Taking in Some Ruins, Culture, and More Shopping

On Monday morning I left my house a little late and as I was walking toward the bus stop I saw my combi (the name for the public transportation around here) already there. I started to run toward the next stop and luckily there was a red light so I was able to outrun the combi and make it. At the clinic we were fairly busy because there were a lot of doctors working that day. I have come to notice by now that Yovanna, the technician I work with, and the clinic really try to stretch out every sole they spend on medical supplies. For example, rather than use cotton balls and gauze straight from the package, Yovanna showed me how to cut the existing materials and reroll/refold them to create a bigger quantity. I´m curious as to how much money this saves because it is definitely time intensive.

After placement that day, Zack and I decided to go to Tipon. He had gotten directions to the bus stop and we were both expecting to find a station similar to that of the buses for Pisac or Urubamba. In reality the stop was just like any other paradero for the combis and it took us about half and hour to find. It´s a good thing I had asked Yovanna about it prior to leaving the clinic in the morning because she explained where to look for it. Once we finally found the stop and got on the bus it took us about 45 minutes to get to Tipon. At first when we got to the ruins I looked around and thought for sure we would be done in 20 minutes, however as we started walking around we just kept going up the mountain and lost track of time. The only reason why we turned around was because we noticed that the sun was starting to set and we wanted to make sure we could find a taxi back down. It was so nice to walk around in the fresh open air and enjoy the quiet solitude of the ruins. There were few people which also gave it a different feel from the other more popular ruins such as Pisac and Ollantaytambo.

On Tuesday Zack and I created our own "Cuzco Culture Day" by visiting many of the museums that were included as part of our tourist ticket. After lunch we started off by going with Merisa to the Paccacutec statue and then we met up with my tandem partner Alexandra and hit up three different museums. I liked the historical regional museum the best because it had the most to look at and the captions were interesting to read. Both the contemporary art museum and the popular art museum didn't have much to offer but we felt compeled to go because it was included in our ticket. Once we finished with the museums Alexandra went with me to the bank so that I could take out more of the donation money I collected and buy more supplies. Since we knew it would be our last chance to see each other before I leave we said our goodbyes and she gave me a coin purse with a nice design of Machu Picchu stitched into it.

One of the staff at Maximo Nivel went shopping with me and we bought sanitary items and clothing for the children at the orphanages. I had also wanted to buy books but we ran out of time so today I went back to a bookstore with Merisa and her tandem partner Ángel. He was extremely helpful to have around because he works at Merisa's placement, Hogar San Pedro, which is an orphanage where they teach English. He knew exactly what types of books the children needed and and the different reading abilities that the books could cater to. Because I was paying in cash and buying such a large quantity, the bookstore gave me a discount in the end. Including the clothing, sanitary items, and books I spent 2500 soles which is roughly equivalent to $925 CAD.

I bought:

• 30 pairs of pants
• 30 shirts
• 12 sweaters
• 10 bottles of hand sanitizer
• 10 packages of baby wipes
• 4 boxes of kleenex
• 77 English books of various reading levels

I felt really good afterword and could tell that this particular purchase is going to make a difference because Ángel was so excited about it. As soon as we returned to the office he picked out the books he wanted most for Hogar San Pedro and the rest I left for the staff to distrubute amongst other placements. Since I will not be here once they deliver all of the clothes, books, and sanitary items, I asked for them to email me a list of where all of the things eventually end up. I am very grateful to all of the people who donated their money and trusted my judgement to spend it in the best possible way. I hope that I have made them proud and that the things I bought will be appreciated by those who recieve them.

I continued my cultural explorations of Cuzco after finishing all of my donation-related shopping by going to the Inca Museum and then watching a traditional Peruvian dance performance in the evening. The Inca Museum was interesting because it had a lot of artifacts that were discovered from various Inca regions in and around Cuzco. In the courtyard of the museum there were ladies who sat and wove traditional Inca textiles using large looms. The performance featured six couples dressed in colorful Peruvian clothing and dancing to music being played by a live band behind them. During one of the dances audience participation was encouraged and due to the fact that I was sitting in the aisle I got pulled up on stage to dance with one of the men.

After the show I met up with a bunch of people to try a local Peruvian delicacy called Cuy, which is a boiled and roasted guinea pig. The restaurant we went to, Don Carlos, was really nice and the waiter was very sweet and understanding when we took about 10 minutes for everyone to take pictures with the Cuy before he cut it up. As far as the taste goes, I didn't think it was too bad. The skin itself was very tough and chewy but the meat resembled that of dark chicken and surprisingly the meat from inside the head tasted best. I think the most off-putting part about it was the fact that we knew we were eating guinea pig and it was being served to us whole.