To the south we go!!

Helllllo there everyone, I have been away from writing my blog recently as I have been busy running around Piura visiting and playing with the kids. They are out of school on vacation for Las Fiestas Patrias. This is when all of Peru has days off for the week surrounding the 28th of July, Peruvian independence day. This year marked 192 years that Peru is free from the grasp of the horrible spanish! Hahah. The last week has been super fun as weve been partying alot at night as is customary for this week. Id forgotten how much I lover dancing! Although 4 plus hours of salsa, cumbia, and reggaeton every night sure leaves ones calves dead the next day! Now that everything has calmed down after the parties my brother and I are getting ready to go down to Arequipa to start our cross-country road trip. We had a few hiccups this week getting prepared ( money wise) but now that we have everything figured out we are boarding the bus and beginning the tedious 34 hour bus trip down south. Photos and updates will be posted every day from our trip. Stay tuned!!

Mancora Tierra de Amor

Oof what a packed weekend! After having a fun reunion night with my good friend Simon, my brother and I woke up at 530 am and packed for our trip to the beach. At six oclock my friends Ian and Eduardo showed up at my house and we all left for the Eppo bus terminal. As usual we chose the cheapest possible bus and found ourselves cramped in tiny seats for a long five hour drive, but it was so worth it. We arrived around noon dying of hunger, so we quickly got our rooms at the Arena blanca hotel and went to eat at the restaraunt across the street. We spent the rest of the day playing around in the waves, checking out the local shops, and having intense feusball tournaments. Our hotel had a super old rickety feusball table that was extremely fun to play on.

Later in the afternoon (la tarde) we rested and watched a movie in order to be completely awake for the night ahead. It turned out to be a bittersweet night to say the least haha. To begin with we stumbled into some very bad luck when my computer slipped out of my backpack and went tomahawking down a flight of stairs. I sadly announce the death of my beloved Toshiba laptop ;(  After that the night started getting fun as we had a wonderful dinner and did some dancing on the beach. Unfortunately we stubled into some VERY bad luck as we were getting ready to go out to the clubs. My brother slipped in the shower and hit his head very hard, he started bleeding everywhere and I thought he was going to need stiches. Luckily after cleaning it off well we saw that it was just a big scrape and nothing to worry about (head wounds bleed quite a bit so they can be deceiving) still it was a hard hit to te head so it was decided the best for him would be to stay away from drinking and partying and go to bed early. The three of us that were left went out to the bars and had fun but we didnt stay out very late as we were worried for Gabo.

The next morning before heading out to the beach we went to the medico to get him checked out. They assured us that it was a small cut and that hed be fine as long as he keeps it clean. Feeling better about the situation we headed out to the beach for a long and awesome day of body surfing. Around six we saw my friend Simon as he had brought his family to the beach as well. We started the nights partying by me teaching the group how to play the classic game "Kings Cup." (with fruit juice only of course!!) Everyone liked it a lot and we headed out to the bars for an awesome final night. The next morning we boarded the bus around 8 am and slept the whole way back to Piura. Overall it was a very fun weekend!! I am now staying in Piura for the week as my brother and I prep for our cross-country trip. Stay tuned!!

Living the Life

Ahhh sometimes I find myself wishing I could be on vacation all the time Im having so much fun! I have been scurrying around the city visiting whilst helping my brother with his multiple projects. Our house here has two stories and there are 5 rooms upstairs that are rented out, Gabriels job is to furnish and maintain them and recently I have been helping him in doing so. I also attempted to finesse my teaching skills as my little brother had an English test this week that he needed to study for. We hit the books and went over the classic stuff (hat, shirt,dress, etc) Being around the kids makes me never want to leave they are so adorable! Every day once they've finished having lunch and completed all their homework we walk over to the park and play around, usually focusing on the swing because they are the most fun :) The other day I was pushing my brother on the swing and it swung back and hit me super hard in the stomach, hahah I collapsed to the floor in pain much to the amusement of everyone in the park!! A little bruised but I'll survive.  Yesterday was a fun night as my friends Ian and Eduardo from my school Las Arenas showed up and we partied a bit. It was the first time they had ever played kings cup! Imagine that. Im super super excited for today because my good friend Simon (a belgian AFS student who was here the same year as me) just arrived in Piura to visit his family as well. Tonight Im going to a surprise party for his return, itll be super fun! I have exciting plans for the weekend as my brother and I decided to take off to Mancora saturday morning for a bit of fun in the sun! I havent swam in forever it feels like and this will be a nice time to do it. Im having a wonderful time and cant begin to explain how much I love being here. The people, the food, all of it is wonderful!! Here are a bunch of pictures of me and the kids. (mostly the kids because theyre cuter!) Ciao and until next time.

First Days Back in Paradise

Hello everybody I'm back with some storytelling from my favorite country: Peru. On the plane ride over I was treated with a spectacular show of power in the night sky. An enormous thunderstorm hit as we were flying over Mexico and the clouds were painted with white and orange explosions of light. Although beautiful, staring out the window kept me from sleeping throughout the night. I arrived in Lima around 7am and was greeted by my older brother Gabriel at the airport exit.

We wanted to leave directly to my hometown of Piura ( a 15hr bus ride) but all the busses were scheduled to leave around 7pm. So my brother and I walked around until we found a nice hotel room where I could grab some sleep and shower up before our tremendous journey up north. Around 8 oclock that night (after a huge chicken dinner) my brother and I boarded a Flores bus and started what would be a slooooooooow drive up to Piura. After multiple movies (one of them being Les Intouchables, a wonderful french flick) and hours of sleep, we finally exited the bus around 11am in Piura. At this point I was bubbling with excitement at the idea of seeing my little sister and brother. A few hours later as I was napping after a hearty Peruvian lunch and was awoken by the delighted screeches of my little sister Alejandra Libertad.

 :) I was soooo happy to see her, and we spent the next hours playing all our old games and running around the house together. After a while it came time to pick up my little brother, Albert, from school. At first he walked slowly through the courtyard of his school but upon catching sight of my face amongst all the other parents, he dropped his backpack and broke into a sprint before throwing himself into my arms. Had I not been in a school around a bunch of people I woulda started crying like a baby, I was soooo pumped to see him.

I walked him back home and was greeted by my mother Julia who had just returned from work. Now I was officially reunited with my whole family from last year (besides my sister Patty who is in the south, I will visit her later this month). That night I took my brother to see Pacific Rim in 3d. WARNING if you dont like shaky movies where you feel like puking the whole time I would not recommend this roller-coaster of a movie. We went home satisfied with our choice and slept till this morning when we were awoken by the chaos of kids getting ready for school. Today was a relax day in which I took care of certain things : money from the bank and buying some things at the market. Id forgotten how much I love the vibe of the huge open-air markets where everything is disorganized. Hehe sorry for the novel of an entry but Im having a great time! Till next time, ciao y adios! Oh we also now have a dog Lucho that looks like a walking rug----

Life in the South

Hello there, have not been able to write in a while as these past weeks have been a real roller-coaster. To begin with, I have no internet anymore at my house, which makes the whole blogging thing hard. Around the 20^th of Febuary my family and I moved to a new house near Santa Isabel Parque, about two streets down from where we were before. My house is absolutely great and the park is so beautiful. We have been doing construction and touch-ups in the house for the past three weeks. As it is a 12-room house and there are eight of us in it at any given time, its lots of work.We will be living in the ottom half of the house (6 rooms) and renting the other 6 out. At 180 thousand dollars for 12 rooms I'd say that some good real-estate. As well I have come down with an extremely heavy fever and bronchitis. :( Around a week ago (when this was happening) my fever got really bad and I was forced to the hospital. I got all the medication and was all well but this week I've fallen back a bit. Been resting well and believe I've shooken most of it off so thats good :)Besides that school is going pretty well, I've met a good number of cool people there this year. I have also begun participating more in classes(especially art.) In other news my Peruvian grandmother surprised the family and showed up out of the blue two weeks ago. Shes great and has the benefit of being a cook, so there is never a lack of food now. She also speaks Quechua fluently, a language I'd be interested in learning. Also Semana Santa recently passed, this is an extremely important group of days in the Catholic calender, and consequently in the Peruvian culture. It was a wonderful time to be with the family and have the kids home to do things; unfortunately with the construction and my fever we didnt make it to the beach. And thats about it :) sadly the days are starting to count down, around 75-80 days left :( I will be uploading pictures soon once i figure out a new camera situation 

Biking El ChaChani

Upon return from Puno we did some better planning with Nick to fit our new budget and take in the factor that my camera had been robbed, so pictures were limited to an iPhone's lenses.  We decided to stay around Arequipa for a few days as it has some seriously beautiful things surrounding it.  First we decided to head to ChaChani (skirt in Quechua,) an extremely tall mountain resting at  6,905 m (19,997ft) we would go near the peak by car and later downhill bike back to our hotel.  We had a schedule mix-up and we wound up leaving biking with all our warm clothes still wet and drying.  We went up to a snowy mountain in shorts, t-shirts, and thin wind-breakers.  I was also extremely happy because once we reached near to the top it began snowing.  I really missed snow so it was good to see :)  We began riding down, took breaks when someone fell or broke a bike (ended up being a common thing for me.)  Halfway down and four bikes later, I was keeled over on the side of the trail throwing up from altitude sickness.  After a few coca leaves and some stream water we headed off again.  The bike ride ended up being one of the funnest things I have done in a really long time.  The trail was pretty intense with huge ditches and jumps (also the fact it was raining at times.)  At the end it changed to windy pavement and I had the time of my life bombing down nice pavement and ripping around the corners.  Near the end of the trail, we entered the slums surrounding the edges of the city; we were instructed to dodge the dogs that would attack us.  Extremely confused we kept going until very soon groups of German shepards, rottweiler's, and various other sketchy dogs began chasing us and barking.  It was actually pretty awesome we just pedaled very fast and kicked out our legs protectively at times.  We later rode through the city until we reached el Mirador.  All in all the biking was wonderful.             

Viaje-Puno

Our bus ride from Arequipa to Puno was around 8 hours of absolute horrible driving.  We first arrive in Juliaca, a city around 45 minutes away from Puno.  We ate some food there and got on a chombi to Puno.  When we got there we spent a good while searching for our hotel in the pouring rain.  It rains so hard there that the streets literally become rivers.  That night we went with some of Gabriel's friends to the club and had a pretty wild night coming back home around 4 or 5 am.  The next day we went to the lake Titicaca which was absolutely beautiful (unfortunately my camera got stolen the next day and the pictures aren't here.)  We were there for quite a while and returned in the afternoon to buy our tickets for seats at the festival the next day.  After running some errands to the bus empresa we sent the girls home and hit the bar.  For quite a while we played dice at the bar with huge vases full of rum&coke.  We met some girls and hit the club, we partied super hard: whiskey getting fed to me upside down on a bar, and dancing for 7 hours.  The details of the rest of the night are rather obscure ;) but all in all it was an extremely crazy night.  The next day we woke up rather early (impressively so) and went to the street where our seats were waiting for us.  For the next six hours we watched La Festival Virgen de la Candelaria, it was an absolutely beautiful festival.  People of all ages danced through the street in some of the most well done costumes I have ever seen.  Everyone present was having an apparently endless supply of beer, and other various liquors.  There were many women drinking straight scotch when they were around 80 some odd years old.  Although I have yet to learn exactly what the festival is celebrating, since noone is able to provide a good answer, the best I learned yet was this: "The festival has two main phases. The first is El Dia Pincipal y Su Ritios in which a procession carries the statue of the Virgen around the city, and dancers in lavish costumes from all walks of life join the parade. The dancers, by group, pause in front of the cathedral to be blessed with holy water, after which they are cooled with water thrown from nearby houses."     From then on we continued to dance and party in the street until we finally loaded back into the bus, exhausted from the four days behind us.  All in all Puno was an amazing city with wonderful scenery and amazing people, the truly live up to the name of the  Folkloric Capital of Peru.