Cuzco-topia!

We arrived in Cuzco after a 22-hour bus ride, of which we will spare you all the details but suffice it to say hairpin turns on a double decker bus through the Andes at night=slightly terrifying and the bus ran out of puke bags (with Cate using 8 of them). Definitely broken in on the travel front, we got a taxi to the office of Maximo Nivel, the organization with which we are volunteering. Brian (apparently his real name), a baby-faced 19-year-old local who worked in the office greeted us, showed us around Maximo Nivel, and then bustled us into another taxi to take us to our homestay. We were greeted by a lively and welcoming Ana Maria. She was rocking some cute jeans and yellow converses, and took us up the 4 flights of stairs to her apartment she shared with her father (who speaks no English) and her shy 19-year-old son. She has the quick laugh of a gossiping school girl but the caring maternal instinct of a Peruvian mother.

She stuffed us with a homemade 2-course lunch and insisted we rest, as we must be exhausted from the bus ride and the altitude, while she ran off to the Lima vs. Cuzco soccer game. The abuelo gave us our keys to the apartment and made us practice using them to make sure we understood, showed us how to use the shower (only use the one knob and only turn it very slightly if you want hot water), and showed us to our nice little attic room on the third floor of their apartment. After a hot meal and walking up 2 more flights of stairs at an altitude of 11,000 feet we were both ready to pass out. I ventured out to find an internet cafe for a while and then we both crashed out hard underneath the weight of the 6 wool blankets on our beds. We were roused a couple hours later so Ana Maria could show us how to get the bus to Maximo Nivel in the morning. We pushed our way onto a crowded, glorified van as she pointed out the best pizzeria in Cuzco, what areas to avoid, and where to get money. Once we made it to Maximo Nivel we couldn´t find any taxis back because of the soccer game crowd so we learned how to walk back. We met up with her boyfriend, Dante, who is a doctor along the way who came back and had a light dinner with us. They have a cute teasing relationship and between our Spanish and their English had a pleasant conversation. After dinner we retreated to our attic room, Cate took a hot shower to wash ´the bus´off, and we happily unpacked somewhere for 2 weeks.

In the morning after a breakfast of rolls, jam, and coca tea and my failed attempt at a hot shower, we found our way back to Maximo Nivel for our 10am orientation. We met the rest of the incoming crowd of volunteers from Australia, US, Canada, etc, got a welcome packet, and a presentation about general guidelines/info. I had to take a slightly daunting Spanish placement test, and we found out when we started our projects. Cate was going to her´s that afternoon, and I would start mine in the morning. Maximo Nivel actually started out at as an English school for Peruvians. They started teaching street children for free and then kept adding more and more volunteer projects. (More on our projects in a whole separate post, don´t you worry!)

We were still a little disoriented after our orientation but chalked that up to the Peruvian way and figured it would all become clear in the next day or so. We got to know one of the other volunteers, Sam, who is a 4th year med student from Oregon and the three of us found a cute cafe with delicious sandwiches for lunch. After lunch Cate got ready to head to her project, and Sam and I decided to explore the town. We walked to the Plaza de Armas or the Plaza Mayor which is flanked by 2 rather impressive churches and also has a McDonalds on it in whose bathroom I got to ´revisit´ my lunch. (Hoping the Revenge of the Beefhearts is only a trilogy!) We wandered up past the plaza to the artist area and got a good view down on the Plaza del Armas and town, as Cuzco is build cascading down the hills surrounding it.

We headed back to Maximo Nivel to meet up with Cate after her project orientation at a home for abused girls where she aparently through speaking Italian and gesturing had promised to make chocolate chip pancakes with them the next day! We stopped back at home for a quick dinner and then headed to a cute British pub for Maximo Nivel´s weekly trivia night. We met some more of the volunteers,including some intrepid recent high school graduates, and managed a 3rd place finish. We called it an early night though and hopped a taxi to home and to bed.