From the beaches of Brazil I landed with my flip-flops in another marvelous land, high in the Andes...
where the mountains are your natural surrounding, 20 minutes away from the main square (on foot).
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Where even the main square fills your eyes with beauty...
no matter if it's night or day, rainy or sunny.
A world, where the markets look like this:
A world, where when you sprain your ankle instead of going to a pharmacy you will search for the mamita in the market to put a herbal on, which cures as a magic.
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a world where the baby "carriage" is a bundle on your back.
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and the streets are narrow and steep.
Where the kids are free...
even when they grow up...
A world, which smiled at me with the face of Yuri, an incredible person, managing more than 15 years a social project, where I participated with love. The project Aldea Yanapay, which actually brought me in Peru.
The project is an after-school program for children from 5 to 16 years old, which provide them... well, a counterpoint in life. It is not only about helping with homeworks, playing with them or giving them milk. Aldea Yanapay is a colourful world, but a hard-working place as well. What we are trying to do there is to show them good manners, a responsible attitude of mind and tolerance. Volunteers are working in 5 different classrooms - games, computer science, art, homework and library, while the coordinators are managing the kids flow extremely carefully and precisely. After 2 hours of work, we have a circle of expression where Yuri brings up an important topic to the kids and where they are learning to control their emotions and express their opinion. After the circle time each volunteer goes to his family (a small group of children you are responsible for), where every week a task to accomplish is there to challenge us. Inca mytholoy, the world religions or talks about the violence many of the children experience in school and at home - topics, we had to work upon in a language approachable and intelligible for them. Usually, while having fun... :)
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We have our moments of glory out of the classrooms as well. Peruvian people love manifestations, so several time we participated disguised too.
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Hostel Magico, sustaining the project, opened its magic doors for me and in exchange of some work I stayed there for free for 5 weeks.
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It was a community life but a nice one. Several time we, volunteers, made motor trips to amazing places around Cuzco.
That is where I met her - Nicole, my closest friend in Cusco and a true one in life.
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Soon, I realized that I am bankrupted, my credit card totally empty, so I left the project in necessity to work against payment, couldn't stay in Hostel Magico anymore and moved in the cheapest hostel in the town where happily lived with all drug dealers, rastas, prostitutes and street-vendors.
 as usual i am trying to make ambiance :) |  a fan of leaves blowing over the must above. ya, well... :) |
Had a rat as a friend on the roof that sometimes woke me up in the night and it was so damn cold inside my room so that I was sunbathing on the rooftop as much as i could during the day.
 my room with the opened door from the rooftop |  Juan, a cheerful artesian, one of my hostel-mates. |
There were people who crossed my life.
 like some gorgeous colombian indians |  or cheeky mexicans with their dogs... |
Some of them I felt like brothers and sisters, sharing the mountains, our breakfasts in the mornings and our rum in the freezing nights...
 Juan and Andrea from Argentina |  Jose from Chile |
Some I re-encounter, like Elman, the Peruvian musician from Pipa village in Brazil, who indirectly affected my decision to come to Peru or like Vicente, a dear friend from Rio, who offered not only his couch for me in my first weeks in Rio but his friendship as well. Strangely enough, I even met a nice Bulgarian girl to make my daily mixture of languages more complicated for my brain :)
 Elman, the Peruvian musician I know from Brazil, who in Cuzco was the Brazilian musician from Peru. |  Elena, who I immediately merged with my Cusquenian friends. |
Vicente, with who I made loads of photos before he lost his camera and only this one proves his visit.
And some of them are just too special, a daily part of my life, who I silently and brotherly love.
Naser
Nicole
 Agustin |  Colo, whose real name is Juan but even his mother doesn't remember this :) |
And all that music during the nights...
that before it is practised by the guys at home....
Piero, Naser , Showy and Agustin
Oh, the story of our beautiful home. Briefly as possible:
He was just a nice sexcapade one afternoon. Then second. And then one night. Then second. When one Monday at 2 o'clock in the morning, down-hearted from a stupid story I called him and nestled in his arms. Since then we never separated. In three weeks we were already living together in a charming house in Jardines del Inca, K2 de San Blas, Cuzco. And of course, we took Nicole with us.
He was just a nice sexcapade one afternoon. Then second. And then one night. Then second. When one Monday at 2 o'clock in the morning, down-hearted from a stupid story I called him and nestled in his arms. Since then we never separated. In three weeks we were already living together in a charming house in Jardines del Inca, K2 de San Blas, Cuzco. And of course, we took Nicole with us.
If someone is interested who finally succeeded to bend me after a three-yeared happy single life, his name is Piero Epifanía. A Peruvian boy with wondrously Arabo-Turkish features with Italian name and Greek surname met a Bulgarian girl, a filha de português, who all the town is calling la brasileña.
Life is a mixture of wonders. And I will drink this one until the end.
