Tandoori Cuy

I'm sitting in my rather cold Cusco apartment which I have inhabited for the last few days. Thus far, I think it may be one of the more stressful adventures I have partaken in, but I think that is improving steadily in that regard. Starting from Knoxville, the Megabus ride up was fine and uneventful, although our driver seemed to be somewhere on the edge of sanity. D.C. was toasty, and our hostel was not air conditioned. It was a nifty spot though, all bedazzled in myriad trinkets left by expatriates past. Due to the heat, we departed for the airport something like 5 hours early. The airline counter, however, did not open until after we had waited some 2 hours. It was a pretty nice flight though, except that arrival in Lima via Bogota revealed that my backpack had not made it. Not the nicest thing to deal with at 1 in the morning after a long day of traveling, but it made going through customs easy. After waiting several hours for the airline counter for the flight to Cusco to open, we finally departed for our destination. Arrival in Cusco was accompanied by a horde of aggressive leafleting by a variety of the (seemingly infinite) tourist companies. Outside the airport, we found Doris, the host of Veronica and Heidi's home stay, to take us to her house. At that point, due to sleep deprivation, everything had become rather surreal, and upon arrival, proceeded to sleep for some 6 hours or so. We ate some lunch and drank coca tea (a local treatment for altitude sickness) afterwards, with some language difficulty from lack of Spanish practice and decent rest. We needed to speak with the organizer of our programs while in Cusco, but up to that point, he did not make an appearance. In fact, on several occasions we expected him, but he did not show up until the day after. This, combined with my lack of baggage contributed to the stressful nature of the journey's start. I was moved to an apartment up the street in the evening, which is quite nicely furnished and comfortable minus the coldness. We finally talked to Pablo, the organizer, on Sunday, where he said he would track down my bag and get us set up for Spanish lessons in the morning. He's an extremely enthusiastic and nice fellow, however, it seems that he is quite disorganized or overwhelmed in the operation of the program. The next day, we had Spanish lessons in the evening, starting at 5. I've had 2 hours a day, which have been decent, though I've yet to get much of any medically-related Spanish. So, the program itself seems a bit flakey, but I think if we stay on top of it, it should turn out fine.

Exploring the city has been extremely fun, and I can't wait to explore more of it and the surrounding countryside. There are so many restaurants, tourist companies, souvenir shops, and street vendors, its ridiculous. Everything is centered around La Plaza de las Armas, where a bunch of colonial buildings encircle a never-ending fiesta, which will apparently culminate on June 24 for a huge festival for the sun. My Spanish has been steadily improving, and some exploration has revealed the vastly more economic options of eating away from the Plaza. Indeed, prices for things in and very near the Plaza are comparable if not more than those at home. Of course, leaving the Plaza also eliminates the convenience of guaranteed access to a small child to shine your shoes, but alas. The first day, I felt a little guilty for eating at an Indian buffet for lunch and pizza for dinner (although both with a local sort of spin). Yesterday I was able to find a huge meal for lunch in a small hole-in-the-wall sort of place for a grand total of 3 soles (around $1.25), and an even huger dinner for 10 soles ($4). The trick is ordering from el menu, which is a list of preset items that can be ordered far more economically than individual entres. Indeed, this is often so economic, that apparently most locals eat out regularly since the cost of buying your own groceries is so comparable that convenience trumps cooking. There are a lot of vegetarian options, and we even found one where I ate vegetarian chicharron, a typical sort of fried meat dish (soy in my case). Also, they make a fine lemonade in Cusco. If you're in the mood for fusion cuisine, the place we ate at tonight (Korma Sutra) serves up a Tandoori Cuy. Cuy is the local specialty of guinea pig roasted with the head left on. We, of course, did not go with that, but a delicious veggie vindaloo instead. Doubtless, eating is the best part of travel.