A Week of Relaxation

Well, we didn´t originally intend it this way, but this past week has been a week of relaxation. We have done very little since returning from rafting just over a week ago. Our original plans were to teach English at the orphanage in Huallabamba, but it didn´t work out that way.

First, Jeremy and I became ill, or rather, took turns being ill. We think the combination of a lack of good sleep, cold river water, and sand flea bites on our rafting trip were the culprits. Although the rafting agency was being very careful about keeping everything clean and sanitized, it probably wasn´t completely. There were about 30 people in the group and something was bound not to get attended to properly. Just as Jeremy started feeling better, I started becoming sick. Yuck!

The other reason we didn´t end up volunteering was because the administrator of the orphanage said that he would email us to confirm our accommodations and everything, but he didn´t. When we tried to follow up, we weren´t able to talk with him.

So instead of volunteering at the orphanage this week, we rested. We treated ourselves to a bit of luxury by staying at hotels for a couple nights watching some of our favorite shows with Spanish subtitles like "Law and Order", "Scrubs", "Without a Trace", "Arrested Development", "Everybody Loves Raymond", and "Everybody Hates Chris". We read and finished books about inspiring travel stories such as "The Kindness of Strangers" and "Chicken Soup for the Traveler´s Soul".

We also checked out a couple new restaurants in Cusco. I am admittedly becoming bored of the traditional fare of soup, chicken, french fries, rice and juice. It was fine for a while, but I miss the Thai food, Indian food, good Mexican food, Sushi, and family meals from home!

Another thing we did this past week is see a few movies. Cusco doesn´t have any movie theaters playing recently released movies, so one of the discotecs shows DVDs on a big screen at 4:00 and 6:00pm for less than $2 a person. Plus, if you are one of the first people to arrive, you get to choose the movie! So this past week, we saw "Blow", "Mi Super-Ex Novia" (My Super-Ex Girlfriend), and "Click".

For this upcoming week, I´m hesitant to say that we have plans (for fear that they might not happen as well), but we do. On Thursday the 2nd, we´re planning to start our 5-day trek to Machu Picchu via Salkantay. It´s not the Inka Trail, but it sounds amazing! So the early part of this week will be full of more rest, planning and preparations.

After Machu Picchu, we head back to Cusco for a night or two before heading to the jungle city of Puerto Maldonado on November 8th. Just outside of Puerto Maldonado is an environmental research center called Pica Flor. Jeremy and I plan to stay at Pica Flor for a week or two volunteering and enjoying the jungle. Our tentative plan afterwards is to travel through Bolivia to Brazil (seeing some great sights along the way, of course), then return to Peru in time for some of our friends to visit us in January. But that´s just the plan of the moment, keep reading to see what really happens!