Cuscotopia

We're in the middle of our second week in Perú and loving it! We were so sad to say good-bye to Huancayo and Iscos on Wednesday and both agree that will probably be our favorite part of the trip. Being able to spend time with the generous people or Iscos was such a blessing and hopefully we'll be able to go back soon. Since our last post we took a tour on Saturday to Tarma and la selva (the jungle). In the jungle we took a hike to Catarata El Tiro, which is this ginormous and beautiful waterfall! After our hike we visited an indigenous tribe and got to dress up and dance one of their dances. It was really interesting because only recently have they allowed outside people into the community because they do all of their trade/business within the village. We were really excited to try a new meal for lunch, but unfortunately our meal turned out a little inedible, so we just ate the rice and cooked bananas. We made a few more stops at a butterfly house and a coffee plantation, but by that time we were so tired that we weren´t really paying attention.

Sunday we got to visit the market that Huancayo has every Sunday. It was muy largo! It seemed to stretch for miles and miles! All of the crafts were really cool though. We´re holding out until Puno to buy our alpaca gear, so we didn´t buy much in Huancayo. After the market, Plinio´s brother Leo took us to eat a traditional Peruvian dish called Panchamanca. It´s very similar to barbeque. They dig a big hole and build a fire and cook all of the meat and vegetables in the hole. It was definitely the best meal we've had since we've been here! There was also something cooked in a corn husk that tasted a lot like banana bread and it was sooo tasty :).

Monday we packed a few things because we spent the night in the village with one of the families. We taught a class in the morning and then spent the rest of the day spending time with Plinio´s family and cleaning out the cuoy (guinea pig) cages. One of the family´s main source of income are the cuoy that they raise and sell to a larger organization. We then ate a yummy dinner of papas fritas (french fries) and rice before heading to bed...at 7:30. The house that we were staying in was so nice! They had tons of animals, and we woke up to the sound of a donkey, geese, cows, and someone chopping wood :). On Tuesday we spent the morning teaching computer classes, graded a drawing competition for the kids in the afternoon and after lunch built another stove. I think the highlight of the day was where we ate cuoy for lunch! It wasn´t bad, but I think the combination of cleaning the cages out the day before and knowing what we were eating didn´t really make the meal appetizing. It definitely was not our favorite. But it was fun to try it!

Yesterday we left Huancayo early and got to Lima around 3PM. After buying a few necessities we headed back to the hostel to cook our mac and cheese dinner :). We left early this morning on a flight to Cusco and are now relaxing in our hostel, enjoying our view, and looking forward to the day! Since we acclimated pretty well to Huancayo, Cusco isn´t bad, but our hostel is up a bunch of steps on a hill, so we almost passed out carrying our packs up the steps. Luckily our taxi driver helped carry one of our bags for us! It´s pretty cold here in the morning, but apparently it´s supposed to get pretty warm during the day. We're really looking forward to our homestay in the Andes this weekend and for Machu Picchu next week! We miss everyone a lot and can't wait to fill you all in on the little details of our trip!

-Lauren