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!

Ollantaytambo!

These are ruins, up close. Interesting that these are the ruins of homes.  Some of the rooms didn't have doors.... 
A CAVE!  We couldn't get very far inside, which was good, because I was starting to get freaked out at this point... Couldn't blow my cool, but I did climb out fast as possible.
Me and my roommate, Amanda. We were the slow pokes of the group for real!
Here is the market and Ruins you pay for.
These are the ruins we scaled a mountain to check out.  It was an awesome hike and a chill moment on the side of a mountain. One of the people in our group brought his Ipod, so we enjoyed a soundtrack with our meditative moment.
Here are the ruinas gratis!  (Free Ruins) of Ollantaytambo.  These were houses for Inca. Below is the Plaza of Ollantaytambo.
I am Queen of the Andes!  Recognize.
The entire time we were here, the clouds were on the mountains, it was so beautiful.  And this is a lower elevation than Cusco.  Ollantaytambo is en route to Machupicchu. There were always bus tours stopping in the Plaza with tourists going to the Ruins you pay for, I'm sure they were on their way to the Mac daddy of Inca awesomeness ruin-style.
This tiny van is called a combi. About 15 people will get crammed into this bad boy without shocks, it's madness!  This particular combi had it's tranny drop on our way out of Ollantaytambo, so we had a second to run and and catch this other bus, it was so fabulously Peruvian. 

International Travel 101...

Since I haven't been putting the ¨party pictures¨ up, I thought this particular party would be a good start. Two of the teachers at Maximo finished their contracts in March, so they threw a going away party at one of the Spanish teacher's restuarants in San Blas. It was themed: Dress as a Crazy Peruvian! So I went out and got this fabulous neon blue skirt with sky blue embroidery, and I'm slightly pissed it did not make it into any of the photos, but don't worry. When I show up in the states I WILL be wearing that bad boy on the regular. So, anyway, with that skirt, bombass tights (from the God of department stores) and that awesome strand of dyed llama fur, I represented.
Above: My friend Shannon, who volunteers for Maximo; and Owen, the tutor for Maximo.
Below: Shannon again, and Gabe, who was my TEFL training roomate and current coworker, and Montse, a fellow Maximo teacher.

Above: Nilten, Montse's boyfriend and my tandem partner (we practice Spanish and English together) Vaila, one of the teacher's leaving, Sally, a fellow teacher, and Amanda, a roomate and fellow teacher. I have no clue who that guy who's sticking his head into the photo is, and am curious as to why he is in the picture....

Below: Owen and I did a trade off, that mask was wicked hot. His sister who was visiting is wearing a llama fur hat that I totally want!

I just really like this picture.

Wandrin' Round

This is the Catedral outside of the San Pedro Market, which has become one of my most favorite places... I just haven't taken pictures inside yet...Don't worry, there is plenty of time for images causing you to become vegetarian! EEK!


The picture above is the alley that my apartment is on. All of the streets are so narrow around here. The street leading to this alley does not have sidewalks.  Below is the street my school is on at 6:30 AM.  Avenida el Sol is normally packed. But it's awesome walking into work when there is no one else around.  It's madness trying to maneuver around Peruvians while walking on the sidewalks, so I take this time to enjoy the little things...

Here are just some pictures taken while walking around Cusco.

Stick that in your beltstrap.

So! Starting off the third week, and I might (shockingly) know enough vocabulary and grammar to be able to teach English to second language learners! Go Heather!!! whoot whoot. But really, my classes have improved greatly since the first week, so if this scale continues exponentially, then by the end of the third month I will be super teacher and have a great relationship with my students. We´ll see if the Inca idea for tomb building and the after life can translate into my job in the here and now. Maximo could be seen by some as a tomb, so it is possible, sí? Funny side-note: I just realized the key I had been using as an apostrophe is IN FACT an accent symbol. The apostrophe is somewhere completely different on the keyboard. One more for technology; God only knows what the score is at now, technology something astromonical, Heather 0... Moving along now. Of course there are enough factors keeping my classes like a roller coaster, it will be good or bad, but never constant. Maybe next month I can be the substitute, that is a lot of fun, just coming into classes and having a good time without having to be planning lame lessons. Granted you don't really build up the rapport with students, but anyway.

(This was Monday) Today marks my first pay day! It's awesome! Granted I'm not sure what my check will be since I hit up the snack bar at least once a day, and my spanish classes are deducted. However I did teach something like 7 extra hours this week. It should equal out...ehhhh.

Saving money is not possible at this altitude, I'm convinced.

I made lentil concoction last night (Sunday)! It was awesome! The spice section at the San Pedro Market was so incredible, I loaded up on cumin, black pepper kerns, fresh ginger, and I threw a little bit of all that into a pot of lentils, carrots, onions, sweet potatoes, and it looked and smelled awesome until the sketch cooking supplies at my disposal started malfunctioning... The pot was way too small for my endeavor, and so things started boiling over and then burning... But it was cooked enough to have a small portion microwaved and eaten. awesome. Nothing comprable to Angus' soups, which I would kill for right now, but it was something that left me nostalgic for home. I wonder how fast the next six months will go by, not that I want them to end anytime soon, but there's such a confusion of time here, I'm not sure how that will take a toll on my mental spirits. I have noticed that the only days to drag by are Mondays and Tuesdays. So if that's only two days a week, for however many weeks are in the six months I shall be working for Maximo.... do the math ... it's not that bad! Whoo hoo.

Bury me here.

Above is the main Inca tomb at the Sullistani ruins site. Below are the ruins from the Colla period.  There were about five different styles of tomb construction here, but two varieties were tombs buried in the ground, so we didn't see those (they were also several miles away) and then there were the Colla, some other group that started with a T that I couldn't pronounce, and last were the Inca.  
Here is a close up of what the outside of the Inca tomb looks like.  There was a lizard etched on the side, the stone that is directly above and to the right of the stone with burn marks on it.  It's a dark stone inbetween two paler stones.  The lizard has the same representation as the snake, they are the underworld animals in Inca beliefs. 

These stones were part of one of the tombs, and they littered the landscape, it was pretty cool. Unfortunately for the kid in me it was not acceptable to climb around on them and act like an explorer or a monkey.  Phooey.

That's supposed to be a skull, it looked very badass next to the huge Inca tomb. Below is the inside of the tomb, The diameter is larger on top than at the bottom, that's because the Incas believed the spirit ascended into heaven, and if you extend the top so it keeps getting wider as it rises, there is a lot of heaven available for the spirit to be a part of.  The previous tomb constructions were the same diameter at the top and bottom, so the deceased was limited to the amount of heaven they experienced in the afterlife.

This island is a national park.
On the way back into Puno we stopped at this home, they had a different building for each "room" and there was a large compound where they had a guinea pig area, and out back there were pigs and more llamas.  Below is the traditional diet, there were two different types of dehydrated potatoes, one kind was just dried and the other they dried after soaking in the river for a long time period.  Apparently if you boil the potatoes for a while they return to whatever consistency they were originally.  There was also this type of clay they used as a flavor, it was really salty, and is added to boiled potatoes for some kick.  It kinda tasted like dirt, but was a soupy texture. They also had some cheese, but that went fast.  It was fun getting a chance to experience what a lifestyle in the middle of nowhere, Peru involves.  The beds were a stone frame with a few reed mats and blankets.  It looked rough.  The kitchen was a nicer area than I've seen in some other places; there was an outdoor oven and then an indoor area for when the weather is bad. This family had really nice pottery, I think the wife made most of it. Overall this compound was more developed than a lot of the ones we passed going to and from Sullistani.