Amauta Spanish School: Cusco

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Spanish School

On monday we started at the Amauta Spanish School in Cusco. It is a 25 minute walk from from our hostal. We are taking four hours of group lessons per day (8:30-12:30am). We are in the beginer class with a girl from Holand and a girl from Germany. The school is excellent and many of the students are taking more intensive programs to improve their spanish (ex. 8-10 weeks). www.amautaspanishschool.com.

So far we´ve done the following things in Cusco:

-Toured the churches and cathedrals which are very ordinant in detail and remind us of European churches. Much of the artwork was done by local Inca people and there are subtle symbols of their culture incorporated into the art. Ex. A replica painting of the last supper containing a guinea pig (cuy) as the main dish.
-Socialized
-Tried Pisco Sours
-Consumed lots of chocolate caliente
-Visited a clinic for children with physical and mental challenges. This was a volunteer activity organized by the Spanish School. We just played with the kids which was challenging considering our difficulties in speaking spanish.
-Witnessed numerous parades and bands. There´s a huge parade in the Plaza de Armas every Sunday.
-Attempted to speak spanish to the people who work at our hostal
-Attempted to be dedicated to our evening work out routine: crunches, touch toes, and the occasional yoga posture attempt combined with major laughing at how ridiculous we are.
-And finally, we are devoting time to searching for real jobs in January. Chloe is drafting her resume at this moment.

A few more interesting pieces of information:

1. You can really notice the air pollution emitted by cars. There are so many cars here, especially taxis (perhaps 50%!t(MISSING)axis).
2. There was a meteorite that hit a remote part of Peru near Lake Titicaca (our destination in a few weeks). Apparently there was a release of gases or radiation that caused people of the region to be ill. I think its still being investigated. www.livinginperu.com/news/4719
3. It kinda feels Christmasy here. There are mountains surrounding the city many are lit up with houses. There´s also a cross and jesus statue on two opposite hills. It´s cold at night and we usually wear a sweater, jacket and our down vests.

What´s Next?

-We are going to Taray for a week starting Sunday. This will be week two of spanish school but at another one of their locations. We will live in a house that has a pool and mountain bikes.
-After that: Machu Pichu
-Then: We will bus it to Puno which is on Lake Titicaca

That´s all for now. I don´t believe there´s a spell check feature on this blog thing therefore I take total responsibility for any spelling mistakes/typos. AKA: chloe (the ultimate word nerd and speller extraordinaire had nothing to do with any of the previous errors)

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Photos

evening work out
Both of us couldn´t touch our toes at first but are working toward getting our hands to lie flat on the floor.

Comments

[Lindsay]

YAY!
YAYAYA! It looks like you guys are having ans awesome time and well, I'm hella jealous. Keep on keepin on ladies! Lotsa love from Canada!

[Laura]

You make me laugh.
Love the toe touching picture....close up on just the toes and hands. Was your face too strained to be publically posted? Sounds like you girls are experiencing lots. Keep up the good work.