South American adventure

last week during Holy Week we went to a procession on monday night called Señor de los Temblores in which a brown skinned Jesus was processed through Cusco and visited many of the churches in town. On thursday we went to Mass at night then we did the traditional visit 7 churches in which we went in 3 vans all of the community and visited 7 different churches around Cusco, entering and praying as a group for a few then heading to the next. we did not get back until very late. on Friday we went to the girls school Santa Maria Goretti and did a Stations of the Cross walking through the countryside, then later in the afternoon had a liturgical service here in Cusco. on Saturday we ran around town preparing everything for our trek, buying food, gas for the stove, practiced setting up the stove and tent, and then ran out and bought all the last minute things we had forgotten. the Vigil Mass on Saturday night was beautiful, we did not get back until very late though. we went to Mass on Sunday morning, then i baked cookies and granola, then there was a big party downstairs of where all the families live to celebrate Easter. the children played a game where they were searching for the bags of sweets we hid and there was so much good food. it was a wonderful day, very joyous. Fr. Vincent said all of the holy week Masses, and his sense of humor is really good.

on monday morning we woke up at 4.30 to catch our 6am bus, then we went 4 hours to Ramal de Cachora where we caught a taxi to Cachora and met up with our arriero (guide) and 2 mules and started on our trek. we walked all afternoon and arrived at the campsite just before dark, and the flashlight we brought did not work. we struggled to finish cooking and getting ready for bed but we borrowed the flashlight of our guide a bit. the next morning we got up very early and hiked down to the river and then back up. one of the mules was for riding, the other was to carry all of our stuff. we got to the top of the mountain at noon and set up camp and just relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful view and the afternoon sun. wednesday we went to the ruins at Choquiquirao, stayed at the same campsite the third night and then thursday we climbed down the mountain and halfway back up the other side across the river. in the sun it was challenging but we made it with a lot of water and snacks. there were so many beautiful butterflies along the way, of all colors, it made me think of Lauren. last night Thursday we stayed in a campsite nearest the town (16km) and this morning were up just after 5 to get a head start before the sun came out. we walked the last 16km and got into town in time to catch a taxi and a bus back to Cusco and have spent the last few hours arranging all of our stuff, returning all the camping gear to our friends, eating, going to the Mass the community has every Friday night, and saying goodbye to the missionary families. now we can finally go back to one last night in our room at the hostal and shower at last. hopefully the hot water has not run out.

we want Kryn and Ashley to do the trek with us in about 10 years when the ruins are completely restored. right now they are working on restoring them, only 10 percent has been restored. it was a noncommercial trek and not very touristy which i like.

in total we did 64km of trekking and are tired. we are leaving in the morning for Lake Titicaca and then will do straight busses from there to northern Argentina.

Feliz Pascua a todos!

we have been so busy working that i have not had a chance to write. we leave everyday at either6:15 and 7:30, and get back around 3pm, but i have been taking advantage of the piano downstairs and playing a few hours a day. i have also been running again, behind saksayhuaman there is a road that has beautiful views, but it is very uphill getting there and also at this elevation running is more difficult. but it is a good run and i am training a bit in preparation for our 5 day hike that we will do after Easter. last weekend we went to Pisaq, the first town in the Sacred Valley that has really good ruins. we took a bus there, then started from the bottom and hiked our way a few hours up until we reached the first set of ruins, from there we explored and saw another in the distance. along the way we found 3 other parts of ruins hidden in the mountains, and were very surprised there were so many. we have uploaded photos from this hike, so look on the flickr page. on sunday i went to a young persons retreat which was really nice. there were talks by Father Vincent and his mother played the music during adoration and the Mass. she is from Mexico City but was born in California, the half sister of Liza Minnelli, daughter of Vincent Minnelli famous hollywood producer. i bought my flight home, i will arrive on the 21st of June in Toronto because it was cheaper. i have a 9 hour lay over in Mexico City, and Cristiane (the half sister of Liza Minnelli) will pick me up, and take me to the Basilica in Mexico City which is near the airport. i am excited about this, being able to see Guadalupe. i have been working with the 2nd grade room most days this week, today i helped in the artesania taller, which is working on sewing. i was helping some of the high school girls with their projects that will be gifts for their mothers for Mothers day. in a half an hour there is a Mass with the community that we will go to. Friday i have plans with the 4 and 5 year old teachers, i will go on some house visits with them. they are required to visit each of the houses of their students, and i am interested in going to at least a few. afterwards they asked me to have coffee with them. the 4 year old teacher Neli is very interested in English, she talkes to me in English every chance she gets even though her level is very basic. today she was asking me how to say all kinds of phrases like -I am a teacher, -I like my job, so i wrote down all the questions in spanish and translated them for her to study. she was so happy when i gave her the sheet! i eat lunch everyday with the 5 year olds, they are so funny telling me stories and always hugging me. i have taken some photos of them, and will try to upload them this weekend. Al finally found a computer that accepts his memory card, so this weekend he can upload his photos from the last 3 months that he has not been able to upload. we love working with this community, there are so many good examples of faith filled marriages that is very inspiring to us. Al has been giving a lot of suggestions for the improvement of the English classes and doing his best to correct pronunciations. he has finished scraping all of the buildings of the chipping paint and has started painting a new coat on all of it. he works with a maintanence worker named Raul and loves talking with him while they work. we both eat large lunches at school, i also eat breakfast at school because all the students are offered breakfast and whichever teachers also want to eat can. usually it is some kind of hot drink with bread, the drink usually is chocolate, or polenta, or crushed beans. the bread we eat is made fresh at the City of the Boys where Al works, and occasionally there is yogurt which is also produced there.

we will probably not be doing machu picchu, we have decided instead to do the 5 day hike to chokequirao, which is 2 days there, 1 day to explore the ruins and 2 days back. these ruins have not really been discovered yet, most of them are still covered, and it is much less touristy which we prefer.

chao a todos!

We have been working in the schools for a week now, and it has been really interesting. I have been working in the inicial school with the 4 and 5 year olds as well as a bit of helping in ... [Continue reading this entry]

we arrived in Cusco last thursday night after a very long day bus from Arequipa that lasted 11 hours. we arrived at the house of our friends, a missionary couple who have two sons, and they fed us dinner and ... [Continue reading this entry]