Making Our Way Downtown

Cusco, Peru

In the morning, we had a classic breakfast of yogurt banana puffed rice and tea. Madi, the exchange student from Minnesota, was nervous for her first day of exams. She is taking Spanish, sustainability, and a few Spanish culture classes at ISA (the same place we are taking classes). After breakfast, she brought us over to our school. All of the Bardis went into a large classroom where the ISA Peruvian lady went over rules of Cusco like don’t go out and be safe. After the presentation, we had a little break so Madi and I showed the girls the park right across from our house. Our house is less than two blocks from school. Perfect! We played on all of the playground things and had a dizzying ball before headed back to the office.

Swinging on the playground

All Bardis got on a bus and headed to the Centro. The main square is Plaza de Armas. It is really pretty with a fountain in the center. Dr. Maya lead us on a tour of the cathedral. She is an art history professor at UF who loves Peru. She wrote an article on all of the altar pieces in the cathedral. We were all supposed to read the article but only two of the twenty did. She explained the columns and arches on the outside as well as the inside. On the inside they had many alters and coves and statues. One famous statue is a statue of a black Jesus. It is said to have stopped the earthquake way back in the 1800s.

We split up into groups to analyze the different parts. My group looked at the main altar. It was pretty and all silver and very large. There was a lot of restoration work going on in the cathedral. They had crypts of important people under ground too.

Cathedral in the Plaza

The Bardi Crew (Class of ’18 and ’17). Don’t we look like Gap Models?!

After exploring the cathedral, we went and got a snack because it was already 2. They eat late lunches in Peru. I snacked on juice and Madi tried an empanada at a little cafe off of the square. We were able to explore a bit more before heading back home

At home, Marita was ready with lunch. It was kind of funky looking but actually not half bad. Potatoes in a nutty yellow sauce.

Potatoes and Eggs in Sauce. Meal Part 1. 

We were happy and full but it turns out that was just the starter! She brought out more food and in our minds we said “No mas!” But we had to suck it up and make a dent in the food. It was just chicken and quinoa so yummy. We were full and so we napped until 4:30.

Meal Part 2: Chicken and quinoa 

We were supposed to meet Christina at the mall but I couldn’t get in contact with her because she didn’t have wifi. We decided to meet up with Mihael and Schiley to explore the downtown again. On our way over to the main busy street to grab a taxi, we ran into Christina. She ended up going to the mall herself. So we walked home with her, she dropped off her stuff, and we picked up Megan. We literally walked around downtown in circles trying to see everything but eventually it got dark. Mihael and Schiley left us to return home for dinner but Christina, Megan, Madi, and I went out to a place that Marita’s brother suggested.

Exploring the town with the crew

We were the only gringos in there so the manager came over. He gave us a free appetizer of some weird trout thing. Madi and I split alpaca burgers that were meh but they had great potatoes. We all had buy one get one pisco sours that were flavored tuna roja which is cactus pear. It was meh but exciting. Everyone loves to go out with me because I take a few sips and then I let everyone else finish it off😂

Pisco Sours

We stayed for a long time at the restaurant and eventually all of the Bardis joined us downtown. They all had a few drinks at the place we were at and then we moved to another place. Everyone played pool for a bit at the next place. Madi, Mihael, Schiley, and I started to make our way back home and we saw that Alex didn’t have his roommate so we popped in a bunch of places in the main square until we left him with his bros. We made our way back home and went to bed.

I tossed and turned all night because my bed is like a rock. I woke up at 4 because I had a weird dream were Robbie and Ethan put a spider in my bed. I have not seen any spiders in Peru though. Coca tea dreams…