"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.


Today we visited Raul's hometown of Chinchero, where he was born and raised. A quaint town in the Andes. Home to the center for traditional textiles where both his Mom and Grandma works. It is a place where women weave the finest clothes, socks, hats, scarves, you name it, in order to preserve the designs of the Incan culture. There were all different kinds of women, young and old, but with the same thing in common, preserving a culture. We watched them weave for awhile and we had a tour of how they make the yarn from alpaca wool to the dying of the wool to make beautiful colors. After our tour and walking around for a bit, we all got to try weaving ourselves. It was really hard to catch on to at first, and my helper laughed at me often, but then I started to get the hang of it and probably sat there weaving for a good hour. We got to keep our design. Sitting there, weaving with women who have done this their entire life was a humbling experience. To be immersed in such a crtical part of Peruvian history and culture was a gift.

After weaving, we went to Raul's aunt's house for lunch right across from the textiles center. I tried guinea pig for the first time. They brought it out on a plate. The entire guinea pig - full body picture. If I hadn't have seen that, it probably would have made it taste a little better. However, since I saw a childhood pet in front of me on a platter, it didn't taste as good as I would have hoped. After lunch, we toured Chinchero, visited the town square and the church that Raul was brought up in. It was beautiful perched in the Andes looking over Inca ruins.

We then toured Moray ruins which was yet another intricate Incan design of architecture. We then drove past the Salineras salt complex where there were buckets full of salt as far as the eye could see. Pretty cool.

Tomorrow we are off to Macchu Picchu. As Raul calls it - the new eighth wonder of the world. We will be arriving by train and will be there for three days so I won't have access to a computer. But don't worry, I will take pictures and soak it all in so I can tell you about it when we return. I can't believe we are finally going to Macchu Picchu tomorrow. It's been two years and counting.


Traci

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