Today was another adventure in Cuzco, Peru. I got up this morning to take one of my first hot showers this trip (since my house in Lima didn't have any) and ate breakfast. Kris told me she was feeling a little bit better... her fever was gone, but she still had a cold and needed to rest. I took a cab to the school without her and, as it turns out, Priscilla was sick, too. Only Yiannis, Kim and I were in the classroom together, and other students were absent from their classes due to stomach problems, altitude sickness and/or a cold. We all seem to be dropping like flies, with Amy the next person to go to the hospital.
I found some fellow healthy students and headed to lunch. There are tons of great places to eat around here (the majority in the main plaza are, albeit, tourist attractions, but it's easy to find cheap, good food), so a group of us wandered around, checking out various menus. We decided upon a restaurant that had set meals starting at 8 soles. Once we got there and checked out the menu a bit more, I decided to be adventurous and spend 15 soles on alpaca steak with criolla soup.
Rosanna had tried alpaca the day before and said it was very good, so I figured I should give it a shot. The texture was very chewy, and the taste was hard to describe... very meaty, salty and, as Kat probably put it best, tasted "like straight animal." I've never had deer, but I imagine it's somewhat similar. Well, the important thing is that I liked it, even though it's kind of sad to think that it came from this...
Yes, that's a random Peruvian woman holding a baby llama (or it could be alpaca; I don't really know the difference yet). One of the many interesting sites you see just walking the streets of Cuzco. My favorite thing, though, is probably the plethora of local arts and crafts... men painting, women sewing hats and purses, and much more; I suppose the random foods you find people cooking and selling are included in this category. I knew going into this trip that Peru was known for its textiles and ceramics, but it's a whole other thing to experience it in everyday life here.
After eating my alpaca, I walked around a bit, first intending to do homework at the school since there's wireless. My friends and I decided we'd be more comfortable finding an internet cafe, so we looked for one near the Plaza de Armas. Rachel really wanted coffee, so when we found a restaurant that offered coffee and wireless, we settled there. However, it was much less an internet cafe than an expensive restaurant where we felt a bit odd doing homework. Still, we were already comfortable and decided to stay.
At about 4:30, I was tired of doing work and decided to walk around and look at some shops before our next activity at 6:45. I found a relatively big store with tons of textiles and souvenirs. I bought myself a chompa, or sweater, for 35 soles (other people bought the same thing for 25 or 30, but I didn't really know much better and I only paid a few extra bucks). I also found a little teddy bear made from baby alpaca for 18 soles.
I didn't intend to spend that much already, so I decided to hang out at the school for about an hour. I didn't bring my laptop charger, either, but it wasn't too long before we had our lecture on the Quechua language.
This is the native language of many Peruvians, spoken in the Andres. Today, it's mostly practiced in the "campos," where many of the people don't speak Spanish. It's a very sweet, romantic sounding language that's also very complicated, with loooonnng words and many different ways of pronouncing and/or saying the same thing.
An hour later, I went home for dinner and hung out a bit before going to bed.
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