Fun, Food, and Family

A week in review... 

Last week was really full, so I'll give you a quick overview. 

First of all, it was our last week with our brothers Yimi and Tono. The program here for medical professionals is pretty funky and I don't really understand it all that well. At any rate, Yimi was waiting for lottery results to find out where he would be working. He left on Tuesday to head to Lima, where they would announce the results on Thursday. As it turns out, not everyone gets a job from the lottery system. For obstericians there were 300 people, but only 180 positions (for nurses, there were 1000 people for 600 positions). So stressful. I'm not sure exactly how long the lottery meeting lasted, but it was at least 3 hours long and at the end of it all, Yimi's number was not drawn. I can't imagine how frustrating that is to wait and wait and wait and then nothing and there isn't anything you could have done to improve your odds or anything. I asked Tono why you would even want to go through that process. He said that if you do get a job from it you have the best job security, rather than working for a private medical clinic or something of the sort where you don't know how long they'll need or want you. Yimi had been hoping for a position in Iquitos, so when his number didn't get called, he decided to just go and find something when he got there. I hear he already has a job (so fast!), but I'm not sure what it is. Good for him making things happen. 

Then, at the crack of dawn on Friday, Tono left. He is still working on the practice part of his degree, so he was certain to have a place to go. He has been finishing up training courses and whatnot in preparation for work. He left for Tingo Maria where he had to pick up some documents and finish up some other trainings. I think he leaves for his placement in Puerto Inca, which is still in Huanuco, but a good 6 or so hours by bus away from home. He says he has his own place, which will be a big adjustment as he has always lived with his immediate family and before that lived with some extended family. The downside is that he has no running water or light in his place and it sounds quite small. Also, the closest place with internet is about an hour away. Many things to adjust to and many things to learn in this new city with a new job all on his own. I tried to ask him about how he felt about going away from home and all that, and he just seemed ready to be moving on. Challenge accepted. {Update on the medical field in Peru - doctors have been on strike since last Tuesday and it sounds like work has been put on hold for Yimi and Tono.}

Tono and Yimi

Good luck to Yimi and Tono on their new journeys! 

Meanwhile, back at the homestead...life has gone on as usual. Carolina doesn't show much emotion, but if you ask her how she is, she's honest. Her oldest boys leaving home back to back and right before Mother's Day and Tono's birthday (may 9) does not for an easy time make. She is sad to not have them here. Fortunately, everyone still has cell phones and can be in communication, so that seems to keep her spirits up. :) I haven't heard from Orlando on how he is doing, but he's a business and usual kind of guy and is proud of his sons for following their dreams. Eynor seems to be doing fine now, but he didn't like the saying goodbye part (I don't blame him, I think that's the hardest part too). 

As for us, it was sad to see them go as they have been such a major part of our time here. It's weird not to have them blasting music at 6am from the kitchen and yelling "apudate!" (hurry up!) all morning trying to get out of the house and get their mom to work. No more screeching from the shower (the theatrics of taking a cold shower were done up when we were in earshot). I miss their antics. Haha. We have been doing our best to help out where the boys used to. We got up at 4am on Friday morning to help peel potatoes and eggs and make the papa rellena (now I know, so I can make them when I get back to the States!). Today, Carolina let us sleep in and we got up at 7am to help with dishes, making sauces, filling bottles, and getting things loaded up in the moto. We are slow, clumsy, and not knowledgeable, but we'll catch on and hopefully they find it helpful. 

So that's the part about the big departure! 

Then, we had a big birthday celebration! Grandpa Antonio's birthday was on May 10, we think he turned 80...no one seemed very certain of exactly how old he is. Orlando and Victor, among assorted help from other brothers and sisters, made chicharron. It was the BEST! I could have had a few helpings of that. Yum! They had a live band come and play for 4+ hours. And of course where there is music, there is dancing, so we learned how to dance to whino (sp?) music - it is the music of the people from the mountains. It was so fun playing with the kids, chatting with the adults, dancing with everyone, and hanging out. Another great birthday party for the books. 

Melissa, Eynor, Fabrizio, and me getting our Mother's Day pic done.

Finally, we make it to Mother's Day. We headed out to a recreation area/park near the Huanuco airport. The river split the area in 2 parts. We sat near the water and ate lunch. Afterwards, we went to the other side and walked around, attempted fishing (which meant the younger kids grabbing sticks and splashing them in the water because we didn't have line or bait), and played volleyball. We almost lost our volleyball in the river once, but somehow they saved it. It was a chill afternoon hanging out and enjoying the day. I guess our big gift to the moms that day was rest - of course they made the food and served it - but otherwise, they just got to sit and relax, which is not something they get to do often here. It was the first time I've seen Carolina hang out - no laundry to do, no house to clean, no papa rellena to prepare, no shopping. I hope she enjoyed the break. When we went to the mall, we saw they had a set up for getting pictures done, so we also took one and gave the moms a copy of their kids lovely faces. <3>

To start out this week and sort of round out last week, we headed up the nearby hill for a short trek. Argulio, one of Antonio's brothers who lives in Lima, came for the birthday celebration. He wanted to do a short trip to show his friend more of Huanuco and invited us along, before they head back. We piled into the car at 7am (a solid hour later than planned of course) and headed to El Union to visit La Corona del Inca (The Inca Crown). It's a neat place with rocks that form a huge crown at the top of a hill. Some parts look man-made, but the majority of it looks like that is just how the rocks landed there. So, we hiked up and wandered around to explore the Corona del Inca. It rained the night before and the morning started out drizzly, but we lucked out and the sun came out for us. It is so beautiful, the air is so fresh, and you can see for days when it is a nice clear day. The grass was still damp, which led to quite the fall on my part. When you fall here, they ask if you are harvesting squash. I'm not sure I understand that, but in our group, we were harvesting a good amount. Afterwards, we went and has some picante de cuy for lunch. It still had it's toenails, in case you were wondering. Not the greatest meal, but did the job. Finally, we stopped in Pampas to say hi to Argulio's sister, Sylveria. We make have to make another trip to go visit here again next weekend as we only stopped in for a few minutes. After a 2 hour car ride, we made it back to the hot and dusty city of Huanuco and while waiting for the bus to go home, I got peed on by a pigeon. At least we had a good day to make up for that awful moment. 

Inca pointing to his crown.

So now, we are down to 9 days left in Huanuco and we have to make every one of them count! 

~nos vemos~

Another Birthday Celebration!

Awkward, but Happy Accidents: 

Normally, while in Huanuco, we don't just head out for the sake of it. Huancachupa is no short distance from town and it's been pretty rainy of late (even though it is supposedly summer).

So we got ambitious on April 30th and headed down the hill. As it turns out, we don't really remember how to get around the city. We hopped on the A and made it downtown. We were trying to get off at the market, but ended up getting off at the main square. Later, the same exact bus passed us at the market. Oh well, we didn't have any particular place to be, so we just wandered. We tried to find our bread shop - the one we always went to after going to the gym last time we were here - but for the life of us, we couldn't find it. I have a vague concept for where things are, but just could not remember the details. I will have to do some more wandering around to get it all back. 

We happened upon the place in the market that sells maracuya juice, ice cream, and other treats. We opted to pick something up there in place of something from the bread shop we couldn't locate. Melissa had a parjaul (sp?), which is a flaky bread thing with manjar blanco (similar to caramel). I had turron, which is a crumbly anis cookie with caramel layers and sprinkles on top.

From there, we wandered over to Junin to visit Henry and Vanesa and see who else was around. Which is when we happened upon a birthday party. 

When we arrived, the door was open and there were a bunch of family members there that we don't normally run into. Vanesa then told us that it was her Aunt Neli's birthday. Ahhhh... oops. (Maybe they just forgot to invite us?? haha) 

Luz Emily and Imelda

We had a great time catching up with everyone - especially the little girls. Imelda gave us the biggest hugs ever. Then, Melissa helped her with her math homework. Fabiola and Luz Emily shared with me the English words they are learning at school. They are working on colors - blue, red, yellow, and green. 

Then arrived food and things got awkward. We were like, we should leave. We weren't invited to this shindig. We started saying our goodbyes and heading for the door. Then, we go to say goodbye to Neli and Vanesa, which is when we were informed that the plates were already served and it would be less nice if we left. Um, er, ummm. 

So we stayed and it was a great time. We got to eat pollo a la brasa - rotisserie chicken with french fries and salad. We had some good conversation with everyone, talking about movies, school, weather, and such. Then, we helped them sing Happy Birthday in English and sang along with the Spanish version and got to partake in the cake. Yum! Yay! 

Neli fending off getting a face full of cake from her brother, Victor.
It is tradition for the birthday person to take a bit out of the cake,
which is prime time for someone to smash it into the birthday person's face. 

I hope Neli enjoyed having us at her birthday. I'm thankful for the opportunity we had to share with the family. Sometimes, I feel like there is lots of pressure when we're around because we're recruiting or asking for something, so people keep their distance. At this, we just got to be guests at a party and it was fun. 

Feliz Cumpleanos Hermana Neli! 

~nos vemos~

Cachupa Kids

Hanging out with the Chilluns...

While we have a ton of kids to hang out with and get to know at the congregation of Monte Sion, we don't get to hang out with them daily. While in Huanuco, we get lots of kid time. 

The main group we hang out with is Eynor, Fabrizio, Estefany, and Josef. 

Eynor

Eynor is Orlando and Carolina's youngest son. He is 11 years old. He likes to invent and create things. He made me a jewelry thing out of popsicle sticks, but unfortunately the dogs destroyed it. He likes to share songs and dances with us during church. He is also very competitive at games - he enjoys playing with marbles, pogs, and spinning tops. 

Fabrizio is Melanie's son and Eynor's cousin. He is 7 years old. He is very very very talkative. He loves to tell stories that typically start out with a grain of truth, but as they get longer and more involved, they get more fantastic. He likes to sing - he knows pretty much all of the songs on the radio and from commercials. He is an aggressive, but playful, type. 

Estefany

Estefany and Josef are sister and brother and live next door to us here on Huancachupa. Estefany is 12 years old. She is our resident Hermione Granger, know-it-all. She loves to learn and enjoys making sure everyone else knows what she knows/plays by the rules. She is a very enthusiastic and curious girl. Josef is 10 years old. He is also very smart, but very quiet. He also likes to play games and is the unsuspecting champion. 

Since we've returned, they have been catching us up on the popular games of the time. 

First, they attempted to teach us how to play marbles ("bolas"). I'm not sure I understand completely. The rules are something like this: 1) throw your marble at the "tunnel" (2 parallel sticks) and whoever is closest gets to go first and so on, 2) in order, you flick your marble and try to get it through the tunnel, if you didn't succeed on the first throw, 3) once you are through the tunnel you want to hit the other marbles and if you do, you win that marble. The person with all the marbles wins. 

Second, we are trying to learn how to spin tops (I think that's the right name - they are called "trampas" in Spanish). It is the top shaped thing that you wrap a string around and then throw it to make it spin. It's not easy. Eynor and Josef are pretty good at it, so maybe with some practice with our teachers, we'll catch on. I especially want to learn how to get it spinning and then pick it up and get it to keep spinning while in your palm. Little victories. 

We have yet to play pogs here, but I'll let you know if the rules are any different if we do play. 

We also play a good amount of card games. Golpeado seems to be the favorite. I can never seem to remember the rules, so I'll have to write them down or something so I can play when I get back to the States. I want to teach Eynor how to play Spoons, I think he'd like it. We also play Go Fish, War, Crazy 8, Old Maid... 

We have so many card games like Apples to Apples or electronic games like Xbox and such that we don't really play the traditional anymore. It's fun to get the throw back and learn some of the things that just weren't popular while we were younger here. 

Plus, these guys love to teach us how to play, so we can spend time with them. Lots of spirit and enthusiasm, it's hard to say no. 

We asked them if they wanted to continue English classes and they said yes, so we'll start those lessons up again tomorrow. Gotta figure out how to incorporate more games into teaching English (suggestions welcome). :D 

~nos vemos~ 

Back to Huanuco!

Last week we transitioned from being in Lima back to Huanuco. 

Wednesday morning, we set out for what would be a very treacherous 11 hours on the road. Melissa and Gladys both were sick for almost the whole ride. Yikes. Also, Wilfredo was not having a good car day. First, he got hit by a bus trying to get ahead in the line. There was some sort of road work holding up traffic and this big tour bus comes up and tries to cut. Wilfredo decided he didn't need to move his car when it decided to keep moving after it had already hit another car in front of us. It was not one of his brighter moments. It led to everyone getting out and yelling at each other and the bus people gave him S/. 49 for the damage. There is just a small scratch on his car, but it was still something totally preventable, but Wilfredo chose to do nothing, except get agitated after the fact. The second incident was when Wilfredo tried to pass a semi-truck, but once he moved out and around, decided there wasn't enough time to pass, so had to move to get back behind the truck. Well, he didn't time it so well and he hit the semi. Fortunately, the only damage done was that it clipped his side mirror, so it snapped in (it's one of those mirrors on a hinge, so it can move in). The back plastic portion seems to be kind of broken, so he took it off, but the mirror is still in place. We are all very lucky. Needless to say, I have no desire to ride back to Lima in the car again. Time to look up airplane prices. I don't mean to sound harsh against Wilfredo, we made it safely, it was just a less than desireable experience on all counts. 


After all the excitement of getting to Huanuco, since it is Rocio and Gladys' first time here, we headed out to Tingo Maria. We pretty much did all the same things as last time, just drove around in Wilfredo's car rather than going through a tourist agency. Wilfredo is crazy good at knowing where he is going - he's been to Tingo once by bus, and this time he drove and we didn't get lost. It's an incredible talent. Anyway, we swam in the sulfur water, saw the Bella Durmiente, checked out La Cueva de Las Lechuzas (that doesn't actually have any owls), and ate lots of tacacho. Right now is the end of rainy season, so the roads were awful. Instead of the desired 2+ hours, it took most like 3.5+ hours (both times). The cool part is that it is pretty to see the little cascades/waterfalls down the rocks on the side of the road. 

Eynor and Fabrizio - doin' the potty pose - on our hike. :D

We also visited the Casa de la Perricholi in Tomaykichwa. We opted out of the visit to Kotosh as I have already been twice and Melissa's been once. We missed the tour of the hills around Kotosh, but we went on our own hike with the boys down to check out the new bridge. We may or may not have been lost a few times, but we eventually found our way. No shortage of adventures to be had here. 






Mixed in with the tourism, we made our rounds of visits to say hi to people and share some God time with them. 

First, we visited Carolina's family - her mom, Melanie, Melanie's husband?, Fabrizio, Marjorie, Eynor, Dionicio, and Walter. Dionicio makes fireworks for a living, so they were all busy putting together bases and prepping materials. They very kindly stopped work for a few minutes to chat with us. Rocio taught a class on the parable of the great banquet (Luke 14:15-24) and shared about the enduring principle, all are called. worth of all persons. 

Second, we visited at the house at Junin, where Vanesa and Henry live. Victor, Cristian, Fausta, Eynor, and Fabrizio were also there. Gladys taught a class on the parable of the bags of gold (Matthew 25:14-30) and the enduring principle, worth of all persons.

Third, we had a service at Orlando's house sharing on the theme for the week, Peace Be With You (John 20:19-31). Gladys presided over the service and Rocio shared the message. In attendance we had, Orlando, Carolina, Yimi, Eynor, Fabrizio, Grandpa Antonio, Henry, Vanesa, Rolen, Eder, Marycruz, Wilfredo, Gladys, Rocio, Melissa, and me. 

It was an incredibly busy week, but I'm glad to be back. Last night, Carolina was talking about how living at Huancachupa is way more relaxing than even living at Junin and how it has helped her health. I do enjoy me some good relaxing and napping time. :) However, we certainly have lots to do with house visits, English classes, and weekly services in the works. We'll have to make the most of our last month here! 

~nos vemos~

La Pascua - Easter

Semana Santa - Easter Weekend

When I was younger, Easter was all about Easter baskets, putting on my Easter dress, going to church, hunting for Easter eggs, and then some sort of meal with the family. 

Then we all grew up and we became the people that hid the Easter eggs at church, stopped wearing special Easter clothes, and really stopped making a big deal out of Easter..at least, to me it didn't seem like a big deal. An odd turn of events as you would think Easter would become more important as you could better understand the crucifixion and resurrection and the significance of it all. 

At any rate, Easter this year did seem a bit more special. Being away from the family is not a desired occurrence, but it is fun to see how other people do things. So, here is what we did for Easter in Peru.. 

The whole week leading up to Easter, Holy Week/Semana Santa, seems to be important. On Monday, I received a flier to attend a Jehova's Witness event and the Catholic churches seemed pretty busy. Also, I am told that they only sell fish at the market (for some reason, we never made it there to know for sure). Some one will have to inform me of the significance of eating fish. This was really good for Consuelo. She had family members helping her all week with selling fish. We even got to try chupe de camarones, which is a creamy shrimp soup that the Lima area is known for, with reason too; it's delicious. Thursday and Friday are federal holidays. 

Friday is where our church activities begin, as usual. Instead of having class, we watched a movie called "El Perdon" (I'm not sure what the movie is called in English, but that translates to "Forgiveness"). We popped popcorn and had soda for our movie treats. As expected, pretty much all little kids came. As our church leaders still have not figured out that we have mostly kids at Monte Sion activities, we did not have a kid-oriented movie. Even still, almost all of them stayed for the whole movie, only a few fell asleep, and the most amazing part was they were not very distruptive. After the movie, Wilfredo helped recap what happened, so that they could understand. Overall, it went well. 

Saturday we had a special church service focused on the crucifixion. For some reason, Jhonny decided we didn't need to have kids class, but we couldn't just leave the kids out. We had been talking about how we decorate and hunt for Easter eggs in the States, so Rocio and Graciela decided that is what we should do. They boiled up some eggs and then when we got to church, the kids colored the eggs. Unfortunately, we don't have any place to hide eggs that dogs wouldn't snatch them up first, so just coloring them was the way to go. Some kids colored and then immediately ate their egg. Others were saving them for later. One kid, Elias, said he was going to save his hard-boiled egg forever because his egg represented Jesus and he can't eat Jesus. I tried to convince him that it was just symbolic and better that he eat the egg before it goes bad...I'm not sure what he decided to do. Haha. 

Elias with his "Jesus"egg.

We had a song and video intensive service. Apparently they have a whole section of the hymnal that has songs for Easter. I didn't recognize a single song we sang. A few people from the family recently went and saw the movie "Son of God" in theaters, so first thing Saturday morning, Jhonny headed out to go find the movie. Gotta love the pirated movie scene here in Peru. Somehow he found it and it was DVD quality, not taped in a movie theater quality. Impressive. For church then, we watched the sentencing up to Jesus on the cross scenes. Thankfully, it is a lot less graphic than "Passion of the Christ," though still quite difficult to watch. After watching the movie, we watched a music video that was mostly scenes from another movie showing the crucifixion. There was a lot of bloody Jesus. I think it is important to know the crucifixion part of the story, but it was a lot for me. I'm used to my home congregation where we talk about the crucifixion and focus on the resurrection, not showing clip after clip of Jesus being whipped and abused. The other day on TV, we were watching a report on a reenactment done in Ayacucho of the crucifixion - like how the South reenacts Civil War battles, they were reeanacting the end of Jesus' life. Finally, Jhonny shared a little bit about the crucifixion and talked mainly about the sign above Jesus on the cross - "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." 

It was a good service and we had a good crowd of people come. I like special events because people come out from hiding. We get to meet new people. The different variety of people changes the dynamic of interactions. It's good stuff to see new people or see people you haven't seen in a long time. 

To conclude Semana Santa, we fasted. During our pre-church classes, we had been studying the Lenten activities as listed on the cofchrist.org website. The first Sunday's lesson was on fasting (in spanish = ayuno). As it turned out, not many people here have tried fasting, so Jhonny thought we should give it a shot. Our fast lasted from after lunch on Saturday to lunch on Sunday. They seemed quite scared of not eating for a day, which I thought was a bit dramatic and hilarious. We ate a massive lunch on Saturday. Then, we were busy all that evening in Monte Sion, so we don't normally eat anything until almost midnight those nights anyway. Then, Sunday morning, we got up and went over to Prudencio's to help make lunch. Breakfast is my favorite meal, and I even dreamt that I messed up fasting by eating breakfast, but I didn't. Once lunchtime rolled around, people started pulling snacks out of their pockets. They were prepared to break their fast, couldn't even wait til lunch was served. Lunch, btw, was fantastic. We had grilled beef and chicken, potatoes, corn, a delicious sauce on top, maracuya juice, and brownies. It was nice to have the whole family together. 

The church service was then geared towards the resurrection and Jesus recognizing Mary Magdalene when he reappeared. 

After the service, they made the announcement about Betzabe being pregnant. All of the moms, dads, aunts, and uncles, shared about their joy for her and some of their words of wisdom. Consuelo is very excited to be a grandma. Going to be a big year for her family with her son enegaged to be married and her daughter about to have a baby! 

And so concludes Semana Santa and Easter in Peru. 

~nos vemos~    

Lima Bucket List

Now that we are heading into the final months here in Peru, we have to start checking off all of those things we've been meaning to do, but haven't quite gotten around to doing. We've been making some solid progress with the help of Karen, Rocio, Graciela, and Wilfredo. 

1. Learn how to cook Peruvian Food

Graciela showed me how to make the popular dish, Lomo Saltado. It is actually incredibly easy to do. First, cut up potatoes and fry them - aka, make french fries. Second, cut up the onion and tomato in decent size pieces. Third, once the fries are done, take out some of the oil and add in the beef (cut up in small-ish pieces). To the beef, add salt, pepper, cumin, garlic, dark (apple?) vinegar, and ajinomoto (I think it is MSG - says it adds umami on the package). Third, once the meat is cooked, add in the tomatoes and onions until softened. Fourth mix in some parsley and the french fries. Voila! Hecho. I think I could make this. 

2. Visit Barranco

The whole time we were doing classes in Miraflores people were talking about Barranco and it sounded like a pretty cool place to visit. So we finally went. We talked not-so-spontaneous Wilfredo into coming with us. We went to the Bridge of Sighs. Unfortunately, we didn't do our homework before we went, so we got to the bridge and took pictures of us sighing. As it turns out, you are supposed to hold your breath and walk across the bridge while you make your wish. Once you get to the other side, you gasp for air, hence bridge of sighs. The bummer part is that the wish only comes true if you do it the first time you go. #missedopportunities. Oh well. We then walked down to where you could see the ocean - and back towards Miraflores. Was a pretty nice and Karen decided we needed to have a photo shoot, so we have lots of blurry pictures from the night. To end our trip, we went to dinner. We got a big grill of meat - hot dog, pork chop, beef steak, intestines, and chicken. I'm not big on the intestines, but the rest was pretty tasty. 



3. Visit the Ruins of Pachacamac

We've visited ruins all over Peru, but hadn't made it to the closest ones in Lima, so that seems silly. We got there just behind all of the field trip groups, which meant we had to wait an hour for a guide or just go on our own. No one really wanted to wait, so we just headed out. Probably not our wisest decision. The ruins of Pachacamac are quite ruined. They are in the process of restoring them, so people can get an idea of what it looked like, but at the moment, there isn't a whole lot to see. You can see the stack of rocks that used to be the Sun Temple, the foundation where the women lived, and the structure covering where the painted temple is, but that's about it. A guide would have probably been a far superior choice to get more out of it. In the museum, we learned that Pachcamac was the most important temple of the andean coast and many people made pilgrimmages to this site. Pachacamac is the oracle that predicts the future, so it was very important to the leaders of the time. 

No trip to Pachacamac is complete without a trip to the nearby Lurin for chicharron. We had 3 different types of chicharron - pork smoked in a barrel, pork steamed/cooked in caja china, and house chicharron. The smoked chicharron was my favorite, but they were all good. We also tried a juice called Jora - it is similar to chicha, but it is made with yellow corn and is fermented. 

4. Playa Playa Playa

We have lived on the coast of Peru for nearly 9 months and we'd been to the beach ONCE. Melissa, coming from the land-locked state of Missouri, wanted to make sure we got in another beach day before it gets too cold. We were thinking it would just be us and Wilfredo, possbiliy Prudencio and Graciela. Well, as it turns out, Maundy Thursday is a federal holiday in Peru, so no one had to work. We ended up with a solid group of 10 people that headed to the beach (Wilfredo, Prudencio, Livia, Melissa, Carlos, Gladys, Mirtha, Rocio, Melissa, and me). We also thought we'd only stay for 2 hours max, but everyone was enjoying themselves and 4/5 hours just slipped away. 

We played volleyball, some soccer, and of course in the waves. These were much calmer waves than last time, which was fine by me, less opportunity to get Prudencio'd. When we headed into the water you could see a huge flock of birds chilling out on the water. As it turns out, this is the place to get your pejerrey (king fish) on. When the waves came in, they were full of fish and then as the water went out the fish slapped all over your legs. It was a super weird feeling. After getting over the initial shock of being fish slapped, we attempted to catch some, but they be slippery suckers, though added fun in the water.

Well, that's a start to the Lima Bucket List. We are going to be in Huanuco for the next month, so we'll have to kick out the rest of the items when we get back. Somethings left are: Larco Museum, Bike Tour of Lima, Run at the Beach, Amaz Restuarant, and Ceviche by the Market. Gotta see the sites, eat the food, and get some culture before we head out. 

~nos vemos~ 

P.S. We celebrated Karen's 23rd birthday last night. :) It was fun to chat with the family people and eat some yummy cake.

Puno - Lake Titicaca

Puno Blog Post: 

Puno - Lago Titicaca (Pronounced Titi-jaja by locals)

So, after our walking intensive adventure in Colca Canyon, we headed to Puno for the sitting intensive part of the trip. Just to give you an idea of the amount of sitting here is what our itinerary was: 

1. 6 Hour Bus Ride from Arequipa to Puno
2. 1.5 Hour Boat Ride to Islas de Los Uros
3. 2 Hours, 40 Minute Boat Ride from Uros to Amantani
4. 2 Hour Boat Ride from Amantani to Taquile
5. 3 Hour Boat Ride from Taquile back to Puno
6. 6 Hour Bus Ride from Puno back to Arequipa

Lots. Of. Sitting. 

But don't worry, we also did more high altitude walking, which never seems to get easier. 

To start out our journey in Puno, we were told there were some miradors to walk to for a cool view of the city. First, we were told the Huajsapata mirador was close and easy to get to. We start walking there and notice a group of half a dozen or so teenagers headed up to the mirador. We start up, with a little suspicion, then a local asks us where we're going and when we say up to the lookout, she said it is best not to visit that one and to take a taxi to the Condor mirador. So we took her advice. We didn't need to tempt fate. So, we catch a cab for S/.3 over to the Condor. Well, sort of. The taxi pulled up to the sign that said go this way...you follow the arrow over with your eyes and it is just stairs going straight UP. So we climbed the million stairs at the very high altitude, I think Puno is like 3000m above sea level, but don't quote me on that. If I had internet, I'd check my facts. (Presently in the car on the way back to Huanuco - hopefully only 2 more hours! We left at 6am...) It was beautiful once we got up there, and just in time for sunset too. The islands on the lake were too far out to see, but you get an idea of the layout of the city of Puno and the expanse of the Lake. It's huge. The condor statute at the top was also fun to see. There's not much else do to in the city besides eat, try Huajsapata, shop for souveniers, check out the main square, and enjoy the art in the streets. 

The next 2 days, we spent out on the Lake and at the islands: Uros, Amantani, and Taquile. Uros is a floating island, meaning that it is a man-made island made of reeds, but it is anchored down, so they don't float into Bolivia - need a passport for that. We got a quick explanation for how they grow the reeds to be big enough to support an entire community. There are about 30 floating islands. The one that we visited had 10 families living there. Each family has their own hut and we had the opportunity to visit Elsa's. She told us about life on the island. They share 3 kitchen huts between the families. They have a separate island to go to the bathroom about 1km away, so the potty water doesn't contaminate their potable water as they use the water straight out of the lake for drinking and cooking. If I'm not mistaken, the water in the Lake is salty. The main source of work is making crafts to sell to the tourists and fishing. The Canadians and Australians contributed the King Fish and Trout to the Lake's fish species. Unfortunately, they are bigger and are eating the native fish. Fortunately, I didn't feel bad about helping reduce their trout population - YUM. Their main mode of transportation is obviously boat - they have motor boat, but they also have reed boats - called balsas (sp?) - but more commonly known as the Mercedes Benz. Elsa told us they go into Puno about once a week to get milk and other things they can't maintain on the island. The kids go to school on another island, which happened to be about 5km away from the island we visited. The floating islands became home to many during the Spanish conquests to escape their rule. Interesting stuff! 

The Island of Amantani is where we stayed the night with Luisa's family in the Santa Rosa Community. Her house is no easy walk from the dock, another uphill adventure. Amantani is the largest of the Peruvian islands (the Sun Island is the biggest, but it is on the Bolivia side) with approximately 2500 inhabitants, divided into 10 communities - it's bigger than Lamoni, IA! Haha. We stayed at Luisa's with 2 other girls from our tour, Amanda and Jo. It was cool to have some different company. Fortunately, walking up to Luisa's house got up about halfway up to the Temple of Pachatata (Father Earth), which is 4145m above sea level. From there we could see the Boolivian side of the Lake. The Lake is split, 60/40, but depends on who you ask who has the 60 and who has the 40, Peruvians or Bolivians. Also, they joke that Peru is the "Titi" part, which doesn't have any significance, and that Bolivia is the "caca" part of the name, which you can figure out why. Friendly rivalry. Another note, the Peruvians speak Quechua, while the Bolivians speak Imari (they speak Imari on the floating islands, primarily). Everyone seems to know Spanish too. That night, we had a little celebration where we dressed up in typical island dress and went dancing (or rather, running in circles doing our best to twirl our skirts)!!  

L-R: Me, Melissa, Jo, and Amanda - Luisa got all us dressed
and tied up in our skirts, shirts, belts, and head wrap/shawl. 

The Island of Taquile is known for its textiles and their knitting men. Before lunch, we had a presentation on the hats the men wear. First, they are shaped like a flower on the island, sort of like a bell. The single men wear red and white hats and are more ornate and finely made than the married man's hat. Women decide whether someone is husband material in part baased on how well they made their hat. Married men wear a red hat. The boys are taught how to knit when they are very young. They showed us one thing, like a back support wrap, that was made using women's hair. Weird. They knit with the smallest needles I have ever seen. They have to use incredibly fine yarn. As the people wander around on the island they work on spooling (is that a word?) their string. Good way to multi-task. 

The final hurrah on the islands was the delicious lunch. We had quinoa soup, trout, and coca/muna mixed tea. If you ever go, I highly recommend that lunch. 

When we got back to Puno, we met up with Amanda and went out to dinner. Turns out the Colombian girls on our tour picked the same restaurant, so we sort of had dinner with them too. I got in another alpaca dish, it's really quite good. I would recommend eating that over guinea pig, if you're up for something a little different. We also had some tasty sours - Coca, Muna, and regular. 

Before we headed to our bus, we headed out of Puno to visit Sillustani (another hour long drive, btw). It has the ruins of the tombs of the pre-Incans (Kollas, Lupacas, & Pakaje) and Incans. The pre-Incans used smaller rocks to build cylindrical structures to enclose the dead. The Incans, with their things for really big rocks, took it a step farther and encase the pre-Incan structures in another layer of smooth, I think volcanic, rock. Incans averaged about 2m - 6ft tall and must have been ridiculously strong to construct the things they built without modern technology. 

Vidal was our guide for Sillustani. He explained a lot more about the lake, than our guide did on the lake, which was cool to hear about. The best part is the stories. Vidal grew up on the Uros island, so he had more insight into the beliefs and traditions of the lake people. Apparently, for a long time, the people believed Lake Titicaca was formed much like the Noah's Ark story - there was a city at the bottom of the lake, but they were misbehaving, so it flooded and the survivors had to restart civilization. Also, I'm not sure I mentioned it in my Cusco blog, but the Incans believed the condors represented the heavens, pumas represented the earth, and snakes represented the underworld. We asked which one the people feared most, and Vidal said the condors, which surprised me. Anyway, he told us this story about a community back in the day that had people that were human for during the day and condor form during the night. One of these condor people fell in love with a woman. Her community was none too pleased about this and tried to keep them apart. However, the condor man was not about that, so he took her to his cave far away from the people. He would go to the community to get food and other necesseties for the woman to survive. Eventually, they had some condor/human babies. It became suspicious what the condor man was doing when he went into the city for supplies, so one day the woman's father followed the condor man back to his cave, where he found his daughter and grandkids. The father returned his family back to the city and plucked out all of the kids' feathers. The condor man was not happy about this and destroyed the city. Instilled quite a bit of fear. 

There isn't a ton to do in Puno and on the Lake (too cold to swim), but it's a place with a lot of character, just gotta find it, and of course, lots of history. We met a lot of cool people and saw some beautiful places, so definitely worth the trip. 

~nos vemos~