Aqui en Cusco

Hola, friends!

Two days from the start of my journey, I am finally here in Cusco! After a comfortable night in my Lima hotel, I got up bright and early at 4:30 for my 6 AM flight to Cusco. I arrived at 7:15 AM, and was so excited to find that my luggage arrived with me. As soon as I got off of the plane in Cusco, there were people in the airport trying to sell me just about everything--train tickets to Machu Picchu, hotel stays, tourism packages...the works! I managed to get by without succumbing to the salespeople, but I did accept a man's offer to assist me with my luggage. I tipped him 10 soles, which I'm pretty sure was way too much, but I have yet to really get a hold on the exchange rate, and all I know right now is that $40 = 108 soles. Pretty nice, eh?

When I came out of the airport, I was met by Lauren, one of the ProWorld office staff members who kindly agreed to meet me at the early hour of 7:30. Lauren has been in Peru for almost a year, and will be here until June as part of a master's program with the School for International Training (SIT). It quickly became clear to me that she knows the ropes when it comes to Cusco, and she explained to me that the taxi drivers waiting in the airport charge about five times what we would be charged if we hailed a cab on the street. We headed for my apartment, which is located just a few blocks off of a big traffic circle surrounding a big, Incan statue. Lauren gave me a brief tour, and I was surprised to find that the apartment was equipped with a wireless internet router, an oven, a washing machine, a television, and a really big bathtub! I was expecting to maaaybe find one of these things, so to find them all was rather a treat. I'll only be living in this apartment for the first month that I'm here, and then my roommate (Laura) and I will move to a different apartment located about a block from the ProWorld office. The reason we aren't in the apartment close to the office right now is because it's brand new and not yet fully completed.

The current apartment is interestingly decorated with lots of Peruvian cultural flair, largely because the owner is affiliated with the Center for Peruvian Textiles. In my room, there are photos of Peruvians in traditional dress, and lots of beautiful weavings covering my desk and hanging on the wall and on my bed. I was pretty tired upon arrival, due to both the altitude and early morning flight, so Lauren kindly drew me a little map of my apartment in relation to the city center and the ProWorld office and then left me to rest. I slept for several hours, and then woke to a call from Eliza (the main PW office director here in Cusco), who asked if I wanted to join her and Lauren for lunch in the city center. I decided that maybe some fresh air would be a good thing, so I walked to the traffic circle and met the girls and we took a cab to the restaurant. The altitude sickness hasn't been as horrible as I built it up to be in my mind, but I do feel pretty super lethargic, and often dizzy. I also feel tingling in my fingers and toes, which is strange and sort of freakish. Although not as bad as I expected it to be, I still despise feeling sick when I'm far from home, so it's been a little bit difficult to stay positive today. I'm a little too nauseous for positivity!

That said, from my brief jaunt through town, I can tell that Cusco is going to be an extremely interesting place. There are stray dogs wandering the streets, which makes me feel like I'm bag in Costa Rica again, and there are lots of little street vendors selling breads and fruits and bottled water. At the restaurant with Eliza and Lauren, I ordered a bowl of quinoa soup since I wasn't feeling up for eating anything too heavy. I expected the soup to be basically chicken noodle soup with quinoa in it, but it was definitely different. It had a slight creaminess to it (which I found displeasing...most of you know me know of my distaste for creamy products in general!), as well as some sort of a strange chopped vegetable that I thought was chopped pieces of butter for the first half of the meal. (I'm still not fully convinced that I wasn't legitimately eating butter pieces in my soup). I'm also fairly sure that there was an egg in the bowl, which I definitely avoided. I'm currently feeling rather fearful of Peruvian food, in large part because of all the precautions that have to be taken to decontaminate things, and in part because I don't feel as familiar with the items I see on menus. I'm hoping that I will pretty quickly learn what I like and don't like, and I expect that there will be some delicious items to be eaten. After all, one of my favorite restaurants in Lancaster, PA--El Serrano--is a Peruvian place, so if their cuisine is at all authentic, then there are definitely going to be things for me to enjoy here.

After lunch, Eliza and Lauren gave me a quick little walking tour through the main center of Cusco, the Plaza de Armas. It was very beautiful, and very full of people, some just sitting and enjoying the sunshine, but most trying to sell things. Probably the most entertaining things being marketed were massages. SO many women were trying to get me to buy a massage it was ridiculous! Eliza actually told me that she's had one before, and that for 20 soles (about $8), you can get a one-hour massage. I think I will have to investigate this further! We also walked through another plaza, called the Reconcijo (I think?), which was filled with school students who were sharing their Earth Day projects. They were actually pretty super cute and very impressive! Some of those kids can DRAW, and they all made very good arguments in favor of environmental friendliness. From this plaza, we walked down the Avenida del Sol, the main street that leads from the circle (with the Incan statue in the middle) all the way to the main Plaza de Armas. This walk was helpful because I was able to see a lot of the resources and services I might need while I'm here, including ATMs, the post office, a grocery store, and looots of ice cream shops! :-) I think I might try and take a stroll down the Avenida del Sol by myself tomorrow so that I can do some exploring if I feel up to it. I've always had a love for exploring foreign grocery stores, so I'm particularly excited to check out the "Mega," which is the big name store here in Cusco.

After walking back to my apartment, I was pretty pooped, so I decided to drink some mate de coca tea (a local remedy for altitude sickness made of the same leaves that are used to produce cocaine!) and watch television for a bit. I fell asleep pretty promptly, and woke a little before six. Soon after I woke, my "mystery roommate" Laura arrived! It was great to meet her in person, and she's rather delightful and sweet. She's a rising senior at James Madison University, and is from New Jersey, so we were able to discuss our shared appreciation for bagels and JMU. She decided to cook some pasta and vegetables, and I joined her in eating some plain pasta, not feeling up to eating much beyond the plainest of items. We had a nice time chatting about her semester with ProWorld and her travels throughout Peru. She hiked the Inca Trail and also visited the floating reed islands on Lake Titicaca, both of which are activities on my list for the next few months. She's also a brazen little eater, and doesn't seem concerned at the thought of eating fruits from the market without disinfecting them. For this, I consider her something of a hero/crazy person. I'm glad that we're living together because she's been here for the past semester and can help me out in learning the ropes of Cusco and becoming more at ease in this new city.

I'm unfortunately having some difficulty being as positive about things as I would like, mainly because I just don't feel very good physically. I'm hoping and praying that as my physical condition improves, my mental one will do the same, but I certainly appreciate your thoughts and prayers to make things a little easier. A particularly tragic discovery that I just made is that Pandora radio doesn't work for people in Peru. I'm pretty sad about this, as I could really use my Christian music station to put my mind at ease. Luckily, I can find some of the songs that I really need to hear on YouTube. Chris Rice singing "Come To Jesus" brings tears to my eyes and peace to my heart. My plan for the rest of tonight is to do a teensy bit of reading before falling asleep, which I know is going to happen very soon since I can barely keep my eyes open now!

In my next post, I'll share some photos of my apartamento, and hopefully also of downtown Cusco. It's sort of hard to describe without some photo footage. I hope that all of you at home are well and enjoying beautiful spring.

Hasta pronto!