Week One Cusco
Spanish lessons at Amigos Spanish School are going well although pretty intensive. We are doing four hours a day from 8am to 12pm with a short 20min break. It is a lot harder and more intensive than I thought, they even give us homework to complete each night!! There are four of us in my class and we have two tutors, Merly from Peru and Claudia from Swizterland. I am learning loads and everyday feel I can understand more and more. Hopefully by the end of the three week course I should have a basic grounding in the language.
The homestay is also going well. I have been very lucky with the family as we are having great food. Some other people in the group have not been too lucky with a diet of rice and potatos every day!! All our meals are taken with our homestay family. Breakfast is bread and jam with fresh fruit juices. Lunch is the main meal of the day in Peru and we have a large 2-3 course meal. Evening meals are lighter but still very filling, we even had pancakes with chocolate sauce one night!! It is very interesting living with a family and experiencing true Peruvian life.
Afternoons are free for us to explore and relax. On the 13th October a group of us climbed some of the hills around Cusco. It was the first exercise I have done at altitude and it was quite tiring. The scenery is spectacular and we had a fantastic view of the city. Here are some shots of Cusco -
Cusco from surrounding mountains
Cusco town square at night
We have also been going out to the pubs and bars in Cusco. It is a very touristy town so there is loads to do at night. We had a big night on 15th when we pretty much visited every club in Cusco. I think "Mama America" won the day with some excellent stage dancing from the VentureCo crew!!! Everyone was suitably drunk so Spanish classes the next day we a bit quieter than usual!
We also had our first Salsa lesson on the 15th and it was time for Alex to show his true latino roots!! The dancing was great fun, we learnt some of the basic steps and moves. Watch out Sara when we meet up in San Francisco!!! Here we are learning the steps -
At the weekend we left Cusco to visit the town of Pisac in the Sacred Valley. The scenery was absolutely spectacular and it made a nice change from Cusco. We arrived Saturday afternoon and checked into our hostel. The hostel was very cool and partly run by Joachim, an old friend of our leader Paul. Consequently we were given a very warm welcome and fantastic hospitality. We spent the evening sitting in the Square eating home made pizza from the wood-fired pizza oven and drinking beer, very cool.
Hostel in Pisac
On Sunday we put on our walking boots to climb up to the Inca ruins and temples that are located in the mountains overlooking the town. The climb took us up about 500 meters past ancient Inca terracing to the Sun Temple. The scenery was absolutely spectacular and the view from the top allowed us a fantastic view of Pisac and the Sacred Valley -
Sacred Valley
Climbing to the Inca Ruins
The Sun Temple
Enjoying the view from the top!!!
The climb took all morning and we arrived back in the town at 1pm for lunch at the hostel. Pisac is also famous for its Sunday Market so I spent the afternoon looking around. The market is very touristy but good fun. I managed to resist buying a Peruvian woolen hat on this occasion!!
Les bargains hard for a poncho
Next week is the second week of the language school. In addition I am doing more Salsa lessons, a "real Cusco" city tour and at the weekend we leave Cusco again to do some more trekking. I will be doing another update in one weeks time.
Hasta Luego Amigos - Alex
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