We started our day today with a religious service, “对剧中”, as they call it here, at our local church in the main plaza of Ollantaytambo. 我们发现了当地服务和美国服务之间的差异——而这里的人是平等的, 如果不是更多的话, devout Catholics, there were vast differences in the music and decorations, with more innovation and nature.
We started off the day by working with our families. Each of our families are dedicated to different professions around town. Some of us helped sell things in their stores, while others helped collect crops in the fields, and others helped out with tasks within the home. 然后, 我们和寄宿家庭一起吃午饭,然后在Tumy House碰头去小学之前有一点空闲时间.
Greetings from 秘鲁! Today marks our first full week in the Sacred Valley. 我们在这里的时光充满了冒险、欢笑和说西班牙语. GEO的每一天都会选出一对不同的学生作为当天的领队. 在一天结束的时候,这些领导者会写一份我们的经验总结. Below you can find summaries from this past week. 享受!
For our last day in Ollantaytambo, students had a completely free day. 一些放松, some did some shopping at local 市场s, and others ran to a natural pool in the mountains for a quick dip.
This morning mass was held in two churches in Ollantaytambo. The services focused on the importance of El Señor de Choquekillka, one of the town’s prominent religious symbols. 祈祷语是西班牙语和盖丘亚语(印加人的语言)的奇妙混合. After church, we congregated for lunch in a garden near El Tambo. However, today we ate Pachamanca-style. 对于那些不熟悉这种安第斯传统烹饪方式的人(不好意思), 父母), a stone oven was buried underground to cook potatoes, 青豆, 鸡, 猪肉, and cuy (guinea pig!). We ate with our hands and washed it all down with chicha morada, a drink made from fermented corn (not to be confused with regular chica, an alcoholic beverage). 我们所有的寄宿家庭也都被邀请了,这样我们就可以一起享受最后的一顿饭了.
Later that afternoon, 我们继续与寄宿家庭的一些成员进行激烈的足球比赛. Surprisingly, Señor Viacava’s team continued to come out on top. 亚历克斯 maintained his famous streak of falling down before scoring, 而潘乔(寄宿家庭的组织者)没有辜负他“砖墙”守门员的绰号. Both of 亚历克斯’s hermanitos joined in, and one managed to score a goal too.
Today we spent the day exploring the almighty Machu Picchu. 我们必须早起,我们中的一些人早上5点起床,6:30在火车站见面. 我们的老师直到6:45才出现,但幸运的是火车直到7点才开. After an hour and a half of early morning train ride, we got off in Machu Picchu Pueblo, a town at the base of the mountain. 在火车上,我们谁都没来得及吃早饭,就被送上了巧克力蛋糕. 下一个, 我们乘坐公共汽车在风很大的道路上到达山顶,在我们出色的导游埃迪的带领下,步行了最后20分钟到达山顶.
After a filling breakfast with our families, we went to work with them again. 我们中的一些人在手工市场工作,而另一些人则努力烤面包和烹饪食物. 在这张照片中,我们无畏的领袖,科妮莉亚,正在市场上拼命工作. 同时, our other strikingly handsome leader, Jorjito, was sitting in another shop, 读他的书.
Today was our second day of working with our families. Some of us were hard at work while others of us were hardly working. 格蕾丝, 例如, 凌晨3点起床做面包,而卢克只是站在那里拿着软管一会儿. A few examples of various tasks that we did were selling items in the 市场, 准备吃饭, and working on our family’s farms.
我们开始了在秘鲁的第二个星期二,帮助我们的家人在家里和外面做各种各样的工作. Some of us were graced with fairly light workloads; others, however, were not so lucky. 凯文, 例如, 花了大约7个小时用一把剪刀修剪草坪(不是开玩笑). Meanwhile, Elena’s morning consisted of peeling 10,000 peas. 亚历克斯, 科妮莉亚, 安斯利试图说服脾气暴躁的老游客(也被称为公认的脾气暴躁的人)在手工市场上从他们家的摊位上购买产品.
To begin the day, we went to Pancho’s house, the man who organized our homestays, 学会了如何用安第斯山脉的细树枝制作篮子. 这些在西班牙语中被称为canastas,制作起来比我们最初想象的要复杂得多. 潘乔一生都在做这些篮子,因为他的父亲在他很小的时候教过他. 我们从一捆树枝开始,在潘乔和他的妻子巴尔比娜的密切指导下,编织到一个篮子里.
今天,在帐篷里度过了一个不太安宁的夜晚后,我们起床去外面吃早餐. With mountains surrounding us, it was a fantastic view while eating. A couple people got up early to watch the sunrise and exercise. For breakfast we had pancakes, fruit salad, honey, crackers, tea and coffee. What a great start to the day!
周五早上八点半,我们从奥扬坦博出发,开始露营过夜, but a couple of us woke up extra early to play soccer with some locals. The two of us (Max and Elena), 格蕾丝, 早上六点,亚历克斯在足球场的一个小围栏前碰面,和一群秘鲁人打了一个小时的球. Elena made friends with many of the old guys.
On Thursday we visited the Incan ruins of Ollantaytambo. The ruins were originally a temple for worshiping the sun, 还有许多石头正好与冬至点和春分点对齐. From the top of the ruins, 我们可以看到整个奥扬坦博镇,以及附近森林大火的烟雾. 为了爬到山顶,我们不得不停了三次,因为爬得很陡,很累. 然后有人告诉我们,在奥扬坦博举行了一个节日,许多人在寺庙的台阶上跑上跑下. 我们还爬上了一个牧师的房子,它坐落在一条小路上,一边是悬崖. After our climb, we all went home and had lunch with our families. 我们家常见的午餐包括米饭和鸡肉,或者鸡肉卷.
The Groton 秘鲁 Gang woke up after a restful night to this spectacular view. 早餐前,我们大部分时间都在仰望山坡上的废墟和粮仓. After a delicious breakfast of fresh bread, 炒蛋, and papaya juice, we set out into the town on a scavenger hunt. 我们在奥扬坦博周围走了一圈,在市政厅等地方拍照, 警察局, 市场, 和废墟.
The 秘鲁 GEO has arrived in the Sacred Valley! Although yesterday’s journey was long (27 hours from start to finish!), it was packed with beautiful views, 美味的食物, Spanish language practice, and an introduction to our guides and hosts for the rest of our trip.