I can´t believe I´m so far behind in my diaries. So much has happened in the last two weeks, I hope i remember to write about the main parts...

So the rest of the week at the language school was brilliant.

On tuesday night we had our chinese with others from the school, it was really nice. Me, Mika and Fabio were the only ones up for going out for a little bit after. We started in Mythology and enjoyed a great salsa evening. It really is so much fun. Everyone dances with everyone, all together. Its more of a feeling rather than a technique. We had such a laugh. Decided to go out for a couple drinks after so wandered in the Plaza for 5 mins in order to collect all the free drink vouchers (each worth a cuba libre - rum and coke) for all the clubs. So had our drink in Up Town, decided it was an odd crowd, had our drink in Mama Africas, decided it wasn´t as good as Mythology so went back for a couple more free drinks. Ended up not buying one drink the whole night (everyone does the same) - how the clubs make their money i have no idea.

Wednesday, another morning at school... really enjoying the classes! More of us - me, mika, fabio, mary, and tim all went out in the eve again (!). Had a very fun, but very late night in Mythology. Met a few others studying at the school and had an interesting converstaion with a local boy. Him with very little English, me with little Spanish... Managed to get home with Mika (she also lives in my residence), and still got up for shcool starting at 8.30am.

Struggled a bit in my first class on Thursday morning, but my second class was very succesful. I was making proper coherent spanish sentences. I find it especially helps me if figure out what i wana say and write down first (as i realise i know more than i think) but i guess i won´t be able to do that in every day conversation... In the evening there was a music class at the school so a bunch of us decided to go along. The whole class was in Spanish, which was tough but i got the gist. The guy taking the class spoke about the Incan zampoña panpipe and its communication use between mountains and showed us various clips of video of traditional music being played. We all were given one out of a set of zampona to have a go at playing the traditional song he had written on the board. We first played as a group (what an orchestra!) then individualy with the teacher. Natural was i! Hehe. It was actualy quite tough to get the note, especially the lower (longer) ones... but we all had a giggle with it. Afterwards, the usual crowd (Mika, Mary, Fabio and Tim and I) with Joe and Kaydee all decided to get some dinner. After dinner, Joe and Kaydee left for bed. As we were in a different part of town, and it was too late for Mythology salsa, we decided, after watching a local street dance (we were going to join in but it seemed to be finishing..) to check out a restaurant/bar called Fallen Angel (it sounded cool in the guide books and also Emma and Jonna had recommended checking it out aswell). From the outside it looked like it was falling down (oh dear) but once we were through the door we were extremely impressed. This place just doesn´t fit in Peru. It would be more at home in London or New York. Colourful, crazy, stuffed full of kitch and interesting art, with transvestites and gay staff. We sat down on a bed full of pvc plastic heart cushions, at a table which was a bath tub aquariam with a glass top. We ordered the most gorge cocktails (expensive for Peru, but cheap for the UK, especially for a place like this!). Spent about half an hour after wandering the place, taking about a hundred phots just of the decor ha. Shame we´re all going to miss the full moon party later in June - bet it would be interesting.

On Friday, last day of classes (boo) but i feel like i have enough info to keep me going if i want to keep improving. I´m still a complete beginner, but i can understand some basics and im not nearly as so intimidated by Spanish anymore, which is what i wanted. I booked my Salkantay trek at the travel agent at the school (everyone and everyplace is a travel agent in Cusco..! Aparently Cusco is the gringo capital of the whole of South America, because of its Machu Picchu..) for the following Monday. Dos Manos was more pricier than other places in town but it was a respectable company, who treat their porters (guys who carry you´re things!), muleters (they guy who looks after the horses), cooks and guides well (other cheap places don´t). Still, I managed to get a number of discounts, and as i made a fuss about other places being cheaper and my friend paying less, I got an extra $20 discount if i payed in cash. So I was happy.

The school held a salsa class in the eve so we decided to check it out to see if we could show off our skills. As there was a shortage of men in this class I ended up being Mika´s man. I was a good man. The guy taking the class gave us girls a useful tip for when dancing salsa ("especially in peru") to push our hand on the boys shoulder instead of holding behind it - to stop them getting too close! We´ll be putting that to use! Learnt some completely new stuff... Had to step over Mika while turning her, had to let her spin under my raised leg (!) and we totaly got down the move when she jumped on my knee and I flipped her off.

The usuals and some of the Airforce Academy peeps, all went to a "Cuban" resturant afterwards which the school had recommende (no idea why..). It was owned by an English woman, the type that annoys me, who had obviously been to Cuba for a bit and thought why not open a restaurant in Cusco. There was roughly 1-2 Cuban things on the menu. They didn´t have plaintain but had fried banana... Anyway the food we ordered was alright but was interesting to get our courses all at different times (sometimes getting our own courses at the same time). To be fair we were a large group and it didnt look like they often got large numbers of people. Me, Mika, Tim and Mary went out to Mythology again. Went to Mama Africas for a bit too, before heading home.

Saturday - PARAGLIDING!! In the morning my contract at the student residence ended so i moved into the student residence actually in the school (for a couple nights before my trek). Me, Mika, Mary and a couple others i knew from my old residence went paragliding. Had about an hours drive to a place in the Sacred Valley. When we got out the car the view was amazing..! Suddenly we all got a little nervous looking down into the valley! We perched ourselves on the hillside, ready for a long day. It was a really nice, and hot day. We were joined by a bunch of Irish girls too. One of them went first, then Mika, then Mary. While Mary was away, Mika and I took a wander around the area as we were beginning to roast on the hillside!! Back up the hill was a building with a couple of stalls outside (the usual... alpaca clothing, tourist tack and drinks). Running around were three little children (two sisters and a brother). They were the cutest things ever. After asking if we could take their picture they baçecame our best friends..! Ha. Spend a couple hours just playing with them, Mary joined us too when she returned. They were obsessed with our cameras and just giggled all afternoon. No joke, we did actually take a hundred photos of them each. We decided we should get them something, so bought drinks from their mother and gave them to them. Their mother thanked us grately.

The girl who had paraglided before me was the first to land in the valley because the wind had changed (everyone else landed behind us). I was the last to go after playing with the kids all avo... My legs were shaking a bit when i was stapped up, realising i´d have to run off a hill in a minute. Thankfully we pretty much took off straight up. When i was told to run, my toes could barely touch the ground! The flight was fun. It was so peaceful. I forgot i had my camera on me until near the end but managed to take a couple photos just before we were coming in to land. I too landed in the valley which was cool. Had the easier landing ever. We just sat on the ground and that was it. The guy taking us was a bit of a ladies man hehe he loved it being an all girls day! Called me honey lots and gave a dozen kisses after the flight and continued to thank me...? Ok, thought that was my job!

We were starved when we got back. But somehow still decided to give the traditional cuy (guinea pig) a try. Mika had already tried it but me and Mary wanted to at least say we´d tried it. So we ordered it. It took an hour to roast. They bring the whole thing out to present it to you when its cooked, before they take it away and cut (barely) it up. It had a hat on!! Well a vegetable type hat. Everything was there, it was a whole animal! It didn´t look at all like a guinea pig though - more like a rat. For some reason they all look like their laughting and with their hat on it looks slightly amusing. Anyway I DID NOT LIKE IT. The type of strong aroma of the mint herb probably didnt help but however much i tired, it just made me feel sick. I managed to have a could shreds but considering there was very little meat on the thing (you pretty much eat it all... eugh) it wasn´t too bad. Completely lost my appetite after it and barely touched the pasta side dish I´d ordered (as i knew guinea pig would not be my dinner..). Even though it was an unpleasant experience, I´m glad i tried it.

Afterwards, even though I was insanely tired (I think the week was finally catching up on me!), we went out for some dancing. Mythology was packed and not up to its usual standard so we asked the teacher at the club to recommend a proper local salsa club. The place was great. Crammed with local people, families, all ages, all out to have a good saturday night. The woman on the stage was hilariously loud and wore the highest heels in eternity. There was mass benches, covered in alpaca blankets for comfort and a dance floor which bounced when everyone got up to salsa (it was slightly concerning considering we were a few floors up). We crashed and burned soon after.

Sunday, I waved goodbye to the group as they´d opted to head to Taray to take their Spanish lessons this week - we´ll meet up when we´re all back next weekend. Just spent the day getting last min things (bought a warm hat, scarf and socks - i´ve heard it can get very cold!) and organising myself for my trek. Got an early night as I was leaving very early Monday morning...!