I had a really great morning today...I got to sleep in!!! For the first time since my arrival in Cuzco! I got up at around 10am, and decided to update my blog, since my mother called me, scolding me for not updating it sooner...

I was planning to go to El Molino today. El Molino is a flea market for the locals (not many tourists go there), but we were told that it was an excellent place to bargain and get the best deals in Cuzco. Caitlin and I had planned to go, however when I got up, Caitlin was alrealdy leaving with Barbara and Jeremy. I was going to meet her later when I was ready to go.

At around 12:30pm, I had asked Spencer and Tyler if they wanted to come with me. Tyler was really enthousistic about coming because he loved to bargain. Tyler is the one in the house that speaks Spanish the most fluently, so having him come along anywhere is always a good thing. We met Caitlin at Maximo Nivel at 1pm and took another taxi to El Molino. I needed to get a SD card adapter to upload my pictures on my blog (in case you have not realized that there were no pictured yet). I had taken the wrong camera cord from home...

El Molino was HUGE! You could easily get lost inside. It looked very ghetto, but if I got a better price here, I did not care! Tyler was looking for a few walking chairs for the kids that he volunteers with. He works at a hospital for disabled children. While walking the long corridors, we could find anything from clothes to electronics to electronic parts to alcohol to food! Alcohol was really cheap there, and since I had decided to cook tomorrow, I thought that it would be a good idea to buy it here. We got 1 Merlot, and two Sauvignons from Mendoza, Argentina. The lady first wanted to sell the three bottles for 42 Soles, but we bargained it down to 35 Soles.

A few minutes later, we found an electronics kiosk that sold exactly what I was looking for for 20 Soles. After my two purchases I was happy and ready to go. We spent another 30 minutes there and went back home. I immediately tested out my adapter and added a few pictures, but it was slow (so bare with me if I cannot upload all my pictures yet...).

We had planned to go out, since it was Saturday, however everyone was feeling a bit sick (not me though!!!). So Barbara, Jeremy, Caitlin and I decided to be a bunch of losers and play Monopoly on a Saturday night! There was a Monopoly game in the house that had half monopoly money and half normal cutout paper with dollar signs on them. Fortunetely, most of the pieces were there. The game became competitive (for all of you that know me...) and I eventually won...until Tyler came with his laptop and told us that we were not playing by the proper rules.

10pm came around and I really wanted to go out, but nobody else wanted to come with me. The original plan was to meet Hassan, Sabine and Maricarmen at a lounge. Hassan and Sabine were texting me to come out alone then, but I was wary about going out at night alone...until...Sabine called my a "p**** quot;! I can accept from a guy, but from a girl...never! So I was out the door within 10 minutes.

I had a lot of trouble finding the place. Some lounges or resteurants in the Plaza de Armas are hidden. Sometimes, you have to walk through a boutique, and the entrance is through the back door of the boutique. I had met Lindsey, a girl from Delaware that was leaving Cuzco earlier than she expected because she became very ill. We spent a little time at the very trendy lounge called "Muse" before heading out to a club. Mythology was our club of choice, along with Inkateam, right beside. I like these places because promoters crowd the entrance giving us free drink tickets to enter their club.

Clubs in Cuzco usually play Salsa until 11pm and then play typical North American music. However, most of the time, the songs are 10 years old. They also play a lot of techno (which i did not like much), but they had to play something for everyone...Clubs close here at around 6am, but we were only planning on staying til 1 or 2 max (yes, I know, we are boring...).

Lindsey did not seem like the kind of girl that was used to clubs. She was not dancing much and yawning after 30 minutes. At around 12am, Hassan and Lindsey decided to leave, which left me with Maricarmen and Sabine. I had a lot of fun dancing with both girls :-)

We left at 2am, and took a taxi together. Unfortunetely, Maricarmen was leaving the next day back to Lima for work. I was really glad that I made a new Peruvian friend (for the next time I visit Lima...).