thanksgiving in cusco!

Thanksgiving, as you can imagine, is not celebrated in Peru.  Nevertheless, Cusco is blessed with a strong ex-pat population that help to keep our traditions alive.  Therefore, Nick (of Nick's Sports Bar, where we conduct our Pub Quiz every Tuesday night) threw a Thanksgiving feast at the bar.  Ironically, he is British.  Nevertheless, he knows how important Turkey Day is to us Americans and took advantage of an opportunity to make some cash off of us.

Another added bonus was that my oldest and dearest friend, EMILY, came to visit.  Boy, did we have fun.

Emily and Alex... no Emily is not standing on a stool.

Leave it to Nick to import some high quality BLONDE beer!  

It's been too long since I have had a beer of such quality.

Here we are with Fin, our dear friend from Seattle.

I hopped behind the bar to get this quality picture with Nick!

Denise (awesome girl that came here on vacation a year ago and never left), Emily, me and Alex.

Thanksgiving feast at Nick's Sports Bar.

Wasn't as good as mom's, but it did the job.

Correction. "New 7 Wonders of the World" still in debate?

Here's an article I found on www.livinginperu.com about the situation with the ubiquitous title, "Wonder of the World":

According to the latest standings on the New 7 Wonders Foundation website, Machu Picchu is growing in popularity to be included in the 2010 New Seven Wonders of Nature contest. 

The world-famous Andean site has bumped up five spaces to 54th in latest pollings. 

After winning a spot in last year’s New Seven Wonders of the Modern World contest, tourism has increased in Machu Picchu by 20 percent so far this year, doubling original predictions. 

According to Andina news agency, domestic tourists account for an eight percent increase to Machu Picchu with the remaining 12 percent from the United States and European countries like France, Spain, Germany and England. 

The New Seven Wonders of Nature will continue its public voting process until 2010 where finalists will be chosen depending on their popular vote. 

Only one national nominee per country and nominees shared by more than one country, such as Peru’s Amazon River shared by other Latin American countries, will be allowed to proceed to the finals. 

For more information on the New Seven Wonders of Nature, or how to suggest a natural wonder from your country, visit the official site of  New 7 Wonders Foundation. 

putucusi

one of the 7 (new) wonders of the world

Machu Picchu has now been named one of the "7 New Wonders of the World."

It was wonderous to say the least.

Yes, Alex and I have matching scarfs.

Now, she wants to trade (I feel like I'm in the 2nd grade again).

What do you think??

The girls got a kick out of this joke I cracked:

"LLAMA?!  LLAMAME!" 

(translation: "Llama, call me!")

Some students in a secret room we found hidden in the ruins.

Some students and profes gazing out over the view.

Just as incredible as the ruins were the surrounding mountains.

I've never seen anything like them.

So beautiful.

How the Incans carved these stones so perfectly is beyond me.

Needless to say, I am impressed.

Here is the police station where we slept with the girls.

It was free.

It was loud.

It did not consist of much sleeping.

Here is one of our students carrying Inca Cola (which is disgusting, in my opinion).

I love this picture.

This was my first glimpse of Machu Picchu.

Needless to say, I was disappointed and very worried about that day's weather.

The sun did come out...

and it was a perfect day.

All of the profes together!

Alex and I with some students.

Profe Gladis foung a sweet window.

The view from under a straw canopy.

This llama was hilarious.

These are called the "Espejos" (translated: "mirrors").  They were used to reflect the position of the stars in the sky which then determined their calendar.