We're nine days, two cities down, one bacterial infection, and we have met many mochilleros (backpackers). We have not written in a few days because Sarah has been very sick with a bacterial infection which was masking itself as altitude sickness (or so we thought) until Dr. Manuel came to her rescue and gave her some antibiotics.
This is how Sarah looked in her bunk bed in the hostel (Picture 4 below)
While Sarah has been super sick Ali got a little congested and her nose would not stop running so before she went to bed she looked like this. (Picture 6)
Everyday at noon in a plaza near where our Pirwa Colonial Backpackers Hostel is (which is in Plaza San Francisco) there is a free walking tour of Cusco. Ali went without Sarah yesterday and made some friends with other travelers staying at the hostel. It was very cool kind of the interesting, underground, spots around Cusco. There was a lot of free food samples, chocolate tea (delicious), Peruvian Jager shot (pretty good, mild), Peruvian beer or Chicha which is boiled and fermented corn, chips and dips at this place that is a fushion between Chinese and Peruvian, and a shot of Pisco punch, so basically a lot of samples of drinks and chocolate but it was great. The tour guide was awesome, funny and spoke great English.
We have realized that as we continue to travel we are constantly meeting people from all over the world. Lucky for us almost everyone speaks English. So if you're going to travel be prepared to answer these questions:
"How long have you been traveling for?"
"Where are you from?"
"How long are your travels?"
"Oh you just came from _________? How was it? Where should we go there? Any good advice?"
"Oh you got sick? What happened?"
"How long have you studied Spanish?"
"Wait how do you say tomato? And WHAT is a biscuit? Oh a cookie? Got it."
"Oh yeah and what's your name again?" (Although you/they never asked in the first place)
Although we have this conversation over and over again we still love to learn about new people and make new friends. Sarah is feeling so much better so today we went with our friends Tal and Evelyn to a few markets. We went to the handicraft market but on the way as we were walking down Avenida El Sol we got caught up in a religious procession. This is an incredible thing to see about 200 people walking down the street, priests, nuns, children dressed like angels, people wearing capes, and tourists trying to understand what is going on. (Picture 5) Some of the priests were carrying a large statue on a platform with one of their Saints. It was great to be a part of the processional and we even got some holy water thrown on us!
We continued down to the artesanal market where they sell everything from sweaters to miniature nativity scenes (Picture 3). Ali got a comfy Al Paca sweater (everytime we write that we think of Al Pacino, so all alpacas seem like badasses). We also went to a typical Peruvian centro comercial (mall) where we saw everything from fay-bans, Peruvian barbies and Sarah got fresh squeezed OJ in a bag with a straw and the lady used like 18 naranjas (oranges) (Picture 1).
We then went to another market (San Pedro market) where there was dead meat being butchered everywhere. There was also produce being sold everywhere. Ali was obsessed with these little wooden spoons at the market and bought some. We agreed to buy no souvenirs since we only have backpacks but Ali could not resist. We finished seeing this market and at the church outside our hostel was another little market/festival with games. One of the prizes for the game was a pack of cigarettes (Picture 2-sideways).
Finally, we made it back to Pirwa Backpacker's Hostel. We chatted with some fellow travelers, because that's what you do, and gained some great information about the W Trail in Chile that we plan on doing. We also got some knowledge about English dental care, quite different. Did you know that the hygienist and dentist are in two separate locations?
Anyways, long post. Off to bed so we can be productive tomorrow.
Besitos,
A & S
PS. Sorry these pictures are uploaded out of order and one sideways... we are working on our skills.
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