A day in Cuzco Centre...

Ah the joys of jet lag! ... waking up at 6am is so not me! I wonder how long it will take for me to be hitting the snooze button times. But, today was a good day... we started with our first Volunteer meeting with the Mark the volunteer manager who went through the routines and the dos and do nots.

So, we've got our timetables and I've got a busy week ahead. I am scheduled to teach my first ingles (english) class tomorrow with the 1st and 2nd graders. After that I've got hygenie with the kids and then physical education (which I think is going to be more of a physical education/ workout for me than for them). In the afternoon, I've got classes with the tallers (mums of the community) and more ingles classes with the 5th and 6th graders. The schedule for the rest of the week looks pretty similar but I will also have some spanish classes myself and will also go on a couple of house visits. I can't wait!!! I'm sooooo excited!

As we had the rest of the afternoon off, one of the other volunteers Beth, who has been here for 9 weeks already offered to take us in to the Centro. About 15 of us took her up on the offer and all jumped into the combi van which charged us a whopping 70 centimos (20 cents) each for the half hour trip to the centro.

Our first stop..... lunch. Beth steered us over to a nice little French cafe off the Plaza de Armas where we had really really yummy sangas and petite (or pequeno) cakes. Next, we walked back down to the Plaza de Armas where I got my photo taken with the little Peruivan chicas and their lamb (photos to come soon). Just as we were finshing that, a couple of parades came around the corner as it is the Festival of Saint Nicolas de Tolentino and the Virgin of the Nativity (http://www.peru.info/e_ftoculturaeng.asp?pdr=1502&jrq=5.2.9.3&ic=2&ids=4973#6). This of course got us all excited and we pulled out our camers and went off in snap happy frenzy. The dancers were fascinating to watch and the colours... well, colourfull. There were kids from about 4 or 5 years old in the parade to men and women in their 40s and 50s.

Next we walked up one of the side streets of the Plaza to check out some more shops and wares (and I spotted my first llama) before walking back down to the Arts and Crafts market. This place is shoppers heaven! They have the softest Alpaca teddies and the cutest little Alpaca baby booties. I had to restrain myself and try not to buy every second thing I set my eye on. We spent about half an hour in the crafts market... and I was good, I only came out with a coin purse.

And then we headed home......

I can't wait for tomorrow..... and my first class with the kiddies....

Till next time.. hasta luego....

Rest of the photos are here...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040102&l=6929d&id=212900300