On Tuesday morning, after an early breakfast, we packed up our stuff and took a bus to the Sacred Valley, which was about an hour and a half away. Here we visited Pisaq and Ollantaytambo, ancient ruins built by the Incans, that for the most part, were still standing and intact. We then visited a local market in the Sacred Valley that had a variety of restaurants, stores, and local people selling souvenirs, jewelry, and fresh fruits and vegetables. We then took a train through the Andes Mountains and along a river that we learned becomes the Amazon, from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes. After having pizza for dinner, we headed to our hotel for an early bedtime before waking up early the next morning for Machu Picchu.
Wednesday morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and headed to the bus station where we boarded the bus that would take us up the mountain to Machu Picchu. After spending the morning touring and exploring Machu Picchu, we had lunch at an incredible restaurant called IndioFeliz in Aguas Calientes. We then returned to the hotel to pack up again, and headed back to the train station from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo, and then took a bus from the station to Cuzco. Upon arrival in Cuzco, we were dropped off at our next hotel where we will be staying until Saturday, when we return to Lima. Since Wednesday was the first day of Corpus Christi, the central plaza in Cuzco, where our hotel is located, has been completely full of people 24/7, with dancers, musicians, local people from Cuzco, and tourists. It has been great to see the performances and parades and I’m glad we are here during this celebration.
On Thursday morning we visited more ruins around the Cuzco area and spent the rest of the day walking around the city and plaza and seeing some of the excitement of the holiday. On Friday morning, we visited Nuestra Sra. de la Natividad, a public, Catholic, school in Cuzco, that has a primary school and a secondary school (similar to elementary, middle, and high school in the United States). The principal and the teachers explained to us that, because the school is public, they rely on the government for resources and funding, which they have not been getting enough of. In the upcoming weeks, the teachers plan to go on strike since they have not received the funding they have asked for and need. When thinking about the relationships between culture and power, I wonder why other schools receive more funding while this one does not. I would like to learn more on this topic and about Peruvian government and politics. From a teaching standpoint, I believe it is critical to teach students about their government and politics, but of course with avoiding opinions and personal beliefs. Within curriculum, at least in the United States, we tend to focus on only certain topics within American history and glorify the European influence and rarely discussing indigenous peoples history and culture. While I don’t know a lot about Peruvian history or school’s curriculum, it seems to be similar to the United States.