Well we have been failing you friends and family as it has been another 10 days since our last blog. Again there is much to catch up on so lets begin with Ayacucho:
Ayacucho is an old Spanish colonial town tucked away in the Andes and hench not so accessible to tourists. To get to or from Ayacucho, some seriously terrifying dirt roads must be taken. Imagine you are on a nice big charter bus, only its actually not in that great of condition and the road you are driving on is barely wide enough for it. Sitting up so high on the bus, you often can´t see how far the wheels are from the edge but instead get a nice view of two or three hundred feet down the side of a mountain, and any rivers or streams will just be driven right through. Nine hours of this and you have survived the trip from Huancayo to Ayacucho. Needless to say, mostly only grungy backpackers and local Peruvians make it here.
Luckily, for all the trouble, Ayacucho was much nicer than Huancayo. It is a relatively laid back town that is much more artisinal than industrial. Full of nice parks, old cathedrals, and colonial era casonas, the city boasts a lot of vibrant color as well. Ayacuchans also know how to celebrate - every day we were there some parade or celebration was going on.
A sweet little side trip we were able to take from Ayacucho was a visit to the town of Quinua (yes, like the grain). It is an artisan community about an hour away by combi in which you can visit the local ceramic workshops and barter for your souvenirs. We didn't leave with anything, but it was quite interesting to see how the process is done around there.
After five days in Ayacucho, we took the dreaded bus to Cusco. What was supposed to be 18 hours in transit ended up more like 22 and the roads were more of the same. The good (?) part was that a lot of this trip was in the dark, so however bad the roads were we couldn't really tell. Cusco has so far been very different with all the tourists (more than we've seen anywhere yet), but it also offers a lot we haven't had access to yet. For one, there are a multitude of vegetarian restaurants here. Our favorite, Prasada, is a little hole-in-the-wall one woman operation. Almost anything on their menu can be made vegan and you can get a nice lentil patty burger with parsley pesto and won-ton fries for 5 soles (less than $2 US). We also had access to a kitchen in our hostel for the first time since Lima, and even though it is a massive hostel (130 beds), we were usually the only ones cooking.
One of the most vaulable things we did in Cusco was make a visit to the South American Explorers Club where we were able to get loads of great information in English. They also sell topographic maps of Peru and after discussing different hiking options with one of the volunteers there, we got a nice one of the Sacred Valley where we hope to tackle a lot of trails and see a lot of Incan ruins.
As of right now, we have officially moved into our first volunteering gig at Sembrando Semillas con Yoga. It is a yoga sancutary that works with local kids located in the hills above Cusco proper (about 30 minutes away by combi). The organization offers free classes to children that include: yoga, environmental awareness and recycling, English, Quechua, and nutrition. In our previous 4-day budget, we will get housing 7 days a week and three square (vegetarian) meals a day Monday through Friday. The other great thing is that there were tons of other volunteers when we got there - we were worried we might be the only ones. We got there Friday evening so we got to meet the kids, but haven't had to do much yet as we get weekends off. Tomorrow will be our first day working on projects and teaching children so we are both very excited about that. We won't have internet up at SSCY but will most likely come down on the weekends to do some blogging. Having a great time though! Until next time.
Megan and Kyle
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