Friday 22th November 2002
Well, I have finally finished at school and am off travelling which is very exciting. Have got a bit bored of 4 hours of lessons a day and homework. Thats more work than I ever remember doing at university!
Havenīt really done a huge amount in the last few weeks that I can remember so Iīll tell you all about my trip to Pisaq market and if I think of anything else Iīll let you know.
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Pisaq is a town about 1 hour by bus from Cusco which every Sunday has a huge market which is highly recommended in all the guide books. There are also impressive ruins there that everyone had told me were worth going to see.
So I set out on Sunday 17th which also happened to be local election day and therefore everywhere seemed to be in a state of caos as everyone has to vote or face a large fine. The whole election build up is another story which I shall expand on later when I have some pictures (am being sent them as I never got round to taking any myself). Anyway after wondering around Cusco for a while I finally found the correct bus station and a bus to Pisaq.
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On the bus I met a Dutch guy and we ended up wondering around the market for a while which was just a big maze full of all the same stuff that is sold all around Cusco. Wasnīt in the mood for shopping and haggling though so didnīt buy anything. We then decided to wonder up to the ruins. We thought it would be about an hour and ages later we finally reached the top totally knackered and a bit wet as it had decided to rain and we didnīt have any waterproofs! Once we got to the top we discovered that Pisaq is infact a whole series on ruins spread across a huge area. We didnīt give up though and we went to see all of the ruins before finally heading back down to Pisaq for some food (another thing we didnīt have with us) and a last look around the market before heading back to Cusco. Donīt have my guide book with me at the moment but if I get round to it later Iīll try and correctly label the pictures although donīt hold your breath.
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After a short rest in Cusco we went to the cinema with another girl from my school to watch Windtalkers which was a little bit too much violence in one film I thought. The pancake I ordered was good though and made up for the rubbishness of the film!
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During the last week I was intending to go and see all the churches and museims I hadnīt got round to seeing before but didnīt really succeed. I did make it to the Inca Museum though which was very impressive. I expecially liked a huge dispaly they had with various skeletons in strange positions. Not having a guide or any information I have no idea where these skeletons were from but it looked good! They also had huge copies of photos of Machu Picchu taken when it was first discovered which showed exactly how much work theyīve had to do on it since then to make it look as good as it does now.
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Canīt think of much else Iīve done in the last few weeks apart from a couple more pub quizīs (didnīt win any more but still didnīt do too badly). I did go out and buy Harry Potter last weekend in Spanish and am now onto the second book so feel very proud of myself. Iīll ignore the fact thatīs itīs a kids book!
I also took an exam on Wednesday at school. I actually took 2 coz they gave me an intermediate one and then I did the advanced one too. I got 17/20 for the intermediate and 12/20 for the advanced. Apparently 12 is a very bad mark in Peru but Iīm still a student at heart at to me thats 60% and not that bad!! Oh well, Iīve learnt some stuff over the last few weeks at least!
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Off to Arequipa tomorrow - nice 10 hour bus journey. Will try and keep my site updated while Iīm travelling so come back occasionally to check. Enjoy the photos on the next page. They are of Pisaq and also of my family and house and a few random pictures of places in Cusco.
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