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| A little look at the Andes |
Happy December everyone! Unlike in the States, where we start preparing for Christmas in October, Peru is a little more sensible about their holiday timing and now that the season upon us, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Cusco. Front windows are beginning to flicker with the pulsing of colored lights, small stores are displaying a wide variety of Christmas decor, La Plaza de Armas is now laced with beautiful white lights, and I came downstairs on Sunday to find our host family generously adorning their living room with the decorations that make me most happy. It's hard to believe it is already December and we've been here for three weeks. What is even harder to believe is that it has been over a week since our last post! With that said, I'll begin with our activities of this past weekend. On Saturday morning we woke up to a delicious breakfast of manjar-banana crepes and fresh jugo mixto (fruit juice) and hit the busy streets in search for a bus to take us to the town of Urubumba. We piled into a small van-like bus, or collectivo, and journeyed into the beautiful Peruvian countryside. After passing miles of luscious plots of land scattered with cattle, sheep and pigs we were dropped off at a little outcropping on the side of the road. Here we were to bargain for a taxi to take us to our final destinations of Salineras and Moray. As fate would have it, we happened to ride the collectivo with the other two TALLEST people in Cusco so it only seemed right that we teamed up with them for a better taxi deal. So, along with our new Amsterdamian friends, we folded into a taxi and bumped down a dirt road until we reached the Inca ruin of Moray, our first destination.
This incredible, alien-like ruin is thought to have been used as an agricultural experiment by the Inca. Each layer was planted with different seeds and because the temperature varies so drastically from the lowest to the highest point (almost 27 degrees!) it is predicted that the Inca were experimenting with
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Stone steps scattered
throughout the ruin
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different crops in different climates. The intelligence, precision and innovation required to create such a structure is absolutely unbelievable. We spent forty-five minutes exploring the depths of Moray and admiring the sheer talent of the Inca before piling back into the taxi to our final destination, Las Salineras. Twenty minutes down the mountainside dirt road, we pulled into to the small compound at Las Salineras. The view behind these few small buildings left me speechless. Las Salineras is an enormous salt-evaporation area that has existed since pre-Inca times. Hundreds of small ponds (no more than thirteen feet in size) are fed by a extremely salty spring that flows through an intricate streaming system. Once the salt "farmer" stops the flow of water into the pond, the water evaporates, leaving behind a bed of solidified salt crystals. The sight of these ponds was incredibly bizarre and, like Moray, it was hard to imagine the Inca constructing and harvesting this man-made wonder. With our minds absolutely blown we headed back, through the beautiful Peruvian landscape, home to Cusco. Overall, we chalked it up as a pretty unique Saturday. I'll let Alex fill in the details of our Sunday: the day we became true Peruvian soccer - or should I say futbol- fans.
For the most part, things at the orphanage went smoothly this week. Two of the previous volunteers returned back to the States, which leaves only two of us to entertain the masses. By masses, I mean
the twenty-one children now residing at La Casa Hogar. As of Thursday, eight new girls are calling the orphanage home. While craft time, coloring, and card playing continue to consume most of our
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Angelica had a little
run-in with a table...
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afternoons, I'm starting to notice the unhappiness of some of these girl; and truth be told, I can't blame them. Alex and I, along with our volunteer
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Host brother Fernando (10)
at his school Christmas
choir concert... so cute!
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| Story time! Check out the snoozin' Paulo |
coordinator, Angelika, met with the orphanage director, Janet, on Thursday to talk about our concerns and to get questions answered. Not only was this meeting an instant reminder of the frustrating language barrier but it also created a bit of turmoil between myself, Janet and the live-in mother, Silvia, who is supposed to be providing proper care for the girls. All of our concerns and questions were strictly in the best interest of the children, but they were relayed to Silvia as her problems and her fault. This made for a very interesting confrontation between Silvia, Alex and me. Long-story-short, we were able to clear up the misunderstandings but Silvia's dismay was apparent. I think she realized she wasn't caring for these girls in the way they need - they need to have their clothes changed daily, not once a week; they need to be bathed regularly and most of all, they need time to play outside and be crazy kids, not young house maids. With the problems now confronted, I look forward to returning next week in hopes of a bit of change.
As I mentioned earlier, Alex is going to provide detailed commentary for Part II of this blog... as for me, I'm going to sign off and enjoy a delicious Peruvian Pisco Sour! Ciao!
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