Come fly with me, let´s float down to Peru!

I had a great week here in llama land. I wanted to blog earlier about my adventures, but unfortunately the internet can be kind of spotty here. I always got too impatient and the computer wouldn´t load my pictures. Finally I found a computer working well this morning! My big day this week was Wednesday. Centro Tinku had their 8th year anniversary, so they planned a hike and lunch for all of us. All of us played hookie from our volunteer jobs and hiked up near these ruins above Cusco. It was a three hour hike and it was absolutely gorgeous. The british owner of Centro Tinku has been living here for many years and has studied the history, so he became our tour guide. He showed us this temple that was in between cities so it could be easily accesible to many people. It was amazing! He also told us about how the Spaniards came in and converted all of them to Catholics. They chopped off every head of their statues of animals that they worshiped. It´s a shame because of the sheer difficulty and artistry of it all. By the end we were over looking all of Cusco. It was a great sight to see. We ended our day with a lunch at a classic Cusquenean restaurant. It was my first time really going to a restaurant because I´m always fed by my host family. My friend Anna got this soup that our director called UFO soup (Unidentified Floating Organs). She said it was really good so I tried it and it wasn´t too bad. After we ate he told us it was Tripe and other intestines. Yup, I ate stomach and intestines and didn´t detest it. I ordered a famous dish here called Chicharron. It´s roasted pork with a side of these big pieces of corn that they eat with cheese. It was delicious! I definitely couldn´t eat it all. Afterwards a couple of us walked around the plaza and looked around in a mercado. I bought a Peru futbol jersey, so it´s official I´m a peruana now! While we were walking down a street near the plaza, This group of older men came up to me and said How does BYU basketball get here? (I happened to be wearing my BYU basketball shirt, I gotta represent) They got really excited when I said that I was here doing an internship in the clinics. They were a group of doctors here for a medical conference and told me that it was a great idea to help me get into medical school. I should wear BYU shirts more often, you never know where you´ll run into members. They are everywhere :) On thrusday, it was an exciting day at the clinic. We spent most of our day sitting with a woman in labor. Unfortunately we didn´t get to see the birth because it was after we left. The women here usually are all alone when they are in labor, and they definitely don´t get any drugs. This woman we were with was 19 and she was quite dramatic. I mean I know I have yet to experience it, but even the nurses said that it doesn´t hurt that bad while you´re in labor. She was screaming at the top of her lungs that she wanted to die over and over again. There was another woman in labor there that just kept staring at her like she was crazy. It was quite an interesting five hours. Yesterday, guess what I had for breakfast? CAKE! It was my host mom´s birthday, so we had cake and alfajores for breakfast. I have officially now learned how to deal with eating cake for breakfast and not feeling sick the rest of the day. I just eat an orange and nothing else until lunch. Speaking of lunch, once again it was fabulous. Ivan made lasagna and we had my favorite soup. The lasagna was really good, but it was different than in the U.S. My favorite soup is called semila soup and it´s like this cream of wheat-like base with cilantro and carrots and french fries. I know it sounds weird, but it´s SO good. I´m going to learn how to make it before I leave. Luckily, last night wasn´t quite as crazy as Ivan´s birthday. They danced a little and drank a lot, but it ended by 10:30. While they were drinking their Pisco Sour, I drank my nightly hot chocolate. When we cheered to Milagros everyone thought it was hilarious that I was cheering with a mug of hot chocolate. Then we watched the Peru vs Paraguay game and we won!!!! Woot Woot! It was super exciting. I think I´m really becoming a fan of futbol. Viva Peru!!!!

Some of the ruins we saw on our hike



Can you find the headless monkey?





UFO soup



Chicharron