settling down to la vida in this city embedded in mountains....right at the centre of the earth
To keep fit, Mlevi takes a brisk half hour walk to school, and mostly a climby walk...now I know why I spent the last decade playing golf...so that I would be fit to walk around Cusco...
on the walk to school, quite often the ninos are being fed a breakfast of papes (potatoes) and quail eggs (on the street) before entering the school gates....
The matatus....and these are what kenyan mats were 10 yrs back...have chicas(chicks) for touts...and they shout and do a good job too.
Lots of traffic cops are chicas too... Must say for the amount of traffic..lots of little old cars running around, it's very well controlled... The little taxis (equivalent to piki pikis) are excellent, pick and drop you off from anywhere....transport here is very reasonable in price.
School is another story...not easy being a student again, and enduring 4 hours of intense learning from an enthusiastic teacher...and you are frozen solid..The first sentence la professora emphasized was how to buy "sanitary towels"....did not want to disappoint by telling her that was a phrase I would probably never use...
Afternoons are spent wondering around the city before lunch...prepared by my lovely hosts...the food here is fresh and my hostess cooks very well...I look forward to my lunch as this is the only proper meal, that I'm fed....good for shaking off the kilos..otherwise fresh bread, cheese, butter, fruit or soup for dinner...
I have rediscovered with delight fruits that I had long forgotten about, such as the custard apples...here they are massive....and tasty. Also enjoying a host of other new fruits
My new family is very international...at the dinner table..we move from Spanish, French, German and English...I struggle to keep up with the Spanish...but can now understand 50%, after a week or so....
In the picture at the head of table is the senora de la casa, Abel...who insists we speak Spanish at table, and Carl, the German English teacher..then there is Florita...helps with cleaning and cooking and my new best friend Chicho...barks at his own reflection from the cooker.....
Well for a typical experience, my hosts and I left in search of Padre Giovanni...the drive was scary...the common taxi...driver guy really had his foot on the accelerator....and it's all windy and hilly.....Before I left, when I joked that it would be ironic to be ran over by a mat in Peru...I now think it was a premonition....there is every chance, that it can happen...
None the less, I put my life in the driver's foot and settled back to enjoy the mountains and lagunas that we drove through....I simply basked in their beauty....
Oh! and not to miss the next sol(shilling), the taxi carries a guy in the boot...has a mattress though and open to the back seat...so not too bad...the guy just lay back and ate his banana
Padre Giovanni was away in Italy...the set up is lovely...at the foot of more mountains and lots of boys learning life skills..very organized...Chances are that if am to get involved, it will be with the muchachas...will follow up with this road to sainthood.
Coming back, I could have been easily on a bus from Kakamega to Khwisero....crowded as standing than sitting ...and you hang on to you possessions with your life....my hostess kept reminding me to hide my jewelry....yea....felt right at home....except the music was all salsa....
Finally much as it may look warm with blue skies...Cusco is in the Andean region of Peru (it snows in parts of this region) it's freezin unlike Lima which is on the Coastal region and it's warm
If ever planning a trip to Cusco...
THINK FREEEEEEEEZING.....
MLEVI MIGHT HAVE TO CHANGE THE NAME MLEVI...CAUSE HAVE NOT INDULGED IN ANY MLEVI HABITS SINCE I GOT HERE....MAYBE CHANGE TO SANTA....LOL
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