Day Two - Colca

Talking to my family today resparked my spirit to write in my blog.
Colca is a city in the department of Arequipa that is mostly know for in huge Canyon and high altitude. We met the exchange students from the Arequipa district on our second day of the trip, a big suprise for us because we thought we'd be taking the trip alone. In the bus to Colca from Arequipa, the altitude really started to effect some of us. One girl even passed out! But the most common symptoms were just headaches and stomachaches. I didn't really feel any symptoms though, but that was probably because of the Coca. The ancient Incas used coca as a medicine, and in the leaf form it's not even a drug, just a helpful medicine. We all chewed the leaves and ate some candy with the leaves in it. When I first chewed some of it, my tounge went numb for a minute.. Super weird and cool. I even developed a liking for the taste. I didn't feel any different though, I just wasn't sick. I guess that means it worked. I also learned that sugar seemed to help with the altitude too. I ate sugar the whole trip after that lol. We kind of just saw some sites of Colca that day and we even got high enough in the mountains for snow. We mostly stopped along the road and bought things from venders that make them. I bought some comfy pants for cheap. We also followed the custom of building little towers of rocks for the mountains. I have a picture of mine.

I loved this sign, even though I didn't pay to enter.

India (from Austraila) in a t-shirt in front of the snow. Obviously, it didn't feel that cold.

My tribute to Pacha Mama, or mother Earth.

      When we did arrive in Colca, we took a guided walk up to some Inca ruins and an old bull ring. The walk was very interesting and we could see a ton of cool stuff from the height. That night we had a presentation of mountain dances, some of which were a bit odd, but still a fun night in Colca. 

 Old bull ring in the middle of Colca.

Yes, this traditional dance was as weird as it looks.

L

Earthquake

I didn't even know about this earthquake until today. None of us felt anything and everyone is fine! Puno is great here we are now! More later though!
L

Oopsy daisy...

Well I officially stink at blogging! I just was so tired this week that I didn't want to write... We leave for Machu Picchu today, so when we get back I'll have to finish writing about Arequipa and continue about Cusco and everything new... I have to finish packing, but hopefully I'll see you in about 11 days. Sorry about the delays!!!
L

Video of the MADNESS!!

I'm the second one!

Te amo Perú!!!!

Holy cow! Today was crazy! My Rotary district is very active with us and we end doing activities all the time! I love it cause I get to hang out with my friends and do cool stuff! Well today was Legen... Wait for it... dary!!! We went with Henry (our exchange president) to the main military academy in Peru. The camo buildings and military men everywhere were pretty cool, but what cam next was epic! We got to use the parachute practice rig for training paratroupers! This consisted of a 30 foot drop and then like a zipliney thingy for a while, like parachuting out of an airplane! I'm not great with heights and I was running on 2 hours of sleep (fiesta!) so I was pretty dang scared! Everybody at least jumped once, but most twice! My first jump was just vertical and I screamed like and little girl! It was so fun though! When I reached the top of the jump tower for my second jump, since I was last they asked me if I wanted to do a free fall jump. Of course I said yes!! It sounds way scary, but it was only a change in position to where you're facing the ground and not sitting up! I felt so awesome! Only Honore and I jumped like that!
I'd never done anything like it before and it was awesome! That's what I got!
L

Day One- Arequipa

It's very funny for me to write in my blog in English. I have to translate from my journal which is in Spanish. Arequipa is one of the largest cities in Peru, and it has a rich history and culture of it's own. Arequipa has it's own food, own people, and many people even consider it it's own country. We arrived in Arequipa early in the morning after 15 hours on a bus and got right on another bus to tour for the whole day. I'm not sure if that was the best plan since we were all wiped out from the travelling, but it was still a good day.
   We drove past the Plaza de Armas of Arequipa, but couldn't see much. We did get a good stop at a beautiful church made from volcanic rock, kind of coral colored. Most of the grand buildings in Arequipa are made from a white volcanic rock, earning the city the nickname, Ciudad Blanca or White city. We visited a mansion next. I expected a mansion with 3 floors and many paintings and huge rooms, but it wasn't that at all. Just one huge floor, all the cielings were arched for air flow, and all the walls were plain white. The rooms were surprisingly small too. It is one of the older houses of Arequipa, and it was bought by the rich families for generations.
   We visited a site to view the 3 main volcanoes of Arequipa next. The volcanoes are Chachani, Misti ( the most important to the Arequipeanas) and PichuPichu. Misti is something that some people of Arequipa even worship. Very important to their culture. We ate our huge 4 course lunch next and took a bus ride to Sonccomarca, a huge hill with a figure of Jesus on it. The view from the top was so beautiful! We were there at sunset too, wonderful!! We returned tiredly to our hotel that night and slept well!! It was a lovely first day.
I hope you enjoyed this account of only one day of ten!

L

This photo is of Mattheiu from Belgium and I acting like the Jesus on Sonccomarca!
   

Friends

I love talking to my friends from Rolla sometimes. It's kind of like a taste of home. Sometimes it's hard to know what to talk about though... Should I talk about what's going on at home, in Lima, in the south of Peru? I have no idea! Oh well! It's so nice to talk to Abagail and Alex!
L

Trip to the South of Peru and Chile.

After just ten days out of Lima, I realize that there is so much more to Peru than this city. The 'real' Peru isn't dirty, with tons of traffic and people everywhere. (Not that that's a bad thing, I love Lima!!!) The people of Peru are so hard working! I bought little souvenirs from women that handmade them for 70 cents or very close to that. I bought a hand embroidered coin purse for 5 soles (about 2 dollars). I'm sure that woman spent more than an hour on that because it's beautiful craftmanship. It's wonderful to see people who do their work right and with pride.
    The people of Peru are such nice people who will really give you the shirt of their back for nothing in return. One woman in the small village of Cambaya told me how much she wanted to invite me in for lunch, but she couldn't because there was no cheese, only potatos, but I could have those if I wanted. This woman was living in a house made with a thatched roof and what looked like the leftovers of building material. She had a donkey that I'm sure was how she went to the fields to work. It was so lovely of her to want to give me everything she had, even though to me it seemed like nothing. I politely declined, but thanked her immensly.
   I think the sun and the clean air was one of the best parts of the trip for me. I got a good tan on this trip, something I can't say I've ever gotten in Lima. It was also nice to take a huge breath and know that it wasn't full of truck exhaust. I will say that the deep breath thing was a bit difficult because of the high altitude though. One night, I felt like I couldn't breath at all, all night! Very frightening, but a cool change I guess, I think I'm in better shape now though because of it. The warmth in the south of Peru and in the mountains is very weird though. The sun is super hot because of the proximity to the ecuator and the altitude, but the wind is frigid because of the altitude and climate. There are parts of the mountains that feel warm, but there is snow on the ground. It's very odd.
   I'll start later with specific stories of the trip, but for now here are my general quips.
L

This photo was taken at almost 1 in the morning. They greeted us from the bus. Thank you Rotary Club de Tacna. This is the spirit of Peru for ya.