The Ruins of Sexy Woman

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My theory: the only thing keeping the cab drivers and the passengers alive here are the massive dashboard shrines, because it certainly isn´t the nonexistant seatbelts. Every driver (or Chofer) has pictures and charms of Jesus and their favourite saints adorning the cloth and fringe-covered dashboard. This month was the festival of Señor de Huanca so they all have a banner above the windshield (in velvet and gold letters no less) welcoming him or something like that.

As for sight seeing I have to admit to not doing any yet (save for climbing up a ridiculous amount of stairs to a pretty poor area and catching a magnificent view of the whole city). However, this weekend calls for a visit to the ruins of Sacsayhuaman (pronounced similar to 'Sexy Woman' with a spanish accent). Apparently it is a half hour walk uphill from the school...woot.

Let's talk tourism though. It is hard to separate the evils and good of tourism in Cusco. It appears that the most common ways to make money here are: drive a taxi, sell your paintings to tourists or hawk postcards at restaurants (substitute carvings, finger puppets, jewelry, etc. for postcards). These jobs wouldn{t exist without tourists, would they be needed? Likely they would. From the history of Perú it seems that the government got the country into a bit of a financial bind well before tourists overran the place. Would the culture be on sale at every turn? Probably not. It is sad to see women dressed in their traditional clothing and carrying a lamb around to make tips by posing with tourists but one can't really blame them. If you needed money for food and tourists would pay you for something you had, you would sell it...even if it was your image. Oh, and talk about pollution with all of the taxi's- I don't need to take up smoking just a brisk walk to the grocery store.}

Another note on culture though. The entire city may appear that it is falling apart but everyone, yes EVERYONE, has a cellphone. The grandfather at our house has one with a camera. THe nun at the orphanage I started volunteering at has one. Speaking of volunteering: I started yesterday and do it from about 3 to about 6. I think I have the most spanish of all the foreign volunteers so we mostly help with homework for the littlest ones and math. But even math has challenges. Try explaining how to do subtraction by borrowing in spanish (ps. I don{t know the word for borrow). I can{t type any longer because i'm losing feeling in my digits.

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Comments

[Amanda]

Novelist in the making...
Hey buddy, I still can't believe you went through with this adventure. Anyways, as I'm reading all of your entries I've decided that you should become an author. I would definetly read all of your novels. I hope you enjoy your "sexy woman." The office isn't nearly the same without you. Amanda