peruvian mlevi: Check and check

So much to share this week... Sometimes I think time is not moving fast enough...then other times I panic...I have only five weeks left and I still haven't done the BIG ONE....Macchu Pichu!!!

So far,
can speak enough spanish to get around....tick!
Titi Caca....Tick
sights around Cusco and beyond...Sacred Valley....Tipon, Salinares, Huchuay Cusco, Pisac, sexywaman, Andahuayllia, Puno, Julica,...tick
Voluntary teaching..tick
Lima....tick
pubs (2 Irish) cafes, markets and restaurants, 15th birthday party bash (most important for the gals....coming into womanhood...tick, and tick!!

Waiting to do
...the jungle,
...Macchu pichu
...Arequipa
...the colca canyon

Well, this week the San Domingo Iglesia, trek to Salinares and watching the preparations for the Inti Raymi kept me busy...
apart from one of the worst topics to learn in Spanish...the subjunctivo!!!!
and the gals at the school....
who won a dance in their category!!!!

there was near pandemonium that day....I was having a nice lesson after having established authority and finally silence and attention...when I thought a helicopter was landing in the school....
all the gals went into a scream....40 of them.....

it was the call of the drums from their winning dance troupe....

they could not resist the call...and class was briefly suspended

as we went to enjoy the spectacle....

The san Domingo Iglesia is most beautiful.. in

and out

it houses a lot of original oil paintings and has amazing gardens...the original site was an Inka sun temple draped in tons of gold...The conquistadors destroyed it an imposed a the present day church, looted and the gold..

The Inca walls were the only ones that survived the first earthquake that destroyed Cusco...and still stand today as originally built...wow!!!

After week in Cusco, it's always nice to go out...

The Inka salt beds (SALINERAS) in the Urubamba valley

are quite impressive... the original terraces were established by guess who....?

The salt is so compact that you can ski on it

Now, one thing I can confirm is that guys here love drama....from a demo of boiling maize in a pan in the streets, to shouting for passengers in the matatus, ever whistling traffic cops, to mounting figures

and street demos...

It's always so exciting, esp. at this time of the week of INTI RAYMI to see what the streets will bring forth...spectacles,

grotesque statues,