La Luna de Miel Larga

Although the end of January was relatively quiet, work really took off again at the beginning of February, with the reopening of the original center I was working at and my beginning work with a second center. We started having a lot of social dates too, but unfortunately right around Valentine’s Day, we both got sick for the first time! We spent about four days in bed with stomach flu-like symptoms, but it was probably from something we ate and not necessarily from a virus. We recovered and started going to Pub Quiz and Poker nights regularly (Chris more at the latter than I). Two weeks later, I got sick again and this time, went to a doctor to be tested for parasites. It turned out that it was just the same bacterial stuff from the middle of the month, but since I am now more like a “local”, I had to take a longer dose of medicine than the standard traveler’s dosage. Still, I bought a hot water bottle which became my new best friend to deal with the stomach pains.

Early February was Carnival (lots of kids out of school for summer break, throwing water balloons at you wherever you go), and I went with a local friend to visit her brother and sister-in-law’s house in Calca, which is in the Sacred Valley. The first few photos on this post are of their grounds and home, and the fifth one is of the town’s beauty pageant, part of the Carnival festivities. The tree on the left in the photo, with all the stuff hanging on its branches, is planted each year anew, and during Carnival people dance around the tree and then cut it down, treating it like a piñata as everyone runs to gather what they can from the fallen tree. Unfortunately I did not stay late enough to see this part. The seventh photo is of my friend’s super cute niece (who seemed to take to me, probably for my blond hair, which makes me look more like her Swiss mother than many of the other women around).

At the end of February, we hosted an Oscar’s party at our house where we made some delicious nachoes (photos 8 and 9). In the time leading up to the Oscar’s, Chris bought almost every movie that had been nominated (at the black market) and we watched our way through most of them. Naturally then, Chris won the Oscar betting pool we had, with 14 out of 24 right answers).

Early March was pretty quiet, with lots of research work and some parties on the weekends. In mid-March, Chris’s friend from film school (Guy) came out to visit us. I stayed in Cusco and worked, but the boys took off for a Machu Picchu trip the first week and then for a jungle trip the second week. Guy’s visit coincided with Semana Santa (the week leading up to Easter), and on his first day in Cusco, we helped the locals celebrate Dia de Señor de los Temblores (Day for the Lord of the Earthquakes, also known as “black Jesus” because of the color of the wood of the icon). The story goes, that back in the 18th century there was a big earthquake in Cusco and the priests took this particular icon out of the church and the earthquake stopped. He has been Cusco’s patron saint ever since, and on “his day”, there is a long morning mass (we went to about an hour of it) and then he is taken out and paraded around the city for a few hours. He returns to the Catedral amid a huge crowd of devotees (see photos 10-24, but particularly photos 15-24 to see how the crowd grew…I don’t know if I can remember ever being somewhere with so many people…it was even more packed than New Year’s Eve in the Plaza (see Cookies and Parties post)). Of course, Dia de Señor de los Temblores was also St Patricks Day, so we had to celebrate that holiday too (see photo 25).

For Easter, I went back to Calca, but this time with Guy and Chris in tow. We had a relaxing day of hiking and eating and playing Andean musical instruments and playing with my friend’s niece. Guy left at the end of March, and so did I: him for the US and I for Quito, Ecuador (see Quito post).

PS: Chris and Guy took some awesome photos of their travels with Guy’s digital SLR (Chris now wants one). Hopefully Chris will get a chance to wade through the over 3000 photos and put some up on this website.

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