Life in Urubamba

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Hola ¿Qué Pasa mis amigos?

It is a beautiful morning here in Urubamba. There are flowers everywhere on the grounds of our hostal. We have the entire place to ourselves. The best part is the three macaws that are caged in the middle of our plaza. They are extreamly loud and work better than a rooster. The sine shines from most of the afternoon with sporadic rain showers but the sun never goes away. There are gourgeous rainbows here that seem to always be jus beyond our reach. Everything is very green and the Inca river flows very strongly through the valleys.

Yesterday (2/2) we split up into small groups of three and completed our first project. We all traveled to different nearby towns to find different types of food, brought them back to the hostal, and prepared them. My group of three went to the town of Ollantaytambo which is about 30 mins away by Combi. A combi is a small van that is usually packed to the max with people but inexpensive. We wondered around the cobble stone streets for an hour and some looking at the different shops and buildings. Above the town were many ruins...my first taste of awesome inca architecture. We didn´t have enough time to go tour them but they were still fantastic from afar. The main building was a temple fortress. This is one of the few sites were Pizzaro lost a major battle.

The market was inside a building and was organized like a mini-mall. On the bottom floor there were vendors selling fruits, veggies, beans, and meat. The meat area reminded me both of deer season and the capon factory in Decorah. There were flies everywere and entire sections of animals strewn everywhere. My favorite was the entire chickens that were laying out eyes, feet and all only missing their feathers. Delicioso! We were not looking for meat however, we were looking for potatos or papas in español. We bout a few different kinds (only to find out one really wasn´t really a potato which explained why it tasted like a beat). We fried up the magority of the real potatos with some peper, onion, and garlic. It was the best item on the menu for sure.

Today we had our oral exams.....we´ll see. I just get so nervous. However, our project for the day was to go into town and talk to the people about peru. We had mmany questions about Incan heritage and political afairs and so on. My friend and I went to the Combi station where there were plenty of people. We started off asking one person a question but soon found we were surrounded by many wanting to know what we were doing and wanting to help. It was so much fun and eventhough I know I made mistakes when I was talking, I felt completely confident. Afterall, my roommate says I was talking spanish in my sleep last night! Apparently we had a nice conversation.

Tomarrow (2/4) we are going to MAchu Pichu and I am so excited!!!!!! We are all so excited. The dream I have had for so many years is really coming true.

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