Pub Quiz

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I caught the bus early & sat at back, Geoff & Ian got on but didn't notice me, but why would you notice a 6'5" gringo sitting amongst 5'0" peruvians? At the Sacsayhuamán ticket control point I tried to explain our identity cards hadn't been signed yet & we were working there, it seemed to work but maybe they felt sorry for us struggling with spanish. At the dig site I met Miluska & Chino (not his real name but he is quite short & looks ever so slightly chinese) two of the archeologists at Sacsayhuamán. There were many excavations going on & we started digging in a square that was hoped would have a wall in it. The wall was part of a terrace which surrounded the "church", a huge rock which had altars carved into it which during Incan times would have been the site of many offerings & religious ceremonies. We started using large picks to remove the overlying turf & moved onto smaller picks which rocks showed through we soon found the wall & continued digging, shoveling & brushing. It was hard work at 3800m & pushing a wheelbarrow full of soil & rocks soon left you breathless. By lunchtime our square was quite deep & the wall was clearly defined, something that hadn't been seen in nearly 500 years.
After lunch Miluska took us to see an idol, a hummingbird spoon, ceramic pots, crystals & a llama jawbone that had been uncovered from the soil & we went through tunnels again. This time Dan took my torch & went ahead leaving me to feel my way through the cold stone. At one point the stone became squashy & let out a yell. I realised that I had just poked a kid in the eye who was part of a school group also in the tunnel.
Back at home we explained to our host family that we needed a key as we may be home late that evening. We also asked if it was easy to open the door having heard that Peruvian locks often require a knack in opening them. They told us to just put the key in the door & turn, it was as easy as that. We caught the bus to Urubamba where the weekly pub quiz was held. The bus fare was 2 soles & we gave the conductor 5 soles for the two of us but didn't receive any change. This can be quite normal as sometimes they need to get change from the other passengers before they can give it to you. This never happened & when we asked for our change he said it was 2.50 each. Knowing this not to be true we got the other passengers involved who all said it was only 2 soles, the conductor gave us our change but passed it to us without facing us.
The pub quiz was at The Muse & the the clientele was many other volunteers. This week Ben & Dave, two of the Pisac volunteers had composed the questions & we thought we may be in with a chance of winning. It all came down to the bet question at the end where we bet all our accumulated points. The question was 'Name all American presidents in order since JFK?', Geoff, the American on our team did us proud & we won three bottles of beer that quickly disappeared with the help of drinking games.
It was raining when we left the bar, the others went on to Tequillas for some dancing & we tried to find a taxi. Finding a taxi is not normally a problem in Peru as just about everyone who owns a car is a taxi driver to some extent but the rain seemed to have made all the taxis disappear. We finally found one but his price was inflated & we had no choice but to pay it. We sneaked up on the our front door so as not to wake the dog & tried opening it. We did just as Juliana said, put the key in & turned it. The key went round & round but the door stayed locked. The dog started barking & barking until Juliana came to door huddled in a poncho & told us to turn the key three times until the door finally opened. We apologised for waking her up & went to bed.

Drink of the Day: Cuzqueña Premium

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