Sachsaywaman, Chicha, Volibol

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Well I´m a little more settled in now in Cuzco. We have met a lot of new Cuzqueno friends that have been gracious enough to take us out on the town, etc. My roommate, Galen, had arrived in Cuzco earlier then the rest of us and knew the city a little bit. He offered to take us up to the best Inca ruins in the city limits of Cuzco, Sachsaywaman (or ¨sexy woman¨), a couple days ago. It was my first taste of the what the Inca´s were capable of. Pretty amazing stonework, some stones weighing up to 185 tons, yet fitting together perfectly. It is the site of the Inca´s last stand of against the Spanish. It is also just a 20 minute walk up the hill from my dorm. It has been way cool to learn about these things in our classroom then be able to walk up the hill and see the site in real life. In a perfect world all History classes would be taught this way.
Along with a lot of hiking some classmates and I have been hanging out at the Cuzco School of Football. Lots of things to do there (bball, volleyball, track, swimming, etc.). Our first day we had to take two halftimes in a game to 15, the elevation does some weird stuff to your body. Theoretically I should be in excellent shape when I get back to Isla Vista, elevation 0´.
The nightlife here is very diverse. Cuzco is the last large city before reaching the infamous Machu Picchu so it is backpacker central. Going out insures hanging out with people from all over the world. We have found a favorite neighborhood bar and made friends with a couple of the bartenders. One of them offered to take us to the working class part of Cuzco a couple nights ago to a Chicha (corn beer) bar. We walked in and were the only white people in the whole place. To lighten things up a bit we bought a round for the entire bar (Chicha sells for a whopping ten cents per beer). We ending up paying a tab of $4 for 35 beers. Cuzco in general is cheap, but this place was really cheap. There were women inside cooking the chicha on a stove with guinea pig pens just a few feet away. For those not familiar with Peru, guinea pig is their national dish. Everything else is going really well. We have a field trip to the Virgen del Carmen festival on Monday, more blogs to come. Hope all is good with everybody back home

PS I have to keep a diary for my class, which I will be replacing with the blog. Basically, I´ll be writing more often.

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Photos

SUTEP??
These teachers were on strike so they came out to play some volleyball with us.

Sachsaywaman
Inca's last stand against the Spanish took place here. Just a walk up the hill from the city of Cuzco.

Pisco con Coca Leaf
Making our concoction.

Parque Zonal
Our temporary Rec-Cen.