Stories:

Sexy Woman in Cuzco?

When we were in Cuzco, we toured many places in and around the city. We kept hearing a great place to visit called “Sexy Woman”. Of coarse Terry was interested in seeing this place right away but Alison had her doubts. We found later that there was an old Incan Ruin called “Sacsayhuaman” which is Quecha for fortress. It is pronounced the same as the words “sexy woman” in English. We visited the ruin and found no beautiful women, just rocks.

The Sauna that was just too hot !!

We decided to do some white water rafting while we were in Cuzco. The company that we went with fitted us up with full body wet suits because the water temperature is so cold that high up in the mountains. The river was good but we were really cold after the trip. The company also had a small sauna that they encouraged everyone to get into. We got in first but after about 3 minutes there were about 30 people in the eight foot by eight foot space. The last people to come in where a few skinny German guys who each weighed about 80 lbs and were wearing either Speedos or their “tighty whitey” underwear. Their “packages” got to about 12 inches in front of our faces and we were out of there.

Alex and his clay cow penis:

Alison ran a “play doe” craft day at the Aldea Rosario Orphanage. She made the homemade salt doe and took it out for the kids to inspire some creativity. There were an array of colors and each child received a small amount of the clay to make what ever they wished. About 15 minutes into the exercise, Alison spotted little Alex laughing in the corner. She went to see what was going on and he quickly turned around shouting “Look Señorita, a cow penis !!!!” and he showed her the phallic sculpture that he had made. Alison, holding back her laughter, asked him to make something else. She then returned to check on him, he showed her his new work of art and shouted, “Look, a little cow penis!!!!” This time, she broke out in laughter.

Making out:

At the special needs school where Terry works, they have recess from 10:00 am until about 11:10 am followed by lunch. As if this wasn’t strange enough, the teachers are no where to be seen during this time period. On his third day at the school, Terry decided to go out and see what the kids were up to. He walked the playground observing. When he got to the “jungle jim”, he noticed that there were two little kids with Downs’s syndrome embraced in a passionate kiss. The little girl and boy were probably 8 years old and they were going at it seriously. Terry went over to pull them apart and they saw him coming. The little boy took the little girl’s hand and they fled the scene. It looked like something out of the musical “Westside Story”

We are not mountain climbers:

In the last week in May, we decided to take another trip up Huaytapallana, the snow mountain 5,500 meters above sea level. This time, Tino was our guide and we had beautiful weather. It was still very cold and we were bundled in all of our “gear”, our back packs and our worn out tennis shoes. We made it all of the way to the glacier and decided that we would try to climb the face with Tino. It was pretty good for the first part. We walked up the snow until it got steep. Alison decided to call it quits but Terry and Tino kept on going using a rope to get up the mountain. About 300 feet up, Terry lost his footing and the rope. He slid all 300 feet down the glacier, first backwards on his feet, and then on his butt. Alison got to watch the whole thing. Terry was heading for a dip in the glacier that looked like it could be a crevice. The whole time she shouted “Stop, you are heading for a hole!!!” Terry shouted back “I can’t , I can’t !!!” and he slid into the hole. Luckily it was safe and he climbed out. We got off the glacier as quick as we could after that.

Turning sand into gravel:

Due to the extreme rain, coldness, and heat, we decided that it would be best to use gravel for the ground cover for the Playground Project at the Fransisca Mayer orphanage. We asked one of the builders, “Chino”, if he could help us out finding a place to get gravel. He said he knew just the guy. The next day, Chino said that he needed to give his friend a deposit of S/.200 soles to get the rocks. When we asked him where the store was to buy the gravel and he said “Why, the river of coarse.” He didn’t mean that the store was by the river but that the gravel was at the bottom. The next day, Chino’s friend returned with a dump truck full of wet sand. He dumped it about 200 yards away from our site and left. We (Alison and I) spent the next four days separating gravel from sand and hauling it to the playground. We could feel anything from the neck down for a few days after.