Anntastik

On Friday (12/3) I was invited to dinner with CoCo, Jordan and Helga to their favorite Chicaria. Chica is made of maize and fermented, it is like young wine (apparently in the mountains saliva is an aid for this process- but I was assured no one is spitting in the chica made at this place). I wish I had more pictures or that I could have caputured the smell of the place. It was very much an old man bar. We ordered, udders, tounge and a stew and hared. I was not carzy about the udder or the tongue. At first we just grabbed and empty seat and we were invited to slugs of our neighbors Chica, shortly after that we moved to the same table as CoCo's father and his uncle. I was happy because ... read more

4:00 am "Anna?" I jump out of bed as if it were on fire, " I am up, I am up." I say. I go to the bathroom, wash my face, brush my teeth and pull my clothes on. Lilou, my 22 year old Dutch companion and I pack up our back packs strap on our head lamps and we are on our way. 4:45 am We reach the bridge and make our way to the stone walking path leading straight UP to Macchu Picchu. 4:55 am We take off our sweaters and take some pictures (note: "pictures" are a good disguise for a break). 5:00 am I am certain the other twenty people behind us have now passed us. 5:05 am We stop and eat some bananas for energy. 5:10 More "pictures" and some water. ... read more

This week has been pretty cool so far. I volunteered at a school in the Mountains yesterday the children were so cute and all of them wanted to be held and given airplane rides. We played "Duck, Duck, Goose" and had some hoola hoop competitions. When we were walking around back in town I fell in a hole on the street because I was distracted by what my friend was showing me. No major injury just rainbow bruises. On Saturday I bought my tourist ticket for all these cool museums so I have been trying to make the most of the punches I have left. Already vistied the contemporary art museum and the Inka statue. Today I had ceviche, tigers milk, and this black corn fruit juice- the ceviche was delicious!!!! Also bought my train ticket ... read more

Day five in Cusco and today is hot!!! The last couple days I have felt comfortable enough to leave my casa and venture out into the city on my own- usually I just hang out at school and wait until someone else is going back to the compound. Taxis are super cheap and you get to see your life flash before your eyes several times. Seems like most of my stress comes from taking taxis (or rather from not being able to communicate with the driver YET) so I just decided to walk. The area I am staying in is called San Sebastion aka Dogville. There are so many mangy dogs all over the place that I was thankful on Friday when it rained because that meant I did not hear dog fights all night long. ... read more

2-26-10 I guess Natasha wasn't too sick of us yet, we had planned to go to the beach but when we went down to meet her it was raining like crazy so we swapped our swim suite out for rain coats and headed out into the day. Natasha had her two daughters with her so I squeezed in bewtween the baby seats and laughed with Vilet the 1 year old and tried not to piss the 3 year old Cleo off too much. Due to the less than ideal weather we decided to go to Luna Park and ride some rides then do a sightseeing via car trip. We went to lunch at Watson's bay then watche the girls play (and eat) the sand. Then we got back in the car and drove to Bondi Beach ... read more