the wanderer has stopped wandering for a while
Hello everyone!
I am sitting in the computer lab of my new school, eating chocolate (which maybe I shouldn´t be in a computer lab? still, in this case better to ask forgiveness than permission!) and listening to the afternoon rain storm clatter on the window in a delightfully equatorial fashion. My keyboard, thankfully, is not about to produce wierd and wonderful things from keys thought to be what they say they are.
I have arrived (a week early as it turns out) in Cuenca, Ecuador, my city of residence for the next 6 months while I teach English to Ecuadorians at an International school here called CEDEI. (My arrival should make mention of the bus full of Columbians, who were (every last one of them) so helpful and friendly and wanting to help a poor lost foreigner. Without them I would have taken the absolute longest route to Cuenca possible but they all ushered me off the bus in time to catch another one and then waved goodbye as my new bus left them at the border post. I wish I could have spoken to them more, I wish I could go and visit them, but I don´t even know who any of them are! They were just super kindly people.)
The school is full of people from all over the world, all who speak at least a little English and I feel a sudden disappointment that my plan of full immersion in Spanish may not quite pan out. Still, it´s always nice to have a decent conversation with one´s housemate! My housemate is a girl from Virginia, US, called Rebekkah and we seem to get along very well together, which is probably important in a housemate!
There is room for two more housemates still but these are yet to be found.
Instead, at present, the downstairs half of the house, or property as it is all outside and merely covered by the house, has been rented out to the workman who are paving the street outside. It´s a little hard to describe my new beautifully colonial humble abode but suffice to say it has a hole in the midst of it that no doubt SHOULD look down into a pretty garden below. It does not. It has been covered with a tarpaulin that may shut out visuals but lets through every sound anyone beneath makes as if they were in the house. This is still fine until people start pounding on the metal gate at all unearthly hours wanting to get in, or the drilling starts at 6:30am, or they have disgusting ´"manly" belching competitions! Oh well, the bonus is that the house is right across the street from the school, requiring a mere roll out of bed in the morning and it is a lovely house to be in. They´ll be gone soon enough anyway!
Cuenca is quite different from other towns and cities that I have been in. For one it is more expensive (I really miss Bolivia now!) and it seems a little more jacked up. It lacks the night vibe of other towns, as although they still have their 3 hour lunch break they all lock up again at 6pm! (ooh, now I´m being splashed by rain - where is it coming from? and should it really be raining in a computer lab???) It does have very attractive cobbled streets lined by tall houses with iron-lace balconies full of flowers and it also has a pretty river for nice walks or runs, although I´m not sure "nice" and "runs" should be allowed in the same sentence here...
I tried to go running the other day. I thought that if I could walk around fine here it would be easy enough to run. After ten minutes I thought my lungs would explode and my head was creating rather pretty but nonetheless worrying star-like visions. There´s just no air here! That being said I´m determined to keep trying and have even found a running club to join. Though what to expect from it I am not entirely sure as I can´t really understand a word of what they are telling me! Can´t wait for those Spanish lessons to begin!
Where did I leave you last time? I think La Paz? Well, my brief stay in that infectious, manic city brought me together with a friendly Brazilian couple who I ended up travelling half way through Peru with. Our first stop after La Paz was the enchanting lakeside town of Copacabana. I loved it there, even if it was a bit touristy. Blue skies and sunshine (even if it included a burnt head courtesy of sun-a-la-altitude!). I even managed a 2 hour boat ride to Isla del Sol without getting seasick! (go me!) This Island is said to be one of the most important religious centers of the Andean world: here the sun and moon were created. And Here the first Inca dynasty was born. From this royal and sacred island we had brilliant views across to Peru and Bolivia and the chance to take it all in slowly, enjoying every minute of the three hour walk across it. A welcome change after spending day after day on buses! Copacabana is a tiny town, you can walk around it in 15 minutes slowly, but with a favourite restaurant and lots of sun to soak in, I loved being there!
Soon, however, we were on the road again, leaving Bolivia and on our way to Puno, Peru, with the great blue lake still beside us. In Puno we visited the floating Islands of Uros, a mind-boggling site to behold. Everything is made out of reeds - the boats, the houses, the hospital, the islands themselves! They actually have to anchor the islands when they don´t want to drift off to another part of the lake. Imagine that, going to sleep in Peru and waking up in Bolivia.
Our main attraction of the day, however was the fixed island of Tequile, where the Inca way of life is preserved. The people wear traditional dress and there is no need for police. The Inca Law being: No lying, no stealing and no being lazy. Everyone was full of smiles here. Tradition lives on!
A quick overnight bus dropped us off in Cusco, another town a tad touristy but much to my liking. Lots of music and dancing and lots of people having fun. I used Cusco as a base from which I did an absolutely incredible 5 day hike up to Machu Pichu. Not the original Inca trail, as this was fully booked and rather expensive, but a magical hike nonetheless. In fact it was so memorable and this email is so long already that I will dedicate a separate email entirely to it, with pictures included! For now though I am about to go to a hat-weaving demonstration so you will have to hold your breath for Salkantay another day.
Have to run now as the lab is closing but hope you are all well and happy. I miss you all (probably anyway, there are so many of you after all and I think missing so many people all at once would not be good for me. But I do think of you often and wish each of you could be here...and miss you all in turn at least!)
Lots and lots of love and big hugs to all of you,
Penny.
(And Rainbow and Ned who are happy to at last be out of a suitcase for more than 2 days at a time and not have to face being squashed into one for another few months - yay!)
I am sitting in the computer lab of my new school, eating chocolate (which maybe I shouldn´t be in a computer lab? still, in this case better to ask forgiveness than permission!) and listening to the afternoon rain storm clatter on the window in a delightfully equatorial fashion. My keyboard, thankfully, is not about to produce wierd and wonderful things from keys thought to be what they say they are.
I have arrived (a week early as it turns out) in Cuenca, Ecuador, my city of residence for the next 6 months while I teach English to Ecuadorians at an International school here called CEDEI. (My arrival should make mention of the bus full of Columbians, who were (every last one of them) so helpful and friendly and wanting to help a poor lost foreigner. Without them I would have taken the absolute longest route to Cuenca possible but they all ushered me off the bus in time to catch another one and then waved goodbye as my new bus left them at the border post. I wish I could have spoken to them more, I wish I could go and visit them, but I don´t even know who any of them are! They were just super kindly people.)
The school is full of people from all over the world, all who speak at least a little English and I feel a sudden disappointment that my plan of full immersion in Spanish may not quite pan out. Still, it´s always nice to have a decent conversation with one´s housemate! My housemate is a girl from Virginia, US, called Rebekkah and we seem to get along very well together, which is probably important in a housemate!
There is room for two more housemates still but these are yet to be found.
Instead, at present, the downstairs half of the house, or property as it is all outside and merely covered by the house, has been rented out to the workman who are paving the street outside. It´s a little hard to describe my new beautifully colonial humble abode but suffice to say it has a hole in the midst of it that no doubt SHOULD look down into a pretty garden below. It does not. It has been covered with a tarpaulin that may shut out visuals but lets through every sound anyone beneath makes as if they were in the house. This is still fine until people start pounding on the metal gate at all unearthly hours wanting to get in, or the drilling starts at 6:30am, or they have disgusting ´"manly" belching competitions! Oh well, the bonus is that the house is right across the street from the school, requiring a mere roll out of bed in the morning and it is a lovely house to be in. They´ll be gone soon enough anyway!
Cuenca is quite different from other towns and cities that I have been in. For one it is more expensive (I really miss Bolivia now!) and it seems a little more jacked up. It lacks the night vibe of other towns, as although they still have their 3 hour lunch break they all lock up again at 6pm! (ooh, now I´m being splashed by rain - where is it coming from? and should it really be raining in a computer lab???) It does have very attractive cobbled streets lined by tall houses with iron-lace balconies full of flowers and it also has a pretty river for nice walks or runs, although I´m not sure "nice" and "runs" should be allowed in the same sentence here...
I tried to go running the other day. I thought that if I could walk around fine here it would be easy enough to run. After ten minutes I thought my lungs would explode and my head was creating rather pretty but nonetheless worrying star-like visions. There´s just no air here! That being said I´m determined to keep trying and have even found a running club to join. Though what to expect from it I am not entirely sure as I can´t really understand a word of what they are telling me! Can´t wait for those Spanish lessons to begin!
Where did I leave you last time? I think La Paz? Well, my brief stay in that infectious, manic city brought me together with a friendly Brazilian couple who I ended up travelling half way through Peru with. Our first stop after La Paz was the enchanting lakeside town of Copacabana. I loved it there, even if it was a bit touristy. Blue skies and sunshine (even if it included a burnt head courtesy of sun-a-la-altitude!). I even managed a 2 hour boat ride to Isla del Sol without getting seasick! (go me!) This Island is said to be one of the most important religious centers of the Andean world: here the sun and moon were created. And Here the first Inca dynasty was born. From this royal and sacred island we had brilliant views across to Peru and Bolivia and the chance to take it all in slowly, enjoying every minute of the three hour walk across it. A welcome change after spending day after day on buses! Copacabana is a tiny town, you can walk around it in 15 minutes slowly, but with a favourite restaurant and lots of sun to soak in, I loved being there!
Soon, however, we were on the road again, leaving Bolivia and on our way to Puno, Peru, with the great blue lake still beside us. In Puno we visited the floating Islands of Uros, a mind-boggling site to behold. Everything is made out of reeds - the boats, the houses, the hospital, the islands themselves! They actually have to anchor the islands when they don´t want to drift off to another part of the lake. Imagine that, going to sleep in Peru and waking up in Bolivia.
Our main attraction of the day, however was the fixed island of Tequile, where the Inca way of life is preserved. The people wear traditional dress and there is no need for police. The Inca Law being: No lying, no stealing and no being lazy. Everyone was full of smiles here. Tradition lives on!
A quick overnight bus dropped us off in Cusco, another town a tad touristy but much to my liking. Lots of music and dancing and lots of people having fun. I used Cusco as a base from which I did an absolutely incredible 5 day hike up to Machu Pichu. Not the original Inca trail, as this was fully booked and rather expensive, but a magical hike nonetheless. In fact it was so memorable and this email is so long already that I will dedicate a separate email entirely to it, with pictures included! For now though I am about to go to a hat-weaving demonstration so you will have to hold your breath for Salkantay another day.
Have to run now as the lab is closing but hope you are all well and happy. I miss you all (probably anyway, there are so many of you after all and I think missing so many people all at once would not be good for me. But I do think of you often and wish each of you could be here...and miss you all in turn at least!)
Lots and lots of love and big hugs to all of you,
Penny.
(And Rainbow and Ned who are happy to at last be out of a suitcase for more than 2 days at a time and not have to face being squashed into one for another few months - yay!)
posted by sb @ 9:54 AM
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