Machu Picchu!

Happy Christmas from Peru! We got back from our amazing trip to Machu Picchu just in time for Christmas :) But first, Machu Picchu....

We spent Sunday getting ready for the trip buying supplies and snacks and packing. Around 4:30 am we got picked up by a bus that took us 2 hours away to Mollepata where we ate breakfast and began our trek. The whole day ran about 9-5 with a lunch about half way. The first day of hiking was pretty tough since I'm not very experienced but we got through it. It was hot when we started, then it started to rain, and by the time we got to camp which was 3850 meters above sea level it was freezing cold. We had a few beers and some dinner by candlelight (no electricity!) and passed out in our freezing cold tents.


The next day we woke up at 5am, had breakfast, and packed our things to start the hardest part of our 5 day trek. We headed out at 7am and hiked up a mountain called Umantay, next to Apu Salkantay which is a tall snow capped mountain. After about 2 hours of huffing and puffing uphill (and maybe thinking about calling it quits), we made it to the highest point of the trek, 4600 meters above sea level. It was absolutely beautiful up there with amazing views of the snow capped mountains. Some of our group saw an avalanche on the Salkantay mountain, but I only heard it. At the top here, we had a little ceremony where we offered rocks and coca leaves to "Pachamama" (mother earth). Then we started our long, long descent down the mountain towards our lunch spot. It was foggy/misty and started pouring rain and didn't stop until we reached our resting point. Everyone was soaked to the bone and freezing. After a much appreciated hot lunch we continued towards our camp. It took another 3-4 hours to get there but it was beautiful and mind-blowing. In the morning we had been in winter-like conditions, and a few hours later we were hiking through the jungle. There were tons of trees and plants and waterfalls and great views of the river below. The downhill was hurting our knees but we finally made it to our camp which was WARM---an amazing feeling after freezing our butts off the night before and all that morning. We had dinner as usual...soup followed by rice and meat and tea...then fell asleep in our tents.

The next day was our friend Caroline's 23rd birthday and our wonderful cooks made her a birthday cake for breakfast. We started our hike early in the morning again through the jungle, over rivers and past waterfalls. We were all grateful to spend some of our hike on a flat road since our legs were so sore from the up & down the day before. We got to cross a river in a cable car which was exciting...until it broke while one of the guys was in it! Nobody got hurt and we were able to fix it and get everyone across, but it was a little scary. As if that wasn't enough, we encountered a huge rock slide shortly after and had to cross it! It was a little unstable so I was a little freaked out but we all made it across! Later we stopped for lunch at a place that had a nice little store where we were able to buy flip flops (so tired of wearing our hiking boots all the time, even at camp) and fresh dry socks. Then, we got on a bus that took us to our next camping place in Santa Teresa. After setting up our own tents, we put on our bathing suits and headed to the hot springs. After 3 days of hiking, these hot springs were the very best thing in the world. The hot water felt amazing on our sore bods. We spent a few hours in them relaxing, then goofing around with my waterproof camera. Before we left we were able to take a SHOWER, which was the highlight of my day for sure. That night we had our usual dinner and then the staff built an awesome bonfire. We sat around it, had a few drinks and danced a little bit. It was an awesome way to celebrate Caroline's birthday. However, in our drunken stupors we left some of our clothes outside of the tent to get rained on all night. Not exactly fun to wake up to, but oh well!

Hot springs!

Fun with my underwater camera :)

On Thursday we were lucky enough to get to sleep in until 7am! We were excited to take a bus for the first half of our trek, but there had been a big rock slide (yet again) so we had to walk. We had to cross the river in another cable car, which broke AGAIN. But, a little Peruvian man was able to climb out and fix it so we got across. After about an hour of walking some of us opted to hop in a bus and take it to our next lunch spot. The views on the bus were awesome and the man drove like a maniac, but we were all pumped about having a break. We had a little bit of lunch and then had to wait for the rest of our group. There was an empty train on the tracks because they weren't running that day, so we broke into one of the cars and took a little nap while we waited. After lunch, we walked along the train tracks towards Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of the mountain where Machu Picchu is. It was another long day and once it started raining I was pretty much over walking. We finally made it to our HOSTEL where we were able to shower and relax for a little while. Never have I ever been so excited to be indoors, in a bed, with a hot shower. Putting on scented lotion was the best feeling ever. We got to have dinner at a decent restaurant and then bought some snacks for the following day. We were all asleep in our BEDS by 10:00pm because wake up the next day was at 4am.

So, at 4:00am we got up, packed our things, and started our final trek to Machu Picchu! I was tired and groggy and the weather was crappy again, so hiking up hundreds of stairs was the last thing I wanted to be doing. We got to the site a little after 6:00am and had a 2 hour guided tour. As excited as I was to be there and to see one of the 7 Wonders of the World, it was raining, freezing, and I was exhausted...so the tour was a little bit miserable.

So thrilled!

After the tour, all anybody wanted was some hot coffee and to warm up a little bit, so that's what we did. We had all paid to hike Huaynapicchu, which is a tall, steep mountain behind Machu Picchu that has amazing views, but I was being a debby downer and wasn't feeling it. BUT, my friends were all doing it and gave me some much needed encouragement. So at 10:00 we started our hike up this mountain. Words cannot describe the intensity of this hike. It wasn't that it was very difficult, but it was so insanely steep and the rocks were wet and slippery that I was scared out of my mind, so my nerves were fried. There were some parts that you had to hold onto a rope otherwise you would have fallen off the cliff that was 1 foot away from you. We took our time, but finally made it to the top and found our friends. We hung out up there on a big rock for a while taking pictures and messing around. We found a great spot for a group picture with a view of the ruins.

Then it came time for the hike down. I knew it was going to be scary because I saw the way up, but I was definitely not prepared for the first bit of it. It was so steep and slippery that I crab walked my way down the first part of it. I'm fairly certain that if I hadn't been on all 4s that I would have either fallen off and died, or had a heart attack and died. But, the kind Aussie/Kiwi/British guys behind me kept encouraging me so I finally made it and got my cool Huaynapicchu stamp on my passport (got a Machu Picchu one too!). I was all set after this, but Maggie & Caroline wanted to go to the watch tower where the "postcard views" of the ruins are so I forced myself to tag along and I am so glad I did. The rain had stopped and the sun came out and the views were literally breathtaking. We got tons of great pictures (on Caroline's camera because mine died by then) and sat there just taking it all in for a while. It was very much worth the extra pain in my legs, glutes, and feet! Then the 3 of us hiked back down the stairs (my least favorite part of the day) and found a restaurant in which I consumed an entire pizza and a good amount of rum as a reward for surviving all 5 days! Then all of us got on the train to come home. We were in the same car as some of the cool people we had met on the mountain so we shared our rum and yelled across the train car like the obnoxious Americans that we are. It was great fun. We finally got home around 10:00 to our amazing Arcopata house with hot showers and big cozy beds.

Overall, it was an absolutely amazing trip. It was so challenging both physically and mentally, so I'm incredibly proud of myself for getting through it without too much complaint (well, until the last day). I love every single person that was on the trip with me. Those are 5 days I will never forget. Machu Picchu is a sight to be seen and I can't wait to show it to Ben, Jerry, Deb and whoever else visits me! But maybe we won't do the Salkantay trip next time...

I tried uploading a bunch of pictures and after 24 hours it still didn't work, so I will do that later!

"My teacher is the best"

I'm starting to fail at keeping up with this blog! After this week I swear I'll be better.

This past week was my last week of TEFL! I taught my own class every day from 8:00-9:00am. It went really well every single day! I only had 1 student the first day which was rough, but the rest of the week I had 3. They were a great group and I wish they were still mine! I taught them comparatives, superlatives, adverbs of frequency, some vocabulary, and played jeopardy at the end of the week. It was a blast. The goal of teaching ESL is getting the students to speak in full sentences, and one of the highlights of the week was my student Milagros producing the sentence "My teacher is the best". It was awesome. I actually was lucky enough to see her out several times at the bars this weekend and she was so excited to see me every time. I love teaching!

In between lesson planning, writing a professional development paper, and putting together my portfolio we did manage to have some fun this week and finally hiked Viva, a BIG mountain that says "Viva El Peru" on it. It's a pretty steep, rocky hike, but it was amazing. There was sadly a decent amount of trash on the way up so we got a bag and started cleaning some of it up. A little deposit in the Bank of Karma if you will. We decided to bring a trash bag every time we hike now. Anyway, the view was amazing. I got to watch a plane take off from the tiny Cusco Airport which was really cool. Of the 30 pictures I took on the hike, at least half are of the dogs that were wandering the mountain. Some of them were so freaking cute. My obsession with the street dogs is becoming a problem. I want to save them all!

Friday was the big day, our last day of TEFL. After teaching, we had class for a bit and then had to finish up some work. Then it was time to celebrate! We had a few drinks at the house to unwind and then met our whole class and our instructor at a bar/restaurant called Muse. The food was delicious and the drinks were obviously flowing. We eventually moved to one of our usual bars, instructor included, to dance the night away. Eventually we met up with our housemates and friends from the other house. Lots of fun and dancing, and I even got to see the sunrise over the mountains! It was amazing.

Saturday was a recovery day, but we still had enough energy to hike up to Cristo Blanco and take some awesome pictures. At 8:00 that night we had our TEFL party at Maximo. Free drinks, free food, and a little ceremony where they hand us our certificates. I got some GREAT news at the party...the director of Maximo came up to Maggie and I and told us that he wants to talk with us next week about working there! So it looks like we have jobs! And we found a place to live in an apartment with other teachers because 2 of them are moving out. Everything is falling into place...yay! After the party we went to the bars to cause the usual ruckus. More dancing on the bar & such. We only stayed out until 5am this time (seriously, who am i?) and got our faces painted!! It was fantastic! Slept for a few hours and then woke up to run errands and get ready for our trek to Machu Picchu that starts in 5 hours! Ahh! It's going to be amazing. There are 8 of us from my TEFL class going. Will take LOTS and lots of pictures :)

Hope everyone has a good week and is getting ready for Christmas! Wish I could celebrate with all my friends & family! Love<3

PS. I'll add pictures to this post when I get back, the internet is too slow today.

JUMP! JUMP! JUMP!

Oh what a weekend I have had since my last post! I hardly slept Thursday night because I had a paper due and had to teach in the morning. So, I was up until 1am, slept until 4:30, finished my lesson, then slept again from 5:30-7. My lesson on Friday went well. Afterwards a few of us grabbed lunch at our favorite vegetarian place where you get soup, 2 veggie dishes, salad bar, and tea for 4.5 soles (which is about $2)...ridiculous. On the way home in the afternoon my housemate Maggie suggested grabbing a bottle of rum so we could have a little toast to our crazy week being over. Of course that turned into us and 2 other girls in the house sitting around at 4pm killing the bottle of rum. Yes, we got drunk, but we also had some really amazing conversations about some crazy stuff. It blows my mind how you can form such strong bonds with people you know for only a few weeks. By next week 2 of these girls will be back in the States but we´ve all already planned to visit once we´re all home. Anyway, we went over to the San Pedro house later that night and had some rooftop cocktails. We eventually went to the bar, and on our way to another bar we got caught in a downpour, so I hopped in a cab with 2 of my housemates and called it a night.

Saturday was a lazy day again on the couch watching Lost and stuff. We went and paid for our Machu Picchu trip (shout out to Mom & Terry for being the BEST parents and paying for my trip as my Christmas present---amazing!) Then we went to a bar called Paddy´s Pub to watch the Real Madrid/Barca soccer game. 6 of us crowded around one table and ordered so much food and so many beers that there was no room on the table. Nachos, wontons, curry, quesadillas. So.Much.Food. It was amazing to have some good old fashioned bar food though. Then it was home to shower & back out again. My housemate Caroline wanted to check out a live Cuban Salsa band so we did that for a while. They were great and the salsa dancers were phenomenal. We ended up calling it an early night and coming home to just sit around and chill while one housemate played the guitar. It was a solid night.

Sunday was the highlite of the weekend. We had been talking about bungee jumping for a while and we were planning on doing it this weekend. Waking up hungover though, I wasn´t so sure if I´d join. But, our friend called and was buying tickets so I told him to buy me one, and then I had no choice. We took 2 taxis about 20 minutes outside the city and pulled up to this little spot right between 2 mountains. There was a tiny little cage hanging in the sky on some cables that ran from one mountain to the other. Obviously now is when I started shitting myself. We signed our lives away on a release form and did some stretches and ran 2 laps to warm up. One of the guys went first and I was getting so nervous so I jumped up and went second. They strap you into 2 harnesses, some leg contraptions, put a thing around your neck. Then, they attach you to the bungee and you get into the tiny yellow cage, and up up up you go. I was holding on for dear life, forcing the Peruvian man operating the thing to talk to me so I didn´t panic. He told me what to do, I asked him a million questions, and finally we were at the top and he was telling me to step out onto the platform and lean forward. So I did. And then I stood there for AT LEAST 6 minutes telling him not to let go yet. HA! But finally I was ready, and he counted to 3, and off I went. The only thing I remember is screaming until I lost my voice, then getting jerked back up in the air and holding onto the harness for dear life. Got a little whiplash & was seeing stars, but absolutely nothing can describe the feeling of realizing "holy balls, I just jumped off a platform 122 meters in the air". When I finally got to the ground and stood up, my legs were shaking uncontrollably and all the guys were laughing at me, but whatever, I did it! Hugs and high fives all around! I couldn´t have asked for a better group of people to share that experience with. We all took a bunch of pictures and cheered each other on and hugged and laughed and it was just amazing. We obviously felt on top of the world after that, and in need of a beer. So we went to our former housemate´s hostel up the street, had some beers and played some pool. Then it was time to go home for dinner and to write my lesson for today.

The crew, Pre jump!

Suiting up/trying not to piss myself

Flyinggg!

We did it!! Rockin our free t-shirts

Post Jump

The lesson didn´t go as well as I hoped. I only had 1 student show up so all of the pair/group work I had planned went down the drain and I had to improvise a little. I don´t think I did the best job as I wasn´t on my A-game after waking up to no hot water (aka no shower) and no coffee. But it was just Day 1 and the week can only get better from here.

Love & miss everyone, especially around Christmas time! Will add pics later today :)

Muggings & falafal!

As of tomorrow, I officially only have one more week of TEFL! It absolutely flew by. This week has gotten a little crazy with all the work, but it will be worth it in the end when I can send out my actual certificate with my CV (resume) and get myself a job! Love it!

Let's see, last time I posted was about my first Cusco nightlife experience. Naturally that turned into us going out every night, or at least staying in with a few beers and some card games. Friday night was another night on the town bar-hopping. I naturally was one of the last ones out at the bar and ended up waking home with my housemate around 3am and...dun dun dun...I got mugged! Yes, mugged. Stumbling up the street, a little Peruvian man jumped out of his car, snatched my purse off my shoulders, hopped back in the car and drove away! Needless to say I was a little shaken up, but thank God I was with the one housemate who is a guy! I can only imagine what would've happened if I had been alone or with another girl. But I got home safe, and they only got my debit card & chapstick...no money. So HA!
Saturday I woke up with a University of Delaware hangover and spent most of the day recovering on the couch with my housemates watching Lost on DVD. That turned into drinking beers and more sitting on the couch all night. How could I forget! I went to a Peruvian soccer game!

Sunday was homework day.
Monday I taught a lesson on vocabulary and did really well :-) We ended up going out again that night because we knew this week would be a tough one. My housemates Maggie, Thorin & I ended up staying out a littttle later than planned and ended up at this really funky bar called Mama Africa

Housemate got his face painted! haaa

Tuesday I was exhausted, but 3 of my housemates, Caroline, Michael, and Thor wanted to go on a hike so I couldn't resist. We headed up to Cristo Blanco (again) and even though it started raining the boys pushed us on. An adorable psychotic little pitbull mix led us the whole way which was obviously the highlite for me. The city was beautiful at night so I was really glad we decided to keep going. On the walk down we ended up finding a little ledge overlooking a school and the whole city and sitting there shooting the shit with a little vodka. I'm absolutely loving hanging out with people from other countries or even other parts of the US and getting to know them. I feel like I've lived such a sheltered life on the East Coast and I'm finally opening up my mind to the rest of the world. It's awesome.

Jesus

Caroline & I

Thorin & Michael

Our guide dog :-)

This week I had to observe 3 one hour classes, teach 2 mini lessons, and write a 3-5 page paper plus 3 lesson plans...and almost all of it is due tomorrow! Lots and lots of work but after 4 years of partying too hard I've finally figured out the perfect balance of work & fun. Hence why I've been in front of the computer for 8 hours writing, and writing, and lesson planning, and writing some more. BOO.

Thank God tomorrow is the weekend! We're either going white water rafting or bungee jumping on Saturday. I'm pretty pumped. We're also booking our trip to Machu Picchu tomorrow! There's 10 of us from my TEFL class going together which is going to be absolutely amazing. We have such a fun, funny group of people. We're not doing the Inka Trail, I'm saving that for when Ben comes. We're doing an alternative route called Salkantay. Horses carry our stuff the whole way and we have a guide and a few cooks. We'll be sleeping in tents for 3 of the nights and a hostel on the 4th. We get to go in some hot springs and see some other cool stuff along the way. We scheduled it for Dec 19th-23rd, so it's my Christmas present to myself! Afterwards most of us are going to stay in Cusco through the holidays so we'll celebrate together in our own little Peruvian way!

Off to get some sleep before my lesson tomorrow. Love & miss everyone!

"Don't worry, I have money in my shoes"

I survived my first night OUT in Cusco. And I did it big. I had only been out for a few beers here or there, so when everybody in my TEFL class AND my house wanted to drink and go dancing, I knew it was time. After dinner, most of my housemates and I walked to another "family house" in San Pedro (a few blocks away) and we had a little pregame on their 4th floor roof overlooking the city. It was awesome until it started raining and we had to go inside. The coolest part about it was the group of people we had there: Canadians, Australians, British, Russian, Dutch, and us Americans. So many accents! And everyone is absolutely awesome and fun and just down to have a good time. Eventually, some of us made our way to the Plaza de Armas where most of the bars/clubs are. On the way there, our newest housemate Thorin, who's from the Yukon, was super protective and didn't want us to be farther than 5 feet apart. It was funny but sweet. He also came out with the best quote of the night: "You guys, don't worry. If anything happens I have a lot of money in my shoes". It was hilarious. Anyway, shit got crazy when we got to the Plaza. A pack of about 7-10 Peruvian guys swarmed our group trying to get us to go to the club they work for, handing us tons and tons of free drink tickets. I mean one of our guys got 7 for one bar alone. Ridiculous. So we finally make it into InkaTeam and find our classmate Andrea salsa dancing the night away with a tiny little Peruvian who could mooovve. We got our free drinks and started dancing around, and eventually moved next door to Mythology. There was a bigger tourist crowd here. I had my first dancing on the bar experience, which was fun until the bartender poured a shot in my mouth. It tasted like ass, and it was time to get back on solid ground. I made friends with a little Israeli chick and danced around with her a bunch. We bounced around to a few other clubs/bars and eventually ended up back at InkaTeam. None of us paid for a drink all night because of all the free drink tickets and we literally never stopped dancing. Naturally, by 1 or 1:30 my brain told me it was time to leave because I've lived in Delaware for 4 years and the bars close at 12:45. But, have no fear, I stayed out until around 3 AND even stayed up to watch a movie when we got home because I was too drunk to sleep. The sun was up when I went to bed. Needless to say, I slept for a better part of the day. I feel great now and am ready to do it again tonight! I'll post pictures once my housemate e-mails them to me!

White Jesus

This week is grammar week in TEFL class. For native English speakers, we all suck at grammar. We spent 1-2 hours alone on verb tenses today. After 5 hours of that crap my brain was fried. SO, my housemate and I went for a little hike up to Cristo Blanco (literally: white christ). It rained on us for about 10 minutes, and we saw a million more dogs on the way. The good news is that we survived the hike, the bad news is that I forgot my camera so I'm posting a picture from Google.

 

It wasn't sunny, and I certainly didn't have a view this beautiful, but this is where I went! At least now I have an excuse to go again in better weather and WITH my camera.Off to do some work. Happy Hump Day friends!

Doggie Dog World

The best/worst thing about Cusco is that there are tons and tons of dogs roaming the streets. This is the best because obviously I love all animals and I love to see their cute little faces; especially the two labs I see every day who are ALWAYS together. They are best friends and it's precious. This is the worst because, well, they're homeless. It breaks my heart that I can't bring them all to my house and bathe them(bath? bathe? shit...how am I going to teach English?) and feed them and love them. It's a catch 22. My dream come true/worst nightmare happened today. While my housemate and I were Christmas shopping at the market, a cute little pup started following us around. We figured he'd stay behind once we left the market, but one of us must have been giving off the "animal lover" vibe (who could that have been?) because he followed us out . And then he followed us all throughout the next market. And then he followed us all the way home, stopping to wait outside the laundry place to see if mine was done. And THEN, an hour later when we left our house again to pick up my laundry, he was waiting outside the gate on the sidewalk. This poor little nugget just wanted to come home with us and be ours forever! He's like a puppy soul mate! I could see him through the window while I was doing my homework and my little heart was breaking. I'm pretty sure he's still out there right now and there's nothing I can do about it because I can't bring him into the house I'm living in, and there are no animal shelters nearby. I Googled it. So, as productive as today was, this whole thing really bummed me out. If he's out there tomorrow morning when I leave for class, I'm dedicating my whole day to finding a home or a shelter for him. The little nug is obviously new to the "street dog" life and I would forever feel guilty if he didn't survive because I didn't take him in. So that was my day. I took a picture of him when he first started following us, before I knew that he was going to make me sad. Here he is, the little nug himself:

 

This post is dedicated to my fluff nugget Maggie. Mom, give her a hug and take her for a walk today!

Lake Titicaca!

First, let me start by saying that I miss living near the water. Lake Titicaca looks more like an ocean, and it definitely made me a little homesick for the Atlantic…and toilet seats.

SO, I got picked up at 9:20 at my house and taken to the bus station. Our bus left at 10:00 and was due into Puno at 4:00am. Most of us got “first class” seats, which were nice big seats on the bottom of the bus that reclined and everything. After staying up having a few drinks and talking to the girls in my class/on the trip, we all eventually fell asleep. We had a false alarm when the bus stopped at 4:00am….we were dropping off another passenger and still had an hour ago. When we finally made it to Puno around 5:00am, we were taken to a hotel where we had about 2 hours to nap before we took off again. After a light breakfast, we took these ridiculous little pedi cabs to the port to catch our boat. 

Caroline & I on our sweet pedi cab

We had a short ride to the first Island of Uros, also called the “floating islands”.  The Uru people are pre-Incan and literally live on 64 floating islands that they make themselves out of the roots of reeds that grow in the water. It’s something you can’t believe or understand until you step foot on one of these things.  The people are very sweet and welcoming because they make money by hosting tourists and selling their handmade art. The girls got to try on their clothes and see the inside of their houses. I bought a sweet pillow case and a necklace here. We also got to take a ride on one of their crazy handmade boats. 

Local handmade textiles

Elise & I dressed in their clothes. Sexy

Adorable Uru babygirl

Then, it was off to the next island where we would stay overnight

We had a 3 hour ride to the next island and it was absolutely beautiful out, so the 6 from my class decided to sit on top of the boat and enjoy the views and have some sandwiches…and maybe a few drinks. It was good times.

Elise & I on our party boat....pre red wine stains

The next island was called Amantani. We hiked about 30 minutes to a spot where we met our host families and then were taken to their houses. I was with 2 of my classmates, and our host parents were Ruben & Maroja, two very soft-spoken and shy people, but still very sweet.Our room was very nice and they fed us lunch, dinner, and breakfast in the morning. Lunch was soup and an omelet type of thing with some rice and potatoes. Dinner was more soup with some rice and vegetables. Breakfast was a pancake with jelly. They also served hot tea at the end of every meal which was just water with a muña leaf which is kind of like a combination of mint and eucalyptus. It was delicious. Luckily our family spoke Spanish so we were able to communicate with them. Quechua is the native language, but many of them speak Spanish as well (thank god!). 

Between lunch and dinner, some of us played soccer with the locals. I watched. At 14,000 some feet above sea level (2,000 higher than where we live in Cusco), the 5 year old locals were kicking our asses. After that, a group of us hiked to the top of Pachamama. It took about 45 minutes and the views on the way were breathtaking. At the top there are some pre-Incan ruins that I’m pretty sure were used for sacrifices. We also got to catch the sunset up there, which despite the clouds was really pretty.

Our "family's" house

View from our house

Hike up Pachamama

The little nugget pup I found at the top

We made it!

My sweet get up

That "star" is Venus!

After dinner, our “mom” gave us some traditional clothes to wear and we went to a fiesta and danced around for a little bit. We all looked ridiculous and were so exhausted but it was fun. Our “mom” absolutely LOVED Byron, the guy that was staying with us. He’s 6’5” and was super giant dancing around with her. It was hilarious. After the fiesta, we went to bed and slept like rocks from 10pm to 7am when we got woken up for breakfast. We gave our “mom” some pasta and rice as gifts and she was so excited she ran out of the kitchen to show her husband. It was adorable. After that, we hiked down the hill, took a few pictures with our “dad” and got back on the boat for an hour ride to the 3^rd island, Tequille.

All dressed up, looking quite ridiculous

Elise, Byron, & I with our "familia"

Byron dancing with Mom

Saying goodbye to Dad in the morning

Tequille, in my opinion, was the prettiest island we visited. The hour long hike we had to the town center had the most beautiful views. There were also women and children selling their hand-woven goods all along the path. I collected 4 or 5 bracelets and bought a few postcards like Gramma told me to do. We were told this island had the best and most authentic hand-woven goods, so we went into the craft center to buy a few things. I got a great hat and the cutest backpack for 70 soles ($28ish). Then we walked a short path to a restaurant for lunch and found this adorable little sheep with his Mom trying to “baaa” like she did. He made the cutest little high pitched noise. Lunch was MORE soup and a veggie omelet with rice. Others got fish but I’m glad I stuck with my omelet because it had the skin and bones…yuck! After lunch, we hiked down the other side of the mountain to the boat. More beautiful views. Someone had a guidebook and told us that we hiked down over 500 stairs. Pretty sick. After that, we had a 3 hour boat ride back to Puno where we dropped our bags at the hotel and went to a restaurant for some pizza and sangria. It was delicious, but I ate way too much. I started to feel like crap between the fullness, the altitude, and my sunburnt nose & lips (the sun is strong that high up!). Luckily we got on the bus around 9:15 and I went right to sleep. Got into Cusco around 5:00am, back to my house by 5:30, and went back to sleep until 10:00am. 

Pretty view from the hike up Isla Tequille

Another pretty view

The ladies with our awesome hats!

Little lambchop

 About the toilet seats thing….NOWHERE since we left on Friday had a seat on their toilet. We did a LOT of squatting, and had to bring our own toilet paper everywhere. So between not having a shower or a toilet seat for nearly 4 days, I am so pumped to be back at my Arcopata house with my own bed, hot shower, and real toilet….not to mention fresh fruit for breakfast and NO MORE SOUP!!!

Sorry this one is so long, but it was an amazing weekend. Truly an eye opener into the lives of some of the native cultures down here. I also took 250 great pictures that I’m dreading putting on Facebook because of how long it will take with this internet…

Happy Monday everyone! Love & miss you all tons!

Last Week

A quick update on last week before I post about my ridiculously awesome weekend at Lake Titicaca...

Thanksgiving was weird. They don't acknowledge it here, so I forgot it was Thanksgiving until I got a few e-mails from people. I had class all day so I didn't really have time to think about it. However, my housemates and I decided to go to this American bar/restaurant called "The Real McCoy" because they were serving turkey dinner. Naturally they had run out by the time we got there, so I got some pita chips with hummus (not the same) and guacamole, and a huge bowl of vegetables. They eat carbs, carbs, meat, and more carbs here. So I get pretty pumped about fruit and vegetables. I also had my first Pisco Sour drink. It's made with Pisco (tastes like anise), lime juice, simple syrup, bitters, and an EGG WHITE. Yes, an egg white. It's pretty close to a margarita, plus the egg white thing. Interesting.

Friday was my first day "teaching". I only taught a 20 minute "how to" mini lesson. I did "how to do tree pose" (yoga). It actually went pretty well and was really fun. Obviously there's a few things I need to work on, but I've only been in TEFL for 4 days so you can't expect the best. I was only 1 of 2 students to get marked "good" instead of "needs improvement" so I'm taking it as a good sign.

After my lesson, I went to a few markets to get supplies and then packed for my trip to Lake Titicaca! Which will be my next post after I take my first shower since FRIDAY (ew)....

Frupasion

Today was the longest day EVER. I have to observe two TEFL teachers this week, so I went in at 8:00am to get one out of the way before my 6 hour class. The teacher I observed was great and her students loved her so that was good motivation. TEFL class was long. More notes, more group work. In the afternoon we had a man come in to give us a Quechua lesson (quechua is an ancient Incan language) to show us how difficult it can be for students to learn a language when they have little to no experience with it. It was definitely an eye opener. It took us 45 minutes just to learn basic greetings. My brain was fried after those 45 minutes, but it definitely showed us that we need to be patient with our students. AND it's a beautiful language. Their greeting "allillanchu" literally translates to "how is the village within you?" and "tupananchiskama" translates to "until we meet again in this life or the next". I also signed up to teach my first mini lesson this Friday! I have to teach a basic "how to" lesson. I'm thinking "how to make a peanutbutter and banana sandwich" or "how to do" a certain yoga pose. We'll see.

I grabbed lunch with a few classmates today instead of taking the ham&cheese sandwich from my house. I got my first fresh juice, a "frupasion" which was fresh orange & passion fruit juices. Amazing. I also had an avocado & tomato sandwich that left a little to be desired, but the juice made up for it. Got my vitamin C for the day!

I had a few things I wanted to get this afternoon so I ventured to an artisan market with my housemate and made my first purchases in Peru!

I bought a little wallet because Peruvian money (soles) uses a lot of coins. I also bought a sweet bracelet and, yes, some Nature Valley bars. Hey, a girl's gotta snack. Then I got a sweet bag to carry my books to & from class. I've been using my awesome laptop bag, but it's pretty bulky and I don't even take my laptop so I wanted something lighter.

We also stopped at a natural food & vitamin store so my housemate, Maggie, could pick up some "miel con propolio". It's honey with a mix of plant resin and bee secretions. It sounds gross, but she's sick and several people have recommended it. It's apparently a cure-all. That and coca tea, which I've become addicted to. It's made from the Coca plant (aka cocaine!) and apparently I wouldn't pass a drug test if I took one after drinking so much of it, but it's delicious, wakes me up, and gets rid of my altitude headache :)

After that, Maggie went home and I did the unthinkable...I went to the supermarket by MYSELF (calm down Mom and Dad, I survived). A girl at Maximo recommended this drinkable yogurt drink with probiotics that protects against the crazy parasites and things in the food & water down here. It also boosts your immune system, so I wanted to buy some. It's only a few blocks from my casa and I wanted to get them before my trip this weekend. Nothing eventful or scary. I went in, bought 8 yogurts for 10 soles (about $3.75), and walked home. And I survived! People really are harmless here. It's like any other city in the world: as long as you watch your back and aren't ignorant, you'll be fine. Not that I'd go frolicking around in the dark by myself, but I know my way around enough now to go to the store alone. I feel pretty accomplished!

Sorry this was a relatively boring post. Time to go write a paper and start my lesson for Friday! Happy Thanksgiving Eve everyone! Get your drink on for me :)

Love<3

Cusquena Negra

Short post tonight, but Jerry asked if I had written anything so I figured I should keep up with it.

Long class today. Lots of notes and exercises and group work. A lot of things are similar to my Spanish Ed classes so it's nice to have some background knowledge.

After class a group of us were going to hike up a mountain we call "Viva" (i'll post a picture so you can see why). But, when we walked outside, storm clouds were coming in from all directions and it started to rain so we checked out a market and decided to just grab a few beers. SO, i had my first Peruvian beer! Everyone was ordering "cusquena", the local beer, so I jumped on board. We got the dark beer, "cusquena negra", and it was delicious. It was nice getting to know some of the people in class too. We're pretty much all in the same boat: graduated college within the past couple of years, aren't quite sure what we want to do OR eventually want to teach, and love traveling. Finally a little before 7 I walked home with my housemate for dinner and to do some homework.

Early to bed again tonight, early to rise again tomorrow...i'm kind of getting used to it! Hoping that we'll be able to go on that hike tomorrow.

This is the mountain

You can make out the words a little better here

Buenas noches!

First Day

I survived my first day of TEFL training and trekking the crazy hills of Cusco!

Up at 7:00am to leave the house at 8:30 for the 20 minute walk to Maximo Nivel (from now on referred to as MN). Andrea gave us a nice introduction to the program and the city, and then we did your typical ice breaker interviews & presentations. There are 12 people in my class; 8 girls and 4 guys. We're from all over: Georgia, Texas, Ohio, Colorado, Switzerland, London. Our instructor gave us a brief introduction to ESL techniques we'll be using and a tour of the facility. Around 12 my housemate and I walked around a little bit and had lunch in a pretty little park across from MN, down the hill from a Cathedral.

The Cathedral from where I was eating

Another part of the Cathedral

Naturally, as soon as we finished our lunch a groundskeeper came over and told us that eating in the park was strictly prohibited...oops! At least we got to do it once?

At 1:30 we were scheduled to go on a tour of the city with 2 MN staff members. My housemate, Maggie, and I were the only ones to go on the tour which was actually kind of nice because we could ask all the questions we wanted. The girls showed us all the different plazas and markets, where to buy things, good places to eat, etc. The artisan district, San Blas, was beautiful and there was so much to see I can't wait to explore later this week. Becky, if you read this, you would LOVE it here---the most beautiful local art and ancient buildings and stones. They also showed us some sweet bars, a few with rooftop terraces that overlook the whole city. I can't wait until I've fully adjusted to the altitude and can go out for some Peruvian cocktails! We also went to El Molino, which is the "black market" of Cusco...aka a huge flea market. It was enormous and we actually got a little lost inside. I can't wait to go back and actually buy stuff. Hello Christmas presents!

In other cool news, I saw my first alpaca today. A woman dressed in traditional Peruvian clothing was walking him down the cobblestone street. The alpaca was adorable, but I've already made plans to eat one for Thanksgiving so I won't get too attached (sorry Aunt Deb!). I also saw "cuy" which is roasted guinea pig, a local delicacy. It honestly looks foul (like a tiny pig roast), and it's going to take me a while before I convince myself to eat it! I also booked a trip today to a place called Lake Titicaca this weekend where we visit 3 different islands and do all kinds of touristy things. So many fun things going on I could write all day, but this is a long enough post as it is. Thanks for anyone who's reading these! I promise I'll start putting up more pictures :)

Love & miss everyone<3

From the city that never sleeps to "La Ciudad Imperial"

Welcome to my blog everyone! First of all, I MADE IT TO PERU! Second, this is my first blogging experience bear with me. And third, the altitude sickness is slowly getting to me, as is the sleepiness, so I apologize in advance for not making sense.

 After spending a much needed 10 days with Jerry and my friends and family, I finally boarded my flight at 11:00pm last night. Why they tell you to arrive 3 hours prior to an international flight is beyond me. I sat at my gate for 2 hours! I did befriend an awesome older woman from Lima who gave me all sorts of advice and reassurance (I think she could sense my mixed emotions on leaving). As for the flight, I officially never want to fly domestic again. The airplane was beautiful and clean and spacious. Each seat had a pillow and blanket. The flight attendants handed out eye masks and ear buds. I'm also pretty sure they provided a meal because about 5 hours into the flight (and after my Ambien) I woke up for a second and I remember seeing the man next to me with a fruit cup and some sort of breakfast pastry. So, we landed around 7am, I got through customs and immigration pretty quick, and had just enough time to grab a banana and a water bottle before I was on my next flight to Cusco. A short hour later, I was greeted by several Maximo Nivel employees who helped me with my bags and brought me to a car. After a quick stop at MN's training center, they brought me to the Arcopata Family House which is where I'll be staying for the next 5 weeks. In case you didn't see them on Facebook, I'll add a few pictures here too (mostly because I want to figure out how to add pictures!)

This is the family room. Comfy couches, TV, DVD player, even a fireplace.

This is the patio. 65-75 degrees everyday. I'll be out here a lot!

My room! It's small, but a double bed and a private bathroom? I'll take it.

Awesome little nook next to my room. The sun shines right in the window so it's nice & cozy.

I'm obviously loving it already. There's a full staff of what seems to be 2-3 housekeepers and 2-3 chefs (yes, chefs). A sweet little woman was cleaning my armoire when I walked in and told me lunch would be ready in 20 minutes! Can't beat that. I haven't met any other TEFL trainees (Teaching English as a Foreign Language--for those of you I haven't explained that to yet). Most of the people living here are volunteers, so I'm hoping a few more trainees will show up. I was told there were 14 last month so that gives me hope! Two girls were moving into their own apartment today...hopefully that will be me in 5 weeks!

Internet is working, Skype is working, pictures are uploaded. Time to start unpacking. Hopefully I can keep up with this blog thing! Thanks for reading :)

Side note: the pictures at the top of my page is the Plaza de Armas, the main plaza in the city and it's 3 blocks from where I'm staying!