El Dia Final

Wednesday was our last full day in Cuzco and a group of us went on a tour of Moray. Moray was a beautiful circular version of Incan terraces. Moray had 22 levels and was actually a type of laboratory for the Incans. Because of the way in which it was built going down into the mountain each terrace was a different temperature on which they could test the crops to see where they grow best. The deeper into the rings you went the warmer it got so by the middle we were all sweating. the cool part of Moray was that this was the first time we were able to climb down the terraces, we even got to uses the steps that were used by the Incans. After we got back we had a little time to finish up shopping and get ready for dinner!

  Dinner tonight was at the Hotel Monasterio a five-star hotel that had been converted from an old Spanish era Monastery. The menu was extremely expensive but the atmosphere was beautiful. For my appetizer I tried foie gras for the first time which is duck liver but I found it to actually be delicious. For my entree I got a roasted suckling pig with vanilla sweet potatoes which was also very good but the sweet potatoes were my favorite part. Lastly for dessert I had Gooseberry Ice cream and tasted Erika's Piquerones I loved both. 

After dinner it was a little bittersweet as we took our last group photo and returned to the hotel. We had big group circles and reminisced about our trip until early in the morning. I'll miss everyone and I'll miss Peru but this trip has been unforgettable. Thank you Monica!!!

Macchu Picchu

Yesterday was an adventure and sight filled day. We started really early having to get up at 4:00am to get on the bus by 4:30. The bus then took us two hours back to the city of Ollantaytambo to catch the PeruRail. The train was actually really nice and they served us a breakfast of pineapple juice a salami sandwich. The view from the train was the best part though was the view it was unbeatable.

 When we finally arrive in the small town at the base of Machu Picchu we went to a small plaza and took some pictures with the Inka and Peruvian hairless dogs.

 Then we still had one more bus ride up to the top of Macchu Picchu. It was a zigzagging road right on the edge of a cliff which was a little scary but we made it safely and got our tickets stampe and entered. 

  The initial view is a shock not of terror but of utter beauty. You're standing in the middle of the Andes mountains in a jungle with a beautiful stone city lying in front of you. 

The city itself is divide into three parts, residential, agricultural, and religious.We traveled to the religious sector first where they had a water temple with water from the mountain tops still running through the stone canals. Next we visited the Sun temple which has two windows one for when the sunlight directly aligns with one or the other on the winter solstice which is in a few day and one for the summer solstice in December. Next we visited the tomb of Pachacuti. Pachacuti was the Inka at the time Machu Picchu was built. He was a great leader that built the Incan infrastructure greatly and increased the power of the empire.

 Next we saw the agricultural part which was very similar to other ruins we have seen with terraces built into the side of the cliff. Lastly was the residential sector where we saw the three door palace which had a gorgeous balcony with a view of the mountains and jungle. 

 Then our tour ended and we had some free time to explore Machu Picchu. My group decided to go to the La Puerta del Sol or the sun gate which is a 1 hour hike up the side of the mountain. The trek was treacherous but the view at the end was worth it. Machu Picchu was so far away that we we couldn't see any of the tourist a that we knew were roaming the site. Since the walk up was so long we decided to sit up at the sun gate and eat some snacks before heading down. Slowly but surely almost our entire group showed up and we had a full blown group picnic 

 The walk down afterwards made us really appreciate the work we did on the hike up it was a long trail. But we finally reached the bottom and had to head back into town for lunch/dinner. When back in town we ate at a restaurant called Cenetario which sat right on the river and we had window seat with a great view.

 Unfortunately after lunch/dinner we had to catch our train back to Cuzco. On the train ride though there was a surprise authentic dance show and an alpaca wear fashion show. the dance show was cool to watch especially when he danced with our professor Monica.

  After a very long day we arrived back at the hotel and basically passed out. But I knew it was a day I would never forget.

 

La Granja, La Castilla, y La Lana

On Monday I finally back with the group and was able to take the trip to Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and Chincheros. In Pisac we got to see a beautiful "staircase" of Incan era terraces. These terraces were used for three main purposes decoration, erosion prevention, and agriculture land. The terraces were absolutely gorgeous and they were cleaning the terraces in order to prepare them for the the next rotation of plants and tourists. The tour guide also showed us the Incan Tombs in the the side of the cliff. All of the Incan people were buried this way (a tomb in the cliff) but the more prestigious you were the more decorated your tomb was. Unfortunately many of the tombs were robbed during the early days of tourism to Peru.

  The next stop was Ollantaytambo where we saw the the "fortress" of the Incans. The story of the fortress dates to the conquistadors. After they conquered Cusco the Spaniards went after the Inka (king) who had run to Ollantaytambo. The "fortress" was actually a restful Incan town in the center of three valleys so the Inka was smart and had an artificial lake made in one of the valleys. When the Spanish arrived for the fight he released the water from the lake and wiped out most of the Spanish army and the rest were taken out by the slingshots from the walls of Ollantaytambo. 

   Lastly we went to Chincheros to see a demonstration of how they made dyes from natural products. We watched the indigenous woman cut the wool, wash it and then use the juice from a bug to make a beautiful red dye. The demonstration was actually really interesting and then we were served mate de coca during it which was nice because it was freezing out. Lastly I end on a good note with the US World Cup team beat Ghana 2-0!

La Copa Mundial

So I accidentally put my blogs a little out of order but either way on Thirsday we started just as any other Thursday with classes at El Sol. We continued with the subjunctive learning about when to use it when giving recommendations. This was something that I had done before already in my Spanish classes at Northeastern so it wasn't that bad of a lesson for me. Then in culture class we went over briefly the fight for Independence of Peru which involves a lot of military men arguing over who gets to rule.

  The unusual part of this Thursday was that it was the start of the World Cup in South America. So we actually had the afternoon off to go watch the first game in Parque Kennedy. The people and bars around the park were all very excited and decorated.

 The game was Brazil vs. Croatia and the first goal was by Brazil but against themselves! The Brazilan team made up for their mistake though and came back to win 3-1. Not only was it a great game to watch it but it was also a great cultural experience to see all the Peruvians get as excited as they were when their team wasn't even in the cup!

La Cena en el mar

Today was our final day of classes which was really sad because we had to say goodbye to Andres and Romeo. They still taught one last clas though which was how to use superlatives such as when you want to say someone is the most beautiful or more intelligent than. It was a useful final lesson and helped clear up some of the little issues we had especially how a major mistake that everyone makes is saying muy mejor which sounds right but translates to very better and make no sense in either language. In culture class Romeo taught us about more modern day Peru and specifically the terrorism that occurred during the 1980s and the early 90s. This was really interesting to me because I had heard of the Shining Path in our book a lot but this is the first we actually got to go in detail about what they stood for and why the war started. After class we took pictures with both our teachers before we had to say goodbye and take a big class picture outside. 

 Then we headed to our last day at UNIFE we had a small closing ceremony there before we got to take another dance class with the girls. After the dance class we got to play sports for a little before we had to head home. I had a lot of fun playing volleyball with the girls again. One girl named Gracia was really good and she was showing us all her skills. Unfortunately the fun did have to come to an end because  we had to get ready for our goodbye dinner at Rosa Nautica.

La Rosa Nautica is a a very nice restaurant built out on a pier  in the middle of the Pacific. We got a three course dinner of delicious corn chowder, Andean Fish and quinoa, and then a caramel creme dessert that was very similar to suspiro de Limeña. Also during the dinner we were able to present our gifts to Monica and Henry. I really hope they liked them! 

The dinner was a great way to end a wonderful month in Lima.

Un Dia de Presentaciones

Yesterday we continued with the subjunctive and espressing opinions. So you could say I'm worried that the pollution in the city is affecting peoples health. In Spanish it's a little bit different because you have to change the conjugation of the verb but it's hard to remember since subjunctive is not a tense that really exist in the English language. In culture class we did something a little different we dida fill I'm the blanks for the lyrics of a song called Latinoamerica by Calle 13. I actually already had this song on my Iphone because I had heard it in my Intro to Latin American Culture class but this time I was really excited to see that I was able to translate the lyrics and understand what the song was actually saying!

 At UNIFE we had a long day. It started with a pretty interesting lecture about how the architecture of Peru has changed starting all the way back with PreIncan city's and temples. Then we even got to see some projected plans for the mall in the cliffs of costa verde to make it bigger and go all the way to the beach. After te lecture we continued with our presentations of the subjects from the book. I thought everyone did a great job especially the girls from UNIFE translating on the spot. I learned a lot and the group six was actually very helpful for my essay because they provided some extra information which I was able to use.

  Later for dinner my host mother told me I was able to invite a friend over for dinner  because they had made Chupe de camarones a Peruvian dish similar to a chowder.

It was absolutely amazing and very delicious probably one of my favorite dishes I have had this far. But at dinner the conversation was great too because I had my friend Erika there so converstion was a little easier since it wasn't all directed towards me and we had some wine and delicious dessert called salami de Choclaye which is a delicious dessert from Argentina kind if like a fudge cake with cookie bits and nuts inside.

It is moments like that dinner that'll I'll miss most.

Oro! Oro! y mas Oro!

Yesterday was a pretty easy day at school. We returned to learning about te different times we need to use the subjunctive. In this case we learned about using sunjunctive when displaying emotion like when you say you like something or something makes you nervous. This topic is something I had worked on before in my classes at Northeastern so I was able to comprehend all of the lesson easily but the refresher was nice. In the culture class we talked more about the colonial structure of government. For example in the colonies themselves the viceroys ruled with the nobles just below owning economiedas and the slaves and indigenous working the land. What came from this is a mix of culture.  Races such as the mestizos and the mulattos came to be from the mixing of cultures but with this so did prejudice. For lunch I tried papa rellena for the first time which is a potato stuffed with meat and cheese and then fried it was delicious but for dessert I had a canchita which was very similar to the pastry "lobster tails" which I love in Boston but here they use custard rather than cream which I actually prefer.

At UNIFE we started off our day playing a really fun trivia game in teams. The questions were about the World Cup and the history of it and my team got second! After the game we had a special lecture about the politics and economy of Peru which was also quite interesting because for example we learned that a large part of Peru's exports are raw materials like cotton and minerals.

  After UNIFE  we went to a private museum called el Museo de Oro or museum of gold. This museum was really cool and had a lot of interesting artifacts. Like a colecction of Napoleon's weapons including his guns and swords and they had the sword if Francisco Pizarro but underneath the building there is actually a vault filled with the golden artifacts of the ancient cultures of Peru. These artifacts exist because they weren't found by the Spanish. Some of the coolest artifacts were the Tumi knives which I had seen everywhere in Peru at souvenir shops and on the street. It was nice to finally know it's importance and the mythology behind the god that is usually put on top of the ceronial knife. I wish we had more time at the museum to explore some of the other artifacts but what we did see was amazing!