Last night, Henry made a bet that my running regimen would last 2 weeks. 

So I tried to push myself this morning (feeling like I had something to prove), but when I got back my body punished me.  My head and my stomach were both waltzing in circles when I was trying to eat breakfast.  My mom brought a plant from the garden and rubbed my face and head and neck, then she burned it a little and had me inhale the smoke.  Then she took a little piece of it and put it in my sports bra.  I actually felt better, so it must have done something.

I started my work on the farm with Fernando, the dueno of la viveria.  It started out fine… we were putting soil in little bags for seedlings and chatting about politics.  But three hours later, I was still scooping dirt into little bags and Fernando had left to go do something else.  I felt a little bit like he was using me to do the tedious work that he didn't want to do.  So our contract of I-work-for-free-and-you-teach-me-Spanish-and-agriculture didn't exactly pan out.  But we'll see…  When Leandra, his wife, is there things are much more interesting because she's a little more chatty.

After Spanish class one day, I got talked into going to this fancy hotel with a random traveler (who's taking Spanish at the same school), Justin from Canada.  He had a membership and so we took a bus out to Huayabamba and out in the middle of nowhere…there it was.  Paradise.  (Well, in the tourist sense).  It was the most obscene resort I have ever seen.  Justin met the General Manager at a bar a few months ago and they've been friends ever since.  He greeted us at the door (or, I should say, elaborate gate) and gave me the grand tour of the Spa with two meditation rooms, steam room, yoga room, pilates room, fitness center, pools, hot tubs, and the library, movie theater, sitting rooms, restaurant, café, bar, shops……  Absolutely ridiculous.  He was trying to convince me to get a membership there (of which I had no intention of doing) but I pretended to be interested.  Justin and I worked out, did a little yoga, I took a shower in the locker rooms where I had my own personal robe, shower shoes, and toiletries, then we watched a movie in the mini-theater.  There was hardly anyone else at the hotel.  Afterwards we took a cab back home and grabbed some late night food at a little pizza place.  And now I'm back in the "real world" of my little Urubamba house.  I like it better here.