dia ocho

Hello Dear Readers,
Ok, just to be straight, I'll be blogging sporadically. It's too much effort to blog daily.
So, let me try to remember the INSANE amount of things i've done. Day 4: kevin, miguel, georgia, and I hiked up to Sacsayhuamán. it was the 2nd time i'd done it (i hiked it the 3rd day too) but it's definitely HARD for us low sea level dwellers. the view from the site is awesome, and the site is awesome. I know it's repetive, but I can't 100% put into words it's amazingness. I haven't taken pictures yet, but i will be doing that soon. I have posted a significant amount of photos on my facebook for those who want to see. Tandem to the site, is a large hill with a white Jesus statue on it. it's a short, but relatively steep hike up, but once again, the view is spectacular. you can see everything. They light the statue up at night, so it's this white beacon, almost, in the sky. Looking at it at night, it's amazing that we hiked that high. The night of day four, we did some club hopping: Mythology & Mama Africa are the best, that we've been to so far. Dancing at this altitude is much harder, fyi.
I've done a lot of exploring & walking around. There's this huge indoor market that sells everything, from pig's heads to sweaters; and you can eat there for like 4soles. which is insanely cheap. However, it's not a great idea for foreigners to eat there, as there are likely much flora and fauna that we haven't had time to adapt to yet. There is a big, & safe market on Saturdays, where I'll be eating lunch for about 4 soles.
Day 4, we also went to the monestario de santo domingo, which was built on top of the Inca Temple of the Sun, which was called Qorikancha. Photos are up on facebook.
Day 5... honestly, I can't remember. haha. I've done so much. we did more walking around, and went to some clubs to dance at night.
Day 6...Most people had arrived. I believe about 15 were here. Once again, we went to the plaza de armas, where i have been going since day 1, so see all the processions and dances from the parade for corpus chirsti.
day 7 : aka sunday, everyone had arrived. We had an intro dinner at this place called Two Nations; one of the 2 restaurants we'll be eating at for the next 4.5 weeks. The food is 150% safe & fantastic. it's owned by this aussie guy named matt, so the courses are hearty.
Monday, we went to 2 Incan museums; the museo del inca, and the Larcma. They were awesome, but no photos, so i have none. We had lunch at one, in this amazing courtyard.
After dinner at Don Esteban's we went to Mythology for salsa lessons. about 12 decided to learn. it was so much fun, & a great work out! I picked up on it really quickly, and will continue to keep taking salsa lessons everynight after dinner. I'm sure i'll be tired after digging, but will definitely have energy to salsa!
Tuesday, we went to the monestary, and a Spanish Christian art museum, both were fantastic. After dinner, a group of us went down to the Plazas to see the festivities for Inti Raymi (Held wednesday). There was a fantastic graffitti artist, and lots and LOTs of people, and dancers. I mean, the plaza was FULL; definitely thousands of people were there.
Today:
was ... magical almost. Today is the Inti Raymi festival, or festival of the sun. It's an Inca ceremony that happened on the winter solstice. the purpose was rejuvination, and to call back the sun. They have a modern authentic rendition that they do every year on june 24. THe procession starts at the plaza de armas, and goes up to Sacsayhuamán. there were 1000s of people there, and the ceremony was amazing. the Leader Inca was standing at the top of a stone altar-like place, speaking quechua and there were lines of Incans around the altar, wearing traditional clothes, dancing, lighting fires, and there was a simulation of a llama sacrifice ! It definintely was a sight I am glad I was able to experience. Others took photos, so when they post to facebook, I'll get some of them. Well, we're about to go to dinner, then salsa! adios.
over & out.