Day TWO in PERU (look it rhymes!)

Hola fellow readers.  Me llamo Elena de la Vega.  

Angel (Devon), Joaquim de la Vega (Jake), Christina (Corey), Liliana (Lindsay), and Roberto (Bobby) say hola as well.

With so much going on in just one day, it feels like we have been in Cusco for a week… and that’s a good thing.  It is gorgeous and quaint.  First thing first, we had a nice breakfast in the hotel.  Joaquim put chocolate powder on his toast. Poor guy.  The altitude is really affecting him.  We had a guided tour in a Jesuit church. It was extravagant and breath-taking. A monstrous golden altar towered in the front of the church.  It had a much more European feel compared to the Cathedral yesterday. The prevalence of the Incan culture still today is fascinating.  The ‘Incan Museum’ highlighted characteristics about the Incan people that were before unbeknownst to us.  ‘Learn – work – love’ was a little sound bite that our guide, Marlene, kept using to portray the life of the Incans.  Once you learn, you can work, and once you work, you have enough to love…and to love is to give.  What a beautiful picture, right?  We also learned that there are still tribes out in the wilderness of the beautiful Peruvian terrain that are so distant and separated from civilization that cannibalism is the norm for them. Seems so incredibly archaic, yet here we are, now just a stone’s throw away.  Llamas and alpacas roam the mountainsides, and some women meander through the streets with the furry animals, endlessly repeating “Peecture? Peecture?”  And of course we had to! Who knows when an opportunity like that will come again! Actually, just around the corner! The Peruvian babies are strapped onto their mothers’ backs by means of a long, beautiful piece of cloth.  Little toddlers are absolutely precious, even though today we did observe one sprawled across the sidewalk with his little batooshie out for all to see. Regardless, the people are wonderful, the language is a blast, y mucho divertido, and the culture is so different from anything any of us have ever experienced.  Tonight ended with a folkloric dinner.  The food was superb; alpaca was an option, of course.  The band used mainly wood wind instruments that blew out the most rich, pleasing sounds, but they also had a mini chicken instrument that piped out some pretty strange bird sounds. It wasn’t complete without some classic songs like ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Yesterday’.  The Beatles made it to Peru, in case you didn’t know.  Dancers dressed in ornate costumes, with mile high hats and painted masks adding to the fun.  We enjoyed a nice walk back to the hotel in the brisk, cool weather (boys in shorts, Mrs. Weiss in gloves and a ski coat), and just can’t wait for the newness and excitement of another day.

Elena de la Vega

(aka Nicole)