Living in San Blas

Oh yeah. Life is good. I moved into my new room in San Blas on Sunday night and absolutely love it. The space is friggin cold, but I have a new heater waiting for me and I've already started making the space my own. I put down woven mats like carpeting, made my bed into a sofa and will have my massage table in a week or so. People are already starting to ask for business cards (I ordered them this morning) and I've got to start thinking about prices. I can't bring myself to charge as little as the bad massages offered in the main square (about 20-25 soles/hour -- which is about $7-8), but I know that I have to be reasonable. I also know that my work is worth more than $10/hour.

Gabriela and I did a little shopping at Mercado San Pedro, an enormous market that sells every type of food you could possibly imagine. While I'm not about to buy the pig's head that stares at me every time I pass it, I can definitely drop a pretty penny on dried fruits, grains, popcorn, cheese, etc. I bought some gorgeous strawberries, bananas and oatmeal and Gab got some eggs, more dried fruit (I have plenty) and a few other goodies. We're ready to feast!

Some of our purchases (those fresas -- strawberries -- were amazing)


Our favorite snack EVER: Platanitos (baby bananas) with natural peanut butter and chocolate spread.


Tuesday was our last day of class -- just a half day -- and then we all went out for lunch to celebrate. Since Gab and I don't eat full meals, we shared an alpaca salad. Alpaca is pretty damn good. Tastes like meat.

Group photo


Our "Felicitaciones!" cake


I was exhausted when we got back to the house. I'm fighting a cold (after 4 weeks of sitting in a classroom with a bunch of sick classmates I finally caught whatever was going around). It's a little sinus, a little chest and a lot annoying. I knew I needed sleep, so I climbed up to the second floor of our house, crawled into the hammock and put on some meditation music. The views from the second floor are amazing, as San Blas (my neighborhood) is up on a hill over the main square. The nap was fantastic and it energized me for the rest of the evening.

My view from the hammock


Jeff crashed on my floor that night because we were leaving for Machu Picchu early the next day. Humberto and Gabriela also hung out with us for a while. Gab met a drummer that day who is going to teach her how to really drum. She's ecstatic and recounted the whole afternoon to us. We played some Reggae and laughed and talked. I love chill evenings like that.

Tomorrow: Machu Picchu!!