Cusco and Beyond!

Cusco was really nice. We stayed in a house with internet, tv, and people who spoke some English. Spanish school was intensive and great: four hours per day for five days. Could have used a couple more weeks, but it was a good start. Our teacher, Sandra,  was adorable, and we ended up laughing uncontrollably for at least ten minutes a day. We got her digits (no biggie). I got tummy sick while we were there and had to shit in a bag in my room one day, but other than that things were fine.
The adventure had just begun. We took a van from Cusco to Ollantaytambo on Tuesday the 15th. The ride took about an hour and a half, and the route went through unbelievably green, wildflowered, and dotted with roaming livestock. When we got to Ollanta, we hopped out of the van into a street near the plaza. There are lots of restaurants and hotels/hostels on the main streets, alternately muddy or dusty streets, and impatient drivers trying to pass on the roads that are only wide enough for one vehicle at a time. People hang out on the sides of the streets asking ¨Machu Picchu? Cusco? Urubamba?.¨ This is a tourist spot mostly for people passing through and staying for a couple of nights. It´s the last tourist-ready town on the way to Macchu Picchu.
After getting to the plaza, I called the Awamaki volunteer coordinator, Kaitlyn. She showed up within five minutes. She, like all of the Awamakians I´ve met so far, is friendly and tries to make new volunteers feel included and supported. We walked to the office, which is just a couple of blocks from the main square. We looked around (concrete floors, back door opens to courtyard/kitchen/volunteer house, tiny rickety spiral staircase to upstairs) and in a couple of minutes my host mother walked in, super-excited to meet me and show me to the house. I´m her family´s first volunteer, though her sisters, aunts, and cousins (everyone here seems to be related) have hosted before. Her name is Marianne and her husband is Ebert. They´re in their thirties and have two daughters: Cusi, who´s five, and Valerie, who´s eleven.
Kaitlyn, Renee, Marianne and I walked to our neighborhood, San Isidro, which is about a ten minute walk from the center of town. At the entrance to the neighborhood there is a concrete soccer stadium and a bull ring. Hopefully there will be a bull fight while I´m here. There are definitely enough bulls. Some are in pasture, some are led around on leads through town, and in the smaller villages they kind of roam around free... There are actually a few bulls that live right next to my house in a bald patch in a cornfield.
Ok, hate to leave people hanging but my thirty minutes of internet are up! Stay tuned. I will finish this episode in the next couple of days!