School can be fun!

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Finally, after 5 days I was able to stop taking my Diamox ( for the high altitude). I continue to drink massive quantities of water- a must in high, dry climates and huff and puff when walking any distance. The good, no great news is that I haven´t had even one headache!! The other day on a school field trip our teacher got one. I was so surprised to learn that people who have lived here all their lives still get affected by the altitude. Today a young Japanese fellow student (maybe 28) was telling us that he went to some ruins yesterday and thought he was going to die he was so out of breath. So anyone planning to come here- be prepared- Diamox, lots of coca tea, lots of water and a minimun of 3 -4 hours of rest upon entering Cusco, walk slowly and rest often.

My friend, Val, and I are attending a language school called Excel. It is located on Cruz Verde 336. www.excel-spanishlanguageprograms-peru.org It is small and not fancy, also not expensive- for a week ( 20 hours) of semi-private lessons I paid about $80. They have many extra activities like cooking, dancing and pottery lessons. There are lectures and other field trips- most free. On Tues. we were all hurried to a waiting van and taken to a cameloid farm about a half hour ride outside Cusco. There were llamas, guanacos, alpacas,and vicunas there. We could walk amongst them and feed them. The sweetest were the darling little babies. In addition to the animals there were women from neighboring villages who demonstrated their weaving. At the end of the tour was a gift shop with wonderful items, most quite expensive, but well worth it for the skills involved in creating them.

Our teacher, Magda, is a gem. She never makes us feel stupid and encourages us to speak Spanish to everyone everywhere. And since it is only Val and I in the class we can work on what we need most- which is pretty much everything. Magda is a retired elementary school teacher. She teaches Spanish at the school in the morning and Quechua - the first language of most people in Cusco, in the afternoon. She will help us find anything we need.

The other day she took us on a hunt for a teflon saute pan. We had looked and looked but never found the ´cooking pans´ street. As in most So. Am . countries all the same goods are sold on the same street. She knew just where to take us but, alas, the store was locked. No problema! If you are in So.Am for awhile you will learn that there is NEVER a problema. People will jump through hoops to help you. So we kept walking and disappeared into a dark looking passageway where a smaller version of a Sam´s Club or a COSTCO was hidden. It specialized in all forms of plastic, paper goods, some towels and shower curtains and TA-DAH! pans. It had the same cement floor- packed to the ceiling ambiance of a dollar store but things were quite a bit more pricey. We were just happy to have a pan.

Today, after learning the names for vegetables and fruits we had never seen before we went to the grand mercado where all the housewives in Cusco come daily for their food. I´ve been in a lot of these types of markets in differtn parts of the world and I confess that I do love them. The wonderful displays of colorful fruits and vegetables, the chickens hanging from hooks by their bright yellow feet, the slabs of unidentified red meat plopped on a counter, the flower sellers, the woman selling hard boiled quail eggs from her stand that comes with a live quail dancing around the base of a cage. It is a visual and olfactory assault on the senses.

It was sort of fun to see a few dazed tourists who were brave enough to enter but clueless as to what to do. We were passed by a large group of very pale,white high school students all hugging large backpacks in front of their chests and being led by a loud gringo (not sure if he was Am,. Eng., or European). The looks on their faces were priceless ranging from shock, awe, fear, confusion, disgust, nausea, wonder, and perhaps a few actually enjoying the experience.

Meanwhile Magda was on a mission. She had brought her own little paring knife and set about finding us fruits to sample. First, was a small, round yellow fruit called a nispero. She peeled it and handed it to us. It was dry and a bit tasteless with the texture of the inside of a very dry cooked sweet potato. We decided not to get any of those. Next, was one that looked like an orange with a hard shell. I´m sorry I can´t remember the name. First, we peeled off the hard shell and the interior shell looked like the pulp of an orange. We squeezed it through a hole in the top and zillions of seeds in a clear viscous liquid came out. It was sweet and delicious and we ate them seeds and all. We bought some of those. We continued on our hunt trying things here and there and giving them a thumbs up or down. We bought several pepinos. They are the size of a large orange, a pale cream color with some brown stripes, inside they taste like a yummy cantaloupe. Our favorite was the chirimoya. This is a deep green avocado color with a few prickly bumps. It is pretty ugly. Inside it is white with a sweet pulp formed around fingernail size seeds. We definitely bought some of those.

Really, Magda should be hired as a market guide. Not only did she know all the fruits and vegetables but which ones were the best to buy, how to tell if they were fresh and ready or not. She is a walking market encyclopedia. thi swas all done as part of our school experience. Of all the schools I´ve been to this is the first one where I´ve been taken to a market and taught what to look for.

Five gold stars for Magda!

Tomorrow night- Karaoke in Cusco! Woohoo!!!
Carolyn/ Gunga

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