Gee's Travels

Friday, 3 January 2014

Day 5: Choccie making and painting

Today we went straight to La Recoletta, the old people's home to continue painting the outside walls. Ursula left really early this morning which meant I had to find my own way there and got incredibly lost. I had to ask several people for directions and most of their answers I couldn't really understand but I eventually got there and bumped into a few other girls. While we were waiting we played with two little girls who the nuns also take care of, and we taught them some english and they also sang for us. We began painting the walls with a second coat and soon after that Erica arrived. At around half 11 I left so that I could get all the paint off me and change into some clean clothes as the paint gets everywhere! It was about a 6 block walk up from the main offices. Once we got there, the woman began explaining the process of making chocolate from the cocoa bean and the different types of beans. She then began making different types of drink with 100% cocoa, the Mayan one consisted of chilli powder hot water and then the cocoa which we all tried and was absolutely disgusting. She also made a drink from the shells of the cocoa beans which is like a tea and you add sugar to it, which was really yummy and tasted exactly like hot chocolate. We then got onto making our own chocolate where we could add any extra things such as nuts or marshmallows. However, I think I had a slight allergic reaction to the chocolate which was so sweet and rich. I made my way back home to find that we have another person living in our house called Oren, who has come from the USA, but he has been camping in Patagonia for the last 4 months. So now its not just me and crazy Ursula anymore!!

The cutest little girls who are looked after by the nuns at La Recolleta

La Recolleta

Erica painting

view of the square from the chocolate museum

me and my chocolate

grinding up the chocolate beans

peruvian choccie

the square outside the chocolate place

Thursday, 2 January 2014

Day 4: Pisac

Today we woke up fairly early, and made our way to the Maximo offices to catch the bus to Pisac. Here I met all the other volunteers, which was quite a relief after having only had crazy Ursula for the past few days; Pri, a girl from Chicago, Erica, from Tasmania, Rob from Melbourne and loads of others. It took about an hour and a half to get there and we stopped at several places along the way to take photos of the Sacred Valley which was just incredible, the photos I took do not do this place justice. We arrived in Pisac at around 10 and had 2 hours to look around the markets which was far larger than it first seemed and extremely deceiving, as Pri and I were suddenly completely lost. We found a sweet little cafe/restaurant which made amazing honey, strawberry and banana smoothies. At 12 we returned to the bus and trundled back over the mountains to Cusco. Once there we had a few hours before we had to be at the old people's home for volunteering. I managed to buy a phone, as neither of mine receive service here, whilst also managing to find a little restaurant which did the most amazing sandwiches (actually we couldn't decide if they really were amazing or it was simply because we were starving). At 3 we made our way to the old people's home where we began plastering, sanding down the walls and then painting, it was extremely hard work especially in the sun but it was good fun, and the old people seemed to really enjoy our company.

Our first stop at Presidencia

Various views of the Sacred Valley- which was just amazing

Some Alpacas

A local indigenous person in national dress with her Alpaca

A few more shots of the Sacred Valley and another place where we stopped off

The market in Pisac

Me with one of the local indigenous girls

Various pictures of the market in Pisac

The river running through the Sacred Valley on the way back to Cusco

Tuesday, 31 December 2013

Day 2, Lima-Cusco and NYE

We flew into Cusco airport at around 10.45am local time where I was picked up by a local "indígenas" who took my bags and showed me to the woman who would take me to my home. Here I met my house mum, Anita Maria, and a crazy 60 year old Swiss woman named Ursula, who I also share a room with! We had a rather interesting lunch consisting of turkey with a fruit salad (apple, tangerine, mango and celery!!) and lots of Coca tea which is a local speciality made from Cocaina leaves and is apparently very good for curing the altitude sickness (Cusco is 3800m above sea level!) Me and Ursula then walked into the centre of Cusco where we had a Pisco Sour (very typical South American cocktail made from egg white, Pisco, sugar and lemon juice), it was very strange but refreshing. Then we returned to the home for a nap, and at 10.30 returned to the main square, Le Plaza de Armas where it was absolutely packed- people were throwing fireworks in any direction and there were a band playing. The tradition is to wear yellow for good luck, so it was a sea of yellow flowers and fancy dress. Also another tradition is to walk around the plaza 12 times for each month of the new year, however, me and Ursula only managed 2. We then caught a taxi home at around 2am and went to sleep! So overall an interesting first day and one of the weirdest New Year Eves I have ever had and think I will ever have.