Peru

The literal translation of amaneciendo is "dawning" (of the day). However, en Español this word is a vivid and romantic thing to say. It alludes to the beauty of the gradual change in colour of the sky at dawn, from pitch black to dark greyish-blue, to a paler shade of misty blue, and finally to the beautiful golden orangey-blue that can be seen just before sunrise. Along with the sky, "está amaneciendo" (lit: "it's dawning") brings with it the chirping of the birds, the rustling of the leaves, and the serenity of the sea. It's a good thing to say to your girlfriend, next time you're on an ocean cruise watching the day be born.

Mario, my host father here in Cusco, has been in hospital with pneumonia for 1½ weeks now. I visited him last Sunday; and today, I paid him another visit. Man, what a change he's been through! He looks much, much better now. No more oxygen, no more IV — he's well on his way to recovery. And plenty of friends and family are visiting him regularly, lifting his spirits, and helping him get better. Fingers crossed, according to the doctors he should be coming home tomorrow.

I'd heard that you have to watch out for counterfeit money here in Peru, but I hadn't encountered any until today. I caught a taxi to the Plaza de Armas this evening; and when I handed over the two un nuevo sol coins to the cabbie as payment, he inspected them both, and handed one of them back to me. "Es un falso" (lit: "it's a fake"), he explained to me. I couldn't perceive any difference in the falso, until it was explicitly pointed out to me; but apparently, every man, woman, and child in Cusco can tell a falso a mile off. Can you?

For the remaining two weeks of Spanish school that I've got at Amigos, I've decided that each day, there's going to be a PDD, or Palabra Del Día (lit: "Word Of The Day"). For today, the inaugural PDD is: burbajas ("bubbles"). You can blow burbajas. You can live in a burbaja. And, if you want to relax and feel nice and warm, you can have a baño de burbajas (lit: "bubble bath").

This week is going to be the quietest yet at Amigos, with only 3 students (including myself) enrolled for the week's classes. As such, there's nobody for me to be in a class with, and I've had to switch to private lessons. So instead of an 8am-12pm daily class (2 hours with Merly, 2 with Ursula), this week I'm just having 3 hours straight (8am-11am) with Merly, one-on-one. Today's lesson was much more intense and personalised, but it was also a bit lonely.

After Jesus and I finished our excursion to Pisac this morning, we continued west through the Valle Sagrado ("Sacred Valley"), to the town of Urubamba, for the afternoon. Urubamba's a cute lil' town as well; but it's much quieter than Pisac, due to the lack of a big market, or of any major ruins nearby. However, it made a nice spot to grab some lunch, in our second trendy café for the day; and this time over a game of (my newly purchased) ludo (close game — but Jesus won). We really were taking our time and chilling out at every opportunity today. Ah well, that's what Sunday's for, right?

I saw a stall full of ludo sets at the Pisac markets this morning; and being the avid ludo fan that I am, I couldn't resist purchasing one. It's a beautifully designed little wooden set, with a decorated board and animal-sculpted pieces. Unfortunately, one of the llama heads has already snapped off — but a bit of superglue should be able to fix that. The board has already been christened with two games — of myself against Jesus — and so far the score is 1-all.

I've been very slack in my time so far in Cusco, because after 4 weeks here, I still haven't visited the Valle Sagrado ("Sacred Valley") at all. Lying about an hour north of Cusco (by public bus), and consisting of three principal towns — Pisac, Urubamba, and Ollantaytambo — it's one of the main tourist attractions in the area. This morning, I was planning to visit Pisac (and to continue on to Urubamba) on my own; but at the last minute, I ended up going with Jesus. We didn't quite make it up to the Inca Citadel, but we did have a colourful and relaxed morning at the markets.

Jorge is the director of Hampy, an organisation (that I got introduced to today) that helps disadvantaged kids in the village of Chocco, near Cusco. Jorge's been working in Lima for the past few years, with the US government's Peace Corps; but now he's back with Hampy. He's a friendly and very passionate guy, and I'm glad that I'll be able to help him out a bit, over the next few weeks.

Wil's been studying at Amigos with me (but not in my class) for the past two weeks; and he's also involved with the volunteer group Hampy, that I went on a little tour with today. Wil's an American from Upstate New York, and he's been travelling in South America for quite a while already, so his Spanish is quite good. He's got a girlfriend from Chile, and from the sound of things, their relationship is pretty serious. He's a quiet guy, but he's very genuine, and he's doing great work with the kids at Hampy, helping them work out how to find employment.