Week 3, Part 2: Protests and More Incan Ruins

Thursday, June 17, there was a nation-wide protest against the gas crisis in Peru.  According to my understanding, Peru sells the oil that it refines to Mexico, who then sells it back to Peru at a higher price.  The Peruvian citizens boycotted gas that day and protested in the main courtyards of the cities across the nation.  As a result, there were virtually no cars on the streets of Cusco that morning.  It was eerily quiet as we walked to school, since usually the cobblestoned streets with clogged with taxi cabs whose drivers honk and scream with regularity.  Our professors told us that taxi-drivers were forced to abandon their jobs that day, or risk having people throw rocks at their cars. 

That afternoon when Jennie and I came home for lunch, we met a mother and son who were traveling the country and going to stay in a spare room in our house.  Michael and his mother were Americans from California who having one last adventure before Michael was to start school in the fall. 

(From left) Senora Marcela, me, Jennie, Margret, Michael, and Fernando.

After lunch, Jennie and I went to Norm's pub off the Plaza de Armas to watch the France v. Mexico World Cup match, then we went home and studied, talked to the new boarders, and went to bed.

The currency from many different nationalities, posted on the wall at Norm's Pub.

On Friday we went to the Cross Keys after class to watch the U.S. v. Switzerland World Cup match.  That afternoon, after lunch, a small group of us walked through the local markets, including El Molino, the "grey" market of Cusco, according to our host brother, Fernando.  El Molino carries aisle after aisle of pirated movies and CDs, and imitation name brand clothing and shoes.  After El Molino, we caught a taxi to a private Rockhurst salsa class.   Our group of 28 crammed into a teeny, tiny room with hardly any elbow space and proceeded to try to salsa.  I learned quickly that I shouldn't consider a future career in salsa dancing.  Our salsa instructors, Carlos and Paco, put the "bad" salsa dancers in the back of the room.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to catch a tour bus to go to the Sacred Valley.  On our way to the Sacred Valley, we stopped in Pisac, the old agricultural ruins outside of Cusco.  The ancient Incans were highly innovated in the sense that they were able to design ways to farm, despite the fact that they lived in the mountains.  Pisac features layers and layers of flattened terraces that allow for farming and irrigation.  

The agricultural terraces of Pisac.

As we continued on our journey, we stopped at a cliff that overlooked the Sacred Valley of the Incans, after which our group stopped at a local restaurant and had an authentic Peruvian meal of Quinua soup, chicken, and potatoes.  

Jennie, Jamie and I overlooking the Sacred Valley.

fter lunch, we stopped by the ruins of Ollantaytambo, the closest Incan ruins to Machu Picchu.  It was at Ollantaytambo that the Spaniards heard misleading rumors of gold in the opposite direction, so they turned around and failed to discover Machu Picchu for another 400 years.  As the sun began to set, we made one last stop in the small village of Chinchero, where we sat in on a textile demonstration put on by a young Peruvian woman who was educated in English.  Then we hopped back onto our tour bus and went back to Cusco.

The majestic mountains of Ollantaytambo.  the Incans built food storehouses in the mountains to hold winter rations.