its been nice to set the backpack down for a while. after spending one night in the hostal with a couple friends, they no longer had space and i moved way up the hill to Home Sweet Home, an adorable little hostal/bed and breakfast in the san blas (artsy) neighborhood of cusco. it has an incredible view of the city and is a great escape from the herds of tourists roaming the center below, the ladies who everywhere you turn are offering ¨excuse me miss, massage please? maybe later...¨ and the bazillions of people trying to sell you souvenirs. the ladies that work here are wonderful and there has been a fun group of people to hang out with.
Inti Raymi was cool to experience, but in reality just overwhelming with the huge crowds. i had a good view for the part that was performed at the plaza de armas, but the main act was held at saqsaywamán, some ruins up the hill and unless you paid the $90 for a seat in the arena you really couldn´t see anything from up on the hill. i´m still glad i came because it was interesting to see the costumes and experience the event.
since then i have just been hanging out and exploring the city and area. on saturday afternoon i went out into the sacred valley to visit some of the villages and ruins. i just went with the flow and ended up exploring the ruins of pisac with some french people i got off the bus with, which i wasnt planning to do. traveling alone is so much fun because it opens doors to meeting people that are harder to find when traveling with other people. on sunday morning i wandered around the market and made friends with a little boy who was begging by giving him half of the orange i was eating. i met an older couple from australia over coffee and ended up sharing a taxi with them to the next town because we were all headed that way. i explored the ollantaytambo ruins with doug then wandered around town and hung out in the central plaza. i love to just sit in parks and people watch and be outside. i spend a lot of time doing that.
the next morning i went back to a place called heart cafe where i had eaten dinner the night before. it was founded by a british woman who has been doing development work with women in the area for many years and all the profits go to support the projects. she happened to be there, so i joined a group of young women who were chatting with her. it was inspiring to hear about some of her experiences, especially in the context of my studies in global development. the other girls were going to a theater performance, similar to inti raymi but ollantay raymi, which was performed on the terraces of the ruins. it was so much better than inti raymi because we were sitting right there, barefoot on the grass enjoying the perfect weather and the performance. it was a perfect afternoon. i made plans to go bungie jumping with a couple of the girls on friday!
the past few days i have been exploring museums around cusco that are included on the tourist ticket i had to buy to get into the ruins. although i am not much of a museum person, it has given me something to do and experiences i would not have had otherwise. the contemporary art museum i went to today was nice and had some awesome photographs.
i have also met up with a couple grinnellians who are here! random but fun! in the past 24 hours i have run into everyone i have met in cusco or knew was maybe here. its got a nice small town vibe in that you see the same people over and over.
my sis, puki and her friend remi get here tomorrow! well, they are probably on a bus heading to cusco from lima right now! i am so excited to see my sis! it has been far too long...
next up: bungie jumping and machu picchu!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment