COUNTRY: Peru
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching & Building
WRITTEN BY: Ollie Lotz
WARNING
The following may contain odd moments, course language, no subtitles, and the Casual Lama
Initially, I was concerned my blog would have to be just a repeat of those placements before ours with a few names swapped round, but experiencing a police assisted drag race on our first venture outside the lovely villa/oasis we were staying in convinced me otherwise. I think Cusco, Peru, and South America all present themselves in ways that are entirely dependent on how you want to see them. Having stayed a week in one of the continent´s cities, and naturally having become an expert, I can give only this advice, embrace the madness.
First things first, how are the little angels? Our first day was spent experimenting with various manifestations of comatose, most of us having spent 34 hours travelling. I'd say we all seem reasonably fine, though who knows how well years of teen angst have prepared us for hiding such things. Everyone's experienced the altitude and local culinary stowaways to varying degrees, some temporarily acquired the fitness level of a chain smoker, while those more ambitious among us had bouts of vomiting, even on buses. it's nice to have a universal excuse.
However, Myles gets the award for first trip The Clinic with Doctor Vic (yes, we're almost on the Simpsons). Don't worry too much though, we all visited him to make sure he wasn't vomiting blood anymore and have been assured that they'll kick him out tomorrow. And the group itself? No fights yet, and a widespread realisation that the self selecting nature of this odd jaunt across the pond has landed us with an assortment of mostly strangers that aren't too different from ourselves, perhaps a necessary comfort when faced with local delights that range from packs of wild dogs roaming the streets to the debatable prudent fear of everyone that isn't Western.
So what have we been doing with our time? Well, mornings have brought us a few visits to the centre of Cusco, about a half hour bus trip with the odd sweaty collision. This meant getting a feel for the mostly cobbled streets, and seeing a few markets with copious amounts of woven ponchos, 'chompas,' and everything else that a tourist might consider buying. For the dash of context we needed so much we also did a 'treasure hunt' on Thursday in groups of five. This was basically a questionnaire we were meant to answer by asking locals, in Spanish of course, and dashing around as tourists do. Naturally, we were decked out in our Antipodean's shirts, some going so far as to wear hiking boots and the like. On Wednesday Arlich, our local buddy, took us to see the sexy woman we'd heard so little about, I mean 'Saqsayhuaman.'
To give it less of an explanation than it deserves, it's the foundations of an Incan temple to the Sun God that Spanish Catholics thought needed a makeover, and the locals have been pillaging for building material ever since. In the afternoons, we've been learning the intricacies of our favourite Romantic language. This has been met with varied success, but reasonably consistent enthusiasm. Apart from the conveniently fluent Michelle, and Naomi sitting on the fence of private lessons due to her dominating grasp of the language, we're all signed up with lessons for about 6 dollars an hour.
And nights? Well, apart from keeping well hydrated we've celebrated Tori's birthday, which, with only eight people coming out, wasn't as much of a bonding experience as the previous night's games, but did involve considerably more dancing with The Cookie Monster and a few gay Colombians. I need not mention the serious studying we did, nor the obsession with Teen Wolf I have yet to understand. On Friday Arlich took us out to dinner at what may have been the only restaurant able to fit us in, which was also quite nice. The harp player in the corner was a nice touch.
How was the accomodation? More than a few of us fell in love with our hosts, Ramiro the chef who almost always knew how to hit that culinary g-spot, Angelique, who was the peruvian mother we never had, of course without a word of English, and her son Lorenzo/Renzo. Let us never forget myles's special moment with him and the bike, nor the ridiculous amount of attention and baby talk he received. There was also the photos... I fear for that child.
Just quickly, best quotes and a fun fact. It is a traditional medical ritual to pass a guinea pig over the body of someone ill like a body scan, kill it, inspect it's organs, which reflect the problems the patient is experiencing, then burn the remains to remove the bad spirits. Any volunteers? We can't let Ella forget her magical quote in transit concerning the fact that she went to school with Naomi in year 3 before their unfortunate separation, 'It's the smallest world in the world.' Similarly Dr Vic is in the spotlight for telling Myles this morning, 'The tests will come in an hour, I'm going to play tennis.' Finally, my personal favourite, Ruby's comment on how wonderful company in the clinic would be, 'you'd talk about life and vomit.' There were requests for some more quotes from Joanne (probably spelt wrong), but they are playing 'footsies' with incriminating.
Today we met our Peruvian families for the first time. Watch out Australian parents, you've got competition. I can't speak for everyone, but Dina is incredibly welcoming, reasonable with her rules, and interesting to listen to (Jasper, Mackenzie and i got the life story over lunch).
There's so much I haven't included due to time, and the usual excuses. I apologise, but for some things you just have to be there.
So it begins...
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