Tuesday 13th - Sunday 18th April

Have been having our four hour spanish lessons every morning and have finally reached the weekend so got to have a lie in this morning! On wednesday in spanish my teacher took me to a big indoor market where my teacher bought me "tamal" which is sweetcorn, mushed up and sweetened with a raisin in the middle and shaped back into its husk. It´s really nice and tasted like cake!



In the afternoon we went to a kindergarten with three classes of three, four and five year olds. At this place the children only ever get taught english by volunteers and havent had any for a while. I dont know how easy it will be to teach kids that young, but i might give it a go!



Then we went to an orphanage which is run in a family home. The older kids are around in the morning while the little ones are at school, then they go in the afternoons. If we worked here it would be in the afternoon with the younger ones because apparently the older ones just get on with it really. We would have to play with the kids and help with homework. It was really nice and homely, and the kids are taught to clean up after themselves and wash their own clothes so they are quite well disciplined. The woman who runs the home has two of her own children there. I was holding the cutest baby there called Yessica. She would cry a bit then suddenly fall asleep, she was so cute!



On Wednesday evening we went to our first cooking class where we made Lomo Saltado, which is basically peppers onions tomato and beef cooked together then mixed with chips, with rice, and bread sauce...so a lot of carbs! It was really nice though! That night Domenica´s cousin was in Cusco so we met up with him and his friends and went to a bar called "Mushrooms". Me and Laura got mojitos, then remembering all the advice not to have drinks with ice, decided we´d drink them really quickly before it could melt. That, mixed with the altitude meant it went straight to our heads! It turns out that place uses boiled water anyway so the ice is perfectly safe!



Thursday: Had spanish again, me and my grammar teacher couldn´t stop laughing because she was spelling out words for me to write and I kept getting them wrong because when she says, P, B, V, and D they all sound the same so i kept writing it wrong!

Went to Chincerro this afternoon where we were taken to a traditional weaving centre which has been built specifically for tourists. Chincherro is known for having a big market but because everyone sells the same thing it is hard for anyone to make a sale. The weaving place is set up for tourists to go in and experience the whole process, and to buy genuine alpaca products, rather than the fake ones sold on the market. There is a potential project for us in Chinchero to teach english to, i think, the children of the woman weavers. Later on in the project we can live with a family here too! Out the back of the centre there were loads of Llamas which they are going to use for thier demonstrations. We were scared they were going to spit so kept running away when we were trying to get a picture, then a woman came out and just grabbed it by the neck and was like "they dont spit." The building was nearly complete and they put terocotta bulls on the roof when they finish building it for luck.

On the journey home we jumped on a bus, which was like a coach and had to stand on the aisle and cling on. The route was all down the side of the mountain so was very windy, and we kept hitting speed bumps. A guy wanted to squeeze past so we had to lean right over the other people sat down, i looked up and Laura´s bum was about a centimeter away from this guys face, she only realised when i put my hand there to stop her hitting him, then i was crying with laughter and couldnt stop, and it made it even harder to cling on to the bus and keep my balance.

Friday:
In my practical lesson this morning i was sat with my teacher Nayut by the fountain in the Plaza de armas when this guy in hideous red trousers and a multi coloured ¨hello Kitty¨ shirt, came a long with a camera crew, he lay down on the steps infront of us and started filming an introduction over and over. A massive crowd started to gather and this was all going on right infront of us, he started talking to members of the audience then suddenly was sat next to me asking me questions! i was asking my teacher for help and she just kept laughing so i just sat there going "No entiendo espanol" then he asked where i was from so i told him, then he was asking if my eyes were natural or contact lenses and pulled up my eyebrow to open my eye really wide! It was so embaressing i just sat laughing the whole time. It turns out he is a presenter on morning time tv in Peru. When they stopped filming and i saw the director pointing in our direction i was like "Nayut, Vamos!" and grabbed our stuff and ran off.

Went to the Real Mccoys that night for Rafael´s birthday. It was really wierd, everyone just sits in a circle, then when more people join, they join the circle. We were meant to be going salsa dancing afterwards but the party was meant to start at 8, and peruvians always turn up at least 2 hours after the start time, and noone wanted to go dancing afterwards so we just headed back. We are determined to go one night this week!

Saturday:
Finally got to have a lie in and had my first warm shower! Went for a late breakfast of a massive pancake filled with fruit and ice cream! it was so good, then went for a wander round the big under cover market, where i bought a (fake) alpaca hoody.

Sundaÿ:
Another early start to go on the Sacred Valley tour, we thought it would be a few hours but took from 8 in the morning till 6:30 pm! We visited Ccorao where there was a little market and loads more llamas. Then we went to pisac and were given a tour round the Inka ruins and looked at another market. We then went to Ollantaytambo to see more ruins and finally Chinchero. We had a tour guide so its quite interesting, but we kept laughing cause he would leave massive pauses for dramatic effect and we were all just stood there like...what do we do, then he´d start talking again. In chincherro we saw a different weaving place where they gave us a demonstration and showed us the different plants they used to make different colours. To make red they use this grey beetle which they literally crush and it comes out bright red, and she put it on as lipstick and said it lasts "24 hours and is kiss proof"

We also saw the Urubamba river which is the main river in Cusco, and i think is the one we are due to go white water rafting down next weekend.

We went to a restaurant last night where we got two starters a main and a drink all for 15 soles! thats about 4 pounds!