We woke up at 6 this morning to go step grapes at a Bodega. We cleaned our feet then stepped in the grapes the traditional way, in a cement square hole that dripped into another cement square hole. It took a while to figure out how to do it correctly and you had to be careful not to step onto bees (I stepped on and got stung by 2. On each foot). The grapes reached just below our ankles and they kind of irritated your feet. Once we did that for about 20 minutes, they had us switch into a huge cement hole with 5,000 kilos of fresh grapes. We jumped in and immediately were up to our waists. The pile was twice as tall as us and we had to hold ropes so we didn't sink too much. You can only step fresh grapes for about 10 minutes because of all the acid in them. My legs were so red after stepping out. Juan toured us around the Bodega and showed us the next steps in the process. The juice is fermented for either 2 or 11 days. Then they boil it and direct the steam into cold water where it condensates. It comes out at the end as pisco. The workers opened a bottle for us and gave us about a fourth of a shot each. It was really gross and sour.
School went so well today!! Me, Katie, and Nisty brought in a bunch of national geographic magazine and had the kids make collages. It kept them all engaged and in their seats which was nice for a change. We also had a big photo sesh and all the kids kept taking my camera and taking pictures of me and their classmates. They actually turned out really well and some of them were very creative.
After a nice hour long siesta in a hammock looking out at the Andes mountains, everyone trekked up and out of the town to pre-Incan ruins for a beautiful sunset hike. On the way, we tried to walk along a wall in the middle of a corn field but as we were on it, Luke stepped on a loose spot and the wall came tumbling down and he almost got really really hurt. We finally got to the 1600 year old city. It had been destroyed by a landslide. We all sat on the ancient walls and listened to Pepe talk about the history of the culture and why it was beneficial to have the city where it was. As we got up to explore, the first thing we saw was skulls. There were bones strewn about the ruins. The view of the valley was amazing from the mountainside. On our way back, me, Juan, Pepe, and Nisty lagged behind and stopped at another one of Juan's friend's houses. He had a dog that jumped like a kangaroo and I got a great picture of it. The man also ran a villa (where we should stay when we come visit Lunahuana and Catapalla, parents) which was so much nicer than our accommodations.
We ended the day with dinner in the city and we hitchhiked our way there and back.
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