Cusco: Week 3

Week 3 of Spanish school started with some new classes! Trent moved up to join Frank's class and Katreina and Jody are the only two students in their class this week. Everyone is learning bits of past tense which is new and pretty hard!

Our new house has been working out great. With the short walk to classes everyone is a little more relaxed and rested. Our new host family is great and we have dependable, hot showers. So yeah, it's been a pretty good move. With school being so close we all get to sleep a little more and we are able to easily participate in evening activities at the school. This week we took a yoga class (well, everyone but Trent took a yoga class) and a cooking class! We learned how to make Papa a la Huancaina, a dish we had with our host mum just a few days prior, and it was great! We really do enjoy these evenings with our great group of classmates, and chef Marilú is a fabulous teacher! We also got to go to a few museums as part of class on Friday. The guys ended up at the Coca Museum and an art museum, while the girls ended up at a textile museum and an art museum. We are loving school!

Papa a la Huancaina with Amauta Spanish School.

Field trip!

The surprise treat of the week was a birthday! Our host's sister (who also lives at the house) celebrated her birthday this week. The other classmate that lives here bought a cake and we celebrated along with many other members of the family. It was so sweet and I felt honored to be welcomed into part of the celebration. More and more family members came to join the festivities and we were greeted with hugs and kisses. We left to finish school and to give the family space, but that warmth and welcoming caused my eyes to leak a little. We finished school and headed to the San Pedro market for a little shopping and sightseeing.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Coca! And a little trip to the market.

This weekend we took a tour to "7 Lagunas del Ausangate," or the Seven Lagoons of the Ausangate Mountains. It was another early, pre-0500 departure from Cusco for the long drive to the start of the hike. We arrived in the town of Pacchanta where we met our local guide, Cleaver, and had a great breakfast with our group. It was our family, another Amauta classmate, and a group of four local girlfriends which included an American--it was a fun group! Pacchanta is a small town where some people don't even speak Spanish--they only speak Quechua, the native Incan language. They farm, guide visitors to the mountains, and they have an amazing local hot spring. The hike around the lagoons is 11km at 4300-4700m altitude and was a little challenging on the way up, but we felt great compared to the previous weekend. Unfortunately our classmate wasn't doing so hot, but she powered through the lagoons before mounting a horse for the return. The lagoons were different colors, sizes, and depths, and all lie in the shadow of the great Ausangate mountain. Cleaver helped us identify birds, explained the significance of the various lagoons, and told us about the people of his town, and he was just an awesome guy and guide!

So much beauty here! And Cleaver was a great guide and photographer!

Family pic!

Such gorgeous views...we took a lot of pics!

We were really hoping the cloud was going to clear off the top of Ausangate, but it was still pretty!

The local, natural hot springs were HOT! It was a joy to share them with the local families of Pacchanta as they enjoyed their Saturday.

Today is a day of rest, booking some more travel legs (which is NOT always easy!), and rest!

~Jo, Nomadic Momma

Cusco: Week 2

Last Sunday afternoon was spent watching the local fútbol team win their championship game before the home crowd! It was so much fun and I love the we experienced a fútbol game in South America, even if it was for one of the smaller leagues. The crowd energy was great and we enjoyed spending the afternoon with one of our Spanish school classmates. 

¡Los ganadores!

However, the week certainly started off a little rough! Our home was without water most of Sunday and when we got it back Monday, the hot water wasn't working in the shower. Oh, and on Monday my cellphone was stolen while we were riding the bus to school. So Monday our super nice hosts installed a new shower head and we filed our first police report in a foreign country! Yay! We have also been struggling a bit to arrange some aspects of our stay here in Cusco which has only added to the stress.

Thankfully, Tuesday was better. I couldn't get easy translation help from my phone in class, but at least I'm in class with Katreina and she's a huge help. We decided to trek back into the city for an evening activity at our school, "Las frutas Peruanas." It was a really awesome evening where our teacher, Fanny, taught us all about where the fruits come from, what they are expected to taste like, how they are beneficial to the body, and how to pronounce their names correctly (I'm working on it!). We tried them as fruits, juices, and even one as a yogurt drink. We found a few new favorites, found one or two we would pass on, and had a really fun, educational, delicious night with our fellow classmates and instructors. 

What a great night! Granadilla, maracuya, and aguamanto were new, delicious finds!

We had a sort of routine Wednesday, but Thursday was full of all sorts of excitement! After school and a huge, delicious lunch with our host family, Frank and I returned to the police station with a location ping and a conversation we had with the guy that has my phone to see if they could do anything with it. Well...we ended up in the back of a police car, heading to the location of the last ping! The police pounded on a few doors and talked to some people...no luck, but holy cow, I can't imagine they would have brought us along in the U.S.! Then they basically provided us with a taxi service to a store we were headed to to buy a gift for our host mum! Again, would this happen in the U.S.? The store, a jardineria or plant store, was amazing and when we didn't see the perfect gift ready-made, we got some help from the shop keeper and she made our perfect gift in minutes! From there, we headed to a market ("mercado") to get Frank's sunglasses screw replaced. 45 minutes and at least a dozen different screws tried later, the glasses were back together and the lady told us "no cost." She would not take the equivalent of $1.25 (5 soles) and finally let us give her the equivalent of $0.75. The majority of the people here are simply amazing! 

Riding with the police before we got a nice gift made up for our host mum.

Friday we said goodbye to a few classmates that are moving on, Katreina and I shopped for sun protection and snacks for our weekend trip, as I reluctantly started shopping for a phone. We are thankful for our local Bodega that has all we need for a big dinner (including wine) for $11 and the nice big kitchen we've had for the past 2 weeks.

We have really loved meeting other students from around the world!

But Saturday...we went to Rainbow Mountain! Holy hell, the altitude (5036m at the top of the viewpoint!) about killed me, but it was so worth it! It was foggy as we hiked up the mountain (and there were a few snowflakes here and there!), but the fog cleared just as we got to the top and we had a spectacular view! It was actually very pretty as the fog rolled back in, too! We had time and a burst of energy so Frank and I opted for the additional trek to the Red Valley viewpoint while the kids took their time going back down the mountain. It was amazing! It may have even topped Rainbow Mountain for us. Our photos don't fully capture the amazing views (or how out-of-breath this 40-something asthmatic chick was), but it was a breathtaking experience and I'm so glad we went. We spent a little extra money and went with a tour company that picked us up at 0300 and got to the mountain super early and after seeing the massive crowds while we were on our way back down, we would absolutely say it was worth it. Their bus, meals, and guides were spectacular as well, so we would definitely recommend Rainbow Mountain Travels. 

La Montaña de Siete Colores and Valle Rojo...simply stunning!

I also rejoined the modern world Saturday with the purchase of a new phone. I would still love to get my old one back from the jerk that stole it (and who continues interesting techniques to try to get me to unlock it), but I need to move on.

And today, we moved! This is a bittersweet change for us as the move will drastically reduce the amount of time we will spend commuting to school, but will also move us out of a very big, comfortable home with a wonderful family. Our new place is different, but also very unique and I think we will love it! Our family has two rooms in a building that has been used as a hostel before but is now a family home. We are right in the heart of old Cusco, but it seems peaceful with bubbling garden features and the kids seem happy with their space. Our first meal with the host family (sisters!) was really yummy and relaxed and made me feel a little better about the move. Can't wait to see what our new weekly routine will be!

Maria and her family were wonderful hosts! We will miss them!

Our new place is also with a host family!

We also decided to go to “El Gran Circo de la Familia Madrigal,” a cirque-esque Encanto-themed show. It was in something like a school gymnasium but it was really good! The performers were daring and performed their stunts without any sort of safety gear. The real treat was seeing the local families out for a fun show! (Oh, and I guess I should mention the pre-show entertainment of me tripping and falling/rolling onto the road in front of traffic...pretty sure it's going to leave a bruise or two!) 

So many surprises in this cute show!

So we are ready to start week #3! Trent is moving "up" into Frank's Spanish class this week and we are very excited to see how our new routine works for everyone. And of course, we are making some plans for next weekend! 

~Jo, Nomadic Momma

Today's lesson...

...keep your dang phone under wraps!

Yep, my phone was lost or stolen today on the way to school. I'm an idiot, no need to remind me of all of the "how to protect your phone" tips that you have as I've already gone over them. Suffice to say, I'm pissed, but mostly at myself as the family's main photog. So...no photo with this post! Police have the serial number and we are keeping an eye on FB Marketplace. It's just stuff, so...moving on!

We had a few other bits of "meh" news about some of our travel plans today, too. But...WE HAVE WATER and WE HAVE HOT SHOWERS AGAIN! Our amazing host family replaced our instant-heat shower head today and three of us have verified that it works. And our host mum gave me a big hug when I clearly wasn't taking all of the hits well at lunch today. 

So, that's that. It's not all cocktails and beautiful views here, either, but we are making the best of it. (Sips wine.)

~Jo, Nomadic Momma y mujer muy distraída

Cusco: Week 1

Greetings from Cusco! We arrived here a week ago and have sort of found our rhythm.

For our 8-week stay in Cusco we are doing a homestay where we live and dine for two meals a day with a local host family. We have a pretty unique living situation as we sort of have our own apartment on the bottom floor of the family home, complete with three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom and shower, and a washing machine (better than boat life!). En español...nuestro apartamento tiene tres dormitorios, una sala, una cocina, un baño y una ducha, y una lavador! Some things about homes in Cusco:

• They don't have heat. Our place gets really cold sometimes and we tend to pad around in coats and socks and wrap up in lots of wool blankets.
• The tap water isn't safe to drink. You must boil the water before drinking it (pretty easy with our setup). 
• There isn't hot water. You want to wash the dishes with hot water? You need to boil it. The shower? It's an instant-heat shower head that doesn't always heat consistently and you absolutely cannot touch it when the breaker for it is on and the water is flowing or you WILL get shocked (ask us how we know!).
• Speaking of water...you might not always have it. This weekend our neighborhood was short on water and it impacted Frank's shower and breakfast. 

But...we have great wifi and cable, plenty of room to do school, and a really sweet host family! The home is in the suburbs so we aren't right in the thick of touristy old Cusco (but our school is), but we are experiencing middle-class Peruvian life.

Our home is pretty great (albeit COLD!).

The weekdays start at 0650 with breakfast with out host mum and then we are off on a 35-40 minute commute via foot and public bus each way to Amauta Spanish School for four hours of class. School is legit and we are finding ourselves challenged and learning. We rush back for lunch with our host family at 1300 and after that the kids get to work on their "normal" school subjects. It's really a busy and exhausting time for us all, but we are adjusting our homeschool schedule to try to make it a little more fun for everyone. In the evenings we usually just head out into the surrounding neighborhood for dinner as it's pretty affordable to eat out (we spend $20-$40 US for amazing dinners with cocktails/beer and an app).

Our school is in the San Blas neighborhood in the heart of old Cusco and we all love our instructors. The busses to get there are usually crammed for at least half of the ride in and it can be an adventure to get on and off and pay!

Outside of school we've had a little fun, too! Our school hosted a welcome dinner Monday and a Lomo Saltado cooking class on Thursday so we went back into the city for both of those. While our crew is the oldest and youngest of the students this week, we have really enjoyed hanging out with our fellow students (Katreina even met a girl from France to chat with!). We started the weekend at the local mall as we wanted to see what suburban Peruvians do on a Friday night and we needed to get Trent a raincoat since his was somehow misplaced between the US and here. It was pretty much a normal mall experience--there were even some recognizable stores!

Welcome dinner and Lomo Saltado class with our schoolmates! Trent was one of the chefs!

Friday night in the 'burbs.

We decided to spend some time Saturday in the busy, touristy city center of Cusco. Wow, lots of folks trying to sell you stuff (like it's very hard to sit on a bench and just have a conversation), but it was also some fun people-watching and the architecture around the main Plaza de Armas is lovely. We toured the Museo Inka for some Incan history, had an awesome lunch in the San Blas neighborhood, walked through the local food market, and picked up our tickets for how we will leave Cusco in 7 weeks (more on that later!). Then we decided to walk all the way home (about an hour) via some new streets and we found more local markets, a weekend market in Tupac Amaru Square, and the soccer stadium that we will be going to later today for a game! 

Plaza de Armas and Museo Inka.

Walking through San Blas and Wanchaq areas.

We have been trying street food, experiencing lots of new dishes with our host family, and generally doing well. The next three weeks will be just like this one for the most part...school, school, a little afternoon/evening/weekend touristing, and hopefully a lot of learning and fun!

~Jo, Nomadic Momma

Greetings from Peru! First stop--Ollantaytambo

¡Viajemos de Estados Unidos a Perú! ¡Estamos aquí!

Our new chapter began last week with a sweet ride to the airport in my SIL's Tesla, a flight from Baltimore (BWI) to Atlanta (ATL), an overnight flight from ATL to Lima (LIM), and a morning flight from LIM to Cusco (CUZ). Our one checked bag full of school books even made it! We easily caught a taxi in Cusco for the 1.5 hour drive to Ollantaytambo (cost was 200 soles, which was what we were told was a reasonable price and at ~$50US, I'd have to agree).

Less than 24 hours of travel door-to-door...a little sleepy, but feeling good!

Why was Ollantaytambo our first stop? A few reasons...flights were cheaper mid-week than on the weekend and when you're traveling with four people that really adds up, we had the time, fellow cruising/traveling friends had recommended a few days there (thanks, Rae Lynn!), and at 2000' lower than Cusco we figured it would be a good place to acclimate! We booked an inexpensive room in an AirBnB (with breakfast) for four nights and had absolutely no plan other than to show up and see how we felt. 

At only $54/nt (including all fees) this was a great stay and breakfast was yummy!

Wednesday | The first day we decided to find some food, no matter how touristy the place, and take a quick walk around before naps. That ended up working out great as we had amazing food and Pisco sours at Inka's Tower and found our room to be super cozy! It is a small, very walkable town with lots of tourists coming and going as there is an archeological site and the train to Machu Picchu right in town, but also lots of farming and local workers about. I immediately started to have a little crush on this town. We ended the day with an amazing dinner at Restaurante Pizzeria Mijunapaq! 

A great first afternoon in Peru!

Thursday | On our first full day in Ollantaytambo we decided to hike the trails around the Pinkuylluna archaeological site. This site is free to visit and has many remains of a hillside Incan storage facility. It's steep, but the views are worth it and we were able to take our time and see how we felt (at 3350m elevation!). After that, we walked around town a bit more and stumbled upon a trail to another archaeological site, Quelloraqay. This one was great because we got to walk through the active, terraced farms just outside the town to access it. We also found the 5 sole meat-on-a-stick vendor, and the boys liked it! (We would later find out there was another girl that sold them for 2 soles and they were just as good!) Next stop as we wandered around town...the Cuy House! Cuy, or guinea pig, is actually normal food in these parts. We visited the Cuy House to learn about how they are raised for consumption (only 5 months until they can end up on a plate!), and the boys booked a dinner there to try it out. I mean, if you're going to try it, you don't get much more farm-to-table than that! We vegetarian gals opted for a girls night out of our own. The verdict on cuy--Trent gave it a 2 out of 10 and seems a bit traumatized by the experience, whereas Frank said it was gamey and while not bad, not something he'd repeat given the other amazing food here.

Majestic Pinkuylluna

Quelloraqay

The Cuy House, the cuy dinner, and the girls' reaction to seeing that pic of Trent's dinner.

Friday | Since we were all feeling great we decided to take on the full circuit of the Ollantaytambo archaeological site. We spent a few hours here traversing what used to be a pretty large Incan city and then on a whim decided to grab a taxi and head out to the Salineras de Maras and Moray archaeological site. Our taxi driver Rodolfo was awesome and told us about the different local areas as we passed through them. Ok, I kind of like sampling local salts so this was a fun day for me, but the Salineras de Maras are just massive! And they were actively harvesting salt from the beds by hand while we were there. I just loved it. Then we went down such a rough road that I felt bad for our driver to arrive at Moray, an ancient agricultural laboratory on a grand scale. By then end of the day we were simply overwhelmed by the massive construction works undertaken by the Inca. We got back mid-afternoon and hit up the vendors by the municipal market (i.e. local) for some street food snacks (food for all of us for 11 soles) before heading back to our cozy inn to wash the hours of dust away. Trent got to choose our dinner place after his cuy experience!

Ollantaytambo

Salineras de Maras. Such an extensive, active operation, and all fed by a mountain spring!

Such a cool agricultural laboratory.

Street food!

Saturday | We stayed local for our last full day in this special town. Three of us hiked Pinkuylluna again and found a hidden trail at the base of the mountain. We had lunch at the municipal market amongst the locals (great food for very little money!), had some fresh squeezed juice, and shopped for some wool items in the market. While the kids went to an awesome bean-to-bar chocolate experience at the Coco Museo, the adults headed to the Cervecería de Valle Sagrado taproom for some really good beer, then we took a walk down a road heading out of town to see a new area. We were beckoned back by the sound of music and found a political parade in full swing! Local elections are in early October and campaigning is very active. For our last night here, we opted for a big, delicious meal on a terrace overlooking the Plaza de Armas. The food was just amazing (just ask Frank how great the veggie skewer is!) and we loved watching people come and go. 

A last little bit of hiking for 3/4 of the crew.

Lunching like locals is definitely the way to go (and we shopped!).

Chocolate, beer, and the bad-ass, rock-wielding wife of an Incan leader, Ñusta Kura Oqllo.

A last night out in Ollantaytambo and dinner at La Serranita.

Sunday | But wait, there's more! We had Rodolfo pick us up from our hotel and drive us out to the Pisac archaeological site. This site is massive and there are many options for how to visit it. We opted for an almost 3-hour hike past the popular Pisac Q'allaqasa (citadel) at 3514m above sea level, to a "mirador" over the old and new city 3517m, through a tunnel, down to Into Watana, to an overlook of Pisaqa (the old town), then back up to the base of the citadel before stopping by a few more ruins on our way out of the park. Holy cow, we covered some vertical and horizontal distance on a hot day, but WOW, that place it just too sprawling to really explain. I hope the pictures do it some justice.

A long, steep, hot hike, but sooooo worth it to explore this ancient town and its sprawling farmlands.

And after a quick stop for empañadas in Pisac were arrived in Cusco. We are currently staying in one floor of a family's home and we join them for breakfast and lunch. Our host, Maria, took us into town to see where the school is and we should be ready to go. We will have to get used to the quirks of water and public transportation in Cusco, but hope to report some good times (and lots of Spanish speaking!) soon!

~Jo, Nomadic Momma