Advertisement
Published: January 9th 2010
Plaza de Armas, Cusco
Photo taken from our student residence23 hours of flights and sitting in airports in Los Angeles and Lima, Peru, and now we are here in downtown Cusco, set up in our own little room based in the Amauta Spanish School. We have a cute room with creaky wood plank flooring, big wooden shutter windows looking out on the street one storey below, two twin beds with three heavy wool blankets each, and a washroom all our own (which we weren't expecting). There is a quaint kitchen and dining alley right outside the door to our room and a whole bank of woodframed squares of window highlighting the sights below us in ancient Cusco, a sea of red-tiled roofs and massive cathedrals.
The first few days of anything new are a whirlwind of input- sounds, smells, impressions. Day 2 in Cusco for us is exactly this, too many new things to accurately absorb much but certainly a few things that impart a greater impression and stay with us for one reason or another.
Roger (pronounced "Ro-Hair" in Spanish) is a most interesting and precocious local boy we met on Day 1 in Cusco's central square, called Plaza de Armas. He makes his living in the
Across the Valley
Taken just outside our residence streets by selling the traditional Peruvian hats woven and knit by the women. Roger is likely 11 or 12 years old and is a good looking kid with his typically Peruvian dark hair and flat facial features. But what made Roger memorable is when he hit us up to buy his wares, he first asked us from where we came. We answered Canada, and then without hesitation, he began reciting Canadian Prime Minister's names chronologically starting with Stephen Harper and working backwards through Paul Martin, Jean Chretien, and Kim Campbell. Looking shocked, Larry then asked if he could tell us the previous four Peruvian Presidents, in order. Again, no hesitation, he listed four names (correct? we're not sure!). The last one he said was a trick because he had been elected twice. His charm was the best sales gimmick we've encountered in forever, and although we didn't buy a hat,when queried as to cost, he unhesitatingly said, "how many will you be buying?" in perfect English- we feel pretty certain that Roger will be taking more than a few Soles (Peruvian currency) from our pockets before we leave this lovely city. Addendum: Some of Roger's charm has been undermined by
Our New School!
The entrance to the Amauta Spanish School today's "hit" on us by a similar young fellow we met, "Tom Cruise" who can also recite the capital of Canada, Stephen Harper as Prime Minister, who is a good student and who needs the money to go to university to be a doctor. I think we sense a trend ... hmmmm.😊
Rainy season- we knew it would be rainy season while we were here. Day 1 began sunny and mild, really an ideal kind of spring day with lots of flowering shrubs, and bird calls rampant everywhere. By noon however, the clouds began to thicken, and darken- we knew some moisture was imminent. First there was a pit-a- pat, then slapping rain, then pounding rain with hail bouncing off windows. Within ten or fifteen minutes of the rain beginning, there were flash floods of water rivers flowing down Cusco's hilly streets. The street we live and learn on is very narrow cobblestone with sidewalks on each side wide enough for one person to comfortably avoid taxis and trucks. All good when it's dry, but when there is a torrent of muddy water rushing down the street and a swift moving taxi comes careening up the road, the anticipated
Behind the Walls
Walking down busy Avenido de Sol, we look through a doorway and this is what appears! wake of water you can see coming towards you is a good reason to try to quickly find a doorway or indentation in the adobe wall. This is not the kind of shower that most of us look forward to! We now understand the convex red-tiled roofs with steep slopes that would suffice in Roger's Pass - they are ever so efficient at shedding the deluge of water instantly.
Altitude sickness was a concern for us with Cusco being about 3300 metres above sea level and our normal elevation is about 400m in Summerland. There is less oxygen up here so the tourists are easy to spot as they huff and puff up the multitude of steps in Cusco. We didn't keel over when we got off the plane but after about three hours of thin air, Maureen developed a headache followed by nausea (okay could have been the 23 hr flight and snippets of sleep, odd eating pattern, etc). At lunch time she had to excuse herself and scamper down slippery steep rock steps to the only bathroom she knew of to throw up. After that, headaches persisted and a low grade "maybe-I'm-pregnant" type nausea followed but ...
San Pedro Mercado
A young girl (while chatting on her cellphone!) sells grains, seeds, and nuts...too bad you can't smell the multitude of butchered chickens and pork laying out on the stall shelves! 24 hours later, she feels fine, just winded with walking. Larry appears to have had no ill effects except some random chills last night that didn't progress thankfully. He does get winded with walking
at times. Perhaps the coca tea has been helping - we drink copious amounts, partly to stay hydrated. Another side effect of thin air is sunburn. Even though the weather has been sunny, cloudy, stormy we have both sunburned ... but we know now ... sunscreen in the rainy season is a must for interlopers.
Student life hasn't officially started yet. We write a placement exam first thing Monday morning and then the royal rumpus of reading, writing, and speaking Spanish begins. I think we could self-seed quite reliably - beginners! Because we have breakfast and lunch supplied by the school, we have had a chance to meet some of the other students. There is a good mix male and female, and they hail from the States, Brazil, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland ,France, Germany, and us, from Canada. The flow of various languages back and forth leaves us feeling badly outmuscled linguistically, but with a bit of hope for when we at least can improve
Saskatchewan Roughrider Fan!
Watermelons off to the market on our Spanish contribution.
For the dietitians out there, the meals seem well balanced, are presented nicely, and are tasty ... ie today's lunch was a chicken broth soup, lightly salted with small cubes of squash, some potato, cabbage, and quinoa .. followed by a large serving of yummy cilantro laced large green lentils, a chunky tomato dish seasoned with ground beast, and sticky rice, finishing with a light crepe with banana slices inside and a drizzle of sweetened syrup over top- just fine to Larry's taste!
For the lab people out there, there have been discussions of bacterial and virus nature and even reference to haemoglobins. Each student here believes they have been chosen by the "altitude gods" for a specific type of ailment, mostly bowel or respiratory. We were handed flyers in the Lima airport as we entered customs with suggestions/orders on how to prevent influenza ... just missed the H1N1 moniker.
And for the young people out there, yes, the other students DO mention their parents and then look at us apologetically - we are the oldest students and the only married couple so far, although common-law is present and that counts, right? We
Barbie Reigns everywhere
The world over, kids play the same...just not always in a crowded market! don't anticipate partaking in one young lady's game of partying until 0300h and then trying to stay awake in class, not succeeding, and then having to switch to more expensive private lessons. We may just drift off anyways! We'll let you know...😱
Advertisement
Tot: 0.162s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 8; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0991s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Cherie Miltimore
non-member comment
You Can Deliver
Yes! I knew of all people you could deliver a really good blog to share about your experiences. I love the Prime Minister story. Keep up the good blogging!!!!!! Cherie