Sunday: We left at about 8 am with Matt and met up with some other volunteers named Signe and Troels, and we caught a bus down to Pisac, which is in the Sacred Valley. Apparently the market is in full swing on Sundays, so we spent a couple hours just wandering around there and checking out all the cool stuff. Then Kass, Signe, Troels, and I took a taxi up to the very top of the ruins around Pisac. (Matt had already hiked them so he just caught the bus back home.) It took us about 4 hours to get all the way back down the mountain to Pisac, but the trail was absolutely gorgeous and the ruins were amazing! I was kinda expecting for the ruins out here to start to all look the same, but every new one we see is just incredible. We had a lot of fun hiking around and taking silly pictures. We then got on a bus back to Cuzco at about 5 pm, and it only seats about 28 people, and the seats were all taken, so we had to stand on our already tired feet. That wouldn't have been too bad, but then they proceeded to CRAM people on that bus until there were literally 61 of us. Oh yes. I counted. And we were packed in like that for the entire 45 minute bus ride. It was ridiculous. But an adventure, nonetheless!
Monday: We did our morning work at Ayarmaca, and then Kass and I went to the Centro de Arsenal and got a few more souvenirs for ourselves and families. After lunch we headed out with our two new roommates, Jack and Eric, to explore a little more of Cuzco. We went up to San Blas, and then down to the San Pedro market where we tried some fruit juice...it's pretty cool actually, you pick the fruits and they blend em up right in front of you, and they don't add any water or anything to it so it kinda has a milkshake-like texture. Pretty tasty. So we just walked around for a few hours, stopped in a few stores, and just did Gringo-y things. A pretty chill day compared to this weekend!
ALSO. I forgot to mention this on Saturday: Kassie and I have officially tried cocaine. :) haha not in THAT way, of course. But coca leaves are extremely popular here in Peru, as kind of a "cure all" type thing. Coca tea is the main thing they use, but they also take coca leaves and chew them up for about 15 minutes to help with altitude sickness. So when we went horseback riding, our guide gave us all some coca leaves to try to help with the altitude. Kass and I weren't having any trouble but we figured we would try it anyways...it was nasty. We chewed it for about a minute and then spit it out. :) BUT! We tried it. Rock on.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
May 7th
It's hard to believe that a week ago, I was staying up late packing and getting ready to leave super early the next morning. Weird.
I got to call home last night for a little bit and talk to my mom, which was great! It was also a little weird just cause all of a sudden home sounded so CLOSE, instead of a continent away.
Anywho, we started off this weekend's adventures with a 4 hour horseback ride through the other three ruins outside of Cuzco. We went with an company called Liz's Explorers. The whole thing was only $25.00 and it was worth every single penny! We started out at a local ranch just outside of Sacsayhuamán, and rode almost all the way up to Tambomachay (about 5 or 6 miles from Cuzco). We stopped at a field, our guide picked us up and showed us around Tambomachay and Puka Pukara, and then we got back on our horses to ride down to see Q'enqo (the Moon Temple) and get back down to the ranch. It was absolutely amazing. We were riding through gorgeous countryside, our guides were super funny and friendly, and we didn't have to walk! If any of you are planning to go to Cuzco, I highly recommend it.
After our fabulous morning, Kass and I walked back down to Cuzco (yeah. back down all those stairs that I swore never to step foot on again) and got a taxi down to the Plaza where we got some lunch. We then walked down to Maximo where they have free salsa lessons every Saturday, so we did that for a while, which was pretty fun! We're both exhausted so we probably won't do much more today, but we do have a new volunteer in the house that we'll go meet tonight. Since Jen left yesterday (which we were bummed about) it's just me, Kass, and Matt upstairs so it'll be cool to have someone else there as well. His name is Eric, but that's all we know about him so far. Anywho. We'll probably just relax tonight because tomorrow is another busy day!!
I got to call home last night for a little bit and talk to my mom, which was great! It was also a little weird just cause all of a sudden home sounded so CLOSE, instead of a continent away.
Anywho, we started off this weekend's adventures with a 4 hour horseback ride through the other three ruins outside of Cuzco. We went with an company called Liz's Explorers. The whole thing was only $25.00 and it was worth every single penny! We started out at a local ranch just outside of Sacsayhuamán, and rode almost all the way up to Tambomachay (about 5 or 6 miles from Cuzco). We stopped at a field, our guide picked us up and showed us around Tambomachay and Puka Pukara, and then we got back on our horses to ride down to see Q'enqo (the Moon Temple) and get back down to the ranch. It was absolutely amazing. We were riding through gorgeous countryside, our guides were super funny and friendly, and we didn't have to walk! If any of you are planning to go to Cuzco, I highly recommend it.
After our fabulous morning, Kass and I walked back down to Cuzco (yeah. back down all those stairs that I swore never to step foot on again) and got a taxi down to the Plaza where we got some lunch. We then walked down to Maximo where they have free salsa lessons every Saturday, so we did that for a while, which was pretty fun! We're both exhausted so we probably won't do much more today, but we do have a new volunteer in the house that we'll go meet tonight. Since Jen left yesterday (which we were bummed about) it's just me, Kass, and Matt upstairs so it'll be cool to have someone else there as well. His name is Eric, but that's all we know about him so far. Anywho. We'll probably just relax tonight because tomorrow is another busy day!!
Friday, May 6, 2011
May 6th
Since this weekend is going to be pretty crazy, I´m going to have to post now so I have less to write later. Such is my laziness. HOWEVER. My laziness only extends that far here in Peru, for this morning we got up and walked a couple miles to the top of a hill just outside of Cusco to go see Sacsayhuamán. Which, let me tell you, (and Kassie can attest to this), was no easy task. We walked up to Maximo to use an ATM, took a taxi to the Plaza de Armas, and then walked the rest of the way. We had to climb 6 extremely long and steep flights of stone stairs to get up the hill. That combined with the altitude...yeah. Craziness. It took us about 40 minutes, so not too long, but definitely won´t be climbing those nasty stairs again anytime soon. When we got to the top however, it was all worth it. We could see the entire city of Cuzco, the weather was gorgeous, and we were standing in ancient Incan ruins!
Just outside of Cuzco there are four ruins, all pretty close together. Sacsayhuamán is the lowest of the four. It was the capital of the ancient Incan empire, and it´s HUGE. It´s a great big fortress with super tall walls, and then there are terraces and doorways all throughout it. Right in the middle there´s a great big field, which is believed to have been a courtyard type thing. And of course, it´s all built with stones that somehow fit perfectly together, no mortar or anything. Yet you couldn´t even fit a piece of paper in between two of them, that´s how well it´s built. The precision is incredible. It took about 77 years to make, and the largest stone weighs about 70 tons!! Those Incans must´ve been BEASTS to have lifted all those stones and put that all together. Jeesh.
The walk back down was MUCH easier, since it was all downhill, and I got souvenirs for my brothers on the way. (Don´t worry, Manda, Meagan, and parents, I´m getting stuff for you too!) Since it was so great out, we stopped at this little ice cream window shop a few doors down from Maximo and had our first taste of Peruvian ice cream. We asked the dude who was serving it which was his favorite and he pointed to the chocolate chip kind...I´m not a fan of chocolate chip ice cream but I figured I might as well, so we both got it...oh my. SO GOOD. It doesn´t taste like regular ice cream. And the best part?? It´s under a dollar. Oh yes. Lovin how cheap everything is here.
Just outside of Cuzco there are four ruins, all pretty close together. Sacsayhuamán is the lowest of the four. It was the capital of the ancient Incan empire, and it´s HUGE. It´s a great big fortress with super tall walls, and then there are terraces and doorways all throughout it. Right in the middle there´s a great big field, which is believed to have been a courtyard type thing. And of course, it´s all built with stones that somehow fit perfectly together, no mortar or anything. Yet you couldn´t even fit a piece of paper in between two of them, that´s how well it´s built. The precision is incredible. It took about 77 years to make, and the largest stone weighs about 70 tons!! Those Incans must´ve been BEASTS to have lifted all those stones and put that all together. Jeesh.
The walk back down was MUCH easier, since it was all downhill, and I got souvenirs for my brothers on the way. (Don´t worry, Manda, Meagan, and parents, I´m getting stuff for you too!) Since it was so great out, we stopped at this little ice cream window shop a few doors down from Maximo and had our first taste of Peruvian ice cream. We asked the dude who was serving it which was his favorite and he pointed to the chocolate chip kind...I´m not a fan of chocolate chip ice cream but I figured I might as well, so we both got it...oh my. SO GOOD. It doesn´t taste like regular ice cream. And the best part?? It´s under a dollar. Oh yes. Lovin how cheap everything is here.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
May 5th
Oh boy. Peru continues to amaze me. LOVIN IT.
Today was our third day at the preschool we´re working at, and the kids remain as adorable and easy-going as ever. We brought some stuff to make flower hair clips and we made them with the kids...they each made one for their moms for Mother´s Day and then the girls made one for themselves as well. So today was their Mother´s Day celebration, and we put the flowers in their hair and they sang songs for their moms and such. They are SO cute! Kassie and I have fallen in love with this little boy named Yampol. He´s the cutest kid the world has ever seen. For real.
We´re still really enjoying Cuzco, and we´ve become more accustomed to the altitude, though it´s still not as great as back home. The one thing I can´t wait to have back in the U.S. is BREATHING. Besides having thin air because of the altitude, the air quality here is terrible. Seriously, walking our regular route every morning, we´ve learned to hold our breath for certain parts because it smells so terrible.
Other than that, we haven´t really done anything too exciting to write about since Monday, but this weekend will be jam-packed full of adventures, which I will tell you about after we get back :)
Today was our third day at the preschool we´re working at, and the kids remain as adorable and easy-going as ever. We brought some stuff to make flower hair clips and we made them with the kids...they each made one for their moms for Mother´s Day and then the girls made one for themselves as well. So today was their Mother´s Day celebration, and we put the flowers in their hair and they sang songs for their moms and such. They are SO cute! Kassie and I have fallen in love with this little boy named Yampol. He´s the cutest kid the world has ever seen. For real.
We´re still really enjoying Cuzco, and we´ve become more accustomed to the altitude, though it´s still not as great as back home. The one thing I can´t wait to have back in the U.S. is BREATHING. Besides having thin air because of the altitude, the air quality here is terrible. Seriously, walking our regular route every morning, we´ve learned to hold our breath for certain parts because it smells so terrible.
Other than that, we haven´t really done anything too exciting to write about since Monday, but this weekend will be jam-packed full of adventures, which I will tell you about after we get back :)
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
First Couple of Days
Oh boy. I´ve only been here like three days so far and there´s already SO much to tell!! Sunday we didn´t really do much besides meet the other volunteers in our house (Matt, Jen, and Jacqueline) and the owner who is named Yoni. She is the nicest sweetest lady ever! She also only speaks Spanish, but she talks pretty slow and very clearly so we actually understand what she´s saying, even if we´re not sure how to respond in her language haha :) So we just relaxed and tried to get accustomed to the altitude (which, let me tell you, is a BUGGER. I can´t wait to get back home and take a lung-ful of oxygen. Mmm.) Monday, however, was a different story.
Monday: We woke up and walked the two blocks up the street to the Maximo Nivel offices. They´re the ones that are running our program and where everything is based. We had our orientation and learned the name of our placement which is Pronoel Ayarmaca, it´s a government-funded preschool that has about 20 kids and is very poor and understaffed.
After orientation we went next door to Patas, which is Maximo´s tourism partner, and signed up for Spanish classes and for our Machu Picchu trip for next weekend! AUGH! Stoked about that. As we were waiting around, one of the girls from our orientation came up to us and said that since we said we were from Utah, she was wondering if we were Mormon...we said yeah, and she said, "oh good, me too!" So we were pretty excited about that and we´re going to go to church together this Sunday.
We headed back to Yoni´s, had lunch, got our stuff together, and headed BACK to Maximo to email family and stuff for a little bit, and while we were there, we met these two girls from Canada named Annie and Lauren and got talking, and since we had nothing to do that day, we decided to walk up to the western end of the city and check out the Plaza de Armas and all the little tourist shops and such up there. We had a great time and got to know them pretty well, and they´re going to come to Machu Picchu with us! Woot!
After spending all day up there, we went our seperate ways, and Kass and I decided to stop at this HUGE souvenir shop just down the street from us, and we each got a sweater and a bag - both made from alpaca :) The best part? It all only cost twelve American dollars. Oh yeah. Lovin Peru and their "Soles". We had dinner with Yoni and the gang, and watched videos of Matt and Jen´s bungee jumping adventure they had on Sunday...it looked SO painful! We also watched this absolutely ridiculous Peruvian game show that´s on at dinner every night, it´s super funny. Can´t remember what it´s called though...anywho. We just sat around and talked and it was great.
Tuesday: Today was the first day of our program! We headed up to Maximo and met up with Andrea and Andreas (yeah, funny, I know) since they were going to come with us on our first day and show us how to get there and such. So we got on this little bus and rode for about twenty minutes to the opposite end of Cuzco to this tiny little preschool with about 20 kids. The teacher is named Ruth and she was super nice - we think, considering we have no idea what she was saying. She could well have been cursing at us. Haha jk :) But the kids were ADORABLE. Oh my goodness. She told us they wanted to sing a song for us, but when she tried to get them to start, they were all too shy except for this one little girl named Melani, and she sang for us all by herself! AWWW!!! So we just pretty much have to play with them and color and help them write their letters/numbers and stuff, pretty easy! Today we just played "catch" with them...and by catch, I mean, like ten kids grabbed a ball and chucked em at us while we desperately tried to catch them all and toss them back. It was great fun. (I have to quote my dad here, I was telling him about it today and he said, "Though I can't wait til some oober cute (SO CUTE) little child of innocence looks into your eyes and says something in Spanish you can't understand and then unloads their native peruvian breakfast on your shirt." Too true. It´ll happen, I´m sure. hahaha)
Also the weather up here is pretty weird, it´s really hot around like 10 or 11, and since we´re so high up, the sun is really intense. But then the sun goes down at about 5, and as soon as it goes down it gets SUPER cold. Ridiculous. Another super weird thing to get used to in Peru is...for you squeamish ones, just skip ahead...you have to throw all your toilet paper into the garbage instead of in the toilet. Ew. Ew. Ew. And yes, that includes your used paper. Nasty. haha anywho, so now we´re just waiting around for Spanish class to start, and then we´ll probably just chill around the house tonight and organize our room and such. I´ll tell more later! Ciao!
P.S. I apologize for the lack of pictures. Believe me, I´ve tried. The internet at Maximo is super slow and it´s not letting me upload any right now. Tomorrow or Thursday we´ll go to an internet cafe and hopefully it´ll work there. I´ll keep ya posted.
Monday: We woke up and walked the two blocks up the street to the Maximo Nivel offices. They´re the ones that are running our program and where everything is based. We had our orientation and learned the name of our placement which is Pronoel Ayarmaca, it´s a government-funded preschool that has about 20 kids and is very poor and understaffed.
After orientation we went next door to Patas, which is Maximo´s tourism partner, and signed up for Spanish classes and for our Machu Picchu trip for next weekend! AUGH! Stoked about that. As we were waiting around, one of the girls from our orientation came up to us and said that since we said we were from Utah, she was wondering if we were Mormon...we said yeah, and she said, "oh good, me too!" So we were pretty excited about that and we´re going to go to church together this Sunday.
We headed back to Yoni´s, had lunch, got our stuff together, and headed BACK to Maximo to email family and stuff for a little bit, and while we were there, we met these two girls from Canada named Annie and Lauren and got talking, and since we had nothing to do that day, we decided to walk up to the western end of the city and check out the Plaza de Armas and all the little tourist shops and such up there. We had a great time and got to know them pretty well, and they´re going to come to Machu Picchu with us! Woot!
After spending all day up there, we went our seperate ways, and Kass and I decided to stop at this HUGE souvenir shop just down the street from us, and we each got a sweater and a bag - both made from alpaca :) The best part? It all only cost twelve American dollars. Oh yeah. Lovin Peru and their "Soles". We had dinner with Yoni and the gang, and watched videos of Matt and Jen´s bungee jumping adventure they had on Sunday...it looked SO painful! We also watched this absolutely ridiculous Peruvian game show that´s on at dinner every night, it´s super funny. Can´t remember what it´s called though...anywho. We just sat around and talked and it was great.
Tuesday: Today was the first day of our program! We headed up to Maximo and met up with Andrea and Andreas (yeah, funny, I know) since they were going to come with us on our first day and show us how to get there and such. So we got on this little bus and rode for about twenty minutes to the opposite end of Cuzco to this tiny little preschool with about 20 kids. The teacher is named Ruth and she was super nice - we think, considering we have no idea what she was saying. She could well have been cursing at us. Haha jk :) But the kids were ADORABLE. Oh my goodness. She told us they wanted to sing a song for us, but when she tried to get them to start, they were all too shy except for this one little girl named Melani, and she sang for us all by herself! AWWW!!! So we just pretty much have to play with them and color and help them write their letters/numbers and stuff, pretty easy! Today we just played "catch" with them...and by catch, I mean, like ten kids grabbed a ball and chucked em at us while we desperately tried to catch them all and toss them back. It was great fun. (I have to quote my dad here, I was telling him about it today and he said, "Though I can't wait til some oober cute (SO CUTE) little child of innocence looks into your eyes and says something in Spanish you can't understand and then unloads their native peruvian breakfast on your shirt." Too true. It´ll happen, I´m sure. hahaha)
Also the weather up here is pretty weird, it´s really hot around like 10 or 11, and since we´re so high up, the sun is really intense. But then the sun goes down at about 5, and as soon as it goes down it gets SUPER cold. Ridiculous. Another super weird thing to get used to in Peru is...for you squeamish ones, just skip ahead...you have to throw all your toilet paper into the garbage instead of in the toilet. Ew. Ew. Ew. And yes, that includes your used paper. Nasty. haha anywho, so now we´re just waiting around for Spanish class to start, and then we´ll probably just chill around the house tonight and organize our room and such. I´ll tell more later! Ciao!
P.S. I apologize for the lack of pictures. Believe me, I´ve tried. The internet at Maximo is super slow and it´s not letting me upload any right now. Tomorrow or Thursday we´ll go to an internet cafe and hopefully it´ll work there. I´ll keep ya posted.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
We´re here!
Well folks, after an EXTREMELY long and tiring two days...I´M IN CUZCO!! And let me tell ya, it´s absolutely incredible. Let me tell you about my journey. (Warning: this will not be a very exciting post.)
My travels started at 3:30 am on Saturday, when my mom and I picked up Kassie and drove up to the Salt Lake airport. Getting there was an experience in and of itself, because Lil Miss Utah decided to have a blizzard. Oh yes. At the end of April. So that was nerve-wracking. BUT we made it to the airport on time and got on our 6:40 flight to San Fransisco.
Landed in San Fran at about 9..ish...and stood in lines and junk for a good majority of our 5 hour layover there. Whee. Caught the 1:55 pm flight to Lima...
...Which was nine stinkin hours long. Ugh. However, we passed the time with movies and games and it wasn´t TOO unbearable. We landed in Lima about midnight, and as we got off the plane we were informed that we were going to be put on an earlier flight to Cuzco. We were ecstatic, seeing as we were expecting a seven hour over-night layover in the Lima airport. It turned out to only be five hours with the earlier flight, and that was manageable. We exhanged some money for ¨soles¨ and headed to a pay phone to call the dude that was supposed to pick us up and had a heck of a time figuring out which coins to use haha :) But we finally figured it out and arranged to have the guy pick us up at the right time, and then headed to the gate. We took turns trying to get a few minutes of sleep while waiting at the gate, which didn´t really work cause it was pretty darn uncomfortable, but hey. We tried.
We finally got on the 5:35 am flight and flew for an hour into...drum roll please...CUZCO!! Flying over the city was SO cool, it´s just this little city nestled away in the mountains. They picked us up from the airport, and took us to the Maximo Nivel offices and showed us around there for a little bit, and then took us to our accomodation. We are staying in a little house with about five other volunteers (we got the ¨overflow¨ house) and they seem pretty nice! And it´s only two blocks away from the offices so we don´t even have to take a taxi.
I´ve only been here for a few hours and I´m already in love with the city. So many cool people and things to see, and I can´t wait to explore it all!
Love you all, more later.
My travels started at 3:30 am on Saturday, when my mom and I picked up Kassie and drove up to the Salt Lake airport. Getting there was an experience in and of itself, because Lil Miss Utah decided to have a blizzard. Oh yes. At the end of April. So that was nerve-wracking. BUT we made it to the airport on time and got on our 6:40 flight to San Fransisco.
Landed in San Fran at about 9..ish...and stood in lines and junk for a good majority of our 5 hour layover there. Whee. Caught the 1:55 pm flight to Lima...
...Which was nine stinkin hours long. Ugh. However, we passed the time with movies and games and it wasn´t TOO unbearable. We landed in Lima about midnight, and as we got off the plane we were informed that we were going to be put on an earlier flight to Cuzco. We were ecstatic, seeing as we were expecting a seven hour over-night layover in the Lima airport. It turned out to only be five hours with the earlier flight, and that was manageable. We exhanged some money for ¨soles¨ and headed to a pay phone to call the dude that was supposed to pick us up and had a heck of a time figuring out which coins to use haha :) But we finally figured it out and arranged to have the guy pick us up at the right time, and then headed to the gate. We took turns trying to get a few minutes of sleep while waiting at the gate, which didn´t really work cause it was pretty darn uncomfortable, but hey. We tried.
We finally got on the 5:35 am flight and flew for an hour into...drum roll please...CUZCO!! Flying over the city was SO cool, it´s just this little city nestled away in the mountains. They picked us up from the airport, and took us to the Maximo Nivel offices and showed us around there for a little bit, and then took us to our accomodation. We are staying in a little house with about five other volunteers (we got the ¨overflow¨ house) and they seem pretty nice! And it´s only two blocks away from the offices so we don´t even have to take a taxi.
I´ve only been here for a few hours and I´m already in love with the city. So many cool people and things to see, and I can´t wait to explore it all!
Love you all, more later.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Preface: Getting Excited
Well folks, if you've had any contact with me whatsoever in the past few months, you are well aware that I will be going to Peru for three weeks to work in orphanages! I leave on April 30th, and get back on May 24th. I'll be going with my BFF Kassie Jo, and we are SO excited! So I figured, what better way to keep you all updated about our little adventures than to make a blog about it?? (Also I just really like to blog. Sue me.) So stay tuned, for our journey starts early Saturday morning! See you then! Love, Ash.
P.S. In the meantime, feel free to keep yourself entertained by reading my other blog: http://ashleymusings.blogspot.com
P.S. In the meantime, feel free to keep yourself entertained by reading my other blog: http://ashleymusings.blogspot.com
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