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Published: February 23rd 2007
As always it feels like it has been an age since my last entry, but it has in fact only been a few days... I´m now on the mid project break, which lasts until Sunday, so I have four days of freedom in Cusco, which is absolute heaven.
Last Sunday was the main day of Carnival in Cusco. This may sound like fun. Not if you happen to be a gringo (a white tourist) wondering around the main area of Cusco. I went out to lunch with five members of our group, and we all got soaked by people with water bombs. There is no way of avoiding them. They creep up behind you on street corners, they drive past in taxis and on the back of trucks, they drop them from balconies. We managed to stay almost dry in the morning, and we were all pretty proud of ourselves. But the minute we got out of the restauarant where we ate lunch, we were bombarded from about 5 angles at once, and all ended up covered in foam and looking like we had just emerged from dirty showers.
Eleanor, another girl in my group, and I decided to escape the war zone that was Cusco early and headed off towards Chinchero, the market town between Cusco and Umanes to do some shopping. We took a public bus (we were trying to get a taxi, but somehow we ended up at a bus stop instead) and it actually wasn´t nearly as bad as I had thought it would be. We were a little worried when we arrived in Chinchero and saw that the kids all had water balloons, but apparently they are less ready to attack gringos there than they are in Cusco. Half of the market had already packed up seeing as it was 4 pm on a Sunday afternoon, but we still managed to get some shopping in. The main goods that they sell at Peruvian markets are made from Alpaca. I bought an alpaca jumper, a bracelet with little alpacas on it, and an alpaca scarf (I already have one, the collection is growing).
Arrived back in Umanes and Eleanor and I were both a little bit worried that we wouldn´t be able to get into the compound... thankfully some thoughtful person had left the key to our room hanging next to the padlock, so we didn´t have a problem. It's lucky that the crime rate in Umanes is non existent... Spent the afternoon reading until everyone else got back. They had gone on a rampage through Cusco complete with water guns, and they all arrived back completely soaked.
Monday was the last day of digging as the trenches for the water pipes are now complete. That afternoon in lessons we made pictures of the seasons for the kids in our class and they all had a great time colouring them in. Not sure that they actually learnt anything, but oh well...
On Tuesday we began laying the pipes for the water supply. This involved much standing around on our part whilst the locals deliberated. Eventually they found pointless tasks for everyone. Taylor, one of the boys in our group, and I spent two hours sanding the end of pipes to make them easier to glue, only for the locals to come and resand them all before gluing.
That evening there was a clebration for the carnival. We were informed that it would involve Peruvian dancing (oh joy) and cutting down a tree... we all felt a little intrepid. Everyone traipsed out and we were soon surrounded by small children and locals stringing bits of party streamers round our necks (which for some reason were adorned with messages such as you have a nice body). Then the music began. The ceremony involved dancing around a tree. Periodically someone would take a swing at it with an axe. Finally they handed the axe to Nick, our team leader, and he cut the tree down. We were all running away from the tree, but all the kids ran towards it and started popping the balloons that had been hung in it. More dancing ensued (many tried to escape by becoming involved in intense one on one conversations or assuming the role of photographer, but it was useless). Nick was surrounded by people shaking his hand, and someone attached what looked like half of the tree to his back. Finally we escaped back to the compound at about half seven and went for supper (soup, always soup.)
Later that night, we were all invited to the birthday celebrations for Leonseo, the mayor of the village. We were all led into a small room in his house, the walls of which were covered with certificates for potato growing. There weren´t enough seats for everyone, so I and some of the other girls ended up sitting on some rather dodgy looking sheep skins that were miraculously produced from nowhere (we all wondered if we would go outside to find a sheep slaughter had just taken place...). Leonseo is a big fan of speeches. He doled out free beer, and then began thanking us all for being in the village, and said he considered us all to be part of his family. Nick responded with his own speech about how grateful we were to be there, and then we all sang happy birthday to Leonseo. Some people are convinced that they saw our surrogate father Leonseo wipe a tear from his eye... Over the course of the next half hour, more speeches followed along with many toasts. Not for any particular reason, just for the sake of it. Many of the locals were rather drunk... We all wondered if there would be any pipe laying going on the next day.
We returned to the compound and did an impossibly hard pub quiz (I think the highest score was 21 out of 50, and that was only because of an extra 5 bonus points for the question "in 30 seconds, explain why you love Katie and Claire. By this point my partner, James, and I, had pretty much given up, so we left it at N/A).
Wednesday was the last day before mid project break. I wish I could say that we were all feeling sad to be leaving Umanes for the next 4 and a half days, but I would be lying. Everyone was ecstatic. After more pointless sanding of pipes and standing about, we went off for afternoon lessons, and then sat about waiting for taxis to take us to Cusco. The five of us in our taxi were a little bit worried when the police spent half an hour quizzing our driver over his licence, but it did give us the opportunity to stop and buy chocolate.
We arrived in Cusco by 6. Half of the group went to a football match, and the rest of us went to watch a film. Cusco doesn´t have a cinema that I´m aware of, but some of the night clubs offer a service where you turn up at a certain time, pick the film that you want to watch, order your food and then watch the film on a projector. We picked Borat. The sound wasn´t great but you still got the idea.
Started the next day with a ridiculously unhealthy meal (pancakes with pears, chocolate sauce and icecream... yum). Then Eleanor and I went to the Inka museum together. Most interesting were the skulls that looked like alien heads and the preserved skeletons. We were both a little put off by the security guards, who followed us around making kissing noises and suggestive comments... somewhat distracting.
We felt we had done our cultural bit for the day after that and, after another ridiculously unhealthy meal (cheese and ham toastie, chocoloate ice cream) headed off to do some shopping. The main stop was the massive Artesan market. The market was pretty empty, but that didn´t put Eleanor and I off. I bought a leather belt, some alpaca gloves, some bracelets, a necklace and some fluffy alpaca slippers. Eleanor once again went crazy for the alpaca hats. I´m beginning to get seriously worried about her.
We met the others for supper and I´m ashamed to say that we went for a full English breakfast at a backpackers favourite cafe in Cusco: two eggs, two pieces of toast, baked beans, sausage, bacon and chips. It was seriously delicious. I´m still feeling rather full. After that we went to a club where a few of the braver members of our group participated in free salsa lessons, and then we returned to the hostel.
The plan for the rest of the mid project break is more eating, more going out, and more shopping... There are three new people joining our group on Sunday, which will be strange, but good.
Lots of love
Alex xxx
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Juliet
non-member comment
Wow!
Hey! Just to say that it sounds like you are having a wicked time! I love the way you try to suggest Eleanor's got a bit of a fixation on Alpaca hats when you seem to be buying outfits of it!!! Also why oh why did you not join in the salsa lessons?! You must! Get into the latino spirit like the glamster you are! Anyway it sounds really cool - I'm so jealous that you are away having such a fabulous time whilst I'm still in London! Lots of love and take care, Juliet xxxxxx