im tired but I'm going to force myself to write this. It's either this, or doing more of my essay, so I guess this is the lesser of two evils...
RIGHT, boom, writing, lets do this.
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| san isidro from the ruins |
okay, so, at the moment I'm in the lovely little town of Ollantaytambo, about 2 hours outside of Cusco, in the Sacred Valley. It's where the train leaves for Machu Picchu, so it's very touristy, but I love it nonetheless. Also I'm living in a homestay, so it's not thaaat touristy for me. I live about a 10 minute walk from the centre of the town (which is not very far, but a certain Holly refuses to walk there because she is lazy and [another adjective here]), in a community called San Isidro which is very pretty and where everybody is family. And that's not an exaggeration or some sort of cheesy saying, everybody is actually family. I got a lift home from a guy one night and when I told him where I live he said 'oh yeah, that's my aunt's house'. So yep, everyone is someone's aunt or cousin or grandma. It's great! My family consists of the mum, 2 daughters, a granddaughter and a son-in-law. The granddaughter is nearly 2, and is the cutest little girl ever. She calls me 'saha' and is the happiest little thing
ever. The daughters, one the mother of the little girl, and the other a 17 year old, are also really nice. I go salsa dancing (I know right, miss 2 left feet over here) with the 17 year old every Wednesday in a town called Urubamba about 30 minutes away, and it is so so much fun. It's exhausting but I love it! I'm not going tonight though because I am way too knackered, I'll mention why a lil later. The mum, who is my house mother, is amazing. She works in the 'chacra', which is a plot of land they own where they grown quinua, herbs, pumpkins and flowers, as well as having 2 cows, 2 sheep, loads of cuy (guinea pig - the local delicacy) and even more chickens. She works there every day, and I really don't know how she has so much strength! She makes the best food as well, although maybe a little too much rice, and we have trout, chicken, sometimes cuy and other yummy things everyday. OH and, oh man, she makes a banana smoothie juice thing for breakfast which is delicious! The house is pretty too, I have my own big room with a big window and a desk, and you can see the stars (from the window, don't worry there is a roof). The stars are incredible here.
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| sneaking into pretty ruins |
So the town is really pretty, and surrounded by ruins which are incredible. The aforementioned Holly (who is beautiful and hilarious and tolerates me so is the best - can you tell she's sitting next to me?) and I managed to sneakily get into the most touristy of the ruins (didn't feel bad about not paying because about 100000 people go up there per day - also I went there with Steph some months ago). But that was cool and we got to see some great views of the town. Might try to do some more ruins another day when I'm not feeling lazy and tired and don't have essays to write. Ollanta (i'm native now so I can call it that) is nice, and there's loads of cute cafes which have wifi and good food, so I can sit there all day and write and research and eat. Perfect! My 2 favourite places (look at me, talking about food again. Who woulda guessed it), are one place called La Esquina, or the 'Gringo Cafe' where everybody who volunteers/lives here goes. The food is amazing though. There's also Hearts Cafe, which is a charity owned one, which is good because the food is also good, and you're money goes to a good place. And believe me, I am spending all my money here.
As well as eating my life away, I am also doing some research. I have this essay (bane of my life) due in about 2 weeks, so I'm having to write and study and stuff, it's not all play here. I am learning a lot about coca, and I do think it's really interesting. Well, I have to find it interesting if I'm going to write a 15000 word dissertation about it. But yeah, it's really interesting and all the people here are helpful when I ask them about it. Swear down, I could talk about coca for years. I love the stuff. And no, not the drug, It's ok, just the leaf. The history and everything about it I find so interesting! So as well as doing some research here, I also have just got back from the jungle! I'm going to go back when I can, I was only there for 3 days but I loved it. I got some research but it was overall an amazing experience!
Paragraph explaining the title of this blog - woooo
So yeah, the jungle! Just on the edge of the rainforest, about 5 hours drive from where I live at the moment, is Quillabamba. It's quite a large town in the middle of the mountains and the jungle. To get there you have to drive up the side of one mountain and then down the other side. It was, erm, an experience. The highest point I got to was about 4100 metres, and it was freezing cold. The day we drove there it was raining so
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| quillabamba from the mountains |
hard and I nearly froze. I was cold though, because I went by motobike (yeah mum, that may of been the part I didn't tell you before I left...). So a friend I have here has family in the jungle and I was really interested to go, so we went by his bike. And it was so much fun. Scary, especially the sheer drops and the huge waterfalls, but fun. 5 hours on a motobike though, it's seriously tiring! We stayed a night in the town, then the next day drove to his family's place which is about 2 hours up the side of another mountain. And this is right in the jungle - banana trees, coffee trees, coca bushes, mango trees - everything! It's amazing. We got to the house, which is a house made from clay bricks, with chickens in the garden and guinea pigs running about everywhere. It's such a beautiful place, right off a dirt track and down past huge trees. There, I obviously talked about coca, but I also peeled some cocao beans (for chocolate), from straight off of the tree, and the next morning we had the hot chocolate
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| coffee tree |
from it. It was insanely delicious! I saw pretty much all of my food straight from where it grows - the chicken being killed, the corn picked and the coffee in bean form. It was incredible, seriously! I also got eaten alive by mosquitoes. I don't know why but the bites are like 10x more painful here. Even though I wore repellent and everything, my face/hands/ankles/back still look ridiculous. At least I know I'm sweet though ;)
Well, that's it pretty much. I'm back here, just got back today which is why I am so so tired (woke up at 6am, left at 7, arrived here at midday), but I'm very much alive and well (don't worry mum) and looking forward (HA) to finishing my essay and enjoying the rest of my stay.
This will probably be my penultimate, or there abouts, post. Well, at the rate I'm going anyway, unless something incredibly exciting happens in the next week.
Wow lots of writing, even more tired now! Anyway, enjoy the pictures and my ramblings, and when I'm back I'll only have maybe 1 month to go!! Scary stuff...
Hasta luego, S x
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| more me & ruins |
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| in the jungle |
