Getting Local With It

Published on July 1, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

After several days lamenting the lack of authentic food and drink in Peru, in the last few days I’ve finally managed to discover some of the local delicacies – and I can’t get enough of them.  My hunger for raw fish has now been sated by a Peruvian speciality called Ceviche.  Immediately after writing my last post on Saturday, I noticed a Cebicheria next door without a single gringo to be seen, and the food smelled fresh and tasty, if a very fishy.  I shyed out of going by myself and went to see if anyone was around at the girls orphanage.  One of the volunteers, actually another medical student called Maddie, was around nursing a hangover from the previous night.  I managed to drag her along, but she still hasn’t forgiven me for the fishy smell from the restaurant sticking to her clothes!

Service in Peruvian restaurants reflects the very laid back nature of the people here and runs on ‘Peruvian Time’.  The only exception to this I’ve found is a lovely tourist pot in the middle of town called Jack’s, where the service is so quick and the western food so great it’ll cure anyone’s homesickness, that it’s the only place here where you can rely on having to queue outside.  However, at this local spot mere metres away from where I’m now staying at the girl’s house, the loooong wait for our meals was made easier by an interesting starter.  I asked the woman to recommend me a local dish using my phrasebook, and she chose for me a dish called ‘ceviche cojinova’.  Cojinova is a species of fish found on the north coast of Peru, and is white in colour.  My friend played it a bit safer and went with fried trout – but it was still a far cry from the junk in town, and quite delicious.

The starter consisted of a plate of corn to share in the middle of the table called cancha; it’s cooked, but still quite hard, a bit like the popcorn that doesn’t get around to popping. This was served with a bowl of corriander soup called chilcanno, and I’m already a big fan.  You receive some chunks of lime and a slice of hot pepper to mix in with it if you fancy, and I just drank it from the bowl, as is my instinct after spending so long in Japan.  No one seemed to raise any eyebrows, though all the other volunteers have been drinking it with a spoon!  That takes too long… Also, there are over 400 types of potato in this country, and a similar variety when it comes to types of corn.  Peru is an incredibly rich country.  Rich in agriculture, rich in history, rich in culture.  It’s just the inhabitants who are poor.

When my main dish came, I was a bit shocked by the sheer quantity of food, but I guess I did have to compensate for several days of only nibbling at things.  We went to a chicken restaurant with all of the children a few nights ago and whilst it was very tasty I wasn’t able to handle much more than the skin.  Ceviche is basically a pile of raw fish that’s been marinaded in lemon or lime, which sits atop a pile of onions, sweet potatoes and more.  I spent over an hour, I think trying to get it all down me and I almost managed!  I think maybe it’s meant for sharing?

All the time we were waiting and eating in the restaurant we were the only gringos there.  A little girl came up and just stared at us, probably thinking, ‘what on earth are these white people doing here?’.  I tried to initiate some contact and said some of the stock phrases I’ve managed to accumulate like “we’re from England”, and “what’s your name?”, but the little girl didn’t even blink.  I eventually got a brainwave and remembered that the night before I was exchanging tounge twisters with a girl from the orphanage called Shirley.

‘Tres tristes tigres tragan trigo en un trigal’, I said to her.  ‘Pablito clavo un clavito en la cabeza de un calvito’. And then, she completely erupted with laughter!  It was so satifying and left me smiling about it for the rest of the day.  It’s incredible how much Castellano you can pick up by talking to the kids here – often by teaching them how to say something in English you learn in return how to say it in Spanish.  Just like when I was in Japan, there are many people here who stay and don’t really learn much more than very superficial basics.  I’m never going to tell anyone else how they should enjoy their holiday here or what they should do, but personally learning the language and speaking with the children here is easily the highlight of the trip.  It’s the only real way to make memories that are truly unique.

It seems like I’m just talking about food today, but I like food; despite being a fussy brat who was convinced he couldn’t swallow meat when I was the same age as these children!  Last night we all went out – the volunteers that is – to say goodbye to a girl called Ellen who’s going back home to England soon.  Although I’m wary of gringo alley, I take back what I said about it earlier.  We came to a really pleasant little place with a mixed Italian and local menu.  Little restaurants are much nicer here; the ones with a 10 sole menu elsewhere on gringo alley have tonnes of room but we’re always the only ones in there and it feels dead.

I shared with another volunteer anticucho de alpaca; barbequed alpaca served on skewers.  Since I shared it was only about 10 soles and it tasted, and looked, incredible.  I’m now totally convinced that the ‘alpaca’ I ate earlier was just beef with a different label stuck on it, because the barbequed alpaca I ate last night was worlds away, and quite different from beef.  A little more chewy, and though I can’t find the words the flavour differed quite a bit.  Someone else had cuy, which is guinea pig.  Apparently, the word ‘cuy’, from Quechuan (the native language of the area), is derived from onapatopoeia as the little rodents go ‘cuy, cuy cuy!’, before they get caught and fried in an oven.

After the food, comes the drink, and I’ve become so fond of the local beer Cusqueña that I’m going have to try and source it when I return to the UK.  The large bottles have a pattern of many sided-stones around the bottom, embossed out.  These represent the design used by the Incas when they built their walls, with a large, multi-sided stone (one with 12 sides here is famous and always has tourists getting a photograph by it) around which the rest is built.  The people here are proud of their history and I’m sure I will hear much more of the Incan architecture in the coming days and weeks.   Cocktails are popular and cheap here too, and after eating we went around some of the bars and clubs in the town centre.  Being the tourist capital of Peru, Cusco has a bustling nightlife.  Many of the bars, in trying to compete for patrons, hand out free drink tokens.  I managed to get so many free drinks last night that I only had to buy two for myself, and well… I experienced my first Peruvian hangover today.

Another local drink, which I sampled for the first time today, is called chicha.  The full name is chicha morada, as there are actually many kinds of chicha across the continent.  It’s made from dark purple corn, which I’ve seen at the market.  Apparently they crush it in order to make the drink – in the past they used to chew up the corn and spit it out in order to break it down, but I’m not so sure how authentic the one I drank today is – and furthermore not so sure I want to find out.  It was very nice though, quite sweet and tasting a lot like a non-alcoholic mulled wine.

When I arrived in Cusco last Wednesday, I soon found out that the boys orphanage wasn’t that well organised – or to be more clear, the volunteers involvement in the orphanage was under no control.  Two other volunteers at the house I was staying at, a young married couple from Isreal, were explaining this to me and saying it wasn’t what they had expected.  I too expected more structure and thought I would have quite demanding, nine-to-five style days of work.  The organisation is extremely laid-back here, as I said earlier, upon arriving at the orphanage for the first time I really had no clue what to do.  Some of the boys go to school in the morning, some in the afternoon; so rarely are they all there together.  That makes it quite hard to make a structured timetable for them.

Nevertheless, on Sunday night we had the talk.  A couple of the guys here were brave enough to suggest we knuckle down a bit an commit ourselves more to the orphanage.  It was never going to go down well with everyone as the laid back system here really suits people going away for long weekends on treks and such.  Indeed, I myself in about seven hours am embarking on a five-day trek to Machu Pichu!  Still, it had to be said and now we have established a system of a sort.  The basic idea is that we go there at half nine and teach them something fun as a group activity – and afterwards choose a child and teach them mano a mano; as they’re all at such different levels.  The kids here are brought of the streets with all varieties of education; some know algebra whilst others struggle to count to ten.  In Castellano.

We didn’t get going properly on Monday, which wasn’t a big surprise, but today was a huge success.  I put myself forward to do the group activity and this morning I taught the children origami with an old set I received in Japan.  I copied the instructions onto the whiteboard and showed them step-by-step how to make a pigeon, in spanish a paloma.  Some of the guys took to it immediately, doing much better than some of my fellow volunteers; one of the boys actually making them better than myself!  This occupied the children for around an hour I think, and then we went on to tutor the kids individually.

It’s not just origami that these kids are talented at though.  One of the boys, Junio, seems to be a bit of a child prodigy.  Whilst he is a bit older (14, I believe) he is excellent at football, quite adept at English and also a seasoned musician.  The other day he was playing guitar and I tried to teach him Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You by Led Zep.  I was amazed by how quickly he picked up the introduction, simply by watching me play it a few times.  Today I was teaching him a bit of Pink Floyd.

He isn’t the only one there with a knack for music, either.  Friday last week was the last day for two girls from Spain who had been volunteering at the orphanage for some time.  They’d clearly made a significant impact on the kids as they threw a massive show for them, with a stunning display of Andean music and dance.  I took a video of them for a while – and it was of such quality that if I’d heard it in a record shop, I’d probably ask somebody who worked there what it was called so I could pick up a copy.  The picture below links to the video.

I moved into the girls orphanage yesterday with most of the other volunteers, and I love it already.  I see the girls there often as they’re usually downstairs below the volunteer rooms, they’re a fantastic bunch and so independent.  They’re very playful as well, one of the girls there keeps teasing me about everything from my poor grasp of the language to me not having a girlfriend!  When the Americans leave tomorrow, I’m looking forward to spending more time with the girls, hopefully teaching them too.

The rest of my time has been spent exploring the town of Cusco with the other volunteers.  It may be a little too touristy in parts, giving rise to hawkers on the street who try to sell ‘alpaca’ wool garments (though more likely synthetic), cheap paintings and all sorts.  They only seem to understand a firm “no, gracias”, but I’ve had normal and quite interesting conversations with a few of them, and I’m sure they can recommend good places to find local foods and drinks.  We usually get taxis into the town which with a few of us only cost 25 pence each, but recently I’ve been risking the local public transport and saving a few pennies, whilst taking in some of the culture.  Most of the ‘buses’ are small minivans with often about twice as many passengers as there are places to sit – but it’s quite exciting and a man hangs out from the door as the bus drives past potential boarders, shouting out like a raging auctioneer.

In the city, almost every other shop is a local travel agency, coordinating tours to Machu Pichu and around.  On my second day in the city, me and another new volunteer shopped around at the various outlets trying to find the best deal for a trek to Machu Pichu.  We eventually settled on one recommended by some other volunteers who had just been and come back, and the bus is coming to pick us up to take us to the start of a five day trek in about six hours.

So, I won’t be updating anything until after I get back on Sunday.  But then you should expect a splurge of pictures and stories from my trek.  It should be hard work, covering around 80 kilometres at high altitude.  I might look a little bit different in the photographs too, after stopping at a certain shop in town for an hour or so this afternoon…

¡Hasta luego!

Tommy

Viva el Perú!

Published on June 28, 2009 in Peru and Uncategorized. 3 Comments

Viva el Perú! 

Viva el Perú

That is how I was greeted by a mountain towering in the distance as my bus finally arrived in the city of Cusco, after a gruelling 22 hours on the road.  The words were etched into the face of the mountain and served as a warm welcome.  Were it not for those words, the mountain wouldn’t really stand out as the entire city of Cusco is the historical capital of the country, and is surrounded by towering mountains, the city itself sitting at a rather impressive 3,300 metres above sea level.  Needless to say, I’ve been suffering the effects of some altitude sickness, having almost no appetite recently.   If you’re struggling with a diet plan, this is without a doubt the place to come!

Since leaving on Monday, I’ve had about a 50 hour journey and finally arrived in Cusco on Wednesday afternoon in the midst of Inti Raymi celebrations. I’ve been here for a total of three and half days now and I’ve got quite a lot to say. I guess I’ll just go from the start.

After touching down in Lima in the late Tuesday morning, I passed through the superficial safety section and was greeted by a man called Cesar, holding up a sign with my name. He drove me to the Cruz del Sur station where I spent a few hours waiting, and had a plate of steak and chips, Peru style. I’m a bit sad to say I’ve not yet really sampled much authentic Peruvian cuisine yet, although I did try alpaca steak in a ten soles (that’s about two pound fifty) restaurant down Gringo Alley. It tastes pretty indistinguishable from beef, and for all I know it was! I’ll have to try again. Anyway, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.

Boarding the bus itself was a bit of an experience. After I checked my luggage in, I went through the door where my passport and ticket were checked. I then had to put my bag on a desk outside as one man rummaged through it and another filmed it on a small digicam. This rather perplexing level of surveillance continued after I’d found my seat upstairs – right at the front so I could see out of the window – when a man stood at the end of the bus and filmed everyone in the face for a few seconds, then continued down the bus. By now the bus was full, and as I opted to save four pounds and sit with the cattle upstairs, I was surrounded by Peruvians rather than other tourists. I think the word for foreigner is ‘gringo’ in Castellano, which, incidentally is what the Spanish language is known as in Latin America, but it doesn’t seem to be in as wide use as the word ‘gaijin’ was back in Japan. Maybe it’s more offensive?

Either way, I was glad to be surrounded by locals as it gave me a chance to practice my Castellano. Armed with my phrasebook and a very good dictionary on my phone, I was able to make a little small talk with the lady next to me; who I am, where I’m from. When the man was filming us at the beginning, I asked her “¿Por qué?”, which means ‘why’, and she said it was in case of accidents. There was an old Peruvian couple sat across from us, and the man imitated a man holding a very large gun!   I presume the filming was either to account for all the passengers and identify them in case of an incident, or as proof of who was on the bus in case one of the passengers tries to rob it.  Either way, I was quite thrown off as I thought coming all the way to Peru might give me a bit of a break from being filmed by big brother.  I guess it’s starting to take hold out here as well.

The bus left Lima surprisingly promptly at 5:30 PM, and we were on our way on the long road to Cusco.  Whilst it was the summer solstice, the longest day of the year back home in England two days before I left, I would be arriving in Cusco on the 24th of June, the shortest day of the year in the southern hemisphere and cause for one of the biggest events in the Cusquean calendar, the festival Inti Raymi.  This would be the longest shortest day ever, though.  As we’re in the middle of Winter here, the sun was already setting as the bus departed, and as the bus drove slipped through Lima and into the night, the only light seeping in through the tinted windows from traffic outside, I soon drifted to sleep.  Although back in Lima I was lamenting about not being able to go downstairs in the VIP section, the seats upstairs still reclined nicely and I had a great view sitting at the front of the bus.  There was less room, but I’m not exactly the biggest person ever and it just meant I had to sit quite cosily with the woman next to me.  Who herself was quite big.  I was quite surprised upon arriving in Peru, for a country with over fifty percent living beneath the poverty line, a lot of people are quite fat.  After a few days here all becomes clear.  The locals are very found of dishes like chicken and chips, and show considerable shock when you opt for water rather than the local beverage Inka Cola – a very sweet soft drink a bit like Irn Bru which outsells Coke here.  As we were chatting, I told my neighbour I was studying medicine.  She told me she was diabetic; I wasn’t surprised.

Maybe because I was so tired, I slept well and didn’t really stir until about six or seven in the morning, to see the sunrise among an incredible array of mountains.  The last ten or so hours of the bus ride took us through beautiful winding valleys, and though the windows were tinted dark and in the morning obscured by a lot of condensation, they soon cleared and I had a view that was good enough to take some quite nice pictures.

The views were astounding, but it’s quite alarming, in fact, how quickly you adapt to the scenery and it loses the initial WOW factor.  My eyes kept drifting to the windows throughout the journey, and at times were completely glued to them, but some of my attention was stolen by the television at the front which was showing an interesting juxtaposition of a children’s animation about talking eggs going to the circus and a considerably violent film about a serial killer called 88 Minutes.  It was good enough to distract me from the wonderland outside but I did wonder why they were showing stuff like that on a bus with lots of small children on board.

Our sole stop on the entire 22 hour journey was at a service station at a small town called Abancay.  This was a chance for me to wander outside and stretch my legs, to try and save myself from arriving at my destination with a nasty deep vein thrombosis, and to look around at my new landscape without the dullness from the darkly tinted windows.  It was also the poo stop.  Before I got to sleep in the evening, there was the obligatory safety video detailing fire exits and such, but it then grabbed my attention as it went to the toilets and explained quite forcefully that the toilets can’t cope with you doing a No. 2.  “I repeat, the toilets are for URINATION ONLY”, spoke the pretty stewardess with a smile.  In Peru, the plumbing can’t handle toilet paper instead, so you have to stick it in a bin next to it which can become quite smelly.  Better than the contents overflowing everywhere at least.  You have to bring a loo roll with you or suffer being handed a paltry few sheets by a man outside for a few Soles. 

Anyway, enough about poo.  I finally arrived in Cusco at about four in the afternoon, and used a payphone at the bus station to call Jeremy, the co-ordinator of the volunteer operation and the guy who runs the orphanages.  He said he’d be there in about 15 minutes, so I went inside to see the Inti Raymi celebrations on a small television screen.  I had orginally hoped to make it to Cusco in time to see the festival for myself, but time did not allow it.  However, some of the other volunteers went and said it was interesting, but not the second biggest festival in South America as it is purported to be.  Jeremy soon arrived to pick me up, and I had an insightful journey to his house as he pointed out some places around town like the market and told me about himself – his English is perfect.

I had a much, much needed shower upon arrival and got myself settled in.  I’m staying at his house for the first few days of my stay as the main volunteer accommodation, above the girls orphanage, has been invaded and taken over by an army of thirty-odd American volunteers from the church, who are building a new house by the girls orphanage so that the boys can live together with them (right now their house is in another part of town), and of course, spreading the word of God.  I cringe.  Fortunately they’re all leaving on Tuesday so I can move in with the other volunteers.  Whilst I’m not a fan of the level of piety in this country, it’s easy to see why it’s here because before Peru become popular with tourists; actually quite recenty, most of the visitors to this country were missionaries.  Sadly, several ancient festivals have been tainted by Christianity here.  A bit like Christmas, they still exist but they’ve been adapted to have a bit more Jesus in them.  There’s a big Jesus statue who looks over on Cusco from a hill, he even lights up at night.

I met up with the other volunteers in the evening and joined them for some drinking card games.  I had hoped to make it into the town centre to sample its nightlife, but I didn’t have a key for Jeremy’s house then and didn’t want to set a bad impression coming knocking at the door in the early hours!  I came back with a couple who are also staying at the house, and had a rest.

The following morning I woke up to breakfast with Jeremy and Nillda, his mother, who runs the orphanages with him.  They’ve been doing it for over ten years now, and they’ve taken in quite a lot of kids from the street and given them a home.  Breakfast in Peru, and any meal for that case, comes with a lot of avocado.  It seems like the national favourite.  I’m not a fan yet, but I expect ten weeks of avocado sandwiches will convert me.  We then went in his car to the boys orphanage, which takes about ten minutes.  We drove past the giant statue of an Inca warrior king and as we went past the hill with the writing on it, he pointed out that its neighbour had a picture of Cusco’s crest ingrained into it.  There’s a llama on the left which goes quite nicely with the obsession with it here, on the right a Peruvian species of tree (I think Jeremy called it ‘Kika’), which is the source of a key ingredient in the production of Malarone, an anti-malaria drug used worldwide.  Beneath them is a cornucopia symbolising Cusco’s wealth – which these days is fuelled entirely by tourism.

Upon getting to the boys orphanage I was warmly greeted by the kids, and then Jeremy left me to it.  I was the only volunteer there, and unsure of what to do really I eventually got all the boys into the classroom and started to teach them some English.  I was struggling a bit but soon other volunteers began to arrive and helped me out.  The orphanage and the kids staying there are incredibly charming and I know I’ll find it hard to leave them when I continue on my travels.  Hopefully before then I can actually make some kind of difference and teach them some new things.

I have so much more to say, but I’ve suddenly found my appetite and also if I don’t find a toilet soon I’m going to burst.  I’ll continue the rest of my story of the last few days later.  I’ll be coming back here because the internet’s actually quite quick and outside I can hear loads of local kids noisily playing football – it’s great!

¡Hasta luego¡

Tommy

Quick Update

Published on June 23, 2009 in Peru. 1 Comment

After two plane journeys I’m halfway there!

I’ve just arrived at the Cruz del Sur bus station in Lima, where I have about 4 hours to wait until my bus will whisk me away at breakneck speed on a 21 hour roadtrip.

I met a few people on the way here who were talking about how amazing the VIP seats on the Cruz del Sur buses are, and showed me a few pictures from a leaflet they had.  You pay the equivalent of an extra four or five quid and get a lazyboy chair on the first floor of the bus, a nice view of the television and great service.  I made my reservation a few days ago online with the help of a friend in Lima, but not realising the differences between VIP seats and the regular variety ones – I assumed it was just a different floor and a little more legroom, I opted for an upstairs seat, which looks a bit more like an ordinary UK bus chair.

Oh well! C’est la vie, or whatever it is the Spanish say.  Google tells me it’s “Así es la vida”.  I didn’t exactly come here looking for luxury, anyway.  One thing I’ve realised already from my short time in the country is that there is less English than I expected.  I wanted to come somewhere where I’d be forced to pick up the local language and speak it, which is one reason I came further out to Peru rather than visiting the Spanish mainland.  However, I expected to be able to get by with just English if I had to, at least in the capital, Lima.  Instead I’ve been awkwardly flicking through my lonelyplanet phrasebook desperately trying to put together a sentence that actually makes… sense.

My taxi ride to the bus station – it’s pretty far out from the airport as there’s no nationalised system; even though travel by bus is the most common even for long distance in Peru, buses are operated by various private companies so their offices are just spread out randomly over the city – was an opportunity to see what the driving standards are like here.  Well, they’re far better than those in Thailand, which is about the nicest thing I can say.  Driving seems like a bit of a game here, everyone trying to nudge through the traffic, cheekily threatening to drive into each other and honking sporadically.  Quite fun but I doubt I’ll be renting a car!

It was a rather long journey though, as there was quite a lot of traffic as well, but I tried to make it a bit more interesting by talking with the driver who’s actually a friend of a friend here in Lima.  I spent about a minute trying to put together a semi-legititmate sentence only to be met by a reply I couldn’t start to comprehend.  I just kept replying with “Sí” and hoped for the best, but for all I know I could have been agreeing with anything.

I still have three hours to burn till I can board my luxurious coach, so maybe I’ll go watch the traffic (there isn’t a whole lot else to see in the capital city of Lima, from the looks of things) and try and learn some Spanish, or as they call it here ‘castellano’.

¡Hasta luego!

Tommy

A Midsummer Night

Published on June 22, 2009 in Peru. 2 Comments

Yesterday morning, thousands of people gathered at the ancient site of Stonehenge to celebrate the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, which in the northern hemisphere is the 21st of June.  Although I should probably be getting some rest before I set off on a new adventure, the sun has gone down and is now creeping back in through the windows, and outside the birds are starting to tweet.  I’ve been reading through all of the posts I made here in 2007/2008 whilst I was living in Japan, and thinking about the trip ahead of me.  Only a day after celebrating the height of Summer in England and the longest day of the year, I’m about to embark on the longest journey of my life.

I’d planned on keeping my blog updated after returning from Japan, but quickly lost motivation.  After all, compared to life in far away countries, my day-to-day existence here seems pretty mundane, and writing about it and publishing it online all seems a bit conceited.  Regardless, I’ve had a fun and exciting first year at medical school in London, going to lots of fancy dress parties, nursing lots of hangovers and even doing a bit of study from time to time.  Compared to many other courses, the medicine curriculum is quite unforgiving and I’ve found that the free time which I used to have in abundance is now much harder to come by.  But now, Summer is here and I’m determined to make the most of it.  At midday tomorrow (well later today now), I board a train down to London, from where I’ll be flying to Lima, Peru; via Sao Paolo airport in Brazil.  Including waiting for the change, the flight is going to take 21 hours, but that’s only half of the journey!  My final destination is a city called Cuzco, which can be reached in little over an hour by an Andes-hopping aeroplane, but by the much more affordable bus takes over twenty hours.

All in all, from when I set off tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be travelling in some form or another for over fifty hours.  Good job I don’t get travel sick!journey

As for what I’m going to be doing once I arrive, I’m going to be doing volunteer work again, only this time it’s at an orphanage.  Compared to the very organised system I was part of when in Japan, where I knew what was going to be in my room four months before even arriving; I’m not entirely sure of what to expect from arrangements in Peru.  I understand everyone is a lot more laid back and I should just go with the flow and be as adaptable as I can.  In a nutshell, I’ll be living in an apartment above the orphanage, looking after the kids staying there, entertaining them, cooking, taking them on trips and whatever else I can think of!  I won’t be on my own, at least I doubt I will be as the volunteer company usually has at least a few volunteers active there.  It’s up to us to find things to amuse the children, other than some old gameboys I’ve managed to dig up, once they get bored of them maybe I’ll be able to transfer some of the useful skills I got whilst over on the other side of the world – by teaching them how to make origami!

I’m going to be in Peru for ten weeks all in all, and I’ll be working at the orphanage and living in Cuzco for the first four to six weeks.  After that I’ll be travelling around, as it’s an amazingly diverse country, which has everything from a lively surfing community to some of the largest sand dunes on the planet – not to mention Machu Picchu, one of the most incredible wonders of the world.

I’m hoping to learn a fair bit of Spanish as well.  Although I’m only going to be in Peru for a fraction of the time I was staying in Japan, I’m armed with some Spanish books and textbooks and have already learnt some rudimentary phrases!  I’m using a book called ‘Assimil: Spanish with Ease‘ which aims to teach by showing you natural sentences, with a translation into English on the adjacent page and notes on the difficult to grasp grammar.  It seems like a great system, and the sentences have been sticking in my head; although some of the phrases are of questionable use (do I really need to be able to say, “The blonde tobacco, in Spain, is expensive”??).  I might have to make a bit more effort than I did whilst living in Japan as well, for unlike in Japan where it was a real challenge to find a competent English-speaker, Cuzco is Peru’s backpacking capital.  At least I won’t have any trouble meeting new friends!

As I mentioned at the start of this – the longest day of the year has just been celebrated over here.  I’ll be arriving in Cuzco on the 24th of June, a date which marks a festival celebrating the shortest day of their year.  I guess it’s goodbye Summer already.

Anyway, keep checking as I’ll be updating regularly whilst I’m out there, with pictures!  Now I’m going to try and catch a little bit of sleep before I set off on my journey.

Adiós, Inglaterra!