We had cooking class and made a traditional Peruvian dish called Ají de Gallina. It was so delicious!
We also learned how to play the Sikuri aerophone instrument, which dates back about 5,800 years ago. It was very nicely played by the professionals, then we had a go at it!
We went out with our host family on Sunday for lunch to a cuyería, which is a restaurant that just serves cuy, or guinea pig. Ours was fried and cut in half. I gave it a try, but I really couldn't get past the thought of what I was eating! I mostly just ate the yummy breaded pepper popover side dish. :) To drink, we had Inca Kola.
Yesterday we went for a breathtaking hike in the Sacred Valley that was organized with our volunteer program. It first took us about an hour and half ride in a big van from where we started in Cuzco, then we arrived and began our hike. The hike took us over bridges, on train tracks, past fields of different crops--all with the mountains in the background. Then we climbed up rock stairs to get to the ruins of an old Incan temple. It was beautiful! After the hike we spent some time at the Cervercería Del Valle Sagrado and listened to some live music. We got back to Cuzco just in time to get some ice-cream at Qucharitas with our new friends, just before they closed. I tried vanilla ice-cream base with bananas and Oreos, and Mike got "the regular," which is a chocolate base with banana, Oreos, and peanut butter. Good stuff! They should have a Qucharitas back in Wisconsin! Nos encanta! :)
So today was supposed to be our first day teaching English to the girlies, but as it turned out, our classroom wasn't quite ready, and we had to prepare it! It was a great day to connect with the girls. and I'm glad it worked out this way, even though I was excited to start teaching again! The girls were such good helpers! We cleaned-up and hung vocabulary words and phrases all around the room. Some of the girls wanted to get a head-start on their English, so they started their notebooks too! One girl, Shakira, learned a silly song about a worm that I taught her too. This is going to be so fun!
We are absolutely LOVING Cuzco! It's so beautiful here, and there's a lot of culture and history. It's also much safer than south Quito where we came from! Our program is also great and we have tons of support! We are working in a girls' orphanage teaching English, doing crafts, dancing, singing, and giving the girls attention and support. We had orientation yesterday, and got a tour of the home and were introduced to the girls. They are just starting to put more structure into the girls' days, so we were asked to teach English every other day and do crafts the other days. We had the girls line up to sign up for English class, and we will have at least fourteen in our class ranging in age from 4 to 13-years-old. Today we did a craft with the little ones, and tomorrow will be our first day of English! I'm excited, but also a bit nervous as can be expected! I'm going to come up with a song and some interactive games so that they can see that learning English can be fun. I hope they will stick with it then!
We are staying in a homestay again too! This is what we really wanted, so we're psyched! Our host mom's name is Gabriela, and her husband's name is Leo. They also have a son who's in his 20's, whom we've yet to meet. Gabriela is a hoot! She's so funny, and calls us her babies! She does speak English a little too well though...not so good for Mike's Spanish practice! It's quite a big place they have; there are seven volunteers they're hosting right now. It makes for a great place to meet people! Two girls that live here actually went to Mount Mary College in Milwaukee...small world!
Yesterday we went on a walking tour of Cuzco. It was a great sunny day, and we learned about some great nearby places. We're close to a lot of things, and there's a lot going on in this city. The first night we arrived, we went out for ice-cream in the plaza with the other volunteers from our house. The plaza is so nice! The ice-cream was delicious too! We got it at this place called Qucharitas, where they make the ice-cream right in front of you. They pour the cream onto this freezing plate, and mix in whatever ingredients you want. I had chocolate cream base, with bananas, Oreos, and peanut butter--Qué rico! The bananas here are so flavorful and delicious! We are really going to miss all of the delicious and different fruits of South America!
These are some of the niñas from San Judas home for girls! Today we did a craft with the younger ones and danced with some of the older girls. :)
Here are a few photos from our walking tour of Cusco yesterday!
The lower part of many of the buildings are original Incan foundations...The Spanish couldn't knock it all down.
Okay, I just couldn't resist holding the cutest lamb on earth!
After volunteering at Río Muchacho organic farm in Canoa, we spent some time on the beach before heading back to Quito. It's a great time of year to visit the beach! We first stayed in Olón, which is a quiet beach town very close to Montañita. We ate ceviche, patacones, thai food, and passion fruit. My favorite part was sipping coconut juice straight from the coconut! Mike took a surfing lesson at sunset in Montañita. He did a great job and got up on his first try! Check out the video. After Olón, we went to Puerto López since my favorite beach, Los Frailes, is right next door. What a beautiful beach and an amazing sunny day! This beach is the top left photo below. We swam and sun-bathed all day, and later realized we were sunburnt and looked like lobsters! Yikes! Then we took the 10-hour night bus back to Quito. We had one more day left in the city before heading to Lima, Peru, which is where we're at now awaiting our flight to Cusco!
What is cuter than a little girl with her kitten?!
We met an awesome couple from Holland and spent a lot of time with them. They cracked us up! We were walking down the street in Olón, and after we passed this house, Jens said, "Hey, why are they cooking that kid?!" They said they learned English from TV!
So Mike and I finally went on a tour of the Centro Histórico in Quito. It was my second time visiting the Basílica, and I actually climbed up the scary steps once again! From the top, it's a great view of Quito and the snow-capped mountains.
La Basílica del Voto Nacional; the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the world
The Panecillo "Vírgen" viewing from the Basílica
You need to walk this plank, and then go up the steepest steps ever!
Being silly!
I was freaked out and was trying different ways to go down the steps!
Volunteering at Río Muchacho organic farm was an amazing and eye-opening experience! It was hard, sweaty, and dirty work! We learned so much in just two short weeks. Each day started at 6:15 am, when we would wake up to prepare the chicken, horse, and pig food. My favorite part was mixing it with my hands! We would also clean out the guinea pig cages, and Mike often had the stinky job of cleaning out the poop from the pig pens. We also happened to be there at a time when there were three litters of baby piglets! One pig gave birth to 15 piglets! They were the most adorable little things, and I can´t believe how fast they grow and get strong! First they were just sleeping and eating all of the time, and then the next day they were all awake and bumping into each other like little bumper cars! There were these three that would sneak out to play around during the day...The "Three Lil´ Pigs." They would run around, and then when they found out you saw them, they would run back to their mommy! The little smarties! The chickens were fun to feed too! I loved watching them burst out of their coupe to eat in a mad dash. Everyday we would also harvest different vegetables from the garden. Things like okra, onions, eggplant, broccoli, yuca, beans, cilantro, etc. So many yummy vegatables, and we would eat them for lunch and dinner! During the day, we often planted new vegetables, watered the others, and did some weeding.
For breakfast every morning we would also have coffee from the farm, and we also made chocolate a few times with the cacao beans from the farm. It was our first experience working on a farm, and now I can´t imagine farming any other way. They have a little eutopia at Río Muchacho. I would definitely recommend it to anyone to go and check it out if you´re ever in Ecuador. I will say I was a bit nervous before going, reading that we would not have flushing toilets and would be sleeping in open cabins. There was a huge spider living with us, and bat that loved to fly around above our heads while we were sleeping, but they left us alone, and the bathrooms didn´t smell half as bad as a port-o-potty. The best part was to see that nothing was wasted. There was no garbage created, and the food leftover was used to feed to the pigs and chickens. One of the owners, Dario, said that poop is the essence of life. Also, a huge thing is to never burn anything. Compost it to make the soil rich! There is still so much for me to learn, but I have definitely been inspired! Lots of veggie eating will be in our future!
On the weekends, different groups would come to tour the farm and we could go with them to experience some fun activities. We made rings out of palm seeds, cups out of gourds, and chocolate sauce from scratch! We also went on a nature walk to this huge ficus tree! Mike climbed very high up it!
We also celebrated New Year´s with the farm. We went to Bahía and saw the fireworks. El Año Nuevo is hugely celebrated all throughout Ecuador. The big thing is they burn big dolls made of paper mache that represent themselves. The burning represents them putting the bads things of the past year behind them. They dress the dolls up with their clothes, and most of them are purchased pre-made with various cartoon characters like minions or Simpson´s. It was a cool tradition! In Quito, the men dress up as widows and walk the streets hehe! The group that we were with also said they usually eat 12 grapes and
make 12 wishes for the next year, except we didn´t have grapes at the
time. We wished everyone a Happy New Year and gave hugs and kisses at midnight. Fireworks were going off everywhere and everyone was dancing!
