W.O.W. This weekend was stuffed full of culture, history, fun, more fun, a little pleasure, a healthy dose of entertainment, many amusing antedotes, and a smattering of bonding.
Friday, I taught my first mini-lesson. I was slightly nervous, due to the fact that, 1. I had never met my students before, 2. I had no idea how much english they knew, and 3. I had never taught an english lesson before. Despite my fears that the students would fiercely mock me as my lesson capsized, it actually went realtively smoothly.
Friday night, we all met up in front of the huge church in Plaza de Armas. Although chilly, nights in Cusco are absolutely gorgeous. The churches are illuminated, and the town is buzzing with activity, street vendors, and tourists. We even met children, all alone, selling little finger puppets and handwoven hats with a nearly commanding attitude.
We started off at a small bar in San Blas, where we tried the local drink, the pisco sour. I thought they were alright; the egg white and sugar were a little too much for me. Others drank the local beer, Cusqueña, which is made frome the water of the mountain springs. After listening to a local jazz band with an exceptional saxophone player, we headed to the uber popular Mama Africa, dance club of the touristas cusqueñas . On our way, we were literally bombarded by a group of young men, trying to get us to to to this bar or that club, and stuffing numerous free drink coupons in our hands as incentives. Pulled choaticly in different directions, we managed to grab hold of eachother, and, in desperation, I cried,¨just go wherever they take us first!¨ Against all odds, we ended up at Mama Africa, and thusly twarted the sometimes excessive friendliness of the Cusqueños.
Saturday, Kaitlin, Meghann, and I took a city tour. We started off tour the huge cathedrals, which were stunning in their ornate gold decoration. One church, called the Koricancha, was once an incan temple, dedicated to the sun god. The spanish destroyed most of it, and built a catholic chruch over it; during the last big earthquake in 1950, the spanish temple collapsed, but the incan walls still stand. The incans built earthquake proof buildings, using heavy stones from a nearby quarry, concave and convex shapes in the rocks, and an inclination in the walls. It´s unbeleivable how advanced this ancient culture was.
Next, we went to the famous Sacsayhuaman , pronounced ¨Sexy Woman,¨ and saw the view of Cusco from the top. This was dedicated to the ligntning god, the god of fertility. The biggest stone, a corner in the zigzag shape (again, lightning) of the temple, wieghs over 150 tons! We sw llamas there, too! After that, we made our way to Q'enko, which is the quarry were the incans got most of the stones to build. Here, in a underground room, the incans made thier more important sacrafices to the puma god, god of the earth. There were two types of sacrafices. For everyday sacrificing, the incans slaughtered alpacas, llamas, or other animals. The drained their blood and mixed it with Chicha, the sacred drink of the incas. It´s made of corn and some alcohol. For the more desperate occasions, they celebrated human sacrifices. The sacrifice would get drunk on chicha, and they would cut open her (yes, they were normally women, though only men were allowed to witness the sacrificing rites) chest and pull out the beating hear. My tour guides words, not mine.
Next on the list was Puca Pucara, an old fort much higher than Cusco. The incans would use conches or fire to communicate with Tambomachay, which was our next stop. This was a temple dedicated to the water god, who was very important, because she fertilized Pachamama, the incan mother earth. For what I´ve heard, Pachamama was one of the most important gods. Tambomachay has 3 levels of water fountains, forming a very small pool at the bottom. What is so fascinating about this sight is that, to this day, no one really knows where the water comes from. It hasn´t stopped in over 6 hundred years. According to incan custom, if you drink the water, you live the rest of your life in drunken happiness. Needless to say, each of us took a long draught of the cool, pure, mountain spring water.
Feeling dissappointed at the lack of effect of the magic incan water, we visited an Alapaca factory. The goods were a lot more expensive here, but certified real alpaca wool, unlike the goods that you can find all over the little shops in Cusco. I looked for a sweater for my mom, but was unsucessful.
Grabbing coffee, we met with a large group in Plaza de Armas, and went to an amazing theater production about incan myths, traditional cusqueñan dress, and history. It was captivating and unbelievably beautiful! Afterwards, we went to a traditional restaurant, where I ordered Alpaca meat for the first time in my life. Honestly, it tasted like dry pork. I am looking foward to trying guniea pig, another peruvian specialty. I´m saving that for when my dad comes to visit next weekend... that way he can´t say no. Muahahaha.
Today, I got up and went walking. I felt like I just didn´t know the layout of the city, and that didn´t sit well with me. I ended up walking for about 4 hours though central Cusco, taking in the busy markets, mass at one of the famed cathedrals, the insistant street vendors, and so much more. I really do enjoy this city.
Well, I should get going. I´m meeting a group at El Molino, the huge market in my neighborhood. They have EVERYTHING for really cheap, especially if your haggling skills are up to par. DVDs for 4 sols, CDs for 5, clocks, sunglasses, clothes, electronics, video games, toiletries, anything you can dream up. It´s a lot of fun! After, we are going out to eat. We´re thinking something like pizza... a little taste of home after a long, culture-intensive weekend.
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