swine flu

the swine flu - a popular topic these days, has now hit peru. and by hit i mean one quarantined woman in lima, but that hasnt stop the ministry of health from offering advice for not contracted swine flu. cover your mouth, stay out of crowded places and dont kiss a lot of people. mily points out we are all screwed since the standard greeting here is a kiss on the cheek. me with my cold american ways which often forget to go and kiss strangers on the cheek may have the best shot here. but that advantage may be nullifyed by my many combi rides per day, 20 people in a van, yeah like its not going to spread super quick if it makes it to cusco. maybe we should purchase travel insurance now dad?

burnt

i have suceeded to get burnt two days in a row. the first time I looked like a lobster in my face and so they next day when we went to sacsayhuaman for pukllasunchis family day, i wore sunblock and a hat and still evidently missed a spot on my neck. ow. yeah family day was fun, it involved silly activities like making a chant about family, a dance and a symbol choreography. we had good food although they forgot the water and sodas so it was warm chicha morada with lunch. ah so, i was going to explain the family and living situatio here. Im living with a administrator from pukllasunchis who i met last time, mily. she is a lot of fun and really helpful with my spanish. she has two children antonio who is 9 ithink and daniella who is 13 and both also attend pukllasunchis. her husband cochepi moved to lima 2 or 3 months ago for a good job and was here for the first weekend i was here, but returned tuesday. it´s hard for them to be apart so they might move in the next year. there are also 2 dogs that i cant remember the names of and 2 birds lumi and cielo, who i thought were cute and well still are but never are quiet, ever. they are very much in love and never shut up about it, ill post a video later. Also, mily´s parents live next door, manuel and bety. they are both quite nice and manuel as mily says ¨thinks he´s funny¨ and is always making jokes. he really is quite amusing. yesterday he told us how spiders and scorpions destroyed his honeymoon and how he ¨kicked luck out of his house¨because he kicked a little mouse that looked like it was praying. its a longer story. now ive got to do some translating and I start the real work tomorrow as well as spanish classes. chau.

arrival

Initially I thought I would be able to post from home because they have wifi there, but it seems my ipod doesnt want to cooperate, so here are delayed postings.
April 18
So I arrived in Cusco safe and tired. I knew as I set out, that I was trying to be flexible and go where the travel spirits took me, but I didn´t expect that my plans would change before I left Seattle. My first flight was overbooked so I volunteered to take a later itinerary that would get me into Lima at about the same time, but went through Houston instead. I stayed at the Coast Gateway Hotel and took the voucher. All the flights seem overbooked right now. My flight was, the next to Newark, the flight I got to Houston as well as to Lima. The night in the Lima airport was tough since I was alone,but I was kept awake and alert by the cleaning crew, who had to move the bench I was sitting on four times and frequently went wizzing behind me on the floor cleaner truck thing. Here´s my suggestion if you fly from Lima to Cusco, use Taca not Lan. They have less attitude and while they still drop food in your lap if you are sleeping, it´s a muffin rather than a box so it won´t wake you up. And so ended 32 hours of transit and I was greeted at the airport with the familiar panpipe music and the smiley and fantastic Mily of whom you will here more of en el futuro.

no hay aire

Today I start my whatever you want to call it at pukllasunchis. Its fun to be back, the school is exactly how I remember it except it feels like they have more stairs. Actually I think that´s the altitude talking, while I don´t feel sick or tired normally, climbing all these stairs 11000 feet makes me feel the air or lack there of. When I have trouble breathing people ask me what is the altitude of where I live, which is a low, what 5 ft_ and I have written some email and used several computers and I still can´t find the question mark. I took a collectivo(I can´t find the slash key either)combi for the first time in Peru, they make me nervous. I think I will probably chicken out today and take a taxi. Tomorrow seems like a better day to be lost in San Geronimo.

Departure Imminent

I have a ticket!!! Which you might know, but...

I also have a PASSPORT!

which I believe means that I can leave the country at least, on time.

My flight out if Seattle is 10 PM April 15th. 1 week from today I will be in a layover at the Newark Airport. If you want to hang out before I leave, call me. Otherwise, I'll see you in a few months.

Old Peru Art

 

an unfinished painting I did from a photo i took on my first trip to Peru in 2006. We were taking a lot of photos (it being a photo workshop and all) so my dad brought a polaroid camera and we took pictures of kids in Ollantaytambo so that mothers could have a keepsake that most of us would take for granted, childhood photos. The painting in clearly unfinished, being a second semester senior year attempt. Memories from where I will soon return.

Old Art

 

Dock from an old family photo.

Old Art