The Rain in Spain...

Hi everyone,
I´m starting to think Sunday´s a good day for posting since I tend not to have too much else on so I´ll probably stick to this day to share my latest adventures with you - not that I´ve got that much longer left before I finish this job!

On Monday I had my normal work schedule followed by Spanish class. We had a couple of new students joining us including another German student and a lass from Japan - it´s great to get such a mix although it´s a little funny now hearing the Cypriats disscusing things in Greek on one side and the Germans on the other while the rest of us stick to English and Spanish.
After class I met up with the regular Friday night pintxos group for dinner since one of the girls was going back to the US. We had a nice evening and I had a good laugh watching most folk struggle through the giant burgers on offer at the bar we ate at - literally the burger was about the size of the dinner plate and stood a good five inches high! I kept to a plate of chips since there were no other veggies to share one of these giant sandwiches with but I was happy enough with that.

Waiting next to this guy outside the Guggenheim for the rest of our group

Not a whole lot happened on Tuesday as I spent the majority of my work time just trying to get Isa to speak/play with me but I got a good amount of studying done in the afternoon and spent some time getting a few more things organised for Uni this year. I also had to order a new pair of shoes since my 4 year old baseball boots decided to split right around the back of the heel - typical that they waited unitl I was away to do this,

It seems Isa decided she was happy playing on Wednesday and we spent a good part of the morning playing and blowing bubbles in the garden while the cats tried to catch them - it´s days like this when I really enjoy my summer job,
By early afternoon the weather had changed so it was a rather cool walk to the metro for class. It turned out the two Cypriat girls were finishing their lessons that day so we said our goodbyes at the end an extra interesting lesson where we got to look at some other Spanish speaking countries in South America.
In the evening I had a phone call from the other half which was great but as always left  me missing home a little more than usual.

Bubbles in the garden 

Rain and a cold wind on thursday meant swimming lessons weren´t an option but since it would have been the teacher´s last day before he went off to study in Chile he came by for a quick visit and to say goodbye which was pretty nice of him.
My afternoon was spent doing some online research and starting to plan things for getting work when I get back to the UK in just over a month.

Friday was still a bit cold and damp and it seemed Isa´s mood corresponded to the weather for most of the morning. My knees were also pretty stiff from the change in weather so it was pretty quiet on both sides.
I spent a fair bit of time in the afternoon trying to repair my shoes until the new ones arrive - sewing through the canvas was easy enough but stiching onto the rubber edging was something I´d want to do again anytime soon - stabbed by self with the needle far too many times - however it seems to be holding ok.
Later in the afternoon everyone piled in the car, Chinese teacher and her kid included, and went to get a meal out. As the teacher was heading off on holiday at the weekend it was sort of a ´have a nice summer´ meal which was a nice idea. Unfortunately the ´restaurant´ of choice was a rather well known American fast food chain which I won´t eat in so I sat and waited while the kids ate until it was time to go and meet my friends for pintxos.
We had a good night out and after spending some time with one of the new girls in my class and another new student from Norway I rejoined the usual group. Seeing a couple of lads who clearly weren´t Spanish standing nearby one of the lasses decided to bring them into the group and I had to laugh when we dicovered they were actually from Newcastle! They stuck with us for the rest of the evening but when everyone else decided to head off to a club in the same direction as my metro station myself and the two geordies were apparently walking too fast and ended up losing the rest of the group - oops. Instead I went home as planned and the two lads headed off for food.

Making paella - that pan´s about 2 foot wide!

On Saturday there was a big paella festival in Getxo that Emma was going to with her friends and I was invited to come along with them. It looked pretty grey once again and was apparently only 22 degrees so I went out with jeans and a shirt. Typically the weather had totally changed by the time I got there and although I had a vest top under the shirt I could wear I was stuck with the jeans.
Now, I assumed the festival would be a bit like a mini local fair and while the main focus would be the paella competition there would also be the Spanish equivelant of best jam and cake bakes - I was totally wrong. Instead it seemed that groups of people had pitches spreading all over the field where they would cook their paellas on campfires while loud, drunk fiesta-goers roamed around to the sound or various stereos blasting out the latest and greatest tunes from Spain, the UK and the USA - not a single jam jar or potted plant in sight.
We had a good time and although I still find it a little odd to be hanging out with 17 year old Spanish kids we had a good laugh and we all got a bit of launguage practice in too.
We ended up eating out with Emma and Adam´s dad instead of at the fiesta since Emma´s boyfriend was doing the first proper meet-the-dad-day. The food was great with prawns and salad and such, and allow I proved I´m still hopeless at fish it was a really good meal and a nice break away from the heat of the afternoon sun.
My friends from class had planned on meeting me at the fiesta in the afternoon but ended up not coming so after a little more time hanging out with Emma and her friends they split off to find the fluorescent paint everyone seemed to be covered in while I walked back to Sopelana. By this point I´d gotten a bit burnt, not having expected the change of weather but it was a nice walk back along the coastal path.
That evening I had a good long chat with my friend Courtney back home - talked a little about what we´d do when she came out to meet me in Barcelona and after that I had an early night.

Today´s been pretty quiet so far since I´ve mostly been studying and reading.

Well that seems to be all for now anyway - I´m off to read a little more of my book.
I´ll be writing again soon but in the meantime just a little reminder to check out my Facebook page where I sell all the knitwear I make back home. There´s a load of items still for sale and available while I¨m away and I´m taking orders for new items for when I get back to the UK in September. The page is:
 https://www.facebook.com/driftinggipsyswoolcraft

Some of the items I make over on my Drifting Gipsy page

Thanks guys.
Ciao for now!

Machu Picchu!!

Hi everyone,
a day late again I know but I only got back from Machu Picchu last night!!

So this whole week has been pretty jam packed and I don´t have that much time online but I´ll do my best!
After I finished writing my last blog post we all went up to Saqsaywaman - an archaeological site just above the city of Cusco. It was pretty impressive seeing the size of the structures and had an amazing view over the city. We stayed up there until it started getting dark, admiring the view before heading back to the city for Indian food in this great place Jimena and I found last time I was in Cusco.

Saqsaywaman - funny name I know

The following day we had some errands to run first like buying our ticket for MP and organising Heather´s friends Haley and Charlie´s flights, but after that we took a bus out to the Sacred Valley. After a quick bit of food and a look around the market we got a lift up to the top of the valley and from there we went exploring.
The ruins at Pisac were again really impressive. It was great cause we got to walk all the way along the ridge looking at dozen of ruins along the way, and bonus, we were practically the only people there!
After about a 10km walk we arrived back in the village of Pisac where we started and got a quick snack before catching a bus back to Cusco.
We found a nice little pizza place and decided to stay out a while after, resulting in a trip to one of the local nightclubs where we got in for free and met our friend Carlos from Villa Carmen.

Adventuring in Pisac

Wednesday morning got off to a bit of a slow start after the late night and even once we were up and about it took us forever to find breakfast - my favourite place was closed for New Year and it took us an extra 20 minutes wandering about to find anything else. After all that effort we decided to head back to the hostel and hang out there for a while, though we dropped Heather off at the internet cafe en route.
After a couple of hours there Haley and Charlie decided to head to Qorikancha - an interesting Inkan temple/Spanish Convent - and Heather showed up with Blair just in time to join them. I stayed behind having already visited but hung out with some new friends in the hostel instead.
That lead to me missing out on meeting the group for dinner because more and more hostel people appeared and suddenly it was party central. There were quite a few people staying for the New Year including a crowd of cyclists and a couple of guys with motorbikes and we had an awesome time hanging out. There was a great couple from Devon who I loved talking to and I´m kind of sad I didn´t get their contact details before they left.
Anyway, we took a break to go get Chinese food and all stayed up for the fireworks at midnight. At that point folk started splitting off to go to bed but a small group of us decided to walk up to the house of one of the bikers who actually lives in Cusco. It was an awful walk but we had a great time with the guy and I enjoyed hanging out with the 5 dogs he had there too!
At some point we headed back down to the plaza but it was really expensive to get in anywhere so we eventually decided to call it a night.

New Year´s day, as expected got off to a pretty slow start, we´d only really finished breakfast at the time we were supposed to check out. We also had another food fiasco, when the ´reasonable´looking place we found took our order once, waited almost an hour, double checked the order, then still hadn´t served us almost 45 minutes after that. For the first time for all of us we walked out without getting our food. However shortly after we found a really nice place with short serving time, nice atmosphere, and great food!
About two minutes after walking out of the restaurant we got caught in an awful hail storm, which left rivers running through the streets and all our shoes! We gave up our idea of a walk and tried to find coffee but had no luck there either and ended up back at the hostel cold and empty handed.
After sitting around there for a while we decided to finalise our Machu Picchu plans. Heather, Blair and I decided we would travel by buses and walking, while Haley and Charlie decided to get the train the following morning for Charlie´s birthday.
At 8pm our group headed for the bus. which left around 9pm and arrived in Santa Maria around 2am. From there we got a taxi to Santa Teresa arriving around 3am. Since we didn´t want to hike the rail line in the dark we found a clean spot in the Plaza and settled down for a couple of hours rest.

Walking in to Aguas Calientes

In the morning it was up first thing (since I doubt we would have been allowed to sleep in the plaza much later) and we got a collectivo to the Hydroelectric station. From there it was a two hour walk along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes. It was a pretty nice walk and we made good time. We also found a pretty reasonable hostel when we got to the town which had been a bit of a concern.
We waited for Haley and Charlie to arrive before getting food, exploring and running a few errands - like getting snacks for the big day.
By the time we´d finished getting organised it was time for food again, which we followed up with a couple of drinks in this really cool reggae bar we found. Unfortunately the guy had never even heard of Bunny and the Wailers but the place had a great vibe and we got to chill out and play a couple of games of pool before bed.

At the Sun Gate

The big day. We didn´t get up as early as planned but it didn´t really matter. After coffee we caught the bus up to the entrance and without wasting too much time we hiked straight up to the Sun Gate. What an amazing view! I remember very distinctly as a little kid, I was 9 years old and at a regular Girls Brigade night, we were asked what our big dream was for when we grew up, I instantly said travel and when prompted answered that I most wanted to go to Peru, especially to see Machu Picchu. It was a very surreal, and quite an emotional experience the 11 years later, I was finally there.
We spent a good half hour just sitting looking out at the view before walking back down to do the real exploring. It´s impossible to really describe how much of an amazing place it is, the location, sheer size and magnificence of it all. Instead you´ll just have to check out the pictures and try to imagine for yourself. We spent some time wandering around the site until the rain and hunger finally won out.
Seeing the lines to get a bus back down we decided to chance it and walk back down the mountain instead. It was only about 2km using the steps or 6km on the road but it was pretty steep either way.
Back in Aguas we half crawled our way into the first food place we found - a pizza place with an offer of cheap food and free drink. After consuming 3 family sized pizzas between the 5 of us we plodded back up to our hostel, were I had to quickly gather my things.
Everyone else was staying an extra night but I had to come back to Cusco early as a have a bus to catch down to Lake Titicaca tonight.I decided to treat myself and catch the train which was pretty cool. I was seated next to this 12 year old Columbian kid who´s family were sitting opposite. As soon as they realised I spoke English they told their son to practice his English with me. I didn´t mind though, I learnt a lot about Columbia on that train, and for 12 years old he knew a surprising amount about a number of topics - including Columbian political history!
By the time we all arrived back in Cusco I was told to come and visit them when I make it to Columbia in the future and I was actually gifted a little something for spending my time talking to the kid - that part was a bit weird to be honest but I wasn´t going to refuse.

Machu Picchu!

Anyway, I got back to the hostel last night and have spent most of the day catching up on errands, chilling out and drinking to drink enough tea to drown the cough I can´t seem to get rid of.
Now though I´d better go, must get some food and get everything charged before Lake Titicaca tomorrow!!!

ciao

Comiendo en Cusco

Hi everyone,
I know I'm late once again but there have been problems with the internet....again.

Last week was pretty quiet and I spent practically all my time working through samples for the larvae project. The only other really funny thing was playing clips of peoples accents in Orkney and in the North East of England (since that's where my family's from) - the best clips where from Radio Orkney and some old clips of Auf Weidersehen, Pet. However the end of the week was much more exciting - Jimena and I headed to Cusco for a few days off.

On thursday we got the bus around 10.30am and after a pretty speedy journey (only 7 hours) we arrived in Cusco and our hostel - Estrellita. It was a nice enough little place and the people there were lovely but it was really noisy on a night with cars coming past beeping their horns all night.
For dinner we met up with a couple of the guys from Villa Carmen who where also down in Cusco. We went to a great pizza place called La Bodega and the food was amazing - unfotunately the rich cheesy pizza disagreed with my altitude-effected stomach so I only got a couple of slices but it was so worth it!

The following day we headed over to San Pedro market for a little shopping - Jimena to stock up on chocolates and I needed to get an extra jumper to combat the Cusco climate. The trip was a success and I managed to get a lovely alpaca-mix jumper for only 33 soles (£7.20). After the market we chilled out in a nice juice bar near the main plaza and used their wifi for a bit before splitting up.

Incan part of Qurikancha

I headed to Qurikancha - the Temple of the Sun. In Incan history it is the most important temple of the Empire, dedicated solely to the Sun God - Inti. It was an interesting place to visit and to see the variations in architecture between the Incan building and the more recent Spanish alterations, although the set up made it a little difficult to navigate.

The Spanish part of Qurikancha

Next we regrouped and headed across town for a real un-Peruvian afternoon. We went to the cinema. We'd heard about the latest Hunger Games movie coming out so we grabbed some popcorn and fizzy drinks then found our seats. Now the movie in general was pretty awesome visually, unfortunately it turned out to be dubbed in Spanish with no subtitles so I didn't understand a fair portion of the film - though I did get to keep working on my language skills I guess.
After the movie we had to head over to the ACCA office so Jimena could pick up so things for her project then we went back to the project to chill out for a bit.
Eventually our stomachs had just about settled after the mass amount of popcorn but we decided to keep it simple for dinner. We found a chinese restraunt off the plaza behind the main one and settled for wanton soup and spring rolls for dinner.

popcorn anyone?

Saturday got off to a slow start as we actually both managed to ignore the traffic long enough to get a lie in. After a late breakfast (fried egg sandwich) we walked up to San Blas where they have a craft market on Saturdays. We had a good look around and I now have some great ideas for what to get for a few luckily people back home. After that we found this amazing place in the same little Plaza called The Meeting Place where they have delicious Belgian waffles and an extensive coffee selection (including a very yummy hazelnut latte).
We headed back to the hostel very much satisfied with our morning's adventure and spent a good part of the afternoon making the most of the reasonable internet connection by skyping home.
By mid evening it was good time and we opted for Indian (trying to cover yet another foody base). There's a place on the main street with an unlimited Indian buffet for only 15 soles (about £3.80). The food was great, even if we did try our best to avoid eating the rice - our main ingredient back at Villa Carmen). After food we decided that we should grab a couple of drinks as we were heading back to the project the following day. There's a great bar on the corner of the main plaza (Plaza de Armas) called Norton Rats which is run by a motorbike enthusiast. It looked like it could have been a regular pub back in the UK with its dark wood decor, flags and bike raly shirts everywhere, plus dart boards and a pool table. Although we stuck to the local beer (four times cheaper than anything recognisable back home at £2.20) we still had a good time. Jimena made friends with the bar staff - including one little guy who set us up with an almost impossible game of darts - while I got chatting to a group of Dutch expats who now live in Cusco.
By around 11pm we called it a night and went back to the hostel.

Norton Rats bar!

On Sunday morning we got all our stuff together then waited for a new member of the VC team to meet us at the hostel. The girlfriend of one of the current volunteers was coming to visit her and we'd been charged with the mission of getting her there safely.
The bus left at around 11.30 - only an hour later than scheduled - and despite making some strange detour which we had no idea about we finally made it back to Villa Carmen just in time for dinner, followed by an early night.