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| The city of Cusco |
So we have now been in Cusco for
just over a week so far. It’s the low season here at the moment so not a
lot of people are out and about, which has been good as it feels a little
more intimate. The local people have been so accommodating
and friendly and always willing to have a little laugh with us when
trying to order food off a Spanish menu or barter on goods from the
street. There is so much available here in Cusco, anything from the
usual souvenir stuff such as alpaca scarves, jumpers
and gloves and also various other things such as paintings and food.
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| A Peruvian dish, Alpaca! |
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| Lunch and a show |
The
food has been mostly good, although a few of us have been a little sick
but nothing too serious mostly as a result of the altitude. We even had
a band come in during one
of our meals and played a few songs for us. We have all been missing a
few things that are in the Aussie staple diet such as fresh milk,
unfortunately there aren’t a lot (if any) dairy farms here in Peru
making the finding of fresh milk difficult. I have been
told that a lot of Peruvians are actually lactose intolerant, hence the
abundant supply of lactose free UHT milk. Cusco has been a great city
to stay in with the streets being fairly clean and safe. The group of
people on the program have also been a lot of
fun and are getting along great so far.
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| The Biodiversity in Peru gang |
We
have also now started classes which have also been fun. The set out is
quite different to what I am used to, however I suspect this is a result
of it being in its short
program version rather than a semester long unit. The university here
have been accommodating and the lecturer fun and engaging. I was a
little worried that there would be issues with the language barrier or
at least not being able to understand the lecturer
with his accent but this hasn’t been the case at all. Leo has been an
awesome lecturer so far and has helped us to understand more of the
culture and to immerse us in it as well.
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| Traditional Peruvian dance at our orientation |
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| Main square in Cusco |
In
addition to our in class activities the uni also set up a friendly
soccer match with a group of Americans who are here to study full time.
Unfortunately we lost. Not to
make excuses, but they did have mostly guys on the team (compared
with our one man team) as well as two of the university employees who
happen to be very good.
We have a volley ball match lined up for this week. Hopefully Australia can come back and win… To be continued.
~Kerri-Ann Hudson
Kerri-Ann Hudson is participating on our
Biodiversity in Peru
program this January 2013. Kerri-Ann is in her third year of a Bachelor
of Science in Environmental Management at Edith Cowan University
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