Primer Viaje parte 2

Ok so second day of the trip starts pretty early and we get in a bus and head back up the mountains. Eventually we get to this place called Colca Canyon where there are condors and it's super gorgeous. On this day it just so happened to be tourist day so there were a ton of people who live in the mountains there selling goods and giving out food and drinks for us to try. The condor isn't always there so we go really lucky when we got to see it a few times flying right by us. What wasn't so lucky is my camera died right before we got there so i could only use my phone to take pictures. After hanging out for a while at this spot we took an hour hike along the canyon which was gorgeous but i got a helluva sunburn which is still here.

From here we ventured on to Arequipa- the white city. Where we got a ton a free time which was nice. We stayed in a hotel which was walking distance to the plaza de armas and we took a few tours while we were there. In the plaza was the government building and a beautiful church which we ended up taking a tour of one day. A few of our other tours were to el convento de Santa Catalina, a llama farm, the mirador de yanahuara, and some famous historic houses.  

the church

the convent

the plaza

mirador 

volcano Misti

llama farm

look out they spit

casa de something

yup i rode a horse. We stopped and you could go to a museum or ride a horse so I chose Marshmallow here. He decided however that it would be fun to take me not to the end point, but to run off with me into the back of the stable thing and a small child had to come rescue me.

After all of these adventures we headed down south even more to a city called Tacna. It's a lot smaller than Arequipa and Lima and is the last real city before you get to Chile. While we were here we also had a bit of free time which i used to go to a black market and buy a really cute purse. There were a few tours that we took here as well to see the city. The main things that are in Tacna are historical sites from this giant war that happened between Chile and Peru which Chile won. I'm pretty sure it was over some land but truthfully i wasn't that interested so i'm not the best person to ask about that. We just saw some houses where some papers were signed and that was all fine and dandy. Besides these places we also went to a train museum, and tried Tacna sour, which is a drink that you can only get in this city. Pisco is a type of alcohol that is made mainly here in Peru but apparently Chile likes to claim it as theirs. Anyway, Pisco sour is like THE alcoholic drink of Peru and the city of Tacna has their own version which we went to go try- with Rotary so it's all good ma. It was pretty good and they didn't make it very strong so it was pretty sweet. Finally we also went to a museum in Tacna where they show old hieroglyphics and where the people used to live. We had to cross this pretty sketchy bridge but it was kinda cool though. I felt like shrek though because it would sway when we walked!

On our second to last day we continued south to Chile. This was mainly to renew our visas but also to see a bit of Chile. We went to a city called Arica and as we walked down the streets we literally ran into a parade! oddly enough a parade of older women dressed as disney characters but we all just kinda jumped in with them and danced and had a really good time. Our tour guide wasn't so happy about the unexpected delay but whatever  it was super fun :)  After that we had an hour to do some shopping on the streets but everything in Chile is a lot more expensive than in Peru. We also went to a museum there where we saw 300 mummies! (speaking of, I forgot that in Arequipa we saw the mummy Juanita that was found on the mountain where she was sacrificed by the incans-i believe- and her body froze into a mummy.) While we were headed back to the bus to go home I ended up slipping next to a fountain and hitting my head on the fountain and the ground. That was a greeeeeaaaattt time. So i headed off to the hospital and got a ginormous shot of pain killers in my arm and some motrin and pain pills to take for three days. I mostly stayed in bed for our final day of viaje where everyone else had free time but it was ok with me, i was suuupppeeerrr tired. The next day we packed up all of our stuff and headed home :)  A pretty successful first trip if i do say so myself.

Primer Viaje

So here comes a long one after not writing for quite a while. So let's begin September 26th, at 6 in the morning I got on a flight to Arequipa which is a city in the south of Peru. I ended up sitting next to a little girl named Gabriella Alexandra and after watching her set up all of her dolls on her tray in front of her she offered me a little peruvian candy thing and from that moment on I knew that  I wasn't going to be sleeping like I had planned. She was so cute and told me her whole life story as she brushed her dolls hair and asked me to say things in American. At the end of the flight she gave me a huuuge hug and wished me good luck on my trip.

so that was  a sweet way to start off my trip. Ok so from there we drove for quite some time up into the mountains. It was cool to see how different Arequipa and the south of Peru is different from Lima and the north. It definitely seemed like the people were poorer and that a big part of how they made their living was from the tourists that come through. 

Despite how this looks, this is actually a bag of coca leaves. These are chewed while you are climbing altitude to help relieve stomach and head pains. It tastes literally like you're chewing a leaf and the best way to do it is fold it into a little square and just kind of bite it and not actually chew. That way it doesn't break apart and you don't accidentally swallow it. You can also eat lemon flavored candies and those help with stomach aches too, and they taste a lot better than leaves. Later on as you continue to climb the mountain you can stop at various spots and drink mate de coca which is tea made from the coca leaves.  It tastes basically the same as the leaves but i put sugar in it to make it taste better. So our first hotel was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It was stuck in this little valley in the mountains and totally secluded. It's kind of set up like a motel but so much prettier. Theres a little fire pit in the middle of all of the rooms overlooking the river and we had a fire one night but it was veerrrryyyy cold. Also at the hotel was a private alpaca farm and hot springs! They were so cool and when we got free time it was great to go hang out at those places.  

I think this is all i will do for now but I'll continue probably tomorrow in another post :) 

Algunos Pensamientos

It's been quite a while since I've written anything so I thought I'd just write down a few things that have been going on and random stuff sooo enjoy....

-You have to turn on and off the hot water

-Mistura is a giant food festival here that apparently is really cool but I didn't make it

-Yo Soy, Combate, y Esto es Guerra are the major shows here; yo soy is a singer imitator competition and the other two are basically the same just physical competition shows but people love one and hate the other (i was in the audience for Esto es Guerra)

-People ride around on bike carts selling ice cream and bread

-Snapping at waiters is acceptable here

-Karaoke is very Peruvian

-There is workout equipment in parks

-Before military school nearly every day there is "formation" which is super boring

-It really sucks when you forget who people are but they always say hi to you

-Blackberries are the most popular phone

-I got a higher grade on my physics test than some of the real students!!

-Spanglish is starting to be my primary language of thought rather than english so progress

-Being on exchange kind of makes you crazy because you realize you will never see these people again so you can do what you want

-We played jump rope with a broken garden hose at gym today

- There was a mass during formation last week 

-I think I'm going to ask someone about their religion tomorrow

-I eat for breakfast a pear and special k cereal (it's kinda different) snack during school a "sandwich" (bread and american cheese) and a cereal bar, when i get home at 4 something like a piece of chicken, rice, and vegetables and then for dinner either left overs or a tortilla (omelet type thing with tuna) or some bread or something. 

And i think that's it for now :)