Más y Menos

Cusco is an interesting city. Walking down the street will introduce you to many many different smells, colors, sights, sounds, people, etc. It's not quite like India--you won't see ANYTHING possible, but you will see a lot. For instance, women in trajes tipicos (traditional wear) holding adorable baby sheep and other animales--yesterday I walked past a woman walking her alpaca up the street, for example--also there are children offering a variety of services--shoe shining, hair braiding, etc.--Daewoos of all different colors, all from the early 90s zooming everywhere, nearly running you over on the 1 foot or less wide sidewalks, etc. etc. Friendly waitstaff wait outside of restaurant doors to entice you in, women sit on the side of the street selling their amazingly beautiful wares, artists (mostly men, but we did talk to one woman today) walk around offering their paintings, and musicians are set up everywhere playing all sorts of live music. It's sort of like a festival everyday, as Doris says--siempre, siempre, siempre fiestas! On the weekends, at least for this month, there are huge festivals. On Sunday last week, after we arrived, Heidi and I ended up in the midst of a crazy festival with thousands of people (literally). We couldn't even walk through the Plaza del Armas for the crowd. But it was beautiful. Inti Raymi will be June 24, and from what I hear-tell, it's CRAZAY. So, I'm looking forward to it. Also, there is a Pink Floyd cover band that night at a fancy discoteca y restaurante called "The Frogs."

Today however, Heidi and I spent the evening walking through the local market. It was something. Pig heads and slabs of half cut, uncut, or freshly cut meat laying around everywhere. Vegetables of every assortment. Fruits beautifully arranged. Medicinal herbs that smelled so pungent it was difficult not to become ill walking past them. Restaurants, cakes, and nata (milk fat). Ponchos, chompas, y mas ropas. Venders shouting in the universal intonation of the market seller (verduras, verduuuras, verdurraaaaaaass). Quite wonderful, really. After our Spanish class and market adventure we went to meet Alex at our nightly meeting spot (McDonald's of all places) and were harassed by several shoe-shining children. It started with "Quiero McPollo Jr. en mi estomagoooooooo por favooooor." After having a decently long conversation with them about the shoe shining industry, about what they did during the day, where they were from, etc. and after they pulled out some fake crying (while simultaneously laughing), Heidi and I bought them tres McPollo Jrs, tres papas fritas regulares, y tres Inka Colas. They were quite happy and told us that we are good people, which completely made it worth it. Afterward, we had pizza with Alex. In Cusco, just so you know, pizza is an extravagant meal. If you want to take your lady out somewhere fancy here you take her for pizza and wine. For the record, pizza is pretty expensive here. When we told our Spanish teacher that you could get pizza in the US for only $5 she was completely amazed. ALSO the pizza place we went was so fancy it actually had heating (it is one of the like...6 places in all of Cusco that is warm at night). Anyway, it was pretty good. Also, I discovered that there is a chocolate museum here!!! You can even make your own chocolate AND tour an organic, fair trade chocolate farm!!! So sometime in the next week I plan to indulge in such adventures.



Anyway, the original point of this post was to make a list of the pros and cons of Cusco. So, here's what I have discovered so far (we'll start with cons):

Cons:

• Either absolutely no hot water for showers or water so hot it burns your skin off. But, hot water is rare. AND if you want hot water in one of the rare showers where you can find it, then you can only turn the water up to a bare trickle. Which requires lots of maneuvering to even get wet. So yeah. Freezing cold showers 90% of the time.
• Everything is uphill somehow. EVERYTHING. And by uphill I mean 45 degree angles of steepness...both ways. I can walk maybe 10 minutes at a time before having to stop from complete cardiac exhaustion. And I am pretty freaking fit. 
• The sidewalks are 1 foot or less wide. This is not helpful when light poles the size of the sidewalk are placed in the middle of said sidewalks. Also not helpful when hordes of tourists are all trying to make it both ways down the street at the same time. Just sayin'
• There is no heat in Cusco (except the maybe 6 places as mentioned before). Seriously. No heat. And it's winter. I mean, yeah, it's hot during the day but it gets down to like 28 degrees at night! Interestingly, all restaurants have wood-fired stoves. Why do people not have these in their houses for heat? 
• Diesel. All cars are run on diesel here. Diesel makes the already-thin 11,000 ft altitude air even harder to breathe. This, in turn, makes walking up those hills (cliffs?) that much harder. Thank you diesel Daewoos. 
• I can't work the keys in this city. No matter how much I practice, I cannot open a door with a key. Maybe that's me, but I'm blaming it on Cusco. 
• Disorganization. It's perfectly okay to say something but mean something else, not show up on time, not communicate important information (such as, say, when we start volunteering or where), etc. etc. It's making me a little crazy. However, I'm pretending its good for my character and a test for my patience. 

Despite these cons, there are lots of pros too:
Pros:

• The people here are extremely friendly. Anyone will have a conversation with you, help you go where you need to be, tell you what's good to eat, what's good to buy, etc. etc.
• The city is amazingly beautiful. At night the lights illuminate the mountains as far as you can see. It's amazing. And the architecture is so incredibly intricate!!
• The food here is pretty delicious. Also, it's very interesting. Not to mention, it's incredibly easy being vegetarian here. 
• The market!! The market is AMAZING! I mean, real food produced by real people who actually freaking care. It's wonderful. 
• Bartering. You can get things for cheaper than their given price. 
• Juices! Mango juice, peach juice, pineapple juice...all freshly made and readily available. It's pretty fantastic.
• Alpacas, puppies, and baby sheep in the street. I mean, it's constant cuteness. 
• Festivals! Colorful, amazing festivals with tons of music, tons of food, traditional dancing all day and night long, parades, men dressed as Incan warriors, etc.--it's good for the soul!

So, yeah. It will be interesting to see how this progresses. Hasta luego for now!