Leandra and Fernando made me lunch today in a little tent on the corner of the chacra where all the guineapigs live.  I was just thinking about how much Matt would freak out if he saw them preparing the food with hands freshly worked, with dirt in the crevices where the water from the "wash bucket" had failed to reach.  We ate on the ground with the guinea pigs snooping around us--they were jealous of our feast (see picture).

The other interns and I left for Cusco in the afternoon. We went out to dinner with a couple other travelers we met at the hostal and I was really hoping that they would come to the bars with us (to bring a little livlihood to our posse), but alas, they declined.  And so it was me, Ashton, Rian, Nora, Nora's Peruvian boyfriend and the boyfriend's friend. We were quite the awkward motley crew.  But (at least in the first couple discotecas that we went to) we fit right in.  You know it's bad when you're in a bar in Peru and they play "Red Red Wine" and everyone is singing along.  I felt like such a tool pretending to dance salsa with all the tourists, but what can you do?  When you walk down the plaza, you're swarmed with free drink coupons, flyers, broken English promising free dance lessons, arms and fingers directing and pointing the direction you should go.  Yes, it was embarrassing, but I wasn't going to be a scrooge.  I finally just threw my pride to hell and owned up to my stereotype. 

On Sunday, I ditched the ProPeru scheduled activity to some ruins and went to a downhill bike race with Henry and his friends instead.  It was awkward, sitting in a truck with four guys all speaking in crude Spanish I could hardly understand, but it was better than being with a group of American tourists taking pictures and haggling at artisan markets.  The race itself was EPIC.  There were almost 200 bikers flying down the side of this mountain and we were sitting right next to this ramp/jump where there were a few nasty wipeouts.

That night I volunteered to make dinner for the fam and so Henry and I went to the market but I could hardly find anything I knew how to cook.  There are no tortillas, chips, or cooked beans.  There's only one kind of cheese.  Hardly any nuts.  I attempted to do a stir fry and make my own tortillas.  It wasn't a disaster, but it wasn't very good either.  I made a fruit dessert, which I thought was delicious but I don't think they were too impressed.  Oh well, it was still pretty fun to try.