Adam, Julia and Donnie on the way to Machu Picchu. They spent a day with me before heading out and we had a great time. This was the last time seeing Adam, Julia I will see again in June and Donney doesn´t leave until the end of April, so I´m sure I will see him again. It is definitely strange to get close to people knowing that a day will come when you just wont see them again.
Sunset up the valley from the river. We went down and had a picnic next to the Urubamba which is one of my all time favorite things to do.
Some ruins as you come into Ollantaytambo. One of my favorite things about living here is that there isn´t just one set of ruins that you pay to enter, they are everywhere. The walk to the river is along some terraces and then there is clearly something that must have been a building as the stones are more on purpose and cut into squares. But just everywhere you go, there are more ruins and it´s neat cause you know that they lived everywhere in this valley, not just in one little archeological park or something.
It was Adam´s birthday last weekend and we had a great party in Cusco. The Village People show was rescheduled for April 18 so we ended up going to the Aldea Yanapay restaurant and all sorts of people sang and played guitar and made up songs and a great time was had by all. I have missed this sort of thing so much that it was really soul gratifying. On the left is Julian who came to visit a couple of weeks ago, in the middle is Donnie and then Adam. They make up songs all the time and Donnie made up a beautiful song about me this night and I was flattered and wish I had a recording of it.
This is my old lady. I don´t know what her name is as she has at least a speech impediment and very probably some mental illness. She is the one who can´t figure out how to unlock her door and so just sits in front of her house until someone comes along to let her in. When I see her in the market I buy her some bread and some fruit or something. She is always complaining - non verbally - about her joints hurting and it always makes me think of my grandpa who would tell me ¨Maryjane, don´t get old, you wont like it.¨
I am going to look at a room this afternoon that I might move into. Not as great as the one I have in that it is on the ground floor so no view, but it is in the house of the people I like best in all of Ollantaytambo and so would have a great social aspect. We will see. I am also talking to the people who are taking over where I live to make a hostel about the possibility of working for them in exchange for my rent as it could only help to have someone who speaks english helping them for a while. We´ll see about that as well.
So my friends Matt and Mel both have paid plane tickets to visit me and Geoff is talking about it. I am so excited that I get to share this place with folks from home. It is just so amazing and by then I should really know some great places. My friend Guillermo and I are going to start taking day trips once a week on his day off starting next week - we made a whole list of places last night. And he is talking about some 3-4 day trips as well as a 7 day trip that sound amazing and require horses and stuff. I am hoping to get to some of those when people come visit.
English classes are going better, next week I am going to start with giving two classes on Monday Wednesday and Friday as some people work in the day and some at night so this way I can hopefully get more people in. And I am still talking with people about getting up into the hills to teach but transportation continues to be the problem as hiring a private car to take me up and wait for me and bring me back three times a week is a pretty expensive proposition. Trying to see if I can piggyback someone who goes up anyway. Hopefully I can get some more stuff going.
Oh yeah, and I have had a cough that wouldn´t go away and my neighbor who is a paramedic at the travel clinic stopped me on the street the other day and said he thinks I have bronchitis cause he could here me coughing at night and asked me to come into the clinic. I finally made it in yesterday and he examined me and said I have an infection in my throat that has hit my lungs and if we didn´t take care of it it would likely become pneumonia and nobody wants that headed into cold cold winter at this altitude especially. So he gave me a hard core antibiotic shot and an immune booster shot and put on some pills for three days and a liquid that will break up the mucus. Hopefully that will take care of it and I will feel much better in a few days. I´m glad it worked out like that because I probably would have let it go on much longer thinking that it would just go away. He also didn´t charge me for the visit, just the meds because we are friends. Have I said how much I love living in a small town?
Love you all and see some of you soon,
emjay
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