My shower here in Cusco litterally shocks me everytime I use it. If I get too close to the head (meaning I lift my arms any), or touch the knobs in the wrong place. It's crazy. The first time it I happened, I was like, what the hell was that?! But now I know to be a little more careful, however, needless to say, I may not shower as often here as I have in other places.
Cusco is old and cold. I don't really understand this, because it's supposed to be their summer, right? I've been meaning to look up their weather/climate but keep forgetting. Where I'm working, about 30 minutes over a mountain and outside Cusco, it's sunny and warm, but as soon as you start climbing the mountains you see the black and grey clouds descend. It's discomforting. But it's beautiful. Like Ecuador, everything is green and bushy and the mountains are straight up and down. The city of Cusco is brown, due to the types of bricks and architecture that was chosen. I was expecting a town or pueblo, but Cusco is rather big. I need to get a bird's-eye picture of the city to show people. It's probably bigger than you'd think.
Getting to my work consists of taking a cab, then a bus (which is really a van) that you have to wait to get filled up before you can go. If you need to get off before the final destination (which I do) you just yell at the driver to stop. Again, like in Ecuador, you can also flag down a bus to get on it. That's how I get back to my house. Anyway, the place I work at in a non-profit consisting of taking care of llamas, alpacas, and their wild cousins vincuñas and the other kind which I can´t remember right now. There are tours and tourists, however, because of the damage to a local bridge because of the rain storm, there aren't as many right now as there should be. Awana Kancha, the project, did receive some damage from the rain, and now they're repairing what was hurt and taking some preventative measures as well. Anyway, the llamas. They're cute and funny looking. Skittish. They make the absolute weirdest sounds in the world, especially if you're shearing them with a knife, which I did. I couldn't help but laughing at that poor alpaca. Once the fur, or fiber as they say, is collected, then I think it's cleaned or something, and then it is double-spun into thread. Some projects need triple-spun, so then you have to spin it again. I am not very good at spinning, especially the spinning the first time. You have to pull the hair apart to get it thinner to spin it, and I just can't do it. Spinning it the second time is much easier. Once you have your thread, you dye it using all natural dyes. I helped dye a batch the other day a mustard yellow with "yanale" which is a type of bark. First you boil the bark (or the leaves, or the rocks or whatever) and then you put in the thread and stir for a while. I think certain colors take quite a while, but mine took about 30 minutes of simmering. The day after I dyed the thread, I got to spin it again so it could be used, so I felt helpful.
Once you have the dyed and spun thread, the native people, who speak Quechua, weave with it. They start around the age of 8 and are taught all the patterns, which they keep in their head, and therefore weave from memory. It's quite impressive, and the things they make are amazing and beautiful. And expensive, of course. At Awana Kancha, they have a few people there at all time, who come from their village or town and spend about 10 days and make a piece. They then immediately sell it to the shop, so they get their money right away. Then the shop has to sell it. I haven't seen many purchases, but it again, not as many tourists.
My day consists of doing little tasks that are set out for me. I helped cook these bean things that the natives eat all day long. They're super hard and don't taste good. LOL. They love them, though. The volunteers get some bracelets or anklets made for them, which we're supposed to help with, but I happened to pick a really hard pattern that only one woman knew how to do because it comes from her people, and even she had some trouble with it. Who knew diamonds were so hard to make. I told them I could pick another pattern, that it was no big deal, but oh no, they were making it. Then they scoffed at my color choice. These people have been using the same color schemes with the same patterns for generations, so when somebody decides to use green and blue together it's chaos. They wouldn't have it. But then, when I chose them again for my bracelet, Rosa (the head girl there) said she was surprised at how pretty they were together, and how well it all came out. That's right. Take it. My bracelet is very pretty. And I was able to help make it, since it's a simpler design.
When I get home after being at the project, I usually sleep. The first 4 or 5 days I was sooooooooo tired. It was ridiculous. I was a little surprised, because I think Quito is actually higher than Cusco, so I was expected to be affected by the altitude. Maybe it's the cold with the altitude. I'm slowly getting better. I didn't take a nap yesterday and that seemed to help a lot; I've been a lot more awake today. I tried to take a nap today and couldn't, even after two cups of coca tea.
I'll be taking a couple of tours this weekend, getting to see The Sacred Valley, but still no Macchu Picchu. Just means I'll have to come back. Darn.
Well, my story of Peru actually starts in Lima, pop. 8 mil. Quite large. Warm. Not a very pretty city on the whole, but where my homestay was, in Miraflores, was much prettier with nice architecture and close to the ocean. Not much happened in Lima. Was taken out by the family at 11 at night for a little tour. Mom was right, South Americans stay up late. Mama Peru took us to this big mall that's all underground. They have shops, a movie theather, bowling, bars, restaurants (Tony Roma's anyone?) and clubs. At night you have to be 18 to go in, so Mama Peru talked her way in since we didn't have ID with us. The next night the family took me to see some fountains (they said). Again, Mama Peru talked our way in at the exit so we didn't have to pay. The first fountain had the World Record for highest fountain. It shoots 80 meters into the sky. The next one is colored, and dances to music and movies. Fountains, yeah, there's 24 fountains in this park. All different, and all very cool. Aparently the mayor set out to build it a few years back and everyone scoffed, yet lo and behold: now everyone loves the park. It was pack when we were there. My favorites were the one that made a tunnel so you could walk through, and the one that you walk through and the water suddenly shoots up, soaking you. That was fun. There's a smaller, kid version of that, too. It took us probably 2 hours to go through the whole park and I was pretty tired by the end of it and eyeing the ice cream line. Didn't get any.
Little notes -- the corn here is HUGE. The kernels are like the size of a nickel. They're enormous. People here don't really use salt, so that's a bummer, but it's still really good. One day for lunch the only thing we had was a cob. I've also gained back all the weight I lost in CR and Ecuador because the supplement to every meal is bread and butter. Not even good bread, but I have to eat it cause that's what I get! I may go to MEGA Supermercado tomorrow to get a couple of things to help me out. I got used to so much fruit and rice, this bread thing isn't everything that it's cracked out to be. Especially if that's all you get for breakfast. Llamas do spit, but only at each other in disputes. This I have seen. It isn't pretty.
I think that's it for now. Leave for Africa next Friday. Crazy that that's next week.
