Dias 25, 26, 27, y 28

On Monday (08.02.10) I started my second week of quechua class. This class was probably the best thing I could have taken. Our professor Dany was the coolest guy in all of Peru (and also the tallest). And considering we only had eight days of class, we learned a pretty impressive amount of quechua. Here's a sample of what we learned:

Nuqa kusi kashni. = Yo estoy feliz. = I am happy.
Nuqa khumpay wasiyta rishani. = Estoy iendo a mi casa con mi amigo. = I am going to my house with my friend.
Tiburunta unuta waytan. = El tiburon nada en el agua. = The shark swims in the water.
Qan manan kawitaypichu puñushan. = No estas durmiendo en mi cama. = You are not sleeping in my bed.
¿Qanchu ukukukuna tusunki? = ¿Tu bailas con los osos? = You dance with the bears?
Chaykunaqa ukukukunan. = Estos son mis osos. = Those are my bears.

And my personal favorite:

Qhawaykachachikapushawasqankichisraqmi.

which is one word that in spanish means:

Hasta hoy soy la critica de todos ustedes.

and in english:

Until today, I was the critic of all of you.

The picture at the top is a sign for a cafe in Ollantaytambo. When we went there, I hadn't taken my quechua class, so I didn't know what Inti Killa meant. I pronounced it in-tea kill-ah, and decided if I were ever a rapper, it would be my rap name. Later, I realized that Inti in quechua means sol/sun and Killa means luna/moon. Also, on my way to school today I saw a street name that was something something Puputi, which means something something bellybutton. It's definitely interesting to be able to pick up on a lot of little words here and there and understand what's happening.

It's also interesting learning a new language in another language. I was nervious that taking quechua wouldn't help my spanish skills that much, but I was wrong. Learning quechua in spanish has helped to reinforce my spanish skills and vocabulary, as well as my comprehension skills. I'm more comfortable speaking in spanish and asking questions, and I find myself searching for the right words less and getting my point across better.

It's an interesting language, and it has a lot of uses in Peru. Yesterday I was volunteering at the orphanage and while most of the girls were watching a movie, a few were in the back coloring with us. One of the girls wouldn't answer us when we spoke to her and never said anything otherwise. It wasn't until later that one of the girls told us that she didn't speak any spanish, only quechua. A few of us then put together enough of our quechua knowledge to ask her if she spoke spanish (¿Qanchu quichuata rimanki?), if she wanted to learn spanish (¿Qanchu munanki españul yachayta?) and I wrote her a note that said good morning (Allin p'unchay) and drew her a big sun with a smile face. It must be so hard for her being new in an orphanage where not many people speak fluent quechua, or quechua in general.

In other news, I handed in my final paper Monday night and did my presentation on Tuesday at 5:00 PM. It was the most awkward thing of my life. My presentation was on Inca architecture, with the main point being rocks. I figured that if I had to do this presentation that was only supposed to originally be 5 minutes then got bumped to 15 or 20, I was going to make everyone watching me suffer by choosing the most boring topic as possible.

All in all, it was actually very interesting, minus the page I wrote about quarries. When I walked into the room for my presentation, I wasn't expecting the three teachers from the Academia to be wearing caps and gowns, and I accidentally burst out laughing. I did my presentation, they asked me some questions, and then they handed me a certificate that said I graduated. Then I put on a cap and gown and took a picture with it, which was also really weird, and then I left. So that was interesting or something.

It was just nice to be done. There were three days of presentations for everyone from Rutgers, either Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. I got mine out of the way earlier rather than later so I had the rest of the week to finish my volunteer hours and study for my exam at the end of the week.

I took some pictures with the girls from the orphanage, so I'll upload them when I get a chance. I'm also bringing home all my pictures and letters from them. As of now, I'm finished with my hours, but I might pop back in to say goodbye before I leave.

As a special treat (you're welcome) here's a picture of me from Machu Picchu looking like I'm walking down the stairway to my death:



More entries to come,

Victoria

Dias 23 y 24

On Saturday (07.31.10)we left our hostal at 8:00 AM to go to Aguas Calientes. In order to get there, we took about a two hour bus ride to Ollantaytambo, where we went a few weekends ago. From there we took the IncaRail train to Aguas Calientes. There is really no other way to get to Aguas Calientes other than the train.




The train tracks followed:



the Urubamba River all the way to Aguas Calientes. Aguas Calientes is about 2000 less feet above sea level than Cusco, and right on the border of the jungle, so it was very warm (for Peru, around 75 or 80 degrees), humid, and there were a alot of mosquitoes. Also, it was much easier to breathe.

The town of Aguas Calientes is very small and mostly for tourists. It is, however, known for its hot spring baths, which I'll get to later.

So once we got off the train, we put our stuff in our beautiful hotel. My room had:



a balcony that overlooked the river, as well as hot water and a fantastic bed, so I was happy. After we put our things about, we went to a buffet lunch and then had the rest of the afternoon off. We were all supposed to hike to the giant waterfall, but our tour guide said it was too late and that we'd be walking in the dark. A small group of people still went, though, and they had plenty of time, so I don't know what Roger was talking about.

Instead, a group of us went to check out the aguas calientes. It was ten soles to get in, and I found out that I couldn't move past the locker room area, because my bathing suit was still in the hotel. But it was okay, because I waited for the rest of the people to come back out and got some really nice pictures anyway.



Afterwards, we decided to Happy Hour hop before we had to wake up at 4:45 AM for Machu Picchu. At our bar, I got a Machu Picchu, which is grenadine, orange juice and something, and some terrible mint thing all in layers. It was just as beautiful as the scenery.




We got on the bus that drives up the mountain to Machu Picchu at around 6:00 AM. The ride was only about 15 or 20 minutes, which meant we made it in time to see the sunrise over the mountain onto Machu Picchu.







A larger group went with our usual guide Roger, but a few other people and I went with a new guide, Felix, who was amazing. He knew all the secrets spots at Machu Picchu as well as the history of each of the sites. While the other group essentially left Machu Picchu immediately to climb either Huayna Picchu or the actual mountain Machu Picchu, both of which overlook the ruins, we got a really great tour of the ruins, which I preferred. He also spoke in English, so I could really understand what everything was.

When we first got to Machu Picchu I literally had no words. Everyone expects it to be amazing, but you can't really appreciate how huge the ruins are, or how perfectly constructed and maintained they were, or the height of the mountain, until you're actually there. I got some amazing pictures, but they cannot do Machu Picchu justice. It is a place you really have to see for yourself, and I hope one day I can go back.




Machu Picchu is divided into two sectors: the agricultural sector and the urban sector. The agricultural sector was home to all of the terraces, which is where the farming and cultivating occurred. The urban sector is full of temples, houses, and plazas.

Hirum Bingham is known for rediscovering Machu Picchu in 1911. There is some controversy as to if he was really the first person to find it, but he was the one who really brought Machu Picchu to the rest of the world. The 100th anniversary of his excavation is next year.

After our tour, we had some free time to explore, so we climbed up a thousand bajillion stairs to the watch tower, where some lovely alpaca were waiting for me. It was almost as good as climbing the mountain to overlook the ruins, because you could get some really nice views. Afterwards, we laid out on one of the terraces. Around noon, we left back for Aguas Calientes.

The most amazing thing about Machu Picchu is that every time you turn a corner around a ruin and look out over the mountains, it never gets any less spectacular. Even when there are hundreds of tourists in your way and it's 80 degrees and a small child is hitting you with his stick (which actually happened to me, thanks), you could stay there forever and keep thinking it's incredible.



Afterwards, we went back to Aguas Calientes, got lunch and then got back on the train to Ollantaytambo. We got back to Cusco around 7:30 PM, where I had to immediately finish writing my final paper for class. It was on Inca architecture, and for my slide show, I used all of my own pictures. While I was at Machu Picchu, I got some interesting photos of the rock work, so that was nice.

If I were having a miserable time on this trip, the 36 hours we spent in Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu would have salvaged the whole thing. I recommend if there is ever a chance that you take the opportunity to see it for yourself.

More entries to come,

Victoria

Dias 18, 19, 20, 21, y 22

Monday (07.26.10) was the start of my third week in Cusco. This means that I finished my first class (some grammar) and moved onto my new class, Quechua!

Quechua is the Native American language spoken mostly in the Andes mountain range of South America. It was also the language of the Inca people, and therefore many of the names of places in Cusco are actually in Quechua, not Spanish. There is still a large population that speaks Quechua today, especially in los campos. Many of the people who speak Quechua never learn to write it, because before the Spanish conquistadores arrived in Peru, there was no written alphabet. But in my class, I'm learning to speak quechua, as well as read and write it.

Our professor for our quechua class is Dany Vargas, the tallest Peruvian of all time. His height doesn't affect his ability to speak quechua, but it makes things more interesting for the people looking at him five hours a day.

Tuesday (07.27.10) was a typical day, which means we had class from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM, volunteered from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM, and then worked or relaxed and did it all over the next day.

Wednesday (07.28.10) was Peruvian Independence Day, or Fiestas Patrias. Peruvian independence from Spain was won on July 28, 1821 by General Jose de San Martin. Peruvians celebrate independence day with two days of vacation, one in honor of independence and the other in honor of the armed forces.

On Wednesday, we had class in the morning. Our quechua class had to sing a song during a presentation in front of the whole school, so that was kind of lame. The song was called Valicha. It is a song that everyone in Cusco knows, so there's that. It's a very pretty song; I would have just preferred not to shout it to the Andes from the courtyard of our school.

On the brightside, I got a 95% on my quechua exam, so that was worth it.

Thursday (07.29.10) and Friday (07.30.10) we had vacation for the holiday, so I basically volunteered a lot of hours and did some shopping.

In the beginning of the week, I also started volunteering at the girls' orphanage next to our hostal rather than the clinic. We basically brought tons of crayons, paper, markers, sidewalk chalk, and coloring books for them. It was our jobs to occupy them during the afternoon.

A lot of the girls have families that don't visit, and some don't have any family at all. In some cases, the government mandates that the girls be placed in the home, because the conditions at home aren't fit for them to live there. It's really sad, because it's easy to see that the girls miss their families. One girl wrote a letter to her whole family and read it aloud to each of the volunteers there. She said she would give the letter to her family when they came on visiting day (which is every Thursday), but when I was there on Thursday, her family wasn't there. I was hoping that they had visited when I was in school before I got there, but the odds of that are probably slim.

In any case, the girls really like when we're there. They like when I sing Justin Bieber songs, and the theme song from Titanic, because apparently they are popular songs in Peru. They can't get enough of it, which is good for me, because that means they can't get tired of me.

I didn't have many things to take pictures of, so here's another llama for your time:




More blah blah to blah,

Victoria