Hello Friends! This is Siddarth, Ali, and Owen telling you about our Perú experience so far. Our adventures began in Lima where we spent the night at Hostel Las Fresas. In the morning we were treated to a delicious and nutritious breakfast of fruit, bread, and chocolate or caramel spread. As we left the hostel to go to the airport we saw three dogs sleeping on the roof of a neighboring house.

On our arrival to Cusco, as the plane landed, we got a beautiful bird’s eye view of the mountains, after panicking from the fact that we were about to hit them. Once safely on the ground we continued our journey by bus through the town of Cusco and deeper into the Sacred Valley. The up-close views of the mountains and scenery were breathtaking. We passed villages that went all the way up mountain as we continued to our destination at the Hotel Royal Inca in Pisac.

At the Hotel we had some lunch and then got to go exploring the grounds. We found the Olympic sized swimming pool, basketball courts, tennis courts, and much more. Soon we were faced with the hardest task of the day; trying to remember everyone’s name. Siddarth proved to us that he can remember almost anything. After more meeting we headed into town to explore he local market. Since it was a Sunday, people were selling foods such as corn and a variety of intriguing, new fruits. Then, finally exhausted after a long day, we had dinner and then went to bed.

The next morning (today) we woke up and went to the hotel lobby for a breakfast buffet of quinoa puffs, fruits, eggs, drinkable yogurt, and a variety of breads. Then we moved onto more name games and finally began our lesson plans for the upcoming days of teaching. As we began we noticed a member of the group was missing; Luke turned out to be locked in the bathroom. While we waited for someone to come and get him out, he managed to climb out a window.

With the completion of our planning we had lunch and then had some time to relax before our first run or swim. Everyone today ran or swam for twenty minutes to have our bodies get used to working out in the attitude. Afterwards, we were rewarded with warm showers and a trip to the market. Many people bought alpaca sweaters which are extremely soft, warm, and colorful. We also got empanadas from a local bakery which attracted a handful of friendly, town dogs. In order to not have to walk home we rode home in moto-taxis – 3-wheeled motorcycle taxis which drive us around town. Now, after dinner we are having a very competitive ping pong tournament before bed. We can’t wait for tomorrow for our orientation to the school!

Stay classy, Pisac

 

~Siddarth, Ali, and Owen