Pancakes & Art...

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Morning Everyone,

I have lots to catch you up on so this may be a busy couple of blogs!

Let's start with Pancake Day which was a roaring success. Thanks to my Dad's tried and tested recipe we made the most yummy pancakes possible. Ok there were a few touch and go moments as we tried to convert from Imperial fluid ounces and ounces to millilitres and grams but for a Maths teacher that was no real problem (once we had googled the conversion factor anyway!) Then there was the scaling up from serving a couple of people to the 60 people that we were cooking them for. Don't ever try to tell me that Maths isn't useful in real life, you never know when you will find yourself in an orphanage in Peru making pancakes for a crowd! To add soemthing special to the pancakes we offered strawberry jam, sugar and lime juice (no jif lemons to be found), bananas and of course chocolate sauce. No prize for guessing which topping was the favourite! The girls and boys loved the pancakes and we explained to them the idea behind Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday which they were also really interested in as it is so very different to the approach that they are used to.

Aswell as making pancakes we also found time to do a few touristy things. The first that I will tell you about is the Pre Columbian Art Gallery that we visited. It was really interesting and was exactly as I picture the art from Inca times. My favourites were the sculptures based on the human form which made me smile as they have a friendliness and almost comical appearance in some ways. The most scary things that I saw there though were the funeral masks which were more than a little disconcerting. What was so impressive about it all was how these pieces had been made so accurately and with real technical skill but also how they had been able to rescue and preserve them for us to see now. The Gallery itself was really interesting as it explained all about the different groups before the Incas which often get overlooked outside of South America. There were also some impressive pieces of jewellery including enormous earrings and nose rings which would definitely be confiscated at St. Paul's!

I also realise now that I have forgotten to tell you about a beautiful part of Cusco called San Blas. It is set in the higher part of Cusco and therefore offers beautiful views all around. There is a small church there which is a real delight and was visited by the Pope himself. Beside the church is a small square where there is a craft market, the arts and crafts that are practised here are truly beautiful, I will tell you more about them another day.



Ok, I am going to finish this one off here as the next one is coming along as soon as I can write it!

Speak to you in a minute,

Tasha

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Comments

[Niall]

Pancakes and Questions! :)
This post proves just how big Pancake day is!!! What is life like in Peru??? Do the kids go to school?? are they well behaved??? are there two people like Kelechi and Oliver's Brazilian Cousions???? Hope you can answer all of these