4 days of travelling

This all started out on Tuesday when Jason went back to NC. We went back to el Terminal Terrestre (Ground Terminal) to catch a bus to Tacna, Perú. There were no buses there because of a huge farmers´ strike that began on Sunday, but we found a bus to Arequipa that took a different route and supposedly avoided the strike. A few hours into the trip we realized that the farmers had mobilized to our route as well. We were about 4 hours into the trip, which was only supposed to be 12 hours, when we ran into the farmers. They threw a few rocks at the windows, but all we had to do was turn around. We had to drive all the way back to about an hour outside of Cuzco and take a rickety bridge. We then drove through the desert on some paved and some not paved roads, so the trip took about 16 hours instead of 12. We were in Arequipa for only 45 minutes, so we didn´t have time to stop and see our friends nor eat our beloved Mixtos!

Next was Tacna, about 7 hours away from Arequipa, which was a nice ride through the southern desert of Perú. Not very many people were on the bus so we got two whole seats to ourselves. We watched the whole Beverly Hills Cop series in Spanish, and it was still awful!!! We finally got to Tacna, and stayed for no more than 20 minutes because we took a colectivo to Arica. A colectivo is basically a cab, but it holds five people. The whole journey from Tacna to Arica took about an hour, and the taxista (cabbie) told us that he made about three trips a night. The trip only cost 10 soles or 2000 chilean pesos or $3.30, so we got a really good deal. We went through customs and could barely understand the chilenos. They speak so fast and do not even attempt to speak slower to us when we ask questions or are confused ... so frustrating. That has been our general impression of Chile ... a bit like Americans who don´t like foreigners.

From Arica to Santiago, took about 32 hours including the stops. We met to colombianas (Colombian girls) who were really nice and translated from Chilean Spanish to normal paced Spanish for us. Their Spanish was so clear and easy to understand. I think it´s a general rule that the closer you are to Colombia, the clearer the Spanish is. They have been travelling like us for four days and they are going to Buenos Aires, so we may meet up with them there. The attendant on the bus was a jerk! I can speak good enough Spanish to know that I can understand if someone is speaking clearly. So that was a bust trying to get any help from him.

So we arrived this morning into a huge terminal that was also connected to a mall and a metro station. So we took the metro and missed our stop to the next bus station that was connected to a mall and also a hotel. It is crazy hear because the people look so white and European. Not white like in the States but white like from Spain and Italy.

Now, we´re off to Mendoza, Argentina to meet up with our amiga Sarita Wilkins!!! We´ll be there in about 7 hours, so we´ll be finally staying somewhere for about a week! We´re going out tonight finally!!!!

chau chau

bacterial ulcer

i have a bacterial ulcer in my eye!! i cannot wear contacts for two weeks or drink for a few days to keep my immune system up, but my eye is already feeling tons better after getting some perscriptions. Tonight is our last night in peru because tomorrow were taking an overnight bus to arica, chile. im so pumped to see some different money and some different culture. in chile were going to santiago and maybe a few stops along the way, but were not really sure yet. so by wednesday night were going to be in santiago!!! well stay there for about three days and then were gonig to mendoza, argentina (wine country). we have a friend that is conducting research over there so well get to hang out with her and go out some! the bus ride to chile is going to be in total about 60 hours!!! its gonna be insane, so maybe ill finish reading a book or whatnot! now were going to play some poker and go out for jasons birthday!!!

love love love

MACHU PICCHU!

yesterday we visited Machu Picchu! It was out of this world. We left the hostal at 3:30 in the morning and started hiking the trail around 4. we finally got there around 5 in the morning and were the first ones there!! We didn´t have our tickets bought, so we didn´t actually get to enter the park first. But it was amazing anyways. The tour guide said that this was sort of the spiritual capital of the Incan empire. Only about 500 people lived there and they were probably doctors, priests, virgins, and healers. The mountain is in a strategic location because you can see the whole valley from the city. Pachacutec was the emperor who united all of the groups by force, so he had to have several strongholds. There were no bodies or gold found in Machu Picchu except one woman´s body a little ways from the main part of the city. This leaves archaeologists to believe that the city was abandoned as the Spanish were conquering the heart of the Incan empire. The ruins were not found by the Spaniards, therefore they remain entact. The city was not as much as a beautiful city but a normal Incan city. This is the only example of a city that remains in the world ... that we know of.

We climbed everywhere and climbed places where if we fell, we´d die, but it was SOOO worth it. It´s hard to explain without pictures, so I´ll have to show y´all when we get home!

It is just past noon here, and yesterday was awesome! We bought our tickets for Machu Picchu, which is the most expensive part of the excursion, and it was only $ 62! After that we went to the market to get gifts and treasures. I found some great stuff for some people, but I still have a lot more stuff to get! Everything here is so cheap, so it´s hard to resist getting people presents! Then we went on a tour of the local convent that used to be the main temple of the Incan empire. The Andeans built this amazingly geometrically-sound structure that the conquistadores built a church and convent over. But in the early 1950s there was an earthquake in Cuzco and everything that the catholics built crumbled and all that was left was the structurally sound indigenous building. It makes me wonder to what extent we should travel and impose our culture on others. Around the temple they had tons and tons of gold. 20% went to Queen Isabel of Spain - because she worked so hard for it - and the other 80% went to the catholic priests that took over the temple, so now most of that 80% is in the Vatican ... great job catholicism because that was not was Jesus said to do: take over the world and exploit them and FORCE them to be Christians. Christianity is about liberating people from their problems, not forcing onto them Christianity by creating problems for them. What I don´t get is why it isn´t returned to the people of Perú?? Anyways, I know tons of great Catholics, but Catholicism still eats me up sometimes, but then again the modern Church has become a lot more progressive, so I guess we can only look forward?

Then we went on a 4 hour tour of the ruins around Cuzco: Saqsaywamán, Q´enqo, Pukapukara, and Tambomachay. These ruins were OUTSTANDING! Many times I wondered why he was repeating the same information, and then I realized that he was speaking in both Spanish and English and I was thinking in both!! This is a huge step in becoming fluent!!! We got a little bored of listening to the tour, so we went off and explored a little bit. One time we almost got left! But we caught the bus and everything was great! We also did backflips at the different sites and took some cool pictures, but I still cannot find a way to upload the pics on facebook or anywhere :(

Today we are just hanging in Cuzco and going out tonight! Tomorrow we´re heading onto Pisac and Ollantaytambo, and then to Aguas Calientes for the night (the town closest to Machu Picchu!) We got a tour guide to MP, the Sacred Valley (Pisac & Ollantaytambo), and the tour yesterday all for s/.65.00!!! That´s only $21.66ish!!!

This is going to be a short blog because not much has happened since yesterday. Andrew and I left Arequipa and are now in Cuzco, the capital of the Incan empire. Tomorrow we are going to do a tour of the city including awesome churches and museums. We´re getting our international student cards so that we can get about 1/2 off on just about everything. then the day after we´re visiting saqsaywamán (pronounced like Sexy Woman) and Q´enqo, which are some local cities that have awesome ruins. Then after that we´re visiting Pisac, Urubamba, and Ollantaytambo, which have increasingly better ruins as you get closer to Machu Picchu. Then it´s MACHU PICCHU!! This is going to be one of the highlights of my trip this summer, so i´ll take some great pics. We´re going to leave the town closest to MP at around 3:00 a.m. so that we can be the absolute first people there! We´ll spend the day there with a tour guide showing us the cool facts about MP that aren´t well known. Then we´re back to Cuzco on Sunday for Corpus Christi, a huge Catholic festival that happens once a year on the ninth Sunday after Easter.

love

Today is our last day in Arequipa :( This is the city that we will probably know the most out of all the places we will visit and where we know the most people! We met two girls from England/Australia who took a gap year to go travel before starting university. Then there are two sisters from California that we met as well. Some others from Brittain and Australia. We had the best time goingout with them and going on random adventures in Arequipa.

The past two weeks at the school have been great! We studied fruits in Spanish and in English because I was the teacher for the younger class, so they don´t even speak Spanish proficiently. This week our theme was nature, so the first two days we talked about animals and where they live. We also talked about cleaning our trash because in the community there is not a big hooplah about pollution because of the lack of education about littering. So we got them to clean up the school yard one day. I really wanted to instill in them that this is their school, not ours (the teachers). So on Wednesday and Thursday we talked about plants and the parts of the plants. We made an irrigation out of our conserved water bottles that will provide the deep roots with water. We cut holes in the bottles and then stuck them in the trenches around the plant because the community Flora Tristan is basically in the desert. I tried to ingrain upon them that this is their plant and their responsibility because the way that this school will have a profound effect on the community is by the kids believing that this is their school and their responsibility to take owenership of their community, school, and education. On Fun Friday we painted the big rock outside of the school and painted the little rocks that provided a perimeter around the plant. After that it got out of control and paint got everywhere! On the kids clothes, on their hands, and everywhere. It was fun to see them having the time of their lives, but some of the kids only have one pair of clothing, so we´re going to have to leave some money for them to get some new clothes.

On the contruction side of the school, we completely finished the back wall that separates the school yard from a neighbor´s yard. I got here about two and half weeks ago and the wall was barely started and now it is about 6 feet tall and about 15 yards long. Next they will lay the foundation for the bathroom that will one day have two flush toilets (the only flush toilets in the community) and a sink. Right now there is not running water in the community, so the way they collect water is to wake up from 5-7 a.m. and collect water in huge buckets. We averaged needing about three five gallon buckets of water a day, but we didn´t arrive until around 10 a.m., so Señora Victoria, a mother of one of the students, Estefany, was so kind to fill our buckets up every morning. Parents like this are a huge asset to this community because they can see outside of their individual situations and decide to go the extra mile for the community as a whole. There is always something to be discouraged about, but after just two-and-a-half weeks of working in the community and with this organization, I am filled with encouragement and hope for the people of Flora Tristan because there is such a desire to learn from the older students who realize this opportunity they have. I have older kids who come to my class because I can speak pretty good Spanish compared to the other volunteers, so they understood me. They also said my class was more fun, but I let them stay because there was such a sense of community in the classroom because they would help me with the activities and keeping the littler ones on track. I also got to talk to them individually about what we were learning and take it to the next level of learning. After the lessons, they would come to the board and write down all of the English words we learned for the day.

In the older classes there were also some students who were older than I am. They were they coolest guys ever, all with their own stories. David was 15 years old and had no father ... I don´t know if he passed away or just wasn´t in the picture, but he provided for his mother his sister Carmen, who was the best basketball player for her age that I have ever met, and his other younger sisters. He was a pretty short guy being that he is Peruvian, but he was always around to help out with construction when we were doing something wrong, and always was up for a broken conversation. Then there is Tony who is 20 years old, and who has already spent two years in the army in the jungle fighting "terroristas y narcotraficantes" terrorists and drug traffickers. He learned how to parachute with the army as well! He served from 2007-2008 in the "selva" or jungle. Then there is Richard who is 24 and is a security guard in the walking street Calle Mercaides. He is a bit bashful and always smiles nervously around the girls. We took all of these guys out to dinner one night this week because we wanted to just hang out with them outside of the school setting. We then came back to the house to watch a movie. There is a possibility as the organization grows that they are going to hire tour guides from the school for local trips. This is great incentive to learn English for the kids/young adults so that they have a tangible goal to reach.

Andrew and I ate Mixtos everyday, which an awesome burger! It has lettuce, tomato, a fried egg, french fries, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, and ahí. Ahí is a type of hot thousand island dressing, which made the burger. We ate here everyday and got to know the workers really well!!! Whilton made the best burgers and worked the morning shift. He is studying biomechanical engineering in the afternoon at the local university.

That´s all I can think of now. We´re leaving for Cuzco tonight at 8 p.m. and going to arrive tomorrow morning at 5 a.m.