Week 1, Part 3: Cusco, Chaos and El Cathedral

Saturday morning we began the bus ride to Cusco, the town where we were to meet our host families and attend classes.  We made several stops along the way, including La Raya - the highest altitude point we would meet on our trip.  We also stopped at San Pedro, the Sistine Chapel of South America, according to my travel book.

The spitting alpaca at La Raya.

La Iglesia de San Pedro.

Finally, after dark and after getting lost and held up by construction, we made it to Cusco and met up with our host families.  My friend Jennie and I roomed together with la familia de Marcela Yabar on la calle de San Blaz y Carmen Alto.  Senora Marcela has seven children, but all but one of them live in the United States.  That night, Senora showed us around the neighborhood (it was freezing outside) and then Jennie and I walked to the Plaza de Armas (the center of the city) to find an internet cafe.

Cusco is quite a bit smaller than Lima and is primarily run by tourist-spending, since Cusco is the closest major city to Machu Picchu, one of the seven wonders of the world.  Cusco was the former capital of the Incan empire, but when the Spaniards took over they made Lima the capital because of its easy access to the Pacific Ocean for transportation and resources.

That night Jennie and I settled down into our new living space.

On Sunday, we went to Mass with Marcela at 9 a.m. at the Cathedral on the Plaza de Armas.  The mass was absolute chaos, with children and stray dogs running around and everyone talking over the priest.  The cathedral itself was beautiful with tons and tons of flowers, golden shrines, a pewter alter, and elaborate murals on the ceiling and walls.  Tourists were walking around during the mass and many people were crowded and standing in front of the pews.

For breakfast, Marcela made ham sandwiches with fresh papaya juice, coffee, and large corn kernels called "maito" that Peruvian eat like nuts.

That night a group of us gathered to purchase "Claro" cell phones with add-on minutes so we could all contact each other throughout the trip in order to meet up and in case of emergencies.  Those cheap little cell phones turned out to be extremely invaluable throughout the trip!  After that, we all went to Paddy's Pub on the Plaza de Armas for Cusquenas, fried food, and garlic bread.