First impressions of Cuzco...

Well, here I am- finally! And the long journey is definitely 100000% worth it. This is the most beautiful, incredible place I´ve ever been, and maybe will ever go. The views even just out of my bedroom window are immense, especially at night, just this valley with twinkly lights and a massive expanse of unpolluted sky. The town is still very much an Inca town, there´s even a famous stone in one of the alleys with an authentic Inca stone that´s stood up all this time.
Time seems to have passed really quickly and yet kind of slowly as well, I feel like I´ve been here absolutely forever and already know my way to most places, cabs are pretty cheap as well, about 40p, and me, Heather and Becca had an awesome meal last night for about 50p each, really filling- we signed up for a traditional Peruvian cooking class (we met loads of nice other travellers as well, mostly American and Canadian) and learnt to make a beef, potato and vegetable stir fry, can´t remember the exact name but it was really good. Tonight we´re going to a Peruvian food and drink tasting session at the South American Explorers Club which should be really fun, we have such a busy weekend planned as well- Macchu Picchu, the Sacred Valley, a random market town, and white water rafting, and a cocktail party on Saturday night at Helen´s restaurant (called The Real McCoy). We´re also looking at paragliding and horse riding, visiting Lake Titicaca, going to hot springs and going to a traditional Peruvian festival at some point in the future- they really don´t do things by halfs here, there´s always something to do. The internet is free at my hostel but I haven´t had a moment to get on it before now!
Heather and I arrived, a bit tired, on Tuesday afternoon, feeling a bit light-headed because 0f the altitude. Lilly (who works for PoD) met us at the airport, and we went to the hostel, met Becca (another volunteer) who was already there after having been in the jungle for two months, and dumped our bags. The hostel is beautiful, really quirky and colourful and the showers are hot (extremely rare in Peru, as we discovered in Lima...). We have a TV room with DVD player and comfy chairs although I haven´t had a chance to even get into it yet, I´ve been so busy! Two bathrooms between about eight rooms. Me and Heather are sharing a lovely room, with an amazing view over the city and we have a little balcony just outside with comfy chairs to sit on and admire the view, we were sitting out there with Becca doing our Spanish homework last night. Cuzco is bug-free as well which is awesome, apparently the altitude is too high for mosquitos, so no worries about being bitten. I can see why they wouldn´t like it though- the nights are SO cold, absolutely freezing, I have three blankets but am still wearing shorts, pyjama bottoms, long socks, a long-sleeved t-shirt and a hoodie in bed, we´re taking a trip to the local market soon to get a much-needed hot water bottle, alpaca socks, gloves etc. and a proper Peruvian hat, which is what I´m most excited about- I´ve seen loads but am waiting for the perfect one. The days are lovely and warm though and I´ll definitely get a tan! (At least on my face, because you have to mostly cover up if you don´t want to be yelled or looked at in the street). The food is pretty awesome as well, and since it´s so cheap to eat out we´ll probably do that quite a lot in the evening, we got some food from the local shop in case we felt like cooking though (we have a kitchen in the hostel). The hostel serves cacao tea free as well to help with altitude, I have a ritual cup in the morning and am starting to really quite like it. I didn´t have too many problems with altitude, a bit of breathlessness climbing stairs and headaches but they seem to have gone now which is good. Although we all get a bit breathless climbing Heart-Attack Hill up to the Plaza San Blas where the hostel is. The plaza itself is really pretty, very artsy and quiet, artists stay there all day making sculptures and they´re quite relaxed about you watching them. The main plaza is beautiful but a bit more frantic, and filled with tourists, but everything is incredibly well-preserved, including the cathedral which is really impressive.
The first night, after dumping our bags straight away we went to Helen´s restaurant to meet her (she and Lilly are both lovely, incredibly helpful and full of advice about how not to be scammed by taxi drivers etc.- "DOS soles, no tres, DOS", and so on). PoD paid for our dinner at a local restaurant, and then we got back to the hostel, unpacked and fell asleep- I was a bit scared about sleeping because I heard that some people stop breathing because of altitude, but I woke up the next morning, so I guess ít´s okay.
The next morning, Lilly took us to visit the Hugar, a safe house for girls that have been abused or threatened by their families or other people. It´s opposite a prison which I found a little weird. It was an incredibly humbling experience, the girls can´t even go outside because it´s not safe, just into a tiny stone courtyard, and they all had to share one disgusting bathroom. One 15-year-old had a baby, and Lilly told us it was because she´d either been raped or was a prostitute. And yet they were all so happy and positive, as soon as I came in one girl gave me a massive hug (I´m ashamed I didn´t ask her name, but I was overwhelmed) and led me into the kitchen, where three girls were cooking. Apparently they have a strict rota, they all have chores to do to keep the house looking clean, one girl was waxing the stairs! They make jewellery to sell, and learn to knit and weave, so that they can make their own living when the courts decide they have to go back to their abusive families. They make the best of what they have, they find things to do and are friendly towards each other- although apparently some of them steal. They live in dormitories, and when there aren´t enough beds they sleep on mattresses on the floor- bearing in mind they can´t even go outside, it looks pretty grim, the house itself is surrounded by barbed wire. But there is a positiveness and resilience about every girl I saw that I envy, but if I had to acquire that through being in their situation... well, I feel pretty lucky, put it that way.
We went to Spanish school after that, which was pretty overwhelming, I learnt loads though. And then we had the cookery class that night. This morning we saw two kindergartens, both were lovely, but I knew instantly that I wanted to work in the first one we saw. I can´t explain it but I just identified with it immediately. The guy who runs it does loads for charity and they are desperate for volunteers, and are really open to people coming in and doing their own thing, like arts and crafts sessions. It was such a friendly atmosphere, so colourful and loving- as Marco (the guy who runs it) explained to us in really good english, it´s important that the children feel love here because they come from disadvantaged families and some are orphans so they don´t really get it at home. One of the children came straight up to me, gave me a big hug and kiss and said, "Me llamo Maria, Ma-RI-a, ¿como te llamas?". She was one of the orphans (you can tell them apart because they have a different uniform- I don´t know why) and really cute. There´s one class for three year olds, about 15 of them, one class for four year olds, about 15 of them too, and a class for five year olds which has about 20 children, they all have a separate playtime so they don´t all have to compete for toys. They work from worksheets, they are colouring-inn ones but the teaching is all so worksheet-based, I really want to change that. My first idea is to get hold of loads of empty cardboard toilet rolls from the hostel, buy some cotton wool and glue, and get the kids to make alpacas which they can name and decorate and put in the classroom. Me and Heather (we both loved the placement so will probably both go there though we´ll work with different classes, it´s only 15minutes walk from the hostel as well, and you go via an amazing fruit market) have loads of other ideas as well, including teaching the kids english through songs like "Twinkle twinkle little star". We could barely get out of the door, the kids didn´t want us to go, they were tugging at my skirt!
Went to spanish school again as well which was cool, learnt loads. It´s individual one-to-one tuition, two hours of grammar followed by an hour´s speaking. It´s intense but I´m learning masses. For our practical, me and Elena (my practical teacher) went to the zoo, and talked about animals, colours, verbs etc. We saw all sorts- loads of birds, monkies, an alpaca, pumas (which were gorgeous), a tiger cub, bears, foxes... everything. The animals were lovely, really really cute. Tonight we have the food tasting thing, tomorrow we´re going to visit a couple more placements, Spanish school again and I´m sure there was something in the evening but I can´t remember-- off ridiculously early white water rafting on Saturday so should get a good night´s sleep.
Now I only have about 45minutes before Helen (she´s about 26 and Lilly is about 19) comes to meet us and we all go out, and I really need to get my Spanish homework done, otherwise I´ll be doing it at midnight like last night.
Lots of love to everyone, I hope you´re all well and update me on all your news!!
amy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx