The end of the Inca Trail marked the midpoint of our South America adventure / honeymoon. We've been living out of our haversacks for 5 weeks, never staying in a particular place for more than 3 nights at a time. So when we moved into our host family's home in Cusco following the Inca Trail, we were more than glad to be "living" there for the next two weeks. If you've been constantly on the move like we have been for over a month, you will understand how the simple action of unpacking your bags is such an unexpectedly liberating feeling.

So other than the fact that Cusco is one of the more beautiful cities in South America and that we didn't have to move around for awhile, we spent two weeks here because we had also signed up for a volunteering stint at a nearby hospital / rehab centre for disabled children. It was our way of balancing out the self indulgence-ness of our 3-month holiday. Well, kinda. Volunteering in a foreign country has always been on our list of things to do and we chose to help with the kids - most of whom are younger than 5 and don't speak much - due to the language barrier. Helping out at say, an orphanage, where the kids are older and able to speak more would have been a little bit more frustrating when we could barely count to 10 in Spanish.

We didn't "work" at the San Juan de Dios Hospital the entire time - not even close. In fact, we were at the hospital only 3 and a half hours each day, and we got the weekends off. So it wasn't all that big of a sacrifice for us, especially given the fact that we get to stay with a host family who took care of all our meals for a token sum of USD84 per person per week. And we got free Spanish lessons too (the daughter of our host family, Yesi, happens to be an excellent English/Spanish teacher). Yeah, so it wasn't all high and noble on our part.

The Host Family
In these 2 weeks, we had the privilege of living with Esther, Raphael and their elder daughter, Yesi - they are really the nicest people. Here's an example: In a country where the people are used to a heavy lunch and very light or no dinner, our host family would never fail to prepare a cooked meal for us for dinner. Not the case for some of the other volunteers we met here living with other host families - for some, dinner consisted of just bread and coffee / tea. It's not like their host family were trying to starve them - it's just the way of life here in Peru. Apart from providing a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs, Yesi also gave us, as well as the other volunteers, free 2-hour Spanish lessons every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And on the other days, she would organize mini-excursions into town to visit the market, museums, etc so we could practice what limited Spanish we've learnt. And as if that wasn't nice enough, on a Peru national holiday, Yesi and her mom brought us to a local fair where we practically stuffed our faces with local cuisine, which included roast pork, ceviche (local version of raw fish but more on the food of South America in a later entry), pachamanca (assorted meats cooked underground, Inca-style), maracuya sour (local cocktail), ice-cream and cakes. It was kinda embarrassing, really. Hopefully, it didn't give them the impression that we haven't had enough to eat in their home, because we always had more than enough.
We are incredibly grateful for the hospitality and look forward to the day they come to Asia to visit us so we can return the favour.

The City
Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire, was and still is an amazing city. Not the largest city in Peru by any stretch but it certainly is the most interesting. Apart from the myriad of Inca sites scattered throughout the city and surrounding areas (technically, Machu Picchu belongs to the city too although it's more than 100 km from the centre), there are a number of other attractions within easy walking distance of the city. That is, once you've overcome the altitude - at 3400 meters above sea level, it's not a good idea to go running around the city trying to squeeze in every attraction. Fortunately for us, we had the time to explore the city bit by bit, plus we've been in altitude for about 3 weeks by this time.
Here is a very, very succinct account of some of our favourite spots:
1) Sacsayhuaman (pronounced "Sexy Woman"): Located on top of a hill about 30 minutes' walk from the main square, it is a pretty impressive Inca site. Useful to remember that Cusco was the capital of the entire Inca Empire, i.e. as impressive as Machu Picchu is, Cusco would have been miles better if it wasn't for the Spanish demolishing almost everything and re-using the Inca stones to build their own buildings. However, some structures in the city did survive, and one of them is Sacsayhuaman. The main reason it was not completely torn down like the rest was simple - some of the stones used to build this fortress was simply too humongous for the Spanish to move them. The largest stone supposedly weighs close to 200 tonnes! It's one of those "you gotta see it to believe it" stuff.
2) Inca Museum: Only because I could not get enough of the Incas since going on the Inca Trail. For 10 soles each (~RM11), it was probably the most value-for-money museum to visit in Cusco (there are loads of museums with widely varying quality so don't enter every single one). My favourite bits are the scaled models of the Inca sites (including Machu Picchu) and the mummies.
3) St Pedro market: Perhaps our most visited place in the city. No, our host family did not make us do the groceries. We kept going back there for one main reason - the food. Yes, we were going against every guide book advice there is, but we decided that the delicious yet cheap local food outweighed the risk of getting severe food poisoning. Plus, we were banking on our Malaysian stomachs to be a little more resilient than those of the "gringos" (non-derogatory term used to describe American / Western European tourists) that these books are mostly targeted at. We've had ceviches, tasty noodles in chicken broth, spicy pork stew, fruits (many we don't recognise), yoghurt, quail eggs...and so far so good (still keeping our fingers and toes crossed)!
3) The Real McCoy Irish Pub: OK, this is not really the most Cusco-esque thing to do but we had quite a lot of fun here. Every Monday and Wednesday, the pub runs a Pub Quiz in support of a local charity (each player contributes 5 soles). On 2 occasions, some of us volunteers formed a group to join the Pub Quiz, where we basically get asked a bunch of general knowledge questions and the group that gets the most correct answers wins. We finished second in our first outing but redeemed ourselves the second time, winning by less than a point. Anna, the blond American girl on our team, pretty much carried us through.
4) Others: We also visited the main Cathedral (situated in the main square; 25 soles each), Korikancha (another museum where the most impressive Inca temple used to be, supposedly covered in gold in its prime; 10 soles each) and went salsa dancing at a club called Mama Africa on our last night in Cusco. Good fun.

The Kids
Easily the most interesting part of our stay in Cusco. The kids of San Juan de Dios are there because of their mental or physical disabilities, often both. There are maybe 15 of them, ranging from about 1 year old to about 16. While some still have parents who visit them every once in a while, most have been abandoned because of their disability. Very sad but true. Even more so when we've spent a couple of weeks with them and got to know some of them a little better.
So what exactly do we do with these kids in the 3 plus hours we spend with them each day? There isn't really a fixed duty roster so we kinda figured it out along the way. And it helped that we got to know two other volunteers - Anna (from the Pub Quiz) and Fiona from Hong Kong / New Zealand - both of whom had been working with the kids for a week before we arrived. Between taking the kids out to the park for some sun in their wheelchairs and pretending to read children's storybooks to them (I once attempted to read The Ugly Duckling to one of the kids in Spanish - not sure what story he heard in the end), our one constant duty was to help feed some of the kids during meal times. Given their disabilities, this seemingly simple task can be an hour-long struggle often ending in our white lab coats (which we were required to wear at all times even though Siau-Wei is the only volunteer with any form of medical training) covered in semi-chewed food.
I'd like to talk about each kid here but I won't. In the interest of time, I'll pick a few - those that I had the chance to spend a little more time with (in no particular order):
1) Flor: 4-5 years old. She doesn't speak much other than constantly asking for water (or "agua" in Spanish). At other times, she would be giggling uncontrollably. Like most of the other kids, she needs a wheelchair to move around (probably has some form of cerebral palsy).
2) Angel (pronounced Un-Hell): About 4 years old. Also known as Angelito (or "little Angel") because he is half a person. Literally. He was born with nothing below his elbows and no legs. But despite this, he is probably one of the more active and mentally-alert kids in the centre. He is always yelling out "amigo!" to get your attention.
3) Yolanda: 2-3 years old. She is one of the few kids who do not need a wheelchair. But she does have a very unique way of walking - if you didn't know better, you'd think she was perpetually drunk. She's got issues with motor coordination. She is usually wearing pink and carrying a little school bag. Very adorable.
4) Oscar / Oskita (or little Oscar): About a year old. The youngest and baby of the family. Some of the other kids would fight to have him in their beds during nap time so they could cuddle him to sleep. Us volunteers would fight to feed him during meal times because he is just super cute.
5) Diomedes aka Carlos: 4-5 years old. He is probably the most "normal" of all the kids, apart from a somewhat weak pair of legs. He is able to walk on his own, but very cautiously. Most of the time though, he moved around in his wheelchair. He is however super-determined to get better and sometimes refuse help during physio sessions. He is aka Carlos because for whatever reason, Anna told us his name was Carlos when we first arrived and we've been calling him with the wrong name for almost a week until we were corrected by one of the nurses. No wonder he seemed to ignore us during the first few days.
6) Jonathan: 4-5 years old. An overall sweet kid but have occasional moments when he would act out and be a little difficult. On one occasion, I had to put him back into his crib because he was being too disruptive during meal time. He also has problems with his legs and can barely walk on his own. He moves around in his wheelchair or a walking frame.
7) Evelyn: 3-4 years old. Mostly unresponsive except when you put a spoonful of food in front of her face and she would open her mouth. However, if you're not paying attention, she would grab her food with her hands and make a big mess. But other than that, she lives in her own little world. The nurses tie her up to her crib until she falls asleep - think because she has a tendency to hurt herself.
I'm not gonna sugarcoat my words - some of these kids are crazy. In the most literal sense of the word. But they're so loving and cute, we couldn't feel frustrated at them for very long. And anyway, it was only for a short 2 weeks - if you think about the nurses and parents that have to take care of them every single day, you'll start seeing things from a different perspective. It is very unfortunate that some of them are abandoned - we are only comforted by the fact that the good people of San Juan de Dios and the endless stream of volunteers (we were never the only volunteers helping out) will keep the kids sufficiently stimulated and help them in some way.