And in the End . . .

Well, our Peru odyssey is over. I'd like to say that I'll fill you all in on the 2.5 months that have passed since my last entry, but I'm almost certain I'd be lying. Here's the nutshell account:

-We had all our stuff packed out and moved with minimal difficulty, and no breakage (that we know of),

-We left Peru on April 4th and went for a whirlwind trip to Brazil to see my exchange family and soak up some sun,

-We returned to Canada on April 21 and spent a few weeks in Manitoba, catching up with family before heading to Vancouver on May 14th.

Of course, I could write for days about these events, but that's basically what we've been up to for the past while. Now we're in student family housing at UBC, waiting for our shipment to arrive from Peru, and embarking on a new chapter of our lives.

In honour of this change, I've started a new blog at http://whilemakingotherplans.blogspot.com/. Make sure to include "while" in the web address, or you'll find yourself at someone else's blog. I will attempt to keep it updated, probably with less success than I had on this blog.

Thanks for reading!

Fabulous Sunset Scenery

We've been having sunny mornings and cloudy, rainy afternoons, which have produced snowy mountains and gorgeous sunsets.

Back To School

Monday was the first day back at school for Joffre. He misses some of his former classmates who've moved on, but fully half the class is back this year. He's also not sure about his new teacher (pictured on the right), and has been sticking close to last year's teacher (whose hand he is shown holding) whenever possible.

Alec is angry that Joffre is spending 2 hours a day away from him, but is outraged at the suggestion tentatively made that he might like to stay at school, himself. Clearly everyone staying home together was working out fine, and there was no reason to go changing that.

How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?

So, at 6:00 the morning after we got back from Cusco, I woke up to an enormous pair of blue eyes staring seriously into mine.

"Mom!" announced Joffre.
"Mrph?"
"Why you come back from your trip?"
"Well, sweetie, because we missed you."
"Yeah, I miss you too. When you go another trip?"
"Um, I don't know . . . "
"When you come back your next trip, you gonna bring me FOUR presents!"
"Um, well, we'll probably bring you just one present, just like this time . . . "
[triumphantly, as though playing his trump card] "No! You gonna bring me FOUR, because I FOUR years old!"
"Well, that's certainly some kind of logic."

Good to know what's really important.

36 Hours in Cusco

05:50, Day One:
Board an airplane in Arequipa and fly to Cusco. Admire the beauty of sunrise on the mountains.

06:35, Day One:
Land in Cusco, which in February is green and lush, ringed by snow-capped mountains.

07:00, Day One:
Check into the opulent Hotel El Libertador, and enjoy a cup of coca leaf tea. Settle into hotel room and have a leisurely breakfast in the hotel dining room.

09:30, Day One:
Take a taxi to Tipon, an Inca complex southeast of Cusco. Tipon is known for its beautiful waterworks and geometrically complex terraces. The name Tipon comes from a Quechua word, "timpuj," meaning "boiling," and it is thought to refer to the way the water bubbles up out of the underground spring which feeds the irrigation system. After touring the lower, main section on our own, we climbed up to a temple area on a hill overlooking the valley. There we met a caretaker who offered to take us further up one of the channels that was partially destroyed (and thus dried up) in a 1950 earthquake. Our new guide told us that the crops grown at Cusco had been sacred crops of quinoa, kiwicha, corn, potatoes, and medicinal herbs. The ruins sit at 3,560 metres above sea level, and there are fields above the ruins, still being farmed.






12:30, Day One
Sunburned and winded, but having greatly enjoyed ourselves, we carried on in the taxi a little further down the valley to the pr-Incan Wari ruins at Pikillacta. Apparently "piki" means "flea" in Quechua, and our driver told us this name came from the construction techniques used at the site, with many small rocks of varying sizes. Another gentleman at the site, however, told us that the flea reference was made with regard to the densely packed 10,000 inhabitants of the city.

The city walls stretch out for kilometres:

Clover-blanketed fields above the chaos of the ruined city:

14:00, Day One
We grabbed a bottle of coke on the way back to Cusco, driving through intermittent rain the whole way. When we arrived back at the hotel, we noticed that the Koricancha and Dominican church was open. We inquired as to its closing time, and headed out through the colorful Cusco streets in search of lunch.

14:30, Day One:
Los Perros Couch Bar is a hip, laid-back option for a drink and a meal at the corner of Tigre and Tecsecocha streets, just a block off the Plaza de Armas. We shared a plate of fried cassava with blue cheese dressing, a bowl of curried pumpkin soup with fresh bread, and a lovely dish of stirfried chicken in an Asian-inspired dressing over sweet potato chips. After all this delicious food, and a couple of icy cold Cusquena beers, we were ready to hit the streets again.

The dome of the Koricancha, as seen from our hotel room window:

16:00, Day One:
We walked back toward our hotel, stopping in at the incomprable Moni vegetarian restaurant and cafe, for a take away latte to counteract the beers. Sufficiently revived, we carried on to the Koricancha. This amazing complex is a Dominican church built over the main temple of the Inti, or Sun God, in Cusco. Also called the Temple of the Sun, the Koricancha's breathtakingly perfect stonework was lavishly accented with gold inlay and leaf when the Spanish arrived, and was said to house a fortune in gold idols and decorations. Of course, this wealth was taken by the Spanish and none remains in the site today, but the Koricancha remains a truly lovely meeting of Inca and Spanish architecture, and is certainly deserving of its World Heritage Site status. Photography was not permitted, but please do click here to see a few shots of this beautiful building.

17:00, Day One:
After a long day, we settled back in our room at the Libertador for baths, naps, and some quiet reading. Rather unwisely, we turned on the television and got sucked into a movie.

19:30, Day One:
We got dressed up and went down to the bar in the Libertador for a pisco sour. The bartender wrote fancy "L"s in bitters on top of each drink. This resulted in quite a lot more bitters taste than comes with the usual drop or two on the drink, but it was lovely. We got chatting with the bartender, who has a brother in Mississauga, and eventually we headed out towards the fabulous Monasterio hotel. In the lobby bar of this historic monastery, built in 1592, we enjoyed a couple more pisco sours. These ones were outrageously priced at 26 soles, or nearly ten Canadian dollars a piece. But they were truly delicious, and came with complementary canapes and impeccable service.

After our second round of pisco sours, we wandered rather tipsily into the square to the MAP (Museo de Arte Precolombiano) restaurant across the street, only to discover that it had already closed for the night, as it was now 9:30 pm. We headed over to the Plaza de Armas and had a perfectly acceptable dinner at Bohemie restaurant instead.

23:00, Day One:
After a quick stop to pick up bottled water and bandaids for my blistered toes, we retired to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

06:30, Day Two:
We got up, packed out the room, and enjoyed the breakfast buffet. I've had better hotel breakfasts, but it was perfectly acceptable. We checked out of the hotel after breakfast.

07:00, Day Two:
Our trusty driver was waiting bright and early to take us to Pisac, first stop in the Sacred Valley. Most visitors to Pisac only see the market, and that had been our fate the first time around in Cusco. This time, however, we were bound and determined to see the ruins that perch on a clifftop over the town in the valley.

From below, the terracing at the ruins is quite impressive.


08:00, Day Two:
We arrived at the top of the ruins, and our driver gave us a brief explanation of the four main complexes of the site. He told us he would meet us much further down the hill, at the parking lot.

The first stop was a series of warehouses that had been used for storing crops:

The second complex was the residential area for the farmers, who lived here for a year at a time paying their debt in work to the Inca and the sun god:

We climbed to the top of the mountainous ruin, from which we had an excellent view of the valley and the town of Pisac below:

Here we see, from above, the complex within which the nobles would have lived:

This is the temple complex, and it showcases the truly stunning stonework that can be seen exclusively in sacred or religious Inca constructions. The complex also houses one of the very few remaining Intihuatanas - a carved stone which reveals the seasonal changes of the sun's position, and acted as a guide for timing holy days and important agricultural dates:

The Intihuatana:

Lonely watchtowers and guard posts perch dizzily on the cliff that hangs over the modern town of Pisac:

11:30, Day Two:
After almost three hours touring the gorgeous Pisac ruins, we returned in the rain to Cusco. We toured the MAP museum, and then ate a lovely lunch in its airy, modern restaurant (below) before heading to the airport. We flew back to Arequipa via Juliaca, from which we caught a glimpse of Lake Titicaca, and arrived home exhausted and happy at 5:00 pm.

Photos from Cusco

Okay, I will blog our recent trip to Cusco, but getting all the pictures up exhausted me. So, click here to see the pictures from the trip.

An Unexpected Guest

Last week, Sonia's younger stepson came home with a starvling kitten he'd found mewling on the sidewalk. The kitten has been living at their house ever since, eating table scraps and crying because it's lonely. I didn't know about the creature till yesterday, when I told Sonia she should bring the kitten over during the days so it has company.

So, she brought it. But, of course, I don't want my kids playing with a dirty street cat, so our first stop today was to the vet, where Snowball (named by Joffre after his grandparents' cat) had a bath and an antiparasite pill, and where I picked up a bag of kitten chow. He is underfed, but otherwise in quite good health, and now has all the attention he could possibly hope for. And then some.

Of course, it's going to be very difficult for all of us to say goodbye to little Snowball when we leave . . .

Just Beachy

We've been to the beach twice in the past week, which is very exciting. It's a long and twisty 2-hour drive to the coast, and the way down is characterized by the children being little beggars. But then we get to Mollendo, where for a song you can rent a cabana or a big beach umbrella, beach chairs, and a wading pool that the proprietor will fill with sea water. The ocean is calmer now than it was last March or last November, and wave-jumping is all the rage among the little members of our family.

After getting thoroughly sandy and splashy, we feast upon fried octopus, squid, and sea bass, with chips and rice, and drink Inca Kola in flimsy plastic cups. It's downright lovely. In the grand tradition of looking out for the kids first, I forgot to apply adequate sunblock to myself and burned my face, neck and shoulders - and shins. That was the first day; I had smartened up by the second day.

I don't have any pictures of our most recent beach excursions, but I don't think I shared the shots from last November here, so here are a few to give you an idea of the beach:

Baby's First Misdemeanor

The other day we were out shopping at the grocery store. I was with another one of the company wives, and I was babysitting my friend's 4-year-old, and we had Carlos (aged 10) along with us as well. I was using a shopping cart that is basically a child's car with a shopping cart basket on top. Unbeknownst to me, Alec got out of the car while it was parked at the cash register and I was discussing treats with Joffre and his friend. All of a sudden, I heard Alec in the distance gleefully yelling "numnumnumnumnum!" A quick glance around revealed him running hell bent for leather for the door. We intercepted him, and the thing that had prompted his exaltations of "num!" was a bag of chocolate-covered peanuts clutched to his chest.

Clearly, he'd noticed that we were distracted, grabbed the nearest bag of candy at toddler level, and made a beeline for the exit.

I Got In!

Yes, I got accepted to UBC Law. After a great deal of confusion over when I wrote the LSAT and whether UBC could get my score or not, I got an acceptance email yesterday.

Hurrah! The tough part's ov . . er, I guess there's still three years of law school, a year of articling, and a law career to go. But that's what I'm signed up for, so I'm happy!

It's Raining!!!

Hooray! Cool, wet, cloudy weather!!

Yes, I'm crazy. But not as crazy as the people who think the weather was caused by Wednesday's 5.7 earthquake (ie, all of Peru). This is a desert - the place is desperate for water right now, and I'm happily back into cooking stews and soups and baking yummy treats. I just can't get into that sort of thing when it's sunny and warm out.