Cusco Chicha Cleaning

            On Saturday, I went to Cusco to spend the day with Vanessa and her family.  Vanessa, her husband Saul, and her daughter Sharmley all speak English, so it was really nice to spend the day with a Peruvian family and be able to speak English.  Sharmley, is 19 and I spent the morning walking around Cusco with her and her boyfriend, Rodrigo.  First, the three of us went to the public university where Sharmley studies anthropology (she and Rodrigo study law at the private university).  Unfortunately, we could not go into the buildings of the university because it was a holiday (when we heard this, Sharmley rolled her eyes…even the Peruvians get sick of celebrating the saints so frequently - it seems like there is always a party for one saint or another).  We walked around the outside gate of the big university, made up of big white, square, ugly buildings and Sharmley pointed out which school each building contained.  The building that stood out to me held language and tourist schools.  Sharmley said that the most popular language to study is English and every student is required to take a minimum of one year of basic English.  Sharmley, however, learned English through a private program where she took classes in Cusco when she was younger.  She also said that the tourist school trains most, or maybe all, of the guides for Machu Picchu and is a very popular school. 

            After seeing the university, we went to a neighborhood of Cusco called San Blas.  San Blas is a Spanish colonial neighborhood, so whereas other places in Cusco feel both very Incan and Spanish, San Blas does not have any Inca history present.  We went into a Spanish house that has become a museum where we saw paintings and statues of various saints, Jesus, and Mary, all with elongated necks.  San Blas is on the mountain side, so we had to walk up steep staircases to get to the museum, but we were able to see beautiful views of Cusco.

            Next we walked back down to the plaza de armas and then went in the other direction up steep stairs to San Cristobol.  At San Cristobol there was a huge Spanish church and to one side of it an Incan wall with niches in it like I have seen at many ruins.  Here there was another beautiful view over Cusco.

            After all this walking, we went to meet Vanessa, Saul, and their 2-year-old, Inti, at a typical Peruvian restaurant for lunch.  It was a fun restaurant - there were very few tourists and there was traditional dancing.  I ordered the trucha frita (fried trout) even though Sharmley tried to get me to order something more adventurous.  She made me try her cow tongue though and I enjoyed watching Saul eat his pig feet.  We also ordered two pitchers of chicha, the Peruvian fermented corn drink.  Saul kept telling me to drink the chicha and pouring me more, saying it was completely natural, there’s no alcohol.  Between him saying this, having his two year old son drink the chicha, and having had chicha before, I didn’t think there would be any problem.  Boy was I wrong.  But, after I fainted three times, threw up, and drank four cups of coca tea, I felt a lot better.

            Besides my chicha adventure, it was a great day!

            On Saturday, Vanessa told me that she had left the party at the school on Friday at 4:30, but it was still going strong, with the teachers from other schools and the parents starting to drink.  Unfortunately, they did not clean up after themselves, so when we opened the classroom doors at 8:30 this morning, the classroom stunk, had full bottles and glasses of beer on the kids tables, and had soda and beer spilled on the tables, chairs, and floors.  It was disgusting.  Vanessa and I had the kids stay outside while we cleaned up and another teacher wiped down the tables and mopped the floor.

            That was the most exciting part of my day at school today.  And the most exciting part of my afternoon was when I was shopping at the market (again!) this afternoon and was bargaining with a vendor.  When we finally agreed on a price, he asked me where I was from and when I said the U.S., he looked surprised and said my Spanish was really good!  He said he has friends in Oregon who sell his jewelry.