal as it's family run and seems safe, asked them 10 times if I could DEFINITELY have the room on my return. They smiled sweetly as said "Si, si" but didn't write ... read more