Today marks the end of two full weeks for us here in Pisac. We finished our first full week working in the STRIVE center, and saw huge imporvements in us as teachers and in the students. The number of students who attended the STRIVE classes doubled by the end of the week. We all felt so much more comfortable having a few classes under our belts.

Scott, one of our interns, came to Peru this summer hoping to find a puppy to adopt and bring back home. On our morning run on Wednesday, we ran by a litter of puppies living under a piece of plywood. We brought Scott to the puppies, and he adopted our new mascot for the summer and named him Cuzco.

The puppy, only three weeks old, has had a whirlwind of a weekend. We carried him up on our 16 mile hike up “Mount Doom” (we now understand why last year’s interns named it this.) He is most likely the youngest to summit a 14,000 plus foot mountain. What a trooper! It was an incredible day for all of us. For most of us, this was the highest elevation we have ever been. The views were worth the sore calves and sunburned necks.

Feeling very accomplished and exhausted, we treated ourselves to a celebratory dinner. Although the chicken foot in the soup caught us off guard, we still ate like we had never seen food before. Paul even succeeded in finishing half of a chicken. After a great meal, naturally we topped it off with dessert from our favourite bakery, Sophie’s.

With all of that fuel, we headed to Cusco the next morning. We shopped around in the market and wandered around the plaza. We said goodbye to one of our interns after a delicious lunch at a café in the city. Shout out to you Anna, we miss you already! With week two in the books, we are ready and excited to take on week three together in Pisac!