Well, after 4 weeks of really stressful study we have passed our TEFL course with flying colours. Looking back it's quite funny to think how stressed we were having to teach a 20 minute class - a walk in the park compared to the 2 hour lessons that I am teaching now!!!!! The school that we studied at and our teacher were awesome and we had lots of laughs. If ever you get a chance to visit Cusco, do. It is a lovely city and has lots of cobbled streets, lots of the obligatory churches and lots of characters. It was quite surreal when I first saw ladies and children in traditional dress with their alpacas or lllamas in the street. Every morning walking to school we were approached by a Frenchman asking if we spoke English. He was always asking for a donation as 'he had missed his flight home and didn't have enough money to get home'. When my response of go and speak to your travel insurance insurance didn't deter him, I resorted to 'get f'd' and don't you recognise us each day (not many blonde females with spikey hair around), to which he replied 'get f'd yourself'!!!!!! But he still continued to ask every day - I guess if you don't ask, you don't get. He was still hanging around after 5 weeks though. The altitude in Cusco is quite high and I really didn't think that it would make a difference but we had to walk up and down 67 stairs to get back to our hostel everyday and I sounded like I was dying after walking up them every night.
One of my favourite sights is seeing the traditional people carrying their babies around on their backs. They are wrapped up in a papoose and I can never figure out if they are carrying a baby or something else. They don't seem to have any air holes but the airpockets must be big enough for the bubs.
While we were in Cusco there we were 2 large protests - quite frightening as shops were closed and police lined the street with riot shields and guns. Gold and silver mining are the main industries here and apparently the taxes from these are going to be redistributed and people are not happy. They have used these taxes in the past for improvements to the areas surrounding the mines and now they won't be able to. All the transport people, as well as miners, went on strike so no taxis, buses etc. it didn't affect us too much as we walked to school everyday anyway but when we were leaving Cusco there was another strike and we couldn't go to Puno and Lake Titicaca as strikes were on there. I don't know that the strikes got the desired results but it made for interesting times. We had a security guard at school that let us in through a tiny door. Quite funny as I don't know what he would have done if he was challenged - maybe hit them with his newspaper!
After finishing our course, we visited Machu Pichu. What would a visit to South America be without a trip to this great wonder? Words cannot describe the magnificence of it and photos can only show so much. There was a wonderful feel to the place and we ended up just sitting and admiring it for a couple of hours. Of course there were the usual Japanese tourists who have 40 minutes to visit it and spend 25 minutes taking photos of each other!!! It is amazing to think that these structure were built by the Incas with no machinery or tools (apart from large rocks) and they got all the blocks interconnecting perfectly. If only we could build houses today to last this long. Windows were built so that when the sun cast a shadow ina particular direction, they could not only tell the time but also the month of the year. You don't realise how big the whole area is until you make the climb to the top to admire it. Unfortunately on the day we were there, it was a bit cloudy but it also gave it a wonderful feeling so we didn't mind at all.
From Cusco we changed our plans and headed to Arequipa. We weren't really sure what we were going to do or see but we needed to start heading to Chachapoyas. Once again the strikes were playing havoc with our plans. After a 16 hour bus trip we arrived - we had heard great reports about Arequipa but maybe they meant another Arequipa and not the one we arrived in!!!! Our hostel was OK but not very pretty at all - could do with a lot of upkeep on it but the old guy running it was OK and very helpful. Couldn't speak a word of English but we got by with our very limited Spanish. With nothing much to see or do, we decided to visit the Colca Canyon and the famous condors. This was a great couple of days and an unexpected bonus for us. Not only did we see several condors, there are only 40 or 50 there, but we saw lovely villages and both Inca and pre-Incan terraces and remains of buildings. We were very lucky to have a pretty good English speaking guide too.
After our visit to Arequipa we hopped on another bus for another 16 hour bus trip to Cajamarca. This was a very disappointing town too and nothing at all to do. After 1 night there, 1 night too much, we hopped on another bus for yet another 16 hour trip to our new home Chachapoyas. This trip was very scenic and we were very lucky that we didn't have any rain as the road is a one-lane road and you are hanging off the edge of a cliff in some spots. Very nerve wracking and Rob sat by the window!!!!!!! There were a couple of spots when the road had subsided and we also had to do some reversing to let other buses or trucks through.
Peruvian food. I'm not really sure what to say but I definitely prefer Asian food to Peruvian. Peruvian food is quite stodgy and starchy and it's quite common to get served on one plate potato, rice and a tuber 'yuk' vegetable, usually with chicken. Yes we have both lost weight and I need to take my jeans to a tailor to get taken in about 2 sizes - I can walk out of them!!!! I know, not a pretty thought but ........ They really like sweet things too - even in their bread rolls we can taste the sugar. Rob made his specialty, spaghetti bolognese last weekend and the to tomato paste was even sweet. I never thought that I would see the day that I would buy mince from an open-air market but it was wonderful and no fat. The fruit is OK - mandarins, oranges from the US, papaya and bananas. But I do need to mention the avocadoes - they are the size of small papayas and are huge. Everything is organic too so we like that. I just need to make mention of the Peruvian traditional dish of cuy - guinea pig. Rob ate 1/2 one the other day - said it tasted like chicken. And yes, its little paws were still attached. I still haven't tried it though. We drove through a town that the called Cuy Land - all along the side of the road were rotisseries set up with skewered cuy. Not a pretty sight at all.
Hope you are all well and happy. Till our next instalment, bye for now.
