Otherwise, we have dynamite

Woo, what a whirlwind of activity! New cities, new countries... let's start with Potosi, Bolivia. As Eben wrote, Potosi used to be a huge mining city and the wealthiest city in South America. Once the silver dwindled, though, the rich Spanish colonists moved out, leaving Potosi a bit economically depressed. Mining is still popular there, but most of the silver is now gone. The city itself is quiet (absolutely dead on a Sunday) but quite beautiful with its pedestrian streets and remaining colonial mansions. My dad described it best when he said that 30 years ago when he was there, he kept waiting for a Spanish knight on horseback to appear around a corner carrying a lance. It may sound a bit odd, but it really does feel like that! Although I don't know what Potosi was like decades ago, I just have a feeling that not much has changed.

Being in THE mining town of South America, Eben and I were eager to actually explore the mines and get a taste of what defines this town. We had a tour guide, Efra, who is 30 years and a current miner (since age 13 I believe). He gives mining tours during tourist seasons and works in the mines when there aren't any tourists. We donned protective clothing(rubber top, pants, and boots) and a helmet with headlight. We also had bandanas to wear across our face to guard against breathing in too much dust. The miners themeslves don't wear all of this gear, and I doubt they would be much better off even if they did. The typical miner starts his work our of tradition: all of the men in the family before him were miners, and thus he himself must be a miner. They typically drop out of school after about 6 years and head to the mines for the rest of their lives. Meeting a miner above age 50 is a rarity, as these men suffer horrible health from breathing in toxic dust. Their lungs are barely functioning.

To prepare for our trip deep into the mines, we first stopped at the miners' market, where we could buy soda, coca leaves, and dynamite (!) the give out to men we met along the way. Efra also took us to a small processing plant where the goodies are cleaned and processed. The big thing was, of course, the actual mine. Entering it felt a bit surreal, as it was quite dark and cold. It quickly become quite tight, and it was difficult to breathe with so much dust artound us. We were lucky enough to talk to quite a few men. The first, Don Luis, had the cough of death from mining since age 12. He's not expected to live more than a couple more years. It was interesting to see these men at work, pushing carts full of rock , chiseling into the mine shafts, huge wads of coca leaves in their cheeks to keep them going (the coca curbs their appetite and gives them energy, as they work for maybe 13 hours straight with no food-- eating in the mine means eating toxic dust as well). They were happy to see us and answer our questions, a brief resipte from their hard work. We were in the mine for about 2 and a half hours, sliding through mine shafts (I lost my footing and literally just slid for about 10 feet) and crawling through tight spaces. It was all a bit surreal. The bandanas helped us breathe a little bit, but mostly my throat felt on fire from being coated with chemical dust. Woo! Several people had to leave the mine tour because it was too difficult to continue, but I'm proud we made it all the way through. I don't know how the miners survive day to day because I felt as though I would suffocate if I spent another hour down there. It's no wonder their life span is so short.

Efra said that as he became older, he questioned his father about his lifestyle choice. Why would a father tell his son to drop out of school to become a miner? His father said he regretted making that choice for Efra, but that mining can be more lucrative that many other professions in Bolivia. When you're living in poverty, waiting 12 years for your education to pay off just isn't an option. Efra himself has a 6-year-old daughter, Gabriela, who he wants to stay in school. Women don't work in the mines, but many still don't finish their education. What was very telling was Efra's uncertainty over whether he would want a son of his to become a miner. He knows quite well that becoming a miner means a difficult (and shortened) life, but it's difficult to break tradition. He said he probably would encourage school over mining, but that very well may change. I think it's important to realize that this really isn't a selfish or spiteful choice (to encourage mining over school) but rather a demonstration of the reality of life for Bolivians. You need to survive as best you can, and the benefits of an education aren't apparent or fast enough for these people. Efra said that life under Evo Morales wasn't any different, that he is just another man making empty promises. Education still isn't compulsory (or if it is, it's not enforced), and it's not valued enough. For things to change for the children of miners, Efra says, education has to improve. The Bolivians are not masters of many things, he said alomst bitterly, but they are masters of corruption. It's easy for us as foreigners to idolize Evo and call him a revolutionary, a coca farmer who became a President, but the harsh reality is that actual change must occur. So far, it seems, that has not happened. Not in Potosi.

Being down in the mines wasn't entirely depressing, though, though it was a reality check. Efra was a hilarious guide with a great sense of humor. It was cool to be adventuresome and shimmy through narrow mine shafts (even if it probably did take 6 months off of our lives). And at the end we blew up a watermelon with our extra dynamite. :)

¡Huelga!
After a couple of days in Potosi, it was time to head up to Sucre on a short bus ride. Or rather, that was the plan. The reality was that on Wednesday, the local bus drivers went on strike to protest fare changes and barricaded the entire city. The long-distance buses could not leave the city because the roads were barricaded with local buses. We did find a taxi driver who said he would drive us to Sucre (like 3 hours, more like 2 when it's a crazy man driving) and break through the barricades. Woo hoo! We drove around the city, faced barricade after barricade, and finally forced our way through. So we drove through some windy roads at about 9834 miles per hour, and arrived just outside of Sucre when...

MORE BARRICADES! That's right. The local buses in Sucre were on strike as well and had formed a barriacde around the city so that we couldn't enter. Eventually we threw on our backpacks, walked through the barricade, and found a very smug taxi driver on the other side who offered to drive us the rest of the way (when you're the only way into town, you also have the pleasure of overcharging your passengers). Alas, we begrudgingly handed over our painfully high taxi fare and entered Sucre.

For all the trouble of getting there, Sucre was worth it. It is a very white city lots of gardens and benches: the perfect lounging space. Walking around was very peaceful, and it was good to be in a city that wasn't as hectic as La Paz. Sucre has a decidedly European feel. It marked the end of indigenous South America for us, which was of course sad, but it was exciting to see this very different side of the continent. We really only had about a day to enjoy the city since we had to book it to Argentina to start work, but we did manage to walk around a lot and....

see dinosaurs!

This part of the entry is dedicated to Cassie Kirk, dinosaur enthusiast and talented Soprano.

Dinosaurs used to live in South America. They walked all over the place, ate some trees and fellow dinosaurs, and eventually died. All of this is well and good, but about a decage ago (I may have just completely made that up, maybe it was like 30 years ago) a cement company just outside of Sucre was digging around and found some giant footprints on the side of a mountain. Whose footprints? Bigfoot? Papa Noel and his reindeer? No no, my friends, they were dinosaur footprints. A billion and one years ago, that mountainside was bottom of a river. The dinosaurs pranced through the river, and the sediment eventually formed fossils of their giant footprints. Tectonic movements eventually forced the river bottom to become completely vertical (either that, or dinosaurs could walk up walls Matrix-style), so the dried up mountain side is dotted with brontosaurus prints. Cool! There is a cheesy/awesome dinosaur park across the way (you can't actually go up to the footprints because they are being protected by UNESCO, though high-power binoculars allow you to see the details-- whoa!) with life-size dinosaur replicas based on fossil and skeletal information. Dinosaur specialists helped design the models, so they are actually as realistic as they could possibly be. We learned which dinosaurs lived in the area and what they ate, but mostly it was fun to take pictures with the T-Rex and pretend we were being attacked. Dorky? Of course, who do you think I am?

(Dorky sidenote: To get to the dinosaur park, we rode in the Dino Truck. A pick-up truck with dinosaur claws coming out of the front hood. I just can't make these things up.)

So the dinosaurs rocked, Sucre rocked... the bus ride to Argentina did not rock. But right now it's time to watch some Argentina v. South Africa rugby, so that story will have to wait until next time. :)

La Paz

The day after trekking Isla Del Sol, we caught the local bus (cheaper than the gringo bus) with Ellie to La Paz. The scenery is amazing even if the road is extremely bumpy and winding. Also, on the local bus, we stop in the middle of nowhere to let people on and off even when there is no indication of any sort of bus stop. It is pretty cool how this works that you can flag down the bus in the middle of the countryside with no problems. I would not like to find out what would happen if the bus was full. We had plenty of space, so there was no problem, but I can also imagine the bumpy, windy road to La Paz with people packed into the aisles, making it uncomfortable for everyone involved (like the buses in Quito). Anyway, we got to La Paz without a problem and found a hostel called Adventure Brew. It has its own microbrewery, kitchen access, places to hang out, tv room with dvd player, pretty much everything you could ask for. We decided to dorm it for the first time on this trip and it was fine. We were with good people in our room, including a kid who will be attending Bard in the fall and on our last day, a Vassar grad (02) showed up in the room next door to ours.

Since we arrived pretty early, we decided to do some exploring and wouldn´t you know, we ran into Jackson again. He and his group were about to go to the World Bank for a presentation and we decided to tag along after his program director gave it the ok. First of all, it was all in Spanish, so it was a little difficult for me, but I got the general gist of the standard propaganda that the World Bank spews to make itself seem positive, helpful and indispensible to developing countries. There was a lot of talk about the Millenium poverty goals yet the economist refused to give even a working definition of poverty here ("Poverty is like love. You can't really define love, but everyone knows what you mean when you say you're in love"). He did talk about increased urbanization but mostly in terms of how this affects government expenditure and thus loans taken. To say that loans need to be taken in order to pay back loans is one of the more ridiculous things he said. This was quite interesting since it is not an everyday experience and it is a look into one of the shackles of neo-colonialism. They were also bragging about how their money was used by the government (World Bank conditional loans) to build so many meters of bridges and kilometers of roads and whatnot. And what also was kind of frustrating was their position on bilingual education. They said that they want to increase educational access for all, but in Bolivia, which has large indigenous groups that don't necessarily speak Spanish, there should be education in the native language in addition to Spanish. His response to this question was that it really depends on the situation and that it is fine when the indigenous students make up 100% of the class, but that when they aren't the full class, then it shouldn't necessarily happen because it is an unfair advantage (gift, privilege, not quite sure what the right word is) over the other students. The program director also invited us to other events with the study group, but we didn´t make it to any others. Regardless, the experience at the World Bank was a good one just to see what they are doing here and what they have to say. It is also slightly difficult to believe that they really know what is happening on the ground level when they are based in an incredibly nice office in the business center of La Paz, so clearly removed from the poverty that is evident less than a mile away.

Jackson and his group had annother presentation to attend, so we left for dinner (BBQ) at the hostel and a sampling of the beers made there. They had a kolsch style, a bitter and a dark bock, all of which were very good and a welcome change from the somewhat unexciting pilseners that are all over Latin America. We then met up with Jackson and some of his friends for hummus, pita, spinach pies, hookah and chilean wine at a Lebanese place relatively nearby.

In the morning, we tried to have an ambitious start and promptly failed to get out as early as we had planned. We followed the walking tour given by our Lonely Planet guidebook and it took us through a lot of the places that we had explored the day before. It was mostly markets, but they were pretty awesome. There is a witches market that sells everything from llama fetuses to love potions, all sorts of charms and home remedies to stuffed cats and owls. This place was awesome to walk around just because of the strange variety of things, however disgusting some of them might seem. We also went through markets selling more traditional knicknacks and knockoffs. Sarah got a small backpack since hers is starting to fall apart and I got a hat because this altitude makes the sun so much stonger. We made it down to Plaza San Francisco and this place is nuts. It is chaos to a degree that I have never experienced. But it also has all of the street food one can possible ask for. Fresh orange and grapefruit juice is about $0.20 a glass, Salteñas (mini meat or chicken pies) and Tucumanos (fried pies with potatos, onions and either chicken or hard-boiled egg and all sorts of different sauces)are about $0.15 each, stuffed potatos with meat are around $0.30 and there is all sorts of different fresh breads, fresh popcorn (sweet or salty), roasted peanuts for very very cheap. We ate just about every single lunch on the street while we were in La Paz. Then at night, just like the street meat in NYC, there are stands with kebabs, burgers, sausages, hot dogs, fried eggs and french fries.

Enough about the street food, I tend to get carried away because it really is incredible. We also went into the museum adjacent to San Francisco that allowed us access to the crypts, the choral rafters, the roof of the church and a very impressive collection of religious art. The religious art of South America is similar to that of Europe, but also contains elements of indigenous beliefs and is quite cool. There are still some Franciscan monks living there, but they have ceded most of the area to the museum. After the museum, we also checked out the presidential palace and the cathedral in Plaza Murillo. From various revolutionary attempts and coups, the presidential palace is still pockmarked from bullets. The cathedral there is gigantic and very nice, but overwhelmingly gigantic. After dinner that night at an Israeli restaurant, with grand plans to go out to meet up with Jhinuk (co-worker from Cusco volunteering here too), we decided to take a short nap that didn´t end until 2 am, thus negating the evening plans.

Our third day was spent at museums. We checked out the Museo de Instrumentos Musicales, owned and operated by Ernesto Cavour, the famous Bolivian folk artist. It was a magnificent collection of ancient, new and novel musical instruments (the five guitars in one shaped like a star or the combination charango/guitar). Quite a few of the instruments were also open for use so we got to try some different things that were pretty cool. We then went to the National Art museum with a standard religious and colonial art collection and a very cool Bolivian modern art collection. However, the coolest part was a temporary exhibit of photographs, mostly by Latin American artists, of painted bodies. Some of them were painted so that half of the body was a skeleton, or muscles while others were really imaginative. There was one of two women, one of which was painted like a pillar, so well that it took a little while to figure out it was a person and the other woman was leaning on the pillar. Unfortunately, we were kicked out of lunchtime. We saw most of it, but never made it back to spend more time there. We also went to the Coca Museum, documenting the uses of the Coca plant over the centuries. It is amazing that the cultures here have used it for thousands of years as a medical plant and for work while the Western nations have used it for recreational drugs and thus are putting pressure on Bolivia to abandon Coca use even though it is completely different here. Yet another example of culturally insensitive foreign policy when the root of the drug production problem lies in the demand of the industrialized nations. We called it a day after that and went back to the hostel for a comfort day of movies and pizza delivery. It was awesome to have a day like that since we haven't had one since we left home.

Our fourth day was rather frustrating. It was a day of errands. We had to go up to the bus station, only to find everything closed for lunch and then we went to the post office for the 2 hour process of sending two packages back home. There were all of 5 people there, including us, trying to send packages, and I cannot figure out why something that should be so easy should take so long. But they had to be packaged properly and have the right forms filled out and on and on and on. Then they refused to ship Sarah's package because it didn't weigh enough. So even though mine was a full 1.5 kgs heavier than hers, mine also cost about $10 less. Where is the logic in that? After that debacle, it was street lunch and back to the bus station. One window of the company we bought our tickets through said I was not allowed to buy tickets for tomorrow's bus but then right next door I was able to do it without a problem. Things are so frustrating sometimes. So once again, it was another relaxing afternoon. We finally met up with Jhinuk for dinner at our hostel and it was great to see her and hang out. She is starting on a giant mural this weekend so it is really cool that she gets to put up some public art.

The next and final morning of La Paz, we packed our stuff, checked out and got into a van for a day trip. There were a few frustrating things. First of all, we are staying in the annex of the hostel, only a block away, but even though we told the travel agent, he did not relay that information and the guide was kind of angry that we weren't at the main location until we showed her the receipt with the annex written on it. Also, we were supposed to have been provided a snack, but the agency never gave it to the guide and the guide also decided not to mention this until we were really hungry in the afternoon and asked where the snack was. AHHHHHHHH. Otherwise it was really cool and beautiful. We went to the top of a mountain called Chacaltaya (5,600 meters) that had snow(!) on it but amazing views of the other mountains and the countryside and even La Paz. On a clear day, they say that you can see Lake Titikaka. It was not much walking, but still really hard because of the altitude. We then drove to the south of La Paz to the Valley of the Moon. It is called that because the landscape really looks lunar, it is amazing. Apparently it is all river sediment, extremely hardpacked, that was formed when the river was much higher. Pictures will really have to do the explaining for me, because I don't know quite how to describe it. Let it be left at the fact that it was really amazing to see something so strangely naturally formed like this.

We then went back to La Paz, ate some lunch (finally, since there had been no food and the tour ended at 4 pm), and relaxed until our bus. With the help of sleeping pills and a relatively smooth road, the overnight bus was not that bad. We arrived in Potosi around 6:30 this morning and will be here for two days before going to Sucre. This town is known for its former glory as a silver mining town and used to be one of the richest in South America. So we will check out the mines and write more later.

Update like whoa

Sorry for the huge gap in blogging. Our last few days in Peru were quite hectic, and the internet in Bolivia was crazy expensive (they charged you by 15 second intervals!!), so we have had to wait until La Paz to have our internet fix.

Arequipa/Colca Canyon
So Arequipa was a cute town, and Juanita the child ice mummy is an absolute must if you're in the area. Seriously. Amazing. Eben and I had opted to go on the 1-day trip to the Colca Canyon, which, looking back, was not the best idea. Leaving at 1 in the morning is a bad way to start the day, and overall it was very rushed. For people thinking about visiting the Canyon, a 2-day trip (at least) is really the way to go. We spent a lot of time on a bus going over the bumpiest roads in the world. It was quite an adventure, never quite knowing whether you would fly out of your seat into the aisle. Paved roads? Ha! Not so much. When we finally arrived at the condor lookout point, however, all bad feelings were forgotten. These condors nest deep in the canyon and catch the winds from below to fly. They don't flap their wings but rather glide through the air. We arrived just in time to see about 5 condors rise up from the canyon and swoop through the sky. These creatures are enormous (the size of a 4-year old maybe?) and such an important part of the culture here. Watching them glide through the air, it's no wonder that they are revered so deeply. I dig it. It was the highlight of our day, though seeing the mountain where the ice mummies were discovered was another high point. Overall the day was decent enough, though a better guide and more sleep would have made it fabulous.

Puno
After a few days in Arequipa we departed for Puno, our first city along the famous Lake Titicaca. Having heard from various sources how beautiful the lake is, I personally was pretty pumped for Puno. After hopping off the bus, however, I was slightly disappointed. Puno is a gray, unimpressive city with not much to offer. Even worse, the Puno side of the lake was pretty icky. Sad! The thing to do in Puno is to explore the islands of Lake Titicaca, so on the morning of our second day, we took the ferry to the floating islands of Uros. Once we got out on the water, the clouds finally parted, and the water appeared much more lovely than the murky green water along the shore. Good way to start our tour of Uros. :) We had a funny bilingual guide who told us a lot about the islands, so I feel like we got a lot out of our trip. Having seen floating islands in Cambodia, I thought these islands would be similar: floating rafts anchored to the lake bottom. Uros was completely different. The island people wait until the end of the rainy season for chunks of reed roots to float to the top of the water, and they anchor these roots together and lay reeds across them to make a sort of floor. Walking on the reed ground is quite squishy, and at first I was convinced that I would fall through and be trapped in the lake. It's actually pretty sturdy, though, and nobody fell through. :) It's amazing to realize that an entire community lives this way, making their houses entirely out of reeds, navigating around in reed boats-- there is even a floating school for the younger children. We took a giant reed boat (very reminiscent of a Viking ship, except with the head of a puma/snake/llama and tail of a fish) to another island in the area after the island people sang us a farewell song in Aymara (the main indigenous language here), Spanish, and English. It was a cute day and so much fun!

After Uros, however, we were desperate to get out of Puno, so we took an afternoon bus into Bolivia...

Copacabana
Crossing the border into Bolivia was kind of fun. Our bus took us to the Peruvian side, where we had to get out and walk to the immigration office up the road. After getting our passports stamped, we then had to walk up the road even more to cross into Bolivia. Once there, we went to their immigration office, where the official basically gives you a stamp for however long you say you want (30 days or 90 days). Everyone was quite pleasant, and it was surprisingly hassle-free. We had heard rumors that guards sometimes try to charge you a phony "entrance tax" or demand to search your bags (and then steal valuables), but there was absolutely none of that. Afterwards we hopped back on the bus to Copacabana, a small town on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca.

Traveling by bus: beautiful. Honestly, I think it's the only way to go unless you need to get somewhere far away very quickly. The drive into Bolivia was absolutely beautiful. The deep turquoise waters of Lake Titicaca looked breathtaking in the sunlight and looks like it could stretch on forever. My dad told us (and our Uros guide said this as well)that the Bolivians like to say that the "Titi" part of the lake is in Bolivia, and the "caca" side of the lake is in Peru! For those who don't speak Spanish, "caca" means "shit." Quite blunt, no? I don't know if I will go so far as to entirely agree with that statement, but the Copacabana part of Lake Titicaca puts the Puno side to absolute shame.

Copacabana has all the makings of a sleepy beach town (except for the lack of beach). Everyone is friendly and relaxed, and the fact that the lake is so amazing just makes you feel happy to be there. Copacabana has some very beautiful parts, most notably the Cathedral. The Moorish architecture is so different from anything we have seen so far. Every day (especially on Sundays), motorists park their vehicles in front of the Cathedral to have it blessed. Vendors in front of the Cathedral sells bottles of wine, beer and champage-- not so much to be used for personal consumption, but for the motorists to splash all over the vehicles and the ground (to Pacha Mama, or Mother Earth). There are also priests with buckets of holy water and old women with burning cauldrons of incense. The sight is amazing to watch, as it is taken so seriously. You can even buy a miniature car or house from the vendors and have that blessed. Afterwards, people can climb up a mountain (Cerro Calvario) overlooking the harbor and find a shaman who will bless them even more. Though we didn't get blessed by the shaman, Eben and I did walk up the mountain to take in the views. Despite a disturbing amount of trash (apparently littering is a huge problem here) along the way, it's incredible. There are stone cabinet-like things on the top for people to place white burning candles, and a series of stone crosses casts an almost eerie shadow on the ground.

My favorite part about Copacabana, though, is a small candle chapel off the side of the main Cathedral. At first it feels as though you have mistakenly wandered into a sewer or underground squatter's zone, as the walls are completely black, there is little light, and a few beggars are gathered around the entryway. Once you make it through, however, you see dozens of flickering white candles that have been placed on stone slabs in the middle of the room and along the walls. It is such a simple sight, but overwhelmingly beautiful at the same time. The walls are black, save for some candle wax graffiti (interesting). The air feels so warm from the lit candles, and I personally felt like I could stand there for hours holding a candle in silent meditation. There's something so basic about candles, like candlelight vigils, that is very touching and powerful. The chapel was like a big vigil for humanity. That's the best way I can think of to describe it.

Aside from my newfound love for candles (yay!), Eben and I strapped on our adventure boots once more for some trekking on La Isla Del Sol, the origin of the Inca creation myth. We took a painfully slow ferry across Lake Titicaca for 2 hours until we reached the northern end of the island. Happy to finally be on land, we quickly hiked up to the northern tip, past the Sacred Rock where the first Inca supposedly rose from the water, up to a nice lookout point. The ground was covered in rock towers (shrines to Apu, the god of the mountains), so we unpacked our amazing picnic lunch, made our own Apu monument, and soaked up the sunshine.

(Warning: SPF 30 is not strong enough for South America.)

Desipte numerous applications of sunblock, my poor little shoulders suffered a bit throughout the day. We trekked for 3 hours to the southern end of the island, the trail at times a bit rough. The altitude is killer. We were very exposed (on a dry island with practically no trees, the sun will find you and abuse you), but at least it gave us a great unblocked view of the water! :) Along the way we befriended a British girl our age, Ellie, who I swear seemed totally unaffected by the (a) altutide, (b) heat, (c) terrain. All of the above? I'm jealous. Anyway, Isla Del Sol was gorgeous.

Random: Our first night in Copa, we ran into a Vassar guy (Jackson) who played soccer with Eben and is now JYA in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Weird! This proves my theory that (a) the world is actually the size of my flip-flop, and (b) Vassar people are everywhere. We had a good laugh over running into each other and hung out later that night with him and another guy from his JYA program. It was good company, and we learned how to play a Bolivian dice game. I have no idea what it is called, or really what the rules were, but Eben and I won, so that's all that matters. :)

A Lost City and a New City

So Sarah finished her last blog before our last day at Inti. The last day went just as any last day will when there is a mutual feeling of sadness about the departure. The day itself was pretty normal. The kids did homework, it rained, we finished up the posters, the kids ran around and tormented the dog, etc... Nicola and Jhinuk finished a hanging display for the garden that was really nice with Inti´s name in blue hanging letters and lots of beads and whatnot. We contributed with a simple but very nice sounding windchime, not much but something. At the end, we had to say our goodbyes to kids and staff. So we said our goodbyes, promised to write and refer other volunteers. What was very sad to see was that the kids who we kind of connected with stayed around after the others left just to spend a little more time with us. We took plenty of pictures, but it was sad to say goodbye. We were thinking and talking about what it must be like to have such a rotation of people that the kids become close with, only to never see again. It must be very hard for them and frustrating every time, but I still think that we helped where we could and accomplished at least something small in connecting with some of the kids despite language difficulties (on my part).

After work, we went home to rest up and then out with Nicola and Jhinuk to this place called 7 Angelitos with live music and very relaxed atmosphere. Then after Nicola called it a night, Jhinuk joined us for the club circuit to collect the free drinks. Tom was sick, so he couldn´t join us like last time, but he taught us well. The clubs here, like we said before, are hilarious. They have the most random mix of music and all offer free drinks. They are great. So it was a late night but we made it home without any problems.

Saturday was very relaxed, recovering from the clubbing madness of Friday and resting for the excursion to Machu Picchu. We met up with Jhinuk and Nicola to trade some photos and grab some food before calling it an early night. On Sunday, we woke up at 4 AM to catch the 6 AM train to Aguas Calientes, the jumping off town to Machu Picchu. After an absurdly early morning, and a four hour train ride, we arrived in the most tourist driven town I have ever seen in my life. This surpasses Kaosan Road in Bangkok, Siem Reap in Cambodia, and even Times Square in New York City. You can´t walk ten feet without someone trying to get you to eat at their restuarant, buy their souveniers, get a massage, etc... It is an ugly town that is only good for the bed it provides to get up early for Machu Picchu. The hostel we were at was a stuffy, humid room with no windows, or in other words, disappointing since we decided to book through one of the more expensive agencies in Cuzco. However, all the meals provided (eaten at the hotel) were quite delicious and the guy was very helpful in sorting out train ticket problems (we weren´t sitting together for the ride back according to our tickets). These facts somewhat redeemed the otherwise disappointing hostel.

For the afternoon, we decided to climb a nearby mountain that looks across the valley directly at Machu Picchu. Oh my lord, we were not ready for this. It was slightly drizzling on and off and a storm looked like it was approaching, but we decided to go anyway. This was so difficult. There is a clearly marked path up to the top, but it is essentially climbing a couple hundred meters by stairs. There were also ladders, one of which was 15 meters high, going up the mountain. By the time we made it to the top (1 1/2 hours), we were exhausted. It was totally worth it though for the perfect view of Machu Picchu. It was awesome and breathtaking and since we got there late in the afternoon, Machu Picchu was nearly empty of tourists. It made for great photos. Then it was another hour back down to the hotel. It was great but tiring and was good practice for the next day.

We went to bed right after dinner since we had to wake up again at 4 AM to get to Machu Picchu early. But again, it was so worth it. We didn´t think so at first, but as the place started filling up around 11 we knew that we did the right thing. We went with an English couple who booked through the same agency and three other people with a great guide through Machu Picchu. He explained everything and it was really nice to have him there rather than try to figure things out for ourselves. The place is beyond description, just the fact that it is there is a testament to the amazingness of the Incan empire. It is also so well preserved and Peru is doing a good job to keep it that way. After our tour ended, we were given a few options for hikes around the area. We chose the shortest since the day before was exhausting. It was out to an Inca bridge about 30 minutes away from the site and it was pretty cool. We walked along the edge of the mountain to this bridge, which was not the rope bridge as we hoped, but rather a bridge just of wood going over a small gap in the mountainside so that the trail could continue. We were not allowed to cross it, but it was still pretty cool. After that, we went back to Machu Picchu and took lost of photos with the llamas that live up there and just relaxed in the overwhelming magnificence that is Machu Picchu. Around noon, having spent 6 hours there, we decided to make our way down, by foot. There are stairs, but they are steep and tall and really do a number on the knees. We made it back to town, tired again. Overall, it was a great experience despite the bummer that is the town of Aguas Calientes. I definitely want to return to hike the Inca trail for a few days before arriving to Machu Picchu. Perhaps when I am older, have more money and book it far in advance. The Inca trail was full through part of November, so we couldn´t do it.

We arrived back in Cuzco around 10 pm and went straight to sleep. Tuesday was spent packing and running those last minute errands like confirming bus tickets, booking a hostel in Arequipa and finishing our paragraphs (in Spanish) for Inti. We gave our paragraphs to Nicola and said our goodbyes to her again. We ate our final lunch in Cuzco at our favorite restaurant called Jack´s which does a mean breakfast and an even better lunch. Then we finished packing, took some photos of new graffiti and got to the bus station for our night bus to Arequipa. The bus itself was pretty cool, we got the VIP seats that almost fully recline and are like first class seats in airplanes. We also got dinner but there were a few obnoxious things like a movie being played after the lights went out and everybody was already starting to fall asleep, or Bingo being played upstairs over the speakers when nobody downstairs wanted to play, etc... And since the roads are rather windy through the mountains it was hard to fall asleep always being jerked around. But eventually, I found a comfortable position, as did Sarah and we both slept soundly until the arrival at 6 this morning. It was good not to lose a day on the bus (10 hour ride), but we still needed more sleep. We checked into our hotel and promptly passed out until 9.

The hotel is quite nice, we seem to be the only ones there and we have a good clean room with a window and a good shower (what more can you ask for). Today we spent exploring Arequipa. The city is much more metropolitan than Cuzco, and thus not as beautiful, but it is still really nice. It has some amazing colonial architecture that has survived the centuries and most of it is built out of a white volcanic rock, giving Arequipa the nickname of "The White City." We checked out the two big churches, the Cathedral and La Compañia and well as the Santa Catalina monastary. The monastary only opened itself up to the public in 1970 after 391 years of exclusion and secrecy. It truly is a city within a city and it is very beautiful. We were told to check it out at night, but I don´t think that we will be able to make it. We also went to the Catholic University museum which houses Juanita and other Inca mummies that were offered as sacrifices on the mountain and volcano tops around Arequipa. It was awesome, it is amazing how well preserved these are, and just by chance unlike the Egyptian mummies. It is also cool how these mummies can offer more information on the Inca culture and rituals.

Tomorrow, we are getting up at 1 AM to go visit the Colca Canyon which is almost the deepest canyon in the world. Hopefully we will see some condors, but regardless, we are promised some amazing views that dwarf the Grand Canyon. We will write more about it soon. And we are going to Puno, on Lake Titicaca on Friday morning, so a lot of moving as we make our way to La Paz and then Buenos Aires.

Tranquilized puppies

It's our last day at Inti! I can't believe how quickly the past three weeks have flown by, and I sincerely wish we could stay here for even longer. We will undoubtedly miss the kids, but I plan on taking a million pictures of them this afternoon so we can post a few photos of the little devils in action. :) My favorite of the week, Mabel, has taken to running up to me and whispering in my ear, "!El profe Eben es malo!" or "!La profe Nicola es mala!" or "!Tu eres mala!," which means "[Professor's name] is bad!" Then she'll burst into laughter and run away and tell someone else that they're bad. It's really adorable in spite of its weirdness. She's only 8, so she can get away with it.
The ever-mischievous Mabel with Eben and the puppy

Everyone at Inti surprised me on Wednesday as the kids were getting ready to have their early supper. Yesterday (Thursday) was my birthday (yay 22!), but since Inti wasn't really open yeterday (more about that in a second) they decided to celebrate a day early. Jhinuq, one of the British girls, made me a cute card that everyone signed, and all of the kids sang to me. It was so unexpected and happy, and I of course started to cry a little because it was so adorable. Then all of the girls wanted to give me a hug and a kiss, so I ran around the classroom giving hugs to everyone. :) And Mabel naturally whispered to me that Eben is indeed malo. Of course. My birthday has felt pretty low-key this year, but I figure that's to be expected after the obligatory ridiculous 21st birthday party. Jhinua, Nicola, Eben, and I went out for birthday lunch and bought a bunch of bootleg DVDs at a market near work. Eben and I then had the BEST birthday dinner on the Plaza at an Andean/Italian restaurant. Amazing pasta (and I *do* know my Italian food) that reminded me of being at Gino's in Bologna with the JYA crew, and great Chilean wine. Overall it was really lovely, and it was a good way to celebrate. Tonight we'll all go out dancing, so that will be fun too. Hurrah for birthdays!

The past week has been very busy at work. Jhinuq held a drawing contest that thankfully interested all of the kids and kept them occupied after homework time. It was nice to see them so focused on something creative, and we gave out prizes to everyone who participated. Hopefully they'll have more artsy activities after we leave. Eben and I finished a photo project of all of the Inti kids that we've been working on for at least a week and a half. We took photos of all of the Inti kids and labeled them with their names, which are now displayed on a wall in the classroom. The morning kids have their photos posted on a bright yellow sun, and the afternoon kids have theirs posted on a big blue house. Jhinuq and Nicola came up with that idea, which is pretty cute since Intiu Runakunaq Wasin means "The House of the Children of the Sun." Ohhhh, symbolism. We thought it would be a practical gift to leave behind for future volunteers who need help learning everyone's names quickly. It's also fun for the kids, who for the most part love the idea of digital cameras and their faces appearing on a screen. They keep running up to the photo wall to find their picture, so I feel satisfied that our project makes them a bit proud as well. :)

Yesterday some American reporters from small Catholic newspapers arrived at Inti as part of a tour through Peru focusing on children's relief organizations. The entire center was cleaned at least twice the day before in advance, and the morning of the reporters' arrival everyone was running around in a panic as they tried to make sure everything was perfect. I also suspect that someone gave their puppy, Kusi, a tranquilizer, because he was passed out in the garden all day. Normally he runs all over the center chasing the kids and jumping on people to lick their faces. Sleepy Kusi? I smell a scandal. Either way, tranquilizers or not, I'm a bit amused that every time a group comes to tour the center, the kids are sent to clean the floors and windows, and everyone tries to be on their best behavior. The impression the reporters were getting was definitely not how it usually is. All of the volunteers were instructed to work in the morning so the reporters could see us, but since there weren't many kids there, mostly we just tried to avoid the reporters and attempted to enliven Kusi and make him dance. The reporters were nice enough, but I wasn't crazy about the way they snapped about 50 photos of one girl who was making a pair of earrings and didn't really interact with the students past their camera lenses. It felt very superficial, and I don't think they could have possibly understood what Inti is really like. I suppose that is to be expected to some extent, given that they were only at Inti for a couple of hours, but I think it's safe to say that we're happpy they won't be here today.

Other than that, this week Eben and I have been exploring the churches and museums that we didn't get to see on the big tourist ticket (Boleto Turistico). The Cathedral was huge and amazing. I can't even adequately describe how beautiful the interior is. High vaulted ceilings, intricate wood carvings, and of course a multitude of paintings. There is one great painting of the Last Supper with an Andean twist-- on the table is a platter of roast guinea pig and pitchers of chicha, the local corn-based beer. Very humorous, and a beautiful work of art as well. In La Compania de Jesus we were able to climb up to a small tower and look out over the plaza, which is pretty cool. We also went down to a crypt that had a section of the floor removed to reveal some sort of additional crypt or hidden tunnel. There are rumors that since the Cathedral and La Compania de Jesus were built over Inca temples, there may be undiscovered tunnels connecting them with the ruins at Saqsayhuaman. I wouldn't be surprised to learn in 10 years that archeologists have indeed found them. Secret passages are always fun to wonder about, and a tunnel that stretches for a kilometer sounds fun. :)

That's about it! We head to Machu Picchu on Sunday, just a few days after my birthday, and that will rock. Internet is about to run out, so off I go!

More sightseeing, mild disappointments and the most amazing festival ever

So, Picking up where Sarah left off leaves us at Thursday and the Sacred Valley. We went on an all day tour that cost about $9, including everything but lunch that took us all over one of the valleys outside Cusco that contains tons of Inca ruins and towns that still speak much much more Quechua than Spanish. We started at a place called Pisac that has a huge marketplace in town that draws all of the farmers from the area and of course the tourist targeted crafts. But just outside of town on a hill/mountain, there are some fabulous Incan ruins that we went to with very well crafted waterways bringing fresh water from the snow covered mountains nearby. These wells and waterways are still running after hundreds of years, pretty amazing.

From there, on to our first mild disappointment. We were promised that lunch would be wherever we wanted, and while this technically was true, the restaurant that the tour company brought us to was far enough away from anything decent (we did try to find something) that is pretty much was our only option. It was a pretty boring Peruvian food buffet tourist style.

From there we went to Ollantaytambo, which was incredible. These ruins are all going up a hillside and are so well preserved it is incredible. We will put up pictures of it later. But it is a lot of the Incan terraces for farming and then temple ruins with huge stones for walls that still have some of the reliefs carved into them. Our last stop of the day was in Chinchero which is a very quaint town with a marvelous colonial church built atop an Incan temple. The art inside the church was quite nice and it was in front of one of the more beautiful plazas that we have seen so far.

Our second disappointment was on the bus back to Cusco. For some reason, a musician came on the bus and he was quite talented with the pan flute and that was very interesting. But once he started to play My Heart Will Go On with a wooden recorder, the line was crossed into absurd. And then of course, everybody had to tip him and it was very frustrating. So the moral of the story is, while getting a very cheap tour can be awesome, be prepared to put up with some ridiculous things.

On Friday morning we completed our last day of Spanish. Sarah got a pretty good review and I think that she is doing fine with it. I need some serious vocabulary to go with my verb conjugating skills that I learned. I am understanding most things as long as they aren´t said to quickly, but I have trouble putting sentences together.

After Spanish, we went back to the contemporary art museum for one of the more interesting displays I have ever seen. It was a flower competition and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and honorable mention pieces in each catagory were displayed. The catagories ranged from religious flower arrangements to "A Semi-formal Tea for Two," in which the designers tried to match the tea set, the flowers and the tablecloth. There were some more abstract ones that were really cool involving a large frame and much more freedom of design. That was very interesting to think of flowers as art when they are so temporary and thus the art itself is temporary.

Work on Friday was pretty noneventful. There weren´t very many kids there, so Sarah, Tom (a new English guy who started this week) and I put together our display of the house with the pictures of all the afternoon kids so that volunteers will have an easier time with names and it shows the Inti family. It is cool and on Monday we should be finishing the display of the morning kids.

Friday night was our first night out in Cusco. We went out with Tom and he certainly knows how to work the system. Most of the clubs offer a free drink to get people to actually come in. So we jumped from free drink to free drink at the tourist clubs until settling in a slightly more Peruvian club that offered half priced drinks. These clubs are hilarious. They play a lot of bad hip-hop with some good songs thrown in here and there. The best one was called Mama Africa which seemed to play slightly better music and a wider range with Jay-Z followed by the Killers followed by Green Day and then Kanye. We had an excellent time and stayed out far longer than we planned.

On Saturday morning we had to be up by 7 to make it into town for horseback riding around the ruins near Cusco. Waking up was terrible, but we were both mostly recovered by the time we started our tour. We had a great guide and we joined by a French Canadian couple from New Brunswick who were very nice. Unfortunately, two months ago, the excursion would have been much better. The city banned horses from getting near the ruins due to erosion, so we rode around the countryside between sites, but never quite up to them.

Our first site was called Tambumachay which was a Temple to the sun. It was rather small, but very well preserved and like Pisac, still had running water. The water looks so clear and clean and cold and I would love to drink it, but I would also rather not risk it. From there we went to Pucupuchay which was a fortress and a checkpoint along one of the old trading routes. From there we got back on our horses for the ride back to Saqsayhuaman which is the biggest temple of the area. The horse riding itself was pretty awesome, the views were incredible, we had a good guide and it was just really cool to be riding through the country.

Our guide was definitely in his element at Saqsayhuaman. He is a grad student in archeology and participates in the digs there. They are still uncovering quite a bit and it is fantastic. Our pictures will show just how awesome it is. Some of the rocks are over 100 tons and just the fact that they were able to build something like this was incredible.

After our tour we took a much needed nap before going out to dinner at the house that one of the girls we are working with is staying at. She is staying with a very young couple who are both Salsa dancing teachers and love to party. Dinner was very interesting with them, it was tapas and pisco sours. I will never forget this, but they served, as one of the dishes, hotdogs cooked with red peppers and celery in coca-cola. Out of respect, the meat eaters tried it, but nobody would eat more than a single bite. And none of the Peruvians ate it, so we think it may have been something that they think we,as foreigners might like. The host father said that it was just something that he thought might taste good so he made it up. The rest of the food was better, chips with guacamole and individual pizzas. The drinks were also quite good as they have both been bartenders. We had a good time there and then went out to a club for dancing. Sarah and I did not last long since we stayed out late the previous night, but everyone else stayed out until about 5.

This morning was an awesome ceremony up at Saqsayhuaman. It consisted of first, an hour of traditional dances by 1st graders who were mighty cute, an opening ceremony introducing the Inca king, queen and warriors and finally the competitions between the different warrior teams, all high schoolers. The competitions were amazing, the involved some rickety contraption of really high logs that they had to climb up and then something to get across (a rope bridge, rings, balance beam, etc...) and fire below it. Basically, if they failed to get across, they fell into the fire at which point kids with stretchers carried them away. Most of the contenders weren´t actually hurt, but if they didn´t land on their feet, they had to be carried away. It was amazing. The whole point of this ceremony is to distinguish the manliest of the boys of Cusco and improve their marriage prospects. We also have lots of pictures that will go up soon.

This afternoon was a bummer because we thought there would be a soccer game, but it was false information. So we are in the internet cafe instead. Th-th-th-that´s all folks.

The problem with trying to save the world

I´ve often called this 5-month experience my time to save the world. And in truth, a few months of post-Vassar idealism is exactly what I wanted. Not surprisingly, trying to help people isn´t all that easy. The great thing about Inti is that it is giving such a real view of what it is like to work in an intervention setting, maybe even more so than an organization in the United States would. Inti doesn´t get any government funding and is entirely dependent on donations. It has a wonderful goal of offering support to street kids and children who essentially live in poverty. The fact that a lot of our kids live outside of the city and walk for an hour just to come here says (I think) that this is something important in their lives. They get some sort of guidance, they learn to do crafts, and overall are given the opportunity to be regular kids. They can have fun, they can get exposure to the arts through projects devised by the volunteers, and most importantly, they are safe. Some of these kids have abusive parents or work in unsafe conditions, so at least while they are at Inti, they can escape that part of their lives. This, the idea that they have a safe place, is essential.

Ideology aside, there is a very frustrating side to this whole intervention attempt. The most obvious is that there simply is not enough money. The kids have plenty of books available to them, which is excellent, but art supplies are low. Their drawing supplies consist of a very sad plastic container filled with crayon stubs. There is also a dearth of paper for them to actually use for art projects. Problematic. The teachers are also more like workshop supervisors, meaning that the man who does jewelry making doesn´t often leave his jewelry room. The needlepoint instructor is only there in the mornings, so one of the volunteers has been filling in during the afternoons. Other than that, the program is entirely run by volunteers. In a sense, this is great for us, because we have total freedom over what projects we want to do with the kids and are in constant contact with them. However, this lack of structure or non-volunteer supervision means that there is no consistent schedule, which I really believe these kids need in their lives. Of course it´s wonderful to be flexible, but if all of us are helping with homework or trying to run a theater practice, who will watch the kids who don´t have homework and are running around chasing the dog through the entire building? Nobody. There is nobody. If they could only have one or two adults there who have a constant presence and maintain order, I think everyone would be a lot more productive. Occasionally someone will appear and yell at the kids if they´re being rowdy, but I just don´t think that is good enough.

At times I feel frustrated and powerless and just want to take over the organization myself and paint all the walls a pretty color and run things in a more efficient way. I realize that this is indeed a very difficult thing to do (or else things would run more smoothly as it is), but I honestly think that even small changes would be greatly helpful. I think the most important thing I am taking from experience is an awareness of the characteristics that can potentially define a successful and nonsucessful attempt at intervention among low-income youths. I´m also becoming more aware of my own impatience with inefficiency, something I definitely need to work on is this is something I´d like to do in the future. I guess frustration isn´t necessarily bad as long as it can yield a solution.

That's essentially my big rant about working in Perú. I am exasperated with The System but love working with the kids. I like that they can have fun and feel appreciated by everyone working at Inti. If nothing else, I can feel pretty satisfied knowing that I made a few kids happy. :)

Pictures soon!

Llama or alpaca?

Sorry for the lack of posting the last few days. I was quite sick all weekend and quite literally could not get out of bed. For a little while we thought I had malaria since I conveniently had all of the symptoms and since Ricardo has mentioned when we were at the beach in Ecuador that it is not unheard of for the mosquitos to carry malaria. Fun! As it turns out, I am malaria-free (this is probably for the best, though personally, I think having malaria would give me a lot of street cred) and once again on my feet. Sadly, we had to miss what was supposed to be an adventure-packed weekend of horseback riding to ancient Inca sites and touring the Sacred Valley. One of the volunteers at Inti, Carolina, also left this weekend, so we missed her farewell celebration. Being sick is simply no good.

Life outside of my bed has not been too exciting this week. Eben and I have been taking Spanish classes every morning. I've felt a bit understimulated by this, though Eben has had to learn a LOT in very little time. Mostly I just need grammar review. I'm beyond thrilled that my Spanish has come back so quickly. Hearing it every day and speaking it every day with the kids has done wonders, and while I hesitate to call myself fluent, I am definitely comfortable with where my Spanish is right now. The best part is that it will only improve. I don't feel too self-conscious when I speak, which only encourages me to speak even more. Nicola, another Inti volunteer, is maybe the best example I can think of when it comes to people trying to speak a foreign language. She does it very confidently and enthusiastically even though much of what she says is not technically correct. How else will you learn? Something to keep in mind...

Though we've been taking it slow this week, Eben and I have managed to see a few museums. There is a 10-day tourist ticket that includes entrance to about 14 sights. Ours expires after this weekend (we were supposed to use it for the first time last weekend), so we're trying very hard to make sure that we don't miss a single thing. So far we saw a very tiny archeological museum (El Museo de Sitio del Qorikancha) underneath an Incan ruin, El Museo de Arte y Monasterio de Santa Catalina, El Museo Municipal de Arte Contemporaneo, and El Museo Historico Regional. The museums have all been pretty small and end quite suddenly. Something I noticed specifically at the Monastery of Santa Catalina, though also at the Regional Historical Museum, is that many of the paintings are in bad condition. The canvas is warped and doesn't lie flat against the wall, and it's also often badly torn or burned. It's strange to see paintings like that out on dispay. I imagine they were damaged in one of the many earthquakes that have occurred in the region over the centuries, but who knows.

Wish I could write more, as I have lots to write about working at Inti and my frustrations with organizations like this (yes, the Psychology major in me), but our internet cafe is kicking us out. More for next time, I suppose!

Though I do have one final question: What is the difference between a llama and an alpaca? They look the same to me!

Work Has Begun

Let me begin by saying that Cuzco is awesome. Yes, this city is all about the tourism, but it is so beautiful and awesome that it doesn´t really matter. As opposed to only being a jumpoff point for Machu Picchu, the city still has many Inca walls running through it and the colonial churches were often built as additions or over existing Inca temples, so much of it is still intact. The Inca stone work far surpasses almost anything I have ever seen with giant boulders fitting together perfectly without any grout or cement holding the walls together. We did some site-seeing later in the day after our last blog and went to Santo Domingo, which was built over Qoricancha, or the Temple of the Sun. While it was a little strange to see two wildly different architectural styles within the same structure, it was also magnificent. The Inca temple rooms still exist within the church itself and then there is the standard, and of course beautiful, colonial Catholic church. Also, the outside of the church, facing Avenue del Sol, is almost completely supported by Incan walls. Other than that, the rest of Sunday was spent walking around and just checking out the city. I bought a pretty sweater and Sarah got a pair of socks, both made out of Alpaca wool which is mighty soft and comfortable.

On Monday we started work. It is a really cool place that is doing really good work. Everyone there is working as a volunteer because almost all of the funding comes from donations. The kids there are all kids who are working in the streets or in the markets, or collecting money on the buses, etc... Since the schools are either in the afternoon or the morning, depending on age, the older kids are at the center in the morning and the younger kids come in the afternoon. We spent all day there on Monday to see which part of the day we would like to work since they only expect us to work half-days. The morning was pretty fun. Sarah spent her time in the center helping with homework and then doing needlepoint. I went with the group of special education children, most of whom have down syndrome, up to the park to play soccer. We had a great time and I have a new friend named Guillermo. We were teammates for soccer and we have spent the last two days walking him to his bus at the end of the day. He did the funniest thing while walking to the bus. He was with us five volunteers. We get to a crosswalk and there is a police officer there. Guillermo walks right up to the police officer, shakes his hand and says very confidently, "Estos son mis amigos." (These are my friends) It was the funniest thing ever. He also grabs my arm whenever we have to cross the street. He really likes me and I think it is cool to have already made friends despite my language problems. Sarah is doing much better than I am with Spanish and I am having a really hard time understanding what the kids are saying.

During the afternoon, we were joined by three more volunteers, one who has been there since March. The younger kids are a lot more energetic than the older kids, but they are a lot of fun. Two of the volunteers have had the kids working on a play, so we were helping out with that. The play is an adaptation of an old Peruvian story that the girls found. It is about a girl who goes off into the jungle following a butterfly and gets very lost and can´t find her way back home. But with the help of some of the animals, she is able to make it back to the river and sees her village across the river. The butterfly then comes back and suggests that she turns into a butterfly to get across the river and she does and ever since, she has had a bit of butterfly in her heart. Well, the kids got to make masks and those who want to participate will perform on Thursday. In addition to the play, we did some homework help and decided that afternoons would be more fun than the mornings. The special education kids are there all day, so I might be spending some more time with them if we go to the park again or the teacher wants an extra hand.

Today (Tuesday), we spent all morning looking at different tour companies to figure out how we will get to Machu Picchu and what other weekend activities we can do while we are here. I think that this weekend we will do tours of the Inca ruins around Cuzco. We might even do one day on horseback. We also decided on a language school and we start Spanish lessons tomorrow morning. I am excited to do this so that I will be able to understand what the kids are saying. Also, as I learned today, trying to help with homework and not understanding it myself or not knowing how to explain how to do a math problem is very frustrating.

This afternoon at work, we started with homework, which is pretty much the daily routine. As kids finished up, there were a couple things going on. Some people were making masks for the play, others were making jewelry (some of it is really nice and these kids are quite talented), some were doing needlepoint and the rest were either playing with the parrot or chasing the dog around. For the most part, the kids listen and will do what they are told and we don´t seem to have any that are a real handful. Just like yesterday, we walked Guillermo to the bus today. Although it was slightly less eventful than yesterday´s conversation with the police officer, he is still a really funny guy.

Until next time, we will be working afternoons with the little kids (7-13) and taking language classes.

Part 2

Our final evening in Ecuador was awesome. We went to see Inti-Illimani perform at the Casa de Cultura with Ricardo's parents, which in and of itself would have been a great end to our time in Quito. They are an amazing Chilean group, very political, and probably one of the most important South American groups in recent history. Eben and I were able to see them perform last summer on Long Island, which was kind of random, but we were excited to see them in South America. The group is made up of about 8 guys, all of whom can play at least 3 instruments. During a single song, one person can start playing the drums, then switch to the pan flute, and do vocals in between. It's interesting to see (and hear) the range of their musical abilities. There's no doubt that they are incredibly talented. I was happy because they played all of my favorite songs, and both the group and the audience were full of energy and passion. It was awesome.

What made Inti's appearance even more special was that there was a very special guest in attendance... the President of Ecuador! When we had first arrived at the Casa de Cultura, we had noticed that there were military police all over the place, which seemed kind of odd. There were even bomb-sniffing dogs pacing the stage for an hour before the concert. We had thought that maybe this was to prevent radical conservatives from attacking Inti (you never know), but alas, it was all for the President. While he was surrounded by Secret Service men, he was really friendly and shook everyone's hand who approached him and didn't seem too concerned about being protected. During the intermission, Eben and I ran over to where he was sitting to see if we could score an autograph or something. I was overcome with dorky excitement and shook his hand with a dorky grin on my face and couldn't stop giggling. Thank goodness Eben was much cooler. Kind of.

Eben: (makes autograph gesture with our program)
El Señor Presidente: ¿Usted es ecuatoriano?
Eben: Uh, no, americano.
El Señor Presidente: ¿Habla español?
Eben: Uh, un poquito.
El Señor Presidente: Ah, okay. What are you doing here? (signs program)
Eben: We're visiting a friend that we go to school with, traveling.
El Señor Presidente: That's wonderful! (pats Eben on back)

And so it went something like that. My personal opinion is that he is a mighty nice guy. What makes him even cooler is that for the finale of the concert, Inti was like, "Okay, we're going to sing the song you all came for (El Pueblo Unido), but only if the President sings it with us." So of course we're all turning around in our seats, trying to see the President, when all of a suddent he appears on stage with his Secret Service men and military police dudes, smiling and waving. And he takes his place at a microphone and sings "El Pueblo Unido," THE song of revolution, with Inti-Illimani, fist raised in air. It was awesome. So not only did we get to meet the President of Ecuador, get his autograph, and talk to him, we also got to rock out and sing revolution songs with him. Can life be any more awesome? I really don't think so. :)

So that brings me to Perú. We flew out of Quito Friday night after a bit of a delay. The Quito airport had to shut down because the tire of a plane from Iberia airlines exploded as they landed. Miraculously, nobody was hurt, but it took some time to tow the plane off of the runway and clean up the exploded tire. How very very scary. Our flight took off without any problems, and we spent the night in Lima (kind of) before going back to the airport at 4 am to fly to Cusco. We are doing a homestay with an older woman, Gladis Valencia, who lives close to the city center. It's less expensive than staying in a hostel, and this way we'll speak more Spanish. Both very good things.

My first impression of Cusco is that it is very very different from Quito. The mountains don't look the same at all. While the mountains in Quito were very green, here they look very dry and brown. The city as a whole is kind of brown now that I think about it. I don't know if that will make any sense, but once we put more pictures up, maybe you will understand. I feel a connection with Cusco that I just didn't have with Quito. Part of this stems from Cusco being much more catered to tourists and backpackers, which I don't think is a bad thing. There is so much to see, so much to explore both within the city and outside, that every moment feels as though it should be an adventure. I hope it will be. We're doing some light sightseeing today and hope to see some ruins outside of the city next weekend. We start our work tomorrow (yay!), which is very exciting and just a little scary. We don't know what we'll be doing yet, but our next update will be full of information. Until then, this is the website of the organization we'll be working with. Feel free to explore! I can tell that Cusco is going to be one of new favorite places. I'm so happy that we have 3 weeks here!

So that's about it for now. We have uploaded all of our Ecuador photos, which can be found at our online photo album. Our Perú photos will probably come a bit more slowly, both on the photo website and on this blog. We will, however, edit past entries to add photos, so be sure to check up on those in the coming weeks.