We traveled roughly 36 hours through exceptionally delayed flights, language barriers, and sleeping in airports to get here. The flights weren't all that bad. We either watched movies (finally saw Frozen!), read or slept. We were well fed on the planes, and the best part was that there was no screaming babies near us. We arrived in Cusco around 7:30 am, and was greeted by an absolutely beautiful day. There wasn't a cloud in the sky.
We were picked up at the airport by people from Maximo Nivel, and brought to the office for a quick tour and to receive our housing assignment. We are placed in the volunteer house, which is adorable and right next to San Pedro market. When we arrived at the office, the coordinator told us that we were in for a treat. We came to Cusco on the final day of Carnival, which meant that it was going to be big and crazy. Needless to say, we got wicked excited.
The folks from Maximo Nivel drove us to our house, and it's perfect. I'm staying in a two-person dorm with Kathryn from Denmark, but there are people from all over the world living in the house (Ireland, Australia, Canada, England, etc.). We got settled into our rooms, changed and freshened up, and was treated to a lovely breakfast made by our housekeepers. Some of the other volunteers were talking about going to Urubamba, a small town north of Cusco, to celebrate Carnival, and they invited us to join them. Even though we were absolutely exhausted, we decided to go! And I'm so excited we did.
We packed 13 of us into a bus and traveled an hour north to Urubamba. We heard that the Carnival celebrations there were amazing. I brought my camera, and instantly regretted it. Fortunately, I brought a plastic bag to put it in. I was able to take one picture of the festival, and then it got too crazy. The main events of Carnival were water balloons, shaving cream, and buckets of water. Of course, since we were the tourists, we got absolutely soaked. We all had bought a can of cream and would sprayed kids with it. In return, we got buckets of water thrown on us. We were freezing, but we had so much fun. We only stayed in the town for about an hour, but it was so worth it. The car ride home was miserable since we were all freezing. But we had so much fun.
I came home, jumped in the shower, then took a much needed nap. It began to rain in Cusco, so the rest of the night we all decided to stay in. Many of the volunteers watched Hunger Games, and now we are tuning into the Oscars. Our dinner tonight consisted of bean tacos with fresh guacamole and raisin cake for dessert. Both were absolutely delicious.
Tomorrow, we are going to orientation at 8:15, then visiting our placement around 4:30. It's going to be a long day tomorrow, but I'm excited to get volunteering underway. Hopefully I can do some grocery shopping tomorrow as well to get snacks and such.
So now we are settling in to watch the Oscars, and I can't wait to get a good night sleep. I really think I'm going to enjoy my time here.
We were picked up at the airport by people from Maximo Nivel, and brought to the office for a quick tour and to receive our housing assignment. We are placed in the volunteer house, which is adorable and right next to San Pedro market. When we arrived at the office, the coordinator told us that we were in for a treat. We came to Cusco on the final day of Carnival, which meant that it was going to be big and crazy. Needless to say, we got wicked excited.
The folks from Maximo Nivel drove us to our house, and it's perfect. I'm staying in a two-person dorm with Kathryn from Denmark, but there are people from all over the world living in the house (Ireland, Australia, Canada, England, etc.). We got settled into our rooms, changed and freshened up, and was treated to a lovely breakfast made by our housekeepers. Some of the other volunteers were talking about going to Urubamba, a small town north of Cusco, to celebrate Carnival, and they invited us to join them. Even though we were absolutely exhausted, we decided to go! And I'm so excited we did.
We packed 13 of us into a bus and traveled an hour north to Urubamba. We heard that the Carnival celebrations there were amazing. I brought my camera, and instantly regretted it. Fortunately, I brought a plastic bag to put it in. I was able to take one picture of the festival, and then it got too crazy. The main events of Carnival were water balloons, shaving cream, and buckets of water. Of course, since we were the tourists, we got absolutely soaked. We all had bought a can of cream and would sprayed kids with it. In return, we got buckets of water thrown on us. We were freezing, but we had so much fun. We only stayed in the town for about an hour, but it was so worth it. The car ride home was miserable since we were all freezing. But we had so much fun.
I came home, jumped in the shower, then took a much needed nap. It began to rain in Cusco, so the rest of the night we all decided to stay in. Many of the volunteers watched Hunger Games, and now we are tuning into the Oscars. Our dinner tonight consisted of bean tacos with fresh guacamole and raisin cake for dessert. Both were absolutely delicious.
Tomorrow, we are going to orientation at 8:15, then visiting our placement around 4:30. It's going to be a long day tomorrow, but I'm excited to get volunteering underway. Hopefully I can do some grocery shopping tomorrow as well to get snacks and such.
So now we are settling in to watch the Oscars, and I can't wait to get a good night sleep. I really think I'm going to enjoy my time here.