Not all who wander are lost: July 2012

Plaza de Armas - main square in Cusco

I've been in Cusco for about a week now, and I'm starting to feel settled, which feels GREAT. I've started to learn that wearing layers is vital here. It is nearing the end of winter here and in the day it gets up to 70 F in the sun but at night its down to freezing. There's also no heat anywhere, so layering up to sleep is necessary. Thankfully I have several heavy alpaca blankets on my bed and I stay nice and warm. I've also gotten used to buying or boiling water. This was one of the hardest things to get used to since I drink a ton of water. I find boiling water at night helps heat up my apartment a bit, so its a win-win solution.

I found a cute, studio apartment in a nice area of town just a 5 minute walk from the main square. I live on a quiet street next to a police station and just two blocks from one main market area and a supermarket. It's a pretty sweet location. It's also only a 20-minute walk to work, which is all downhill on the way in. I also started work today, and I think I'm really going to enjoy it. This month, I'm taking the TEFL course I'll soon be teaching. The woman who is training me is an excellent teacher, and I'm certain I'll learn a lot from her. There are 11 of us total in the class this month, and everyone seems quite interesting. I'm sure I'll get to know people better over the next few weeks.

View from my host family's house

Host family's neighborhood

The streets here are really narrow

Beautiful balcony and Peruvian flag

Yup, still love doors

Plaza de Armas

Yep, there really are people dressed in traditional costumes wandering through town

Plaza de Armas

This kind of describes the way traffic works (or doesn't at times) in Cusco

There are strikes in town nearly each day. I believe this was about construction workers. The police are standing on the steps of city hall.

Everything in Cusco is either up or down hill

Interesting rooflines

San Blas church

Square in San Blas neighborhood

12 corner rock (in middle) - not really sure why this is significant, but it was highlighted on my map and I happened to walk past it.

Someone said to me recently that the first impressions of a place are the most profound, so I thought I'd share a few of them. My first impression of Cusco was that it is simply beautiful, which I hope you can see in the pictures. After wandering around a lot and several taxi rides in quite old cars on very bumpy roads, I started to get a sense of life here. This is a very poor country, which I knew before I moved here. However, it is something very different to see the disparity between the haves and have nots so blatant every day. It keeps an interesting perspective on life to say the least, and I find myself more and more grateful each day for the amazing opportunities I have (and have had) in my life - including the opportunity to be here. A few words to describe Cusco: happy, stunning, bumpy, gritty, smiles, honking horns, dusty and strikes. I think you'll see some of these things in my pictures - but the honking horns one can't capture. Driving is so hard to explain - but basically there are no rules to the road (or none that anyone follows) and horns are used to pick up passengers, to notify other cars to get out of the way or to go or that you're about to hit them. Really, a horn is a necessary accessory to any car. I'm thinking of getting one for when I'm walking down the sidewalks too.