I have a part-time gig teaching English at the ICPNA here in Cusco. My students are really great and it’s been a lot of fun so far. I try to use real life examples while I teach, and because Cusco is such a popular travel destination I often refer to some of the tourist places downtown.
My favorite reference is Mama Africa, a popular disco at the Plaza de Armas in Cusco, Peru. So here’s a picture of Patricia and I at Mama Africa!
– Ward
I started working on a travel portal for the Cusco area (www.mycuscotrip.com), but I haven’t been able to spend much time on it lately, so the site is very much under construction.
A while back Patricia and I took advantage of the great weather to take some pictures of the city to use on the website. This picture was taken in front of the San Cristobal church, a nice place to relax overlooking the city of Cusco, Peru.
The weather in Cusco in the dry season is really beautiful – even though it gets very cold at night. Us gringos have to protect ourselves from the sun because the air is so thin up here in the mountains, so Manchita put on some sunglasses for this picture…
– Ward Welvaert
Patricia and I both got sick as the proverbial dog in the last 2 weeks. Nothing serious, just a bad flu. Patricia’s uncle knows many of the natural healing techniques people here in Peru use. Much of it is based on the ancient Inca culture, and some has its roots in the cultures of the Amazon jungle. So we drank lots of herbal tea and tried some of the natural remedies as well as our doctor-prescribed medicines.
We’re finally both feeling better now. I do like what I’ve learned so far about natural medicine. Perhaps one day we will help Patricia’s uncle open a health spa in the Sacred Valley. For sure the people here in Cusco have to be quite strong to deal with the altitude (nearly 11,000ft) and the climate (temperatures are really nice during the day, around 80 degrees in the sun, but near freezing at night).
The Incas believed when taking this pose on this rock at Machu Picchu, you will receive energy and healing powers from the sun.
– Ward
The job I was hoping to get with the Peruvian Air Force (FAP) didn’t work out, because Alan Garcia changed the Minister of Defense in December. So I’m staying busy with web programming, and I also started teaching English at ICPNA (one of the better schools in Cusco). It’s a lot of fun but next month I’m going to take a lighter schedule. I’m still thinking of starting a business here in Peru, but for now that’s on the back burner…
I got offered a flying job back with a regional airline in the US awhile ago. I think I would have been able to “jumpseat” (fly free) down to Peru on my days off, but I ended up turning it down anyway.
So in honor of that decision, here’s “Love over Gold”.
Ward
I’m updating my pizza ordering site http://hometownpizza.us with a few new features. I learned some Ajax and was quite happy with the result – I can actually change parts of a web page now without reloading the whole page.
Patricia and I went out downtown Cusco a couple of weeks ago to celebrate that I got the pizza site up and running. We had dinner at a really nice restaurant where “Norton’s Rats” used to be and even went out dancing afterwards!!
– Ward
After living in Peru for awhile I got used to doing the laundry by hand, not having hot water, my own car or things of that nature. In most houses here there’s no heat, and at night it gets cold up here in the mountains. But it’s easy to stay warm under some nice Alpaca blankets. One of these days I intend to start an export business of Alpaca and cotton goods, but that’s another story.
– Ward Welvaert
Roxy and Manchita were strays that decided to move in with us in NC. Roxy is some type of Jack Russell mix and Manchi looks like a blue Pitbull mix. Being that they are extremely attached to us, and they’re good dogs, we decided to move them to Peru with us. That was actually a pretty easy process: pay the vet in NC, the state of NC, the airlines, the Peruvian department of agriculture, and about $500 later we were happily moved to Peru. The best part of the trip for them was when they got to stay at the Sheraton Miami because our flight, which was supposed to leave at midnight, was delayed for 7+ hours. With time to spare, travel by air, ruff!!
Manchita got sick a month or so after moving to Cusco. Might have been the altitude (10,300 ft) or climate that she had to get used to. Either way, Patricia put this cute sweater on her for a while after that!
Update: see the comments for additional info on how to move dogs from the US to Peru.
Once upon a time, a Peruvian girl met a Belgian guy in an Irish bar in North Carolina. It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but it was the best thing ever happened to me. Patricia and I met when she was an au-pair in NC and I was still working for GE in Durham. Now we live in Cusco, Peru, where Patricia is finishing her degree and I am working as an independent consultant.
Ward
Life in Peru 