Blogs from Urubamba, Cusco, Peru, South America - page 4

South America » Peru » Cusco » Urubamba September 16th 2009

Our Inca trail tour group visited a village within walking distance from Urubamba, a main town in the Sacred valley. We reached the town by foot from the Urubamba bus terminal within 45 minutes finding a few houses on either side of the one main dirt street. We went around the back of the first house that we visited to see how the occupants of the house made chocolate. Cacao is grown locally and the women demonstrating put some roasted cacao with some sugar into a manual grinder (that looked like the manual meat grinder that I bought Dan years ago), where the 2 ingredients were mixed and grounded together. The grinded output was then hand pressed into a metal mould which would be put into the sun to sit for a few hours to solidify. ... read more

Lesmahagow Work Party 2009

South America » Peru » Cusco » Urubamba July 21st 2009

Urubamba Road To Pizza Wasi

Kawai

Peru - There And Back Again Tuesday 21st July / Wednesday 22nd July Peru disputes finally caught up with us and we were stuck in Urubamba because of a transport strike. Something about drivers not wanting tickets/penalties or fines as a result of going through red lights!?? Only in Peru. Well, actually not really, because I daresay it would be the same anywhere. So it was time to explore all that Urubamba had to offer. Would you believe there is an archaealogical museum off one of the side streets? If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it. Mind you I think they saw us coming, with a $5 entrance fee. It was basically a room above a shop with some cabinets and some broken pottery. I know, I know. I'm ... read more

Peru - Lesmahagow Work Party 2009

South America » Peru » Cusco » Urubamba July 17th 2009

The Bridge

Kawai

Peru - There and Back Again Friday 17th July 2009 Work day numero dos!! Only today we were dropped off a distance from the home and walked along the bank of the Urubamba River, whilst the mini-bus returned to town for the second group of people. It was just beautiful. A gorgeous time of the morning, and it was a wonderful way to arrive into the boys home. Today was mud bricks day. The mud we had prepared the day before was ready for the straw to be mixed in and the process of making the bricks got under way. Most of the group were needed for this task, so we all got busy. Don't let anyone ley you believe that mud brick making is easy. It was actually really hard work!! The fences that were ... read more

Peru - Lesmahagow Work Group 2009

South America » Peru » Cusco » Urubamba July 16th 2009

Casa Hope

Kawai

Peru - There and Back Again Thursday 16th July 2009 First view of the Casa Girasoles Sacred Valley. Words of description of the setting would merely be words. All the boys were out on the road heading off for a walk and we met them as we drove towards the home. What a sight, and what a welcome. Totally unexpected and took everyone by surprise. There are 42 boys in the boys home in the Sacred Valley. 42 boys who thanks to the kindness and generosity of many, many people have a chance of a normal life, and an education to set them on the right road for the rest of thier lives. Boys who will actually have a chance of life. Full stop. And after many, many months of preparation and anticipation, here we were. ... read more

Peru - Lesmahagow Work Group 2009

South America » Peru » Cusco » Urubamba July 15th 2009

Plaza De Armas, Cusco

Kawai

Peru - There and Back Again Wednesday 15th July 2009 Very early start to the day. Up and out by 6am, to get to airport from early flight to Cusco. And not being a morning person (as some of you will know), then I felt I outdid myself by being fairly bright and breezy. We were met at Cusco and whirled off on for a short tour of the town, including a visit to the museum at Qorikancha. The guide was local, and was super and enthusiastic. And by this time a few of our group had succumbed to the expert selling powers of the local street sellers. After the tour, we were let loose in Cusco for a few hours. So, against all common sense and better judgement some of us decided to have some ... read more

White Water Rafting!

South America » Peru » Cusco » Urubamba July 2nd 2009

Tessablythe

Update from Jack: Today we got picked up early and went white water rafting! Rafting is very popular in Cusco because of the close proximity to the Urubamba River, which carved out the Sacred Valley that surrounds Machu Picchu. We se up our trip through the company that was recommended by the hostel, and they were really great. We drove an hour or two out of Cusco with a small busload of other tourists (3 from the UK, 1 from France) and several guides. The Frenchman and we three Yankees went with a guide named Cèsar ("like the salad," he explained) and the Brits went with Diego (a Chileno), while the enthusiastic (but not English speaking) Go-Go manned the safety kayak. We suited up in extremely fashionable skin-tight wetsuits (mine had a big hole in the ... read more

Recap on the Final Week

South America » Peru » Cusco » Urubamba May 20th 2009

Beautiful landscape

3mily

My last week was full of mixed emotions. My heart knew how close I was to coming home but my head and body just didn’t understand. Wasn’t I going to stay there forever? We were coming full circle with our stay in Urubamba, linking the first experiences with the last. I was sure that it would be the slowest, most boring week of the program but as it turned out, it went too fast. Listening to everyone’s project presentations was really interesting and it was great to see how far we had all come from that first week of “what the heck did she just say?” looks. Like I mentioned, my presentation went surprisingly well. I was last so my nerves had really built up and it didn’t help that my advisor was coming all the ... read more

The End

South America » Peru » Cusco » Urubamba May 14th 2009

3mily

It really is the end. I'll be getting on a plane tomorrow at 3 from Cusco to Lima than waiting around in the airport for about 7 hours for my Miami flight. Then it will be all over. My presentation went well yesterday. I was so nervous about speaking for 20 mins in Spanish when in the end I spoke for a good 30 mins. My advisor came to listen all the way from Lima and she also said I did a wonderful job. I also had a final, final exam in Spanish....that may not have gone so well but it doesn't matter because I AM GRADUATING on SATURDAY!!! I'm done with my undergrad only that master's and maybe doctorate to go. Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know my plans for returning home. ... read more

The Power of Television

South America » Peru » Cusco » Urubamba April 30th 2009

What a setting

bob and julie

The Power of Television A couple of years ago we watched a series on TV called ¨Around the World In 80 Treasures¨. It was one mans list of thought provoking sights to see. His choice in South America was a series of salt pans near Urubamba, Peru. It sounded really interesting so we hired a taxi for the day to go have a look. Two streams start as springs in the side of a mountain. One is cool and fresh, the feminime one. Lots of things have been given a gender. No idea why. The other, the masculine one, is warm and very, very salty. The Incas, around a 1000 years ago built a series of about 50 terraced evaporation ponds. The water is diverted into each pond to a depth of about 10cm and ... read more

Day 54

South America » Peru » Cusco » Urubamba April 16th 2009

theopenroad

After a few quiet beers in the hostel last night we endured a horrendous nights sleep. The RA RA's were on a big night spending Daddy's money on drink and drugs and were making an almighty racket until 6am! We were clearly not amused. The day however, starting brilliantly. Unfortunately we failed to make the 3 night rafting trip due the river being too high and dangerous so we just did one full day, joined by Brian the barman and 2 girls from the hostel Sam and Laura we headed down to the square to be collected for the 2 hour drive to the Urubamba river. When we arrived at the base camp we were all kitted out in the Peru's best shark attacked wetsuits and life vests! Then another 15 minutes drive to the top ... read more

Brief history of Peru

Ancient Peru was the seat of several prominent Andean civilizations, most notably that of the Incas whose empire was captured by the Spanish conquistadors in 1533. Peruvian independence was declared in 1821, and remaining Spanish forces defeated in 1...more history

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