Life in Peru

Aaron:

  We have been settled into life in Peru for a few days now and we're trying to get a routine down (at least for the weekdays when we have school).  During the week, we get up around 7.  This is difficult because you can see your breath in the morning since there is no heat at night and it is 35 degrees at night (that means it is 35 degrees inside by the morning since the only insulation is thin window and some curtains).  We have a small propane heater that we run for a few minutes each morning and night but the heat quickly escapes.

   In the morning Christy makes banana pancakes or banana French toast while the kids try to stay warm (of course I am drinking coffee and enjoying the beautiful view of Cusco and the Sacred Valley).  After breakfast I boil some water on the stove and do the dishes and then we get ready to go to school.  This includes reminding the kids daily not to use water from the tap to brush teeth with.  We've been buying huge bottles of water and lugging them uphill to our apartment.

   Once we're outside it is much warmer in the sun.  It is a pleasant ten minute walk to school.  We originally had classes daily from 9 to 11 in the morning and then from 3 to 5 in the afternoon but we've switched to four hours straight (9 to 1 pm).  Cole and Anna are in one class while Christy and I each have individual classes.  Here is the entrance to our school:

 On the way to our school we pass six hundred year old stones that the Inca used to build temples.  One of the stones has 12 sides and a tour guide told us that "The stone is more famous than Michael Jackson."

   After class we head to the bakery for some wonderful French bread to have for lunch and dinner.  Anna has a mini croissant and Cole has a small chocolate croissant and then we head to the San Marcos market where we buy tomatoes and avocados for lunch.  We usually also buy bananas and mystery fruit to have later.

  It is a five minute walk uphill to our apartment (including over 70 stairs).  For lunch we have open-faced tomato and avocado sandwiches, mandarins, and bananas.  After lunch we bribe the kids by paying them to watch TV (!!!) while Christy and I study some Spanish for our afternoon lessons. Of course before I do that I have to boil water to do the dishes since there is no hot water from the tap.

   Here is a photo of the street in front of our house.

  This is what our front door looks like.  There is always a security guard on the street during the day (sometimes he plays soccer with Cole).

  Here are photos of our living room:

  And this is our kitchen:

  Cole thinks our bathroom isn't up to snuff.  Notice that there is only one tap for water (cold only). 

Finally here is the view for our picnic today:

Bye for now!

Old and New in Peru

by Anna:
Today, we went to a very fun park.  It had really cool slides and trampolines.  After that, we went to some very old Inca ruins.  It is called Tipon.  There are 5 fountains and houses for royal Incas.  I love Peru but I've had some bad parts.  One of my bad parts was when I broke down at Spanish school on the first day.  Now it feels better.

by Cole:
We went to the market yesterday and we went in and we saw three dead pigs that you could buy, some starfish you could eat, some frogs that you could eat, some fish, and a couple octopus legs.  We got some sugar cane.  It was delicious but I was full.  Then we drove back.  We went to the Inca museum. First we saw some Inca bowls and what Incas did like knitting.  We also went in a room where they showed lots of Inca sites that we could go to.  We have already been to one.  Then we went upstairs.  We saw some gigantic, really cool jugs.  Then we went into a room that I thought had some of the Inca emporoer, they had some Inca skeletons in there pretending to have a real life.  We went back down and back to our house.  August and I played soccer with some other kids.  We went out to dessert. August, Anna, Zadie and I all had a brownie with ice cream.  It was delish.  On the way back my stomach hurt because I ate so much.

Settling In

Slowly, very slowly, we are finding a place for ourselves here.  It's a subtle change.  On Tuesday, for instance, Aaron was the only person not to have a meltdown.  The last few days have been relatively happy.  Each day we say a "sweet" and a "sour" thing about the day.  Thursday, one of the kids had part of school as their sweet.  It's these little shifts in acceptance that are making things feel better.  It is still a bit overwhelming.  Yesterday I went to the market after class (5:15pm) and was greeted with closed doors.  That meant no dinner until our neighbors rescued us by inviting us to join them for dinner.  We paid way too much for laundry because we turned over the clothes before hearing the price.  These kinds of things are setbacks.  But we are moving two steps foreward, one step backward, and that is about all we can hope for right now.

Today was a day off from school so we spent the morning going to the biggest market in Cusco.  The kids tried sugar cane and we bought plenty of food so if the smaller market is closed next time, we won't rely on our neighbors to feed us.  We also saw starfish for sale, some sort of dead animal, live frogs which they will prepare for your lunch, and octopus.  The kids were surprised at how pale the dead pig looked and I was, as always, amazed at how many fresh fruits and vegetables I can buy for a relatively small sum.  We ate our usual lunch- bread from the fancy bakery with delicious avacado and tomato on top.  The side was a new kind of mango we've never seen before and pineapple.  Yes, I'd say we are settling in nicely.

Tomorrow we are going with our friends to a fancy playground, complete with all of the things a pediatrician traveling to a developing country wants her children playing on: trampolines, merry-go-rounds, and tall slides.  If we survive that, we are going to go to some pretty amazing ruins to have a picnic and play some soccer or frisbee.  Hopefully we will have another pretty great day.

Cole asked that I post a picture

of his homework.  They went on a field trip to the zoo and had to draw pictures of animals they saw and label them.

Anna has decided she quite likes sugar cane.  Over her shoulder is the alpaca sweater we bought to help keep her warm at night.  We all now own alpaca sweaters and hats.  The kids sleep with their gloves on as well.  It's cold here.  Really, really cold.  And it is colder in our apartment than outside.

Cole playing socer in the street with some of the local kids.  He now has a ball as well so can initiate play.  Today I saw him out there with August, our neighbor, kicking the ball around with the policeman who was patrolling the street.

Anna and Zadie are playing with animals near the soccer field.  We feel so blessed to have our neighbors be the people whose blog we have been following for the past few months.  They have made the transition so much easier for our kids.

Strange Fruit.

Aaron:

  Today we had our second day of language classes.  This consisted of waking up at 7 o'clock to a 35 degree apartment.  Christy made banana pancakes, I had coffee, and Cole tried to stay warm in front of our tiny portable propane heater.  There is no insulation in our concrete building but the landlord did put curtains up to keep the heat in.  Eventually we'll probably burn them for warmth.  After breakfast was ready we woke up Anna and enjoyed the beautiful view of Cusco and the Sacred Valley.

    After our morning session of classes (from 9 to 11) we stopped by the bakery to get some French bread for later and croissants for the kids.  Then we went to the local market and bought some new fruit to have for a fruit salad for dinner.  This is what is looked like whole:

And here is a photo of it peeled:

The dark green fruits were very good and soft with large black seeds (Christy compared the taste to cotton candy).  The orange-looking fruit is very light and you eat the seeds (Cole said it looks like monkey brains).  We also had pineapple, mango, pomegranate, grapes, and mandarins in the salad.


  It was also a big day for Cole since he got his own soccer ball:

  Tomorrow we have field trips for school: Christy and Aaron and going to a local market and the kids are going to the zoo.  As always, we're considering purchasing more sweaters and hats to keep warm.

Anna's First Day at Spanish School

by Anna

I was in a class with my brother.  Just my brother.  And we studied the Spanish alphabet.  We also filled in the blanks for Spanish words.  It was really hard.  Then we started doing numbers.  Then I just broke down.  The whole time I was blinking back tears.  But I'm really happy I broke down now because I met my mom's teacher and she said I could study spanish words for colors and I had to teach her English words for colors and on Friday, if I win, I will get a light chocolate.  In a little bit we ate lunch.  I had french toast.  Then we went back to Spanish school.  This time it was a different teacher.  We started studying a lot of different random things.  Mostly, for the lesson, we played futbal (fuzbal).  It means soccer on the little table where you kick things back and forth.  We played me and the teacher against Cole.  Whoever got 20 scores first won.  We did!  Then we studied a little more, then made a joke about warts.  Then we played some more futbal.  Then Cole won.  Then we went back to our apartment and I played with a friend named Zadie.  Cole played soccer in the street with her big brother and local kids.  The soccer ball almost got run over by a car.  Cole scored 4 goals.  He was one of the best.  Then we had dinner with our friends.  Now I am sitting on the couch dictating on the blog while drinking tea.

The Adventure has Begun

by Christy:
Sure, it's fun to ride horses in the Andes, to see salt mines that have been mined for 800 years and Moray, an Inca ruin where it is believed they experimented with agriculture.  It's also pretty amazing to hike up a very steep hill to some other Inca ruins that are fairly infrequently visited because of the steep hike.  But that felt a bit like vacation.  Today, the real adventure began.

We started the day by eating the corn cake we helped prepare by peeling the corn.  It was pretty much cornbread, much to the disappointment of our children.  If you call something cake, it should probably have frosting on top.  This didn't.  Then we took our still damp clothes off the clothes line hanging in our hotel (we were told they would be dry and returned to us yesterday evening), and took the 2 hour drive back to Cusco.  Cusco is a beautiful city by colonial standards.  I'm sure we will talk more about it in the future.  But it is still a city and we are not exactly city people so this is all a bit overwhelming.

We arrived at our fully furnished apartment and felt both pleasure and dismay.  The view is fabulous.  We are up on a hill overlooking the city so this is spectacular.  We have 3 bedrooms.  Having spent the past 5 days together 24/7, this feels like a palace.  There are reasonably comfortable couches and wifi fast enough that I was able to download a book for Anna to read and will probably be able to post a few photos with this entry.  The best surprise of all is that we learned the family we have been corresponding with in preparation for coming to Peru lives in the apartment right above us!  This is divine intervention, in my opinion.  We met up with them on the street (I recognized them from their blog) and had tea.  We needed the tea because it is really quite cold.  Kind of like camping in March, I'd say.  Only with a roof.  Anna and Zadie are both six and they held hands walking up the hill together.  Best friends in 3 minutes.  I loved it.  August is 12 and told Cole a bit about school.  We have a date with him tomorrow to meet the local boys and play some street soccer.  Raisa, their mother, drew me a map to show me where we can get delicious bread and gave me a few meal ideas.  Having this family above us for the next 3 weeks will be a true blessing.  They are wrapping up their time here in mid July and returning to New Hampshire.

The dismay came when we looked at our "fully furnished" kitchen.  There are two small frying pans and a small pot.  Plenty of mugs and utensils.  But that's about it.  Raisa had the landlords buy her a big pot to cook soup.  I have emailed the previous tenants, who were also helpful in our planning, to see what they bought, left, and the landlords took.  Maybe we can get some of that back?  I have now been to the supermarcado twice.  The first time to get some food, the second time to get a pasta strainer, a cutting board and a mixing bowl.  We also need to buy some sort of a lamp for Anna's room because the light switch is so high on the wall that she can't reach it. The lamp they have in there has loose wires coming out of it and we are nervous she will electrocute herself in the middle of the night.  Aaron got a nice, quick hot shower in.  We were told to make them quick because the hot water heater is run off gas and if you take a 30 minute shower you will run through the gas very quickly.  He was quick.  So Anna and I got in and had a lovely 1 minute of warmth before it turned ice cold.  She already had shampoo in her hair and I felt dirty enough that I needed to finish.  As she was shivering afterward, she told me she will never take a shower again.  I spoke to the landlord in my very best Spanish and learned that the gas ran out.  She said she has replaced it so hopefully showers will be warmer tomorrow.  Meanwhile, Cole hasn't bathed in 4 days!

It is all a bit overwhelming.  Tomorrow we start school which will be further overwhelming.  We are struggling through, poco a poco, and remembering that adventures are not ALWAYS fun.  In the end we are fed, sheltered, and together.  We watched the US tie Portugal in the World Cup and have a soccer date for tomorrow.  Life is pretty good.

Salineras.  

There are about 5000 pools. The largest can produce 180 Kg salt every 15 days!

 Cole was very nervous on his horse, Matador, for the first leg of our journey.  But after drinking gatorade at the Salineras, he felt much better.

Anna was very comfortable on Pasquelino, her beatiful horse.  She's not sure if she prefers the arena or trail riding better.  Trails are pretty bumpy but the scenery is better.

To prove we can all ride a horse.  Aaron was on Gobernador (the governor) and I was on Trueno (thunder).

Moray

The temperature in the lowest circle gets up to almost 100 degrees.  Archeologists have found seeds here for tropical plants which indicates the Incas used this as a way of experimenting with different foods in non-native environments.  Pretty amazing.

Travel with Children

by Cole:

We went to the beach in Lima, Peru but it was mostly rocky and the waves were humongous near the shore.  I went to a little park where there was some exercise equipment that I fiddled with.  Then we played frisbee- me, mom, and Anna.  We had a nice walk back to our hotel.  Then we took a really, really long taxi ride to the plaza mayor.  We looked around but the square was closed off so we crossed to the other side.  We did not know what was going on.  There were a lot of soldiers dressed in their uniforms and they played their drums, tubas, or trumpets and welcomed some important people from other countries.  Then we got fruit and yogurt for lunch.  There was a new kind of fruit that looked like a circle with seeds in a round shape and there was a star of seeds in the middle.  It was red.  I did not try it.  The kids had hot chocolate and the adults had coffee.  The hot chocolate was very cinnamony. Then we took a taxi back to our hotel.  We took it pretty easy for the afternoon.  We went to bed early.

Today we flew on an airplane.  I tried Inka Kola it tasted like bubble gum and I really liked it.  Then we landed and my heart was beating very fast because it was high altitude so my heart hurt a lot.  We took a 2 hr ride to Ollantatambo (Ollanta) and we visited our hotel, took a walk, tried to find a park but we couldn't find it.  We came back to the hotel and there was dried out corn.  There was a tiny wraper on it that was pretty clear.  We peeled that off then put it in a jar.  A person made us some hot chocolate.  It was very good.

I am feeling culture shock and very tired.

More photos to come.  The internet is so slow this is really tricky.

by Anna:

My favorite things about Peru so far are:
1. Seeing the girl with the monkey on her shoulder.
2. Playing with cars with some kids.  I pointed to things and they knew what I meant.
3. Going to sleep.
4. Seeing the people playing trumpets and there were some cars with some presidents in them, I think.
5. Today, since I was so cute, I got a banana muffin with chocolate on top.  It was a gift.


by Christy

I love traveling.  Its what I like to spend my money on.  I also love to eat out, which is even more fabulous when eating in another country.  I've been in Peru 2 full days now and have not really eaten out.  I guess I had quinoa soup with vegetables for dinner but that was after falafal for lunch which is not exactly Peruvian.  I had to go someplace where I could try to find something for the kids.  Of course the PB&J with bananas went uneaten because the bananas were fried and that isn't what the kids wanted.  The pepperoni pizza also went uneaten because there were grilled onions and mushrooms on top.  That's when we had a conversation about trying new foods until they get something they like or they can just expect not to eat any desserts while they are in Peru.  We won't be replacing meals with familiar junk food.  That's when they tried Aaron's empañada and decided they liked it.  They do like Inka Kola, probably because it tastes like bubble gum.

So this is the frustrating part of traveling with children.  There are also many delights of carting around an incredibly observant and sensitive boy as well as a joyful enthusiastic girl.  Cole spotted a band lined up in front of the capital building and a few people milling around.  We wandered over, unable to walk through the central square because of the stern policeman standing there with a baton.  But we waited awhile and eventually were treated to the Peruvian anthem (we think) played each time a diplomat of some sort drove in through the gates.  This was fun, but most fun was watching the kids love being a part of it.

Anna walks around like she is a long lost blonde Inca princess.  Perhaps because people keep telling her how beautiful she is and that she IS, in fact, like a princess.  Today at the PB&J cafe, the man gave me the food I ordered then gave her a free banana muffin.  I think there are not too many blonde 6 year old girls with smiles on their faces leaping around and acting like a cheetah on the streets of Ollanta.  She pays attention to all the things the different shopkeepers are trying to sell her, touching everything, grinning appreciatively when they slide knit gloves onto her fingers, oohing and awing over the family of cheap gold llamas they want her to buy.  She took some cars to a concrete area (no parks anywhere) and some children came up and played with her.  Everybody speaks the language of hot wheels cars.

Today Cole and I spent a fair amount of time in our hotel.  He is in sensory overload, loving Peru one minute and then overwhelmed the next.  But we made this a blessing as well.  We sat with the owners of the hotel and watched some World Cup.  We noticed them plucking kernels off corn and asked if we could help.  They showed us how you peel the skin off each and every kernel.  This is so they can grind it tomorrow and make it into a sweet torte which we will now be invited to try.  We peeled corn for awhile, long enough for another man to make and bring us hot chocolate (I heard him grating the chocolate in the kitchen).  Long enough for one of them to ask if Cole knows how to play Risk.  I think tomorrow they might have a match- one speaking English, one Spanish, both in kindness.

Cole's Powerpoint Presentation to his 2nd Grade Class

Things I wonder and worry about Peru by Cole

Things I wonder and worry about Peru:

I wonder  

If I will learn any Spanish

If I will get really badly hurt

If it will be to overwhelming

I worry

If I get separated from my parents

Excited about

Going there!!!!!

Visiting other families and speaking Spanish with them

Peru Preparations!

Aaron:
We will be in Peru just two weeks from today!  We're busy packing and doing last-minute projects before we leave.  Our itinerary is pretty complete and we're looking forward to our adventures in South America.  I've been trying to learn as much Spanish as possible before beginning language school in Cusco.  Christy has been brushing up on her Spanish and learning some of the more difficult aspects of the language.  We've also been trying out recipes using ingredients that we can buy in the market in Cusco (i.e. quinoa).  Breakfast today was quinoa (easy to find in Peru!) with toasted coconut flakes (possible to find in Peru!) with almond milk (probably not) and we'll have quinoa salad for dinner. Anna is happy that she can have bread with butter for breakfast in Peru while Cole is trying to eat as much Special K cereal as possible before we leave as he will have to go without for six weeks.

  Recently we calculated that we will be in Cusco during their winter and the nighttime low is around 40 degrees.  We also learned that most houses in Cusco don't have heat so we may be packing mittens and long underwear.

 The most enjoyable aspect of getting prepared to go to Peru has been choosing toys to bring down to give to the kids there.  We're planning on bringing toys for the kids to play with during our stay and then donating the toys at the end of our stay.  This is what we have so far:

Hopefully Peruanitos like Legos, Hot Wheels, and toy animals!