exploring

All right, so what´s going on in my world?

I live here. I am meeting people and have lots of people to say hello to as I walk through town which I am finding so fun. I know which stall in the market I like best, have a regular juice lady, a favorite set menu lunch place, a few best taxi drivers, how to unlock the door for the old indian lady who can never figure out how to get into her house and just sits in front waiting for someone to come along and help, my favorite bartender, who makes the best tomatoe soup. The small things that make a life, you know?

My friends Laura and Jules from Cusco came and spent the last couple of days with me and we had such a great time. I had been feeling really lonely on Tuesday so I was really glad to have them show up. We did a bunch of great walks exploring where I live. Impossible to say which was best, they were all amazing. We climbed up the hill behind town to a little village and had a beer in the garden of a kind of store and chicha bar and visited with the old local men and laughed about how bad my Quechuan is. We walked down the street of a hundred windows but we kept getting distracted and I still don´t know how many windows there are. We walked along the Incan terraces down to the river and sat by it for a while which was really nice. Yesterday we went up into some of the ruins which was great. They are never quite as cool when you´re in them cause you can´t see them really, but I´ve been meaning to head up to explore them for a while so it was great to do it. Then we went out of town the other way and ended up walking down to the river and along the railroad tracks for a few kilometers then hiked up to the village of San Isidro and walked back along the road. Every single place had me marveling that I get to live here. Also Laura and Jules saying the same. Dang! you live here!

We bought some rum and coke and drank at my house with my neighbor Carlos who is a paramedic here in town and my friend Nico and his friend Ilipio. Then we headed out to the disco and stayed out until about 4:30 in the morning. Today was breakfast and getting Laura and Jules out of here and cleaning house and book reading. Nico had a soccer game tonight at 7 that I was hoping to get to but I didn´t hear from him so I will try to go to their game tomorrow.

I have an appointment with the municipilidad on Monday at 9am to talk about teaching English and then on Wednesday with a guy who started a program to get some of the native women in a small village up above somewhere a few hours away spinning wheels so they don´t have to spin the yarn by hand and can produce more. I guess that they are going up on Wednesday with a photographer from the US and he asked me to come along both to see it and help translate. I am really looking forward to getting up a little into the Indian villages. Also, I totally know how to help produce a photo shoot.

Love you all, I will try to figure out the phone stuff soon so I can make some calls, I know some of you are waiting for them. It might not be until Tuesday when I am back in Cusco though.

off to find some food.