Day 23

Monday first day of school in Cusco.  The morning started with a pita type roll with butter and jam.  The coffee is served in a small carafe very strong and you pour a little in cup then add hot water to complete cup.  I was initially confused when he asked me if I wanted coffee and gave me this glass carafe with a cold liquid.  It is very good coffee here.  Perhaps I will buy a bag for my mother.  But if she likes it a lot I don't know how to get another.  Mind you I am not a big coffee drinker so when I say it is good it is either really good or I don't know what I am talking about.

We headed off to school.   Before my walk was 5 minutes.  Now I must walk 30 minutes.  But I'm ok with it.  I need to walk off my breakfast and earn my lunch!  As I suspected the classes here are even smaller.  The largest class I had in Lima was 6 people, today we had 2.  There are 3 on the list.  I don't know where the 3rd is, but the other student is leaving for Macchu Picchu in the morning for two days.  So the next two days are likely to be private lessons.

 First I take a class in grammar, then in conversation.  For conversation we walked to the mercado.  So she could tell us the names of the fruits and vegetables.

 It is divided up in parts.  There is a long row of vendors mixing up fresh fruit juices of all kinds on the spot.  She said the health department closes and cleans so she swears it is safe for me to drink.  Maybe tomorrow.

Another row with all types of breads, then flowers, meats, corn, etc.  including textiles.  Now here I saw some cloths that were beautiful.  I was not impressed with what I had seen in Lima.  So I need to hit this spot again.

On the walk back we ran into an older woman with a child in native dress.  Plus they had a baby goat wearing a cap.  They were dressed to take pictures with tourist.  I couldn't resist the baby goat.  I don't know how they had it so calm.  Our goats when they were babies were wild jumping all over.  I held this one and it was like a rag doll baby.  Very sweet..

Coming back to the house I collapsed after my 30 minute walk in high altitude.  Then went out for lunch.  The restaurant is next door.  I orders fried chicken, French fries and it came with a small salad.  All for less then 3 dollars.  But I ate about 1/5th of my plate.  I should have been starving.  But again had to force myself to eat that.  It was so cold I just returned to house to sleep until dinner.

Dinner was disappointing again.  Fortunately not hungry so not a big loss.  It was rice mixed with a small brown pasta, a potato mixed with a little chicken and two slices of tomatoe.  My biggest concern was that she took it off the stove top and heated it in microwave.  So I had to ask how long had it been on the stove top.  She said 4 hours.  That Is really the limit for bacteria growth.  But hell it is so cold here maybe not an issue.  I picked enough told her I was still not up to eating and off to write blogs and bed.