Qorqa & Salsa

2-17-11

I can’t believe how quickly February passes before my eyes! Yesterday I freaked out a little about my ISP (Independent Study Project for the last month which culminates in a 40+ page Spanish paper) and asked to talk to Donaldo about it. The truth is that I don’t know what I want to study yet! I enjoy researching and learning about things in depth, but I grow tired of subjects pretty quickly, so I want to find something that I truly enjoy. He essentially told me to chill out and come back to him when I had an idea. Oh well, not much help. We then asked Sonia where Colca Canyon was on the map (near Chivay), and she proceeded to tell us about our upcoming trip in detail. Apparently the drive to Puno aka Town near Lake Titicaca is about 6-7 hours and we’re not going to feel so great because we’ll be ascending to significantly higher altitudes. Lake Titicaca is the world’s highest freshwater lake, no? I think it is. We spend one night in Puno, one night on the reed island of Taquile, on night in Puno, and then we drive to Chivay where we then disperse with our rural home stay families to their small towns. We have the option of living with a family at a higher altitude and herding alpaca/llama, or farming at a lower altitude. Either way it’s going to be absolutely freezing! I need to get some more sweaters! We’ll be there for five days, and then we congregate and travel on to the south, to Arequipa. Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru. It’s where Farina’s husband will be for the next month. I believe she said that he works at a mine there, but I think he’s an administrator of some sort. In Arequipa we present our findings from our Colca Canyon stay (one of the deepest canyons in the world – double the depth of the Grand Canyon), spend a couple days there, then fly on to Lima. I believe this is something like a 13 day trip. I asked Sonia if we had any free time, especially since Calca was like a trap, but she said we only have one free day for that whole time. Hopefully we’ll have a bit of free time each day, but not much. I’m a bit disappointed that we’re spending so little time at Lake Titicaca because Marina said it was amazing, and even Sonia said it wasn’t enough time, but it’s pretty amazing that we get to go to these amazing places in the first place. I’ve just got to buy knick-knacks while I’m there!

Anyways, on to what actually transpired today. We woke up early and boarded a bus to Qorqa at 7:30. The drive took about an hour on very high and thin roads. I could not drive here and I would NEVER drive a bus here. It scares me just to look out of the window. It was the same to Machu Picchu! You look out your window and see that the tires are 6 inches away from falling down into a precipice. No thanks!! We really psyched ourselves for the exam because it turned out to be super simple. We met a family in Qorqa (Rosa, Andres, Sintia, and Katarina Vargas) and then we stood in a line and each asked a question from our exam sheet, then filling in their response. Sintia, the little girl who all of us thought was male, had a pet baby goat that she carried around for a bit. Wish I had a photo! It was so cute! Rosa and Andres walked us down an old Incan road (Kapac Nan in Quechua) that led down to their chacras. They also raise cuy, which they showed us. Whoa! The trek down was intense, but the return journey was worse! You wouldn’t think that altitude would so drastically change your endurance, but it does! We had some free time and played a game of soccer and I felt winded almost immediately! Oh! We played in these beautiful fields right next to a coursing river and at one point the ball strayed too close to the water. Jake, in a successful attempt to save the ball from being lost to the river, ran and dove to get the ball. However, he didn’t think this through and thrust himself straight into the water up til his chest. Saved the ball though!

We got back to Cusco around 1:15 and I headed straight home for lunch. In the afternoon we had a lecture about Climate Change and how it disturbs Andean life. The lecturer didn’t really say anything I didn’t already know, but for some reason I found it attention-grabbing. We then went to Molino again and I bought some movies! I don’t think I can go there without buying movies. I love movies! At dinner my family was super astonished and worried about my sunburn. I put sunscreen on my face, but not my chest! They insisted putting sliced cucumbers on my burned skin to cool it. It felt nice, but I therefore spent quite a lot of time at the dinner table leaning backwards with cucumbers on my chest. Funny image, no?

After dinner I played with Sebas, as per usual. He’s learning so many words! When I first got here he only said “Aca!” (Peruvian equivalent of aqui, or here) but today he said a whole three-word sentence! He’s a sweety. He gave me kisses on my cheek when we were playing. The other day we had a blackout for about 10 minutes and at the time I was playing in the living room with Sebas. As soon as the light went out I felt baby arms running towards me to give me a hug. He was scared and he ran towards me! Yep, he’s in love with me.

Several of us went to the center to go salsa dancing later. I don’t think I’ve touched on this, but being obviously foreign makes you a huge target in the center of town. Everywhere really, I guess. At night in the center we can’t get out of a cab with having a mob of male promoters for clubs come swarm and bother us. Often they manhandle you, trying to drag you to their club, or they yell or shove cards at you until you take them. I yelled at one guy tonight to leave me alone after I’d said no about four times, and he just yelled right back at me! I counted and at El Molino today we were whistled at four times. It’s not enjoyable!

Good night! (haha, at first I wrote Goon night!)

xo Claire