so...an incredibly busy week, starting our spanish classes, meeting new friends, battling dodgy stomachs [blame the pisco sours!] and getting used to the peruvian way of life. basically everything moves slowly here, but that´s just fine.

i found classes really difficult at the beginning of the week, and was worried that i´d NEVER get the hang of all the silly pronunciation bits, but thankfully after a week some of it seems to be sticking [though clearly not the radical changing verbs - sanj!] our teaches so far have all been really brilliant - loads of different teaching styles to keep us on our toes! and anyway, it´s certainly improved our haggling skills. and helped us to vary the ways we say "no gracias" to the kids selling stuff in the plaza de armas.

a good bunch of people joined the school the same week as us, so harry and i organised a weekend trip to [you know...] puno, which is a little town right by the lake titicaca. after a fairly traumatic bus journey [only seven hours, but right above the heater, so IMPOSSIBLE to sleep] we scoffed down a breakfast and started our tour, which involved being ferried from one bizarre "reed island" [you really need to google it] to the next, in the hope that we´d spend our hard-earned soles on bizarre reed handicrafts. that part of the tour was all a little bit twee, and our guide was INCREDIBLY annoying [apparently the "taquile island, not tequila island" joke doesn´t get old...] so we were a bit frazzled by the time we got to amantani, the main island where we were spending the night. it didn´t take long for that to pass though, as we were soon reinvigorated by a walk up the island´s mountain [no mean feat when you´re 3800m a.s.l.] which revealed the most incredible views over the lake. [...little did we know that such a tranquil-looking body of water would have many of our friends throwing up over the side of the boat the next day!] after a high-altitude coffee, we went back to our host families [where my over-enthusiasm with the toddler resulted in my getting peed on] for a "traditional" dinner [read: quinoa and fried cheese. seriously.] and in the evening we were ushered into traditional amantani dress for a fiesta, where we danced until we were sweaty and gasping for breath. brilliant fun, even if we did have to sit through the worst rendition of "la bamba" i´ve ever heard! the next day the thunderstorm we awoke to quickly turned into scorching sunshine [standard peru weather, it would seem] and we braved a dip in the lake, which was heart-stoppingly cold, and was followed much necessary sunbathing on the top of our boat!

back in cusco now, and about to join the gym. though this may seem like an indulgence it´s actually more of a necessity - meals at school invariably seem to consist of rice, potatoes AND pasta, and even though we´ve mostly been making yummy salads with fresh vegetables from the market for dinner, we´re still feeling a bit carb-tastic!

thinking of you all often, though i can´t say i´m missing home just yet.

much love, suzie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx