मगेस्टिक विल्लगे ऑफ़ ऑफ़ Cusco

We´ve arrived in the beautiful pueblo of Cusco 11,000 feet high in the mountains. Yesterday was a day of acclimation. The plane ride from Lima was only 50 minutes long but the topography changed so dramatically in that time I couldn´t stop taking photos. Magestic green mountains peeked out of cumulus cloud banks and tiny towns could be seen scattered thoughout the mountainous landscape. We arrived in Cusco without a hitch bartering down the taxi drivers to take us to town. We were so happy to have chosen Jorge´s cab because he had his own tourist agency and knew of more than a few people that needed help learning English. In fact, this morning he sent one of his friend´s Maria to our hostal while she was on her break from the Touring agency. She offered us a place to stay in her home in exchange for English lessons and told us we could also exchange for horseback riding and guided tours!

A beautiful thing happened last night. We stopped in for dinner at this little pizza shop when a little girl came in selling chicle. I said I didn´t want any gum but wanted to know if she was hungry which of course she was. I gave her my garlic bread and invited her to sit down. She was very shy but I could see a smile starting to form. She sat down and started putting some green salsa on her bread, making the perfect bite. After talking to her for a bit, I found out her name is Luthiana, she´s 9 years old and she goes to school but she doesn´t know what her favorite subject is. I just kept trying to act silly to make her comfortable and eventually a big smile spread across her little face. The pizza came and I saw her eyes light up so we cut her a little slice. At first she tried to eat it with her fingers but then she decided she wanted to cut it with her fork and knife. It was obvious she had never used a knife before so we guided her along and helped put some of the green salsa on the pizza for her. She needed the perfect bite after all. She continued to finish and then tentatively get up. She still had her chicle of course. Before she could leave the building Noel got up, bought one candy from her and gave her an American dollar. He said as she walked away he could see her whole body smiling. Noel felt like the richest man in the world because he could make Luthiana´s day with a single dollar. We also met two little boy street vendors calling themselves Marco Polo and Pablo Picasso. They were selling their finger puppets for a meager one million dollars¨:) but I bartered him down to a thousand. Finally after they kept following us around town Noel bought Marco Polo a Coca Cola in exchange for his handpainted post card. A fair trade and a story to boot!
We´ve also met some very kind vendors like Lisbeth who is looking to learn English in exchange for her Peruvian handicrafts.

The people are very courteous and we´ve felt very welcomed in this small town so far. I´m very excited to start teaching English! Natasha and I have been teaching Noel Spanish by playing games like slug-bug (called Zapitos here). The first one to 100 gets 2 beers bought for them. The catch is that we have to call out the colors and what number we are on in Spanish. Noél´s catching on quickly and I´m confident he´ll be speaking in full sentences by next week. I´ve decided to teach my Spanish speaking students with the same foundation of fun, games and general conversation applicable to their lives. For instance, Maria works at a Tourist agency so we´re thinking of all the possible conversations she may need to have with potential clients. We can practice around the dinner table, walking around town and sitting down with her at work.

The energy of this pueblo is much more tranquilo than the constant hustle and bustle of Lima-- a welcome change. It is very quaint, almost no tourists right now, and perfect cool temperatures with rain showers scattered throughout the day. We have already seen the old world Incans mixed with the modern world Incans. We are truly blessed to be here mixing with the locals and absorbing their culture. More to come as we wind along our journey!

I ALMOST FORGET! We saw our first llamas and alpacas yesterday! We started following them but they were going up a hill and at this altitude on the first day we were just too out of breath! Today we are going to find a llama that we can follow to food...tomorrow maybe he´ll take us to Machu Picchu! Hehe. Ciao amigos! Que vaya bien!