Festivus for the Rest of us!

So in the spirit of the season, even though it’s about 70 degrees on a regular basis and always raining, we went on a hiking excursion to find a Christmas tree in the woods way up above our apartment in the area called Villa San Blas. It is to the right of Sacsayhuaman and Cristo Blanco if you are standing in the Plaza de Armas. It was a lot of fun and took a good long while. I still am having some trouble breathing, nothing serious I just get short of breathe fast (shocking considering how healthy I was while back home…) so climbing up the developed side of this mountain was not easy for me. Eventually we got to areas without inclines and found this awesome ruin site. First it was a wall that had been revealed, and we followed it around (it’s in a square shape) to the opposite side and climbed on top of the wall and found some really awesome chairs and various right degree angles carved into the rock debris. It was really cool. After hanging out for quite some time exploring and rock jumping we got down, climbed up some more and found ourselves at the back entrance to Q’enqo, which is another ruin site right outside of Sacsayhuaman. However this one you have to pay to enter, and there was some guy in a jacket who looked like he would stop us if we crossed the line any further into the site, so we turned back, found a cool group of small evergreen shrubs and Terry cut off a nice branch for our Christmas tree. On the walk back we went a different way and I started collecting the pretty dead blossoms off of various bushes. Of course Jason and Terry didn’t really understand what pretty dead was and started to crack jokes about the rotting dead cactus, and would I like that, or the fact that some of the stuff I was cutting off wasn’t quite dead yet… needless to say after some good natured harassment reciprocated with sweet smelling branch beatings there was enough of a collection of tree decorations we started home. It was a really nice relaxing Sunday. We had an early-ish dinner, played cards, experimented with coca tea and pisco then watched Life Aquatic. I decorated the tree today while it rained. Unfortunately it wasn’t the same as previous Christmases. The only Christmas music I currently have on my computer includes: Tom Waits song Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis, and the Neko Case cover of this song; The Kinks’ Father Christmas; Run-DMC’s Christmas in Hollis; the They Might Be Giants album HolidayLand; of Montreal’s Christmas isn’t Safe for Animals; John Prine’s Christmas in Prison; Richard Cheese lounge music Christmas covers (e.i. Christmas in Las Vegas) and then lastly the David Sedaris book on tape of Holiday’s on Ice. But no need to worry! I am currently downloading several different Christmas compilations, as well as the Charlie Brown Christmas album and that Disney Christmas album from the 80s that has been in the Conover household since the dawn of it’s creation (it being either the cd or the household, both work).

So, here is the rundown of what is currently decorating the Asnoqch'utun Alley gringo apartment Christmas tree of 2009: (3) beaded bracelets collected from various Cusco markets; (3) full pairs of earrings: large purple circles, ohm symbols, and cheap silver plated club danglies; (1) Saint Christopher keyring; (1) Buddha earring; (1) broken earring of the red and black seed for good luck from Peru persuasion (the name of which I’ve never been able to understand when told by merchants); (4) strands of blue-turquoise dyed wool; (1) bunch of dying orange flowers; (many) clusters of two different types of dead blooms. This tree is also being held up in and ingenious tree stand compromising of: (1) plant potter currently being occupied by some pretty plant with pink blooms and some grass and (2) several beer bottles with left over dead bloom branches to camouflage.

Unfortunately i can't upload to this website right now, but the pics are all on facebook, so look up that album! LOVE!

xoxo.

back in action.

Having spent a whole two months state-side I’m now back in Cusco! So far the weather has been sun, rain, wind, sun, rain, rain, night. It’s some great thunder storms, but otherwise a bit of a drag. Anyway, after a couple of days I’m back to the old habits of living in a third world country. It’s amazing how you can forget to flush TP, but you don’t forget to not flush it. All of the random food I brought has been much appreciated, Cheese toast is now a part of our daily diets in the apartment! I even rolled some sushi for dinner a few nights ago! It was very yummy (I thought). Then of course the junk food is also being devoured! Oatmeal pies are almost gone, the gallon jug of goldfish has been demolished and I think the slim jims disappeared the second I took them out of my suitcase… I swear this stuff is even better in a place it’s not readily available, and probably healthier for you too… Our days have been very relaxing, pretty much the same routine I had back in VA: staying up late watching movies, waking up in the afternoon, however I’ve been busting my behind to get my resume prefect and look up places to live/work. So far it’s narrowed down to anywhere except: Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela and Brazil. If there are any suggestions, please feel free to share! Otherwise there isn’t much to speak of. The flight here was pretty uneventful. Mom and I drove to D.C. in the middle of the night, I caught my lay over in Panama City, the two flights from D.C. to Lima had more little kids on them than I think I’ve seen on the total of other flights I’ve been on. The first flight had this really cute little kid and his mom sitting next to me, and I was in the window seat. Each time they were asleep the mom would fall into my seat, as would the kid, so I was up against the window trying to give them enough space, but they were really nice, and anything to keep that little 2 year old from screaming was fine by me! When I got to Lima I found my flight to Cusco was 6 am, not pm, so that was fun. But thanks to Grandma Linda I knew of a great little hostel to stay in, and they even gave me a ride the next morning at 3:30 AM to catch my flight. I made it safely to Cusco, and Terry was waiting for me at the airport. And the rest has been nothing but relaxing. Right now we're watching futbol in a pub of sorts, with free wi fi. I'm not sure why we haven't been doing this earlier. Anyway, I'm off! The food just showed up! LOVE!

xoxo.

No more excuses.

Here is the Astronaut at the Nazca Lines, and possibly my next tattoo, which I am thinking about putting somewhere on my scalp....always scheming....
Two crazy girls jamming out in a tiny aircraft. Oh my how we rock it.
The Nazca take on the Tree of Life. I also really like this....hmmm.
This is the oasis of Huacachina, there was some serious paddleboating taking place in this little watering hole. It was quite awesome.
The end of an awesome day. 
So here is the sand angel that I made, VA's is right next to it. We had a whirl wind bus tour of the Southern Coast of Peru, including Nazca, Ica, Huacachina, and then Arequipa. However there was a huge protest going on because of a lot of terrible things happening to people living in the jungle right now because of bad policies and practices of the President of Peru, Alan Garcia, so we were on the bus a lot trying to get back to Cusco and it rendered my three travel companions and myself very sick. We have been coughing for quite a while now and even though it's a hilarious broken record at night, we are all ready to be on the mend. So, back to the pics...This sand angel was left in Huacachina, were we went paddleboating, dunebuggying, and sandboarding. It was such an amazing and fantastic day. Almost worth the flu.
The missing party of our caravan took this pic, but she only managed to capture VA airborne. Drats.  From Left to Right: VA, me, Meagan (my good friend from ASU who came down)
This is in the Arequipa Plaza de Armas, and this is VA and Shannon (my friend from Cusco) rocking out with the pigeons. We suspect they could be the culprits of our sickness. However we TOTALLY cleaned up and de-pigeoned right after we finished feeding...
CHECK OUT THE MOHAWK! I went all the way this time...
Christmas greeting card 2009.

VA and I have had an interesting time together in Cusco. We started off traveling and where stopping in a different town each day, traveling by bus at night to the next stop. We got caught in Arequipa because of protests going on blocking Sucwani and Juliaca (I think I spelled those cities correctly) so we had to back to Nazca and then to Cusco, so there was a period where we were on a bus for 27 hours. It was terrible. After that we all developed a nasty cough and lost all our energy. There were four girls in one apartment completely incapacitated and bedridden. However it was pretty funny to hear the rounds of coughs we would have in the middle of the night. It was like the yawn effect. Once one started you could hear coughs for the next ten or so minutes. Eventually everyone regained enough energy to be able to take short outings around Cusco and fit in some tourist shit. VA and I went to Machupicchu on Tuesday and then these Hot Springs in Santa Teresa, they were very nice and warm after a cold day on the mountain, it was so nice. Machupicchu was beautiful but VERY cold, it was drizzly and foggy, which complements the stone of the ruins so well, it was exquisite. We then walked along the train tracks, hitched a cab ride in the middle of nowhere, and spent a very long time relaxing in these hot springs pools. It was a wonderful and much needed end to the day.  

Arequipaness Round 2

So I know these are really late, but thanks to a huge lack of computer knowledge, I wasn't able to access these photos for quite some time... But now, here they are. The weekend in Arequipa was pretty awesome, and I have been polite enough to exclude the incredible meat department in the Mercado that we went to, but if you feel you have the stomach, let me know, I can send them your way.  Anyway, the fruit section is PG, and wicked, so there's that. It's also a huge bummer that none of these pictures were rotated. I'm not sure why, once again my lack of computer competence steps up. Just tilt your head.  This honkin' plate of food was quite delicious, unfortunately I could only finish two thirds of it. It was two thirds of something closely resembling Patti food, though, which I did not think was possible here! So tasty!
These are the two people I went to Arequipa with, and three Peruvians were nice enough to capture this moment on film.
This is what happens on the nice buses in Peru. At least the smell wasn't bad, but Greyhound has nuthin' on this shit. In addition, at one stop I was woken up to a woman yelling something with a meat cleaver the size of Jay Leno's face hacking away at some enormous cooked leg meat and I thought I was having a nightmare.  I was not conscious enough to ask for a serving before she disembarked the bus, but I heard from others that the meat was quite tasty, and it did smell good.

Mannequien?

So this is what litters the streets of commercial Cusco. Aren't you disgusted about what you are missing out on?  LOVE IT! And I just noticed too there is a little bit of XYZ going on, too.  Fabulous!  

Unfortunately there isn't much new going on, another TEFL party has come and gone, this one a little bit more of a show stopper than the last one.  I sported a llama fur hat like something straight out of Siberia, and sunglasses to boot.  Unfortunately I did not capture this on my own camera, and once I find a picture worthy of this blog, I will try to post it on here. It was quite a fun night, as was the entire weekend.  I tried to hike up into the community above me, Villa San Blas to check out this Temple of the Moon cave labyrinth, however I didn't really know where I was going and got seriously lost, and decided to walk back down so next time I will bring a map or a knowledgeable guide for assistance.  

This is the last week for classes this month, so there is a lot of review and fun games, candy, and then of course, being the holy day that it is, Friday is going to be fan-tas-tic. We are throwing a Iowa Legalized Gay Marriage Party which should be pretty intense, it's costume based, and so far the other teachers I've talked to are really getting into it.  We'll see what really happens, as I will be sure to post all appropriate pictures.  Enough procrastination, I have to get ready for my next class. only three more to go today!  CHAO!

Raise your skinny fists like antennae into heaven (when you hear the siren)

This is the backside of the awesome Senor de Temblores. He is a black saint who, while helping clean the wreckage from the 1950 Earthquake, somehow stopped some of the aftermath tremors. Or something like that.  There were so many people in the Plaza for this parade of the humongous Saint to be carried along the street by a bunch of men, one of which I found out is in my Intermediate 1-2 class at night. Six degrees everybody!  That's hot shit... So anyway, it took an hour for the Saint to move one city block, and then he started heading up into San Blas... We decided to try to duck out, HA!  That was incredible trying to move past people who weren't willing to shift to the side simply because.  It was awesome. And then we met up with some TEFLers, and luckily they were hulks, so we latched onto that band wagon and just mauled the crowd over, including little kids that couldn't stand up in time... muahahahah! 

Suddenly, mere steps from freedom (we were so close we could feel the air and got cold again) these sirens went off and everyone raised their right hand up toward the cathedral, and that was the end of that. Cold and stuck I had an awesome time making faces at the adorable kids resting their heads on their parents shoulders. We finally got free and it was so much fun walking away watching the mass exodus of people, talk about a wave!  

CUY!

So these pictures uploaded backward...Here is my attempt at a Seinfeld episode!

Above is the empty plate of cuy bones and a recoto relleno that I couldn't handle two bites off.  I am a disgrace to the Alves side, I know.  My deepest apologies! 

Below is me biting into one of the first tasty morsels that make up a cuy.  It is choice meat.

Aren't the adorable?!
This is when we were hot on the trail!  By the time they started dumping the cuy fur in the street I knew we were getting close!

Below, the first scent we caught. This only egged on the hunt!