A great weekend

This past weekend was by far the best two days in Peru so far.

I got up early Saturday morning to go volunteer at Flor de Amancaes, in Rimac. I volunteer twice a week in Rimac proper, but this was my first time going up to the hill to volunteer. The homes can easily be described as shacks, and most, if not all, do not have running water and electricity. We spent the morning hanging out with the kids that live there, and playing games with them. I'll talk more about my experience there when I write my post about volunteering, but here are a few pictures the organization we're working with posted.

I spent the rest of the afternoon with my host family. We had a full house for a few hours, because both of my host parents sons came over. It's always fun when they all come over, because our normally quiet house is full of activity for a few hours. When they left, I went shopping, because I'd decided to make dinner that night. I made tigadegena and crepes, and it seemed as though my family really appreciated it. My host dad opened up a nice bottle of wine with dinner, and we sat and chatted for about two hours. I feel so comfortable here with my host family, it's really great. I feel so lucky to have been placed with these wonderful people. My host dad took a picture of our dinner, and I'll try to get a copy of it, but I don't have it yet, unfortunately.

The next day, we went off on a hike near San Jerónimo to a waterfall called Pacalaca. It was about a 4 to 5 mile hike, but was pretty steep, and at a high enough altitude to be challenging. Our guides were two Peruvians named Jose and Jason, and I spent much of the hike talking with them. They were good friends with Meg Tuta, who went on the program last year. It was really fun getting to know some more young Peruvians, because I feel like it's been hard to do here. With my host parents being older, and not taking classes at an actual university, it's been hard to get to know many young Peruvians, so I jumped at the chance to talk with them. The hike, while being difficult, was incredibly beautiful. Here are some of my favorite pictures from it. Unfortunately, they don't even close to capture the expanse of the view, but it was worth a shot.

                                               

                                     

                                                

                                     

We leave tomorrow for our trips to the South and North, and I am not bringing my computer, so I will probably not be able to post again for about 3 weeks. But when I do, you can be sure I'll have some awesome things to say!

Viaje a Caral

This post will be few of words, because I find the pictures more interesting. And maybe I'm a bit lazy, but I feel like I should post something. That's possible too.
This past Saturday we left Lima for the first time. We were off to Caral, the oldest site with evidence of human civilization in the America's. "The Sacred City of Caral, was inhabited between 2600 and 2000 BC, and is a civilization that formed in the age before pottery. So pretty old. It was great to get out of the smog and pollution of Lima and start to actually see the mountains, and start to see more of the Peru than just the capital. We spent a few hours walking around the site, and it was really cool to see the contrast between the desert of the city ruins, and the lush farmland that surrounded the river nearby. It is believed that that river is the reason for the existence of Caral. While many early civilizations formed to help protect inhabitants from enemy clans/tribes, archeologists and historians believe that Caral was formed as a trading city. They discovered evidence of cotton seeds (and lots of them) in the valley, as well as the fact that despite living about 20 miles from the ocean, a large part of the diet of the people living in Caral was fish. Here's a link to the wikipedia site if you want to learn more about Caral: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caral

Now, onto some pictures!

Our first view of the river after getting off the bus.

Caral is made up of 19 pyramids spread out over a 35 mile area of the valley. 

 This clearly shows the contrast between the desert area of the pyramids and the green farmland by the river.

This is probably my favorite picture from the day. It was so beautiful being surrounded by these mountains!

Comments:

Mom and Fay: Yep! Well, it is a kind of passion fruit. There are actually two different types here. That one's called a granadilla, and is very sweet. The other (which I will talk about in my fruit blog) is more tart. Or so I'm told. They don't really eat it plain here much, but I'm going to try it soon, in the interest of science.

Dan: Great to hear from you! I'm glad Alisa's thinking about learning Spanish. It's a great language (and quite useful, I must say). Hope all is well!

And yes, I still plan on writing a blog about volunteering and one about fruit. I just need more substance for both of them in order to do them justice.

Until next time!

Bienvenidos al Peru!

Apologies for not starting this blog earlier. Today marks 2 weeks since my first full day in Peru. It's been quite an adventure so far, and I'm not quite sure how to recap it all. I guess I'll start out this blog by highlighting a few of the major plot points.

 1. General impressions and observations Lima is truly a beautiful city. When you look past the smog and the traffic, you see the multicolored houses, the amazing gardens full of wonderful flowers, the teenagers immediately jumping up to give their coveted micro seats to an elder. I think living in LA last summer really helped me to look for that beauty here, and not be overwhelmed by the superficial business and griminess of such a large city. I'm not much of a big city person, as I often say, but I'm surprised to say that Lima has already started to grow on me.

 2. Host family I already feel more at home with my Peruvian host family than I have with any of the other host families I've stayed with. My host parents, Ulda and Juana, are two of the sweetest people I've ever met. They're married, 65, and both work in education, Ulda as a professor, and Juana on various other education related jobs. They have three sons, two of whom live quite close by, while the third is finishing his masters in architecture at Harvard. The youngest eats most meals with us at the house. The oldest has two adorable kids, a 4-year-old, and a 5-month-old. I always look forward to their visits. They have all made me feel incredibly welcome and comfortable here. We also have a live-in maid who does all of the cooking and cleaning. Her name is Gloria, and she is also one of the sweetest people. Suffice it to say that I am already in love with this family, and am dreading even now leaving them in 8 weeks.

 3. Peru vs. Mali This is something that has been dominating much of my thoughts here, but despite that, it's hard for me to articulate those thoughts. Being abroad again, and in a place that has so many similarities to Mali keeps bringing back memories of my previous trip. I think the biggest difference is in the challenges of the program. Where in Mali the most challenging part was how amazingly different the culture was, here, it's much more the language that challenges me. I really took for granted how easily french came to me in Mali when I was there. Speaking spanish all the time, while enjoyable and interesting, is definitely taxing. I feel kind of like Peru is the halfway point between the US and Mali. I can't help wondering how different my first impression would have been of Lima had I not lived in Bamako first. To me, Lima is to Bamako, what Minneapolis is to Lima. Stay tuned for such exciting posts as "Volunteering: the best way to spend your day", and "What am I eating: the fruit edition". And if anyone has any question, comments, or sassy remarks, feel free to leave them as a comment, and I will respond to them appropriately on my next post.

 A few of my favorite pictures so far:


This is a photo taken in front of the biggest cathedral in Lima, and therefore probably in all of Peru. It was taken on Good Friday. Behind us, the square is full of thousands of worshipping Peruvians. It was
quite a sight to see!


Taken while lying in the hammock at our hostel.


Our first real view of the ocean.



The cliffs of Lima.


Some pre-Incan ruins.



Sunsets. 'Nuff said.

And finally, a teaser of the aforementioned post on fruit. Bonus points if anyone knows what it is!