Very much looking forward to going home now. (Only two more days left in Cuzco, then flying to Lima on Thursday to sleep on the floor of a very, very old primary school friend who I haven't spoken to since I was about 10 - how bizarre - then flying back to Heathrow on Friday evening, getting in 24 hours later. Whoo!) I've completely lost all energy for this travelling malarky - I suppose it doesn't help that I've been ill over the past few days too - and hence have spent most of my time over the past week sitting in cafes with Emma eating chocolate brownies under the pretence of doing Spanish homework. That, and quite a lot of time spent on the internet.
I have successfully completed my one extra week of Spanish, though. FOUR past tenses, bloody hell. It was a fairly hardcore week, as they go, but I'm glad I did it. And glad to have a lie-in on the Saturday. Hurrah! Emma and I found a great friendly little non-profit school called Amigos, which supports street kids from Cuzco, and gives them food and a good education. They gave us a 'real' city tour last week one day after lessons, and took us firstly to a chicharia on the outskirts of the city, where an ancient old woman in a tiny little mud courtyard (full of drunk old men) was brewing chicha beer for 30 cents a pint. Chicha beer is the traditional maize beer once made by the Incas, and at that price you could get completely hammered for under 50p. Bargain.
After that we were taken across the road to look round the house of a family connected with the school, who live on 120 soles a month - about 25 pounds - which is nothing, really, even in Peru. They had two mud rooms to their house, one which they all slept in, and one which they cooked in, with ginuea pigs running around the floor, and a little wood fire to cook on. Sometimes as a gringo - with hot showers and comfy beds and touristy restaurants - you forget how a lot of people out here have to live. I imagine half the gringos in Cuzco probably don't have a clue. It's such a pity, really.
After that we went to another local cafe for a drink and a bit of politics (interesting combination of un-fermented chicha and strawberry), and basically learnt that Peru is buggered. They've got their last round of elections in a week's time, and the choice is between a man who has already been President once, was incredibly corrupt, got put in jail and then fled to Argentina, and a man who wants to go to war with Chile and kill all gay men. Nice. And our last stop was the giant fresh produce market, where we discovered purple sweetcorn. Hurrah!
All that remains now is some serious souvenir shopping, and a last meal with Emma in the gayest restaurant in town, complete with fish-pond bath-tubs for tables and double beds for seats. Reflections on the whole four months will have to wait till I get home - far too tired to think about it now - and I look forward to seeing you all next Saturday! (Hurrah for English food! Hurrah for English showers! Hurrah for my own English bed! Can't wait...)
Oh yes, and after many hours on the internet I've finally uploaded and sorted out all my photos (totalling a healthy 390), which can now be found in the five albums below. Rather unhelpfully, there are now new photos all over the place (mostly ones of big nights out), but most of them are in the last album, which contains all my photos of the Inca trail and Machu Picchu.
Ecuador - http://aol.photobox.co.uk/album/3065426
Peru the first time round - http://aol.photobox.co.uk/album/3065788
Chile - http://aol.photobox.co.uk/album/3065857
Bolivia - http://aol.photobox.co.uk/album/3065868
Peru the second time round - http://aol.photobox.co.uk/album/3049188
