Housemates, Horses and Salsa

My last weekend in Cusco was very busy! We got new housemates and I was able to do the rest of the things I had wanted to do before I leave. Saturday was horseback riding and salsa lessons at Maximo Nivel.

On Saturday we got a new housemate named Liam from Ottawa. Sunday morning we got two girls from Washington named Amy and Molly and a young married couple from Minnesota named Amanda and Brian. Liam has long curly hair and tattoos and we really like him. He is a lot of fun and a cool person to talk to. The couple is very nice, although they are leaving in just a couple days to go do their volunteer work in the Manu jungle for 3 weeks so they won’t be staying here. The two other girls are a bit quiet, but seem to be friendly but they too are going to be leaving in a couple days to do their volunteer work up near Urubamba so it looks like we will be getting new housemates again before I even leave on Saturday.

Horseback riding was quite an adventure due to the fact that my horse didn’t like me and he had a bad case of gas and diarrhea. Brittany, Bryant and I along with a couple from Belgium were taken up to the ranch near the ruins above Cusco at 11 am on Saturday morning. They picked out our horses for us. Originally they tried to put Bryant on my crazy horse named Che (how ironic?) and I would have been with his gentle black horse named Cablo, but my horse wouldn’t let him get on the saddle and began bucking up and down when he tried. Instead of taking that as a sign that Che didn’t want to go on the hike and was going to be trouble the whole time, they decided to give him to me and said that he must have not liked Bryant because he was a boy but surely he would be fine with me… HA!

We started uphill along the trail and everyone else’s horses were doing fine. Brittany’s horse, Apacha, was 14 years old and still managed to keep up with everyone. My white horse with black speckles was very big and strong yet he stopped for bathroom breaks every five minutes and was huffing and puffing the whole way up. I would like to think that it wasn’t because I was too big for him, but the way he was acting it was like he was carrying a 500 pound man up that mountain. We had two guides that followed behind on foot and took pictures with our cameras. One was only 14 years old and had a crush on Brittany and the other was 23 and unfortunately had a crush on me. He took about 40 pictures of me on the 2 hour ride and the man from Belgium was egging him on to ask me out on a date, luckily he didn't.

Once we got up to the road and it was time to cross with the group, my dumb horse took another long break to drink water and I ended up having to cross the road with him alone. Then, when we got to the open area he took off running and I had no idea what to do! I tried to pull back on his reins like I’ve seen in the movies, but he would not stop and I was scared to death that I was going to fall off and die. I started to slide down his left side while still holding on to the saddle and eventually I just hopped off so that I wouldn’t fall off and get hurt. He kept running and I was fine with that and wished him a happy trip along the trail without me. Brittany and Bryant were laughing uncontrollably and I couldn’t help but join in at the stupidity of my un-trained horse with bowl problems who clearly just wanted to get away from me and the rest of the group.

The guide ran after the horse and brought him back to me and asked me over and over again if I was ok. I told him it was ok but that my horse was “loco” and I didn’t like him. Brittany, who rode horses when she was younger, told me that the horse could sense that I was scared of him and I needed to show him who was boss. I felt like he was boss by the way he almost threw me off and how he could start running at any moment and I automatically scream in fear. The guide put a rope bit in his mouth this time so that when I pulled back on his reins he would be sure to stop. Che did not like this and when I held the reins he shook his head hard so that I would let go and the ropes would fall to the ground making the bit fall out. He was a bad horse and I couldn’t wait to have a break from him!

We got to The Temple of the Moon which was a ruin along the trail. We got off our horses and they were able to take a break to eat grass and drink from the stream while we spent 40 minutes exploring the site. There were some vendors there who had a Spanish-speaking parrot named Pepito that Brittany became infatuated with. He would say “hola” and “mama” to us and crawl up and down our arm to our shoulder. He was eating an orange when we came upon him but once he met us he thought our sunglasses looked much tastier.

We got back on our horses after I tried to bribe everyone into switching with me. All the others were trying to get their horses to gallop but I wanted mine to just walk slowly and enjoy the scenic route. The little boy guide would sneak up behind the others and slap the horses behinds with a rope to get them to take off but I told him I would be very angry if he did that to Che. We continued on the trail in the open pasture where sheep were grazing and other guides had their dogs with them. The mountains were all around us and I was enjoying Che’s slow pace now despite his smelly droppings behind us.

We made it back to the ranch and I was happy to leave my horse and go off to pet the other horses at the ranch while we waited for our taxi back to town. Even though it wasn’t what I had expected, it was still another adventure and definitely a funny story for me to blog about.

After we got back to the plaza, we grabbed some lunch at a burger place called Bembos where the World Cup game between Spain and Paraguay was on. The place was packed with people cheering on Paraguay since they represent South America.

We walked to Maximo Nivel for salsa lessons for beginners that started at 3 pm. We learned 5 basic step sequences to counts and then paired up with a partner to practice them to music. At the end we all got into a big circle and traded partners after each sequence so that we could all dance with each other. At that point I was getting mixed up with my feet and I met a boy who helped me with the confusing steps. It seems much easier when you are actually out in the clubs doing it than in a classroom to numbers and so structured. Salsa is a very loose and free dance that to me just flows when you hear the music and have a dancing partner in a club. It was nice to learn the real steps though and I hope to use them at least once before I leave to impress Mario since he was the one who taught me here in the first place. At 4:30 the advanced class began and we had the option to stay and learn all the turning and dipping moves, but Brittany, Bryant and I all agreed that we were nowhere near being advanced salsa dancers and decided to head home after a long day out.

We had a relaxing movie night at home with all the movies we bought at El Molino, the black market. They are only a dollar a piece, so Brittany and I have each bought about 15 or so by now! I have a 7 hour layover in Lima on Saturday so they will come in hand while I have nothing to do in the airport.

We also bought some other things at the black market: going away gifts for our maid and house mom. We got our maid new tennis shoes since hers were so old they had holes in them and she does not have a lot of money and can’t afford new ones. Her feet are so tiny; she wears a women’s size 4! We got her some adorable white Nike’s with a green swoosh and she has been wearing them every day since. She was so excited when we gave them to her and I had never seen her smile so big. We got our house mom some beautiful flowers and her favorite bottle of Argentinean wine.

Read on in my next blog about Sunday’s activities: Catholic Church mass and a Cusco vs. Lima soccer game.

-Hillary-