Urubamba!

This weekend 'the girls' and I went rafting down the Urubamba River. Nothing says A Girl's Day Out like class IV rapids!


After an hour and half class IV drive to the Urubamba, we arrived at a beautiful private house along the river with lush gardens, bounding St Bernards, and thatched roofs. We spent over two hours rafting down the Urubamba which is surrounded by lush, green mountains, lots of fat, dirty sheep, and curious old Andean men and women. When we arrived back at the cabin, the sauna was stoked, the sun room warm, and the showers hot. Lunch was cooking in the homemade clay oven, which was under the thatched roof, which caught the thatched roof on fire! Men started dashing to the river, filling buckets with water, while a more intelligent one got the hose ready! Unfortunately by the time they stretched the hose to the roof, the hose came apart in the middle and the roof kept burning. Yours truly dashed to the rescue, reattached the hose, and the fire was put out immediately. Lunch was forgotten enough to be only slightly burnt, and a good time was had by all. On the trip back to Cusco, despite crazy turns above crazy cliffs taken at even more crazy speeds, most everyone fell promptly asleep. Three days later and my abs still ache from the amount of paddling we did. It's a good pain.

I have discovered I live in a frat house without the university part. With the new arrival of two more guys, the boys in the house have decided our house is the perfect drinking game party house, and due to the amount of things they smoke, they have the delusion that Mom lives with us and cleans up after everyone. In turn this creates a lot of friction between the women and boys (I have to say boys because they are all between 18-22). Fortunately I just ran into one of my roommates on the street and she announced her mom is coming to live with us for two weeks!! I am anxious to see what kind of impact this has on everyone.

Saturday I went to see Grupo 5, the hottest music craze in Peru. What it actually became was The Hottest White Girl Craze in Peru! I was the viewing sensation, being the only white person at the concert, and I actually had men who wanted to pay me (or my friends) money to dance with me or to have their photo taken with me. While handing out rejection after rejection, I discovered I know more Spanish than I thought! All in all, the concert had about 2000 attendees and it was one of the most calm concerts I have ever attended.

A Joel update for those following my Trabajo Voluntario... Joel started using a walker today (with a little assistance - he truly does NOT need a walker with wheels, but you work with what you have), I taught him a sign in Sign Language which he is using (with a great big smile), and today while we were visiting the rabbit zoo, he used his voice to indicate he wanted something and when I asked him to use his voice again, he did! He laughs when he sees he is being understood and that this helps him get what he wants. Although he doesn't think I understand him when it is time for lunch and he wants to keep playing, and I start dragging his walker in a different direction!

I am off to Bolivia on Friday for a 'visa run' and to visit Copacabana and Lake Titicaca.