A Day of Adventure in Chulucanas

Hola, yesterday I had a great time on our recent trip to the nearby city of Chulucanas.  My brother and I loaded the Piura-Chulucans bus around 7 am as we wanted to be there before it got to hot.  The bus ride was real short (40 mins or so) when we arrived we met up with my brothers friend from university, Lucho.  We went around on his motorcycle looking at all the beautiful areas in the city.  In 40 minutes we had gone from the dry and arid landscape of Piura, to a lush jungle setting.  Later around miday we took the motorcycle up along the river, towards the mountains.  When we arrived to the highest point of the river we found a calm place and hopped into the icy water, it was a huge relief from the 38 C temperature.  (Here we also encountered one of the largest sketchiest spiders I've ever seen,photo below.)  We swam for a while then returned to make it for lunch before having to catch the bus back to Piura.  That night in Piura I went out and got some burgers with friends from school I hadnt seen in a while.  Now today Im heading off to a day-time going away party for an AFS student. Adiosss.

  

        

The Daily Life

Hola, this post would be more as an update and a look into my daily-life routine in Peru.  The city has now reached 39 C so going out is not very recommended during the day.  Most days in the morning (or evening we switch off) I go swim laps with my brother.Recently I returned from an outdoor pool after forgetting to put on sunscreen, I still look like a lobster.  After in the evenings or nights of the weekdays I usually go out and grab a bite to eat in the street.  Most of the time at night we watch a movie with the family.  So all in all in the week it is nice and relaxing, only really crazy in the weekends :)  Unfortunately there has been a little problem, when this week after having had to much pain that i could deal with, I went to the dentist to have a look at something that had been bothering me.  It turned out to be rather serious, I have another appointment tomorrow and they seem to be considering a root canal surgery.  So, we shall see how that goes.In other news, I start school the 3rd of March, and travel around Peru in Febuary.  This Sunday with AFS we will be returning to the beach of Mancora for some fun:)  Thats about it for now on life in Peru!

Tumbes y Ano Nuevo

Hola, I'm going to try and write a bit more from now on at request of my father:)  This Monday I returned from my weekend trip to the city of Tumbes, around 5 hours north of Piura.  I went with Simon and my brother (same as the Trujillo group,) and other friends from my brothers Derechos (rights) class at the University.  We had all be invited to travel to Tumbes on behalf of Sr. Luis Guerrero, a friend and fellow student of Gabriel's.  The reason for the invitation was that Luis is in the military of Piura and was being promoted for Comandante to Coronel, an extremely illustrious post.  We arrived early in the morning on Friday, went to our hotel, and slept until it was a fit time to walk about.  We did the usual tourist things, e.g., walk around the Plaza de Armas, snap photos of everything, and eat at the local restaurants.  Around 1 we returned to our hotel to prepare ourselves for a former lunch with Luis, his family, and guests.  I threw on a nice button up shirt (compliments of my brother as I have none to call my own) and nice black pants.  The restaurant was extremely large, with a stage, live band, and dance floor.  Now as eating goes in Tumbes it was extremely hard for me as Tumbes es la Casa del Pescado (the house of fish) or El Infierno de Cedric.  With my allergy and having forgot my medication (oops) I was forced to stay away from most of the food.  Fortunately, Luis upon seeing I was not eating (he had ordered humongous amounts of fish and seafood platters for his 50+ guests) asked, and was explained of my predicament.  Luis, being an exceptionally nice man, immediately ordered an enormous chicken plate with a large side of Papas Fritas.  Then came the beer.  What was a formal dinner, turned into a new toast every twenty minutes with an unending supply of beer, and the entire table going to the dance floor.  Around 11:30pm we had all gotten our fill (some more than recommended) of Cristal and began departing to our hotel.  The next day was especially exciting as it was the day of the ceremony, at 11pm we went to the military base, sat in chairs under 38 C weather and hoped for the best.  It ended up being an extremely long (sometimes boring yet extremely interesting) military promotion.  We ended taking many wonderful photos with Luis and others in the crowd.  The fun part was when Luis gave his speech to the crowd (300 guests + personnel) he mentioned Simon and I, "Thank you for my friend Cedric and Simon who have traveled from France and Belgium to see me."  Exaggeration...yes.. Extremely thoughtful...ABSOLUTELY.  After the ceremony we relaxed and slept till we were ready to board the truck to the beach for our New Years Celebrations.  What I had presumed would be a "short" ride turned out to be 45 minutes in the bed of a speeding pickup.  Once we arrived we pitched tents made a huge fire and kicked back with beers, music, and fireworks.  When the clock struck the new year the fireworks went off and the hugs went all around as is customary in most cultures.  After midnight we left our area on the beach and went and found a bunch of other wild beach parties (the memory blurry form here ;) .)  Although, the night took an alarming turn as the General of the Navy contacted Luis and told him beached had to be evacuated as an underwater earthquake had stuck in Japan and there was a possibility of a tsunami on our coast.  We packed in less than 15 minutes and I found myself sailing to my hotel bed (again in the back of the pickup.)  Even though it was a wild night, it turned out to be the earliest I've ever been to bed on New Years.  The next day around 6 we made our way home, the city of Piura.  Although I enjoyed Tumbes I will not be missing the land of fish anytime soon.

    

              

  

 

                                                                                

Trujillo

Hola, I am writing about a recent trip I returned from to the city of Trujillo.  It is located south of Piura along the coast.  Trujillo is the third most important city in Peru, and is much larger in size than Piura.  While there we were staying at Simon's "uncles" house near the center.  The uncle and his family were extremely nice and there house was beautiful and perfectly situated in the city, also across the hall from us lived a 104 yr old woman, who had many interesting things to say.  The first day we had a chillax day where we went into the city center and visited the market, the city square, cathedrals, etc.  After that, in the afternoon we headed to Huanchaco, a famous surfing beach.  Unfortunately for us we had not read any forecast and we were soon chased away by the rain.  The next day we headed at 11 am to the tour we had previously scheduled the day before, it was absolutely beautiful.  The tour took us to Huaca de la Luna y Huaca del sol, museums, and a nice local restaurant.  After which we chose not to go to the second half of the tour that day as Simon was feeling extremely sick.  The next morning we headed to the beach nice and early and had a wonderful time swimming around and having a great time.  Around 230 pm we started the second leg of our tour, we were taken to Huaca Aca Oiris, Chan Chan, and various on-site museums.  The guides were extremely good, and there explanations of the different temples made it fascinating for me.  Later that night we headed to a bar for a few beers and saw a live peruvian bad, El Mecano, they were wonderful and captivated our attention for a better part of the night.  The next day we returned to Piura by bus around one in the afternoon.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

December, Talent Show, Navidad

Hola, now as we enter Christmas and I have not posted for a while many things have begun to arise.  To start with AFS had a talent show in which every AFS student was told to present a talent and bring a dish from their home country.  I told jokes with my friend Simon and made some crepes for them to try.  Others played the piano, guitar, sang, etc.  A few days later we left for Chiclayo with our AFS group, its around 3 hours south from Piura.  There we visited the museum, the nearby beach, and hit the discotecas at night.  The museum was very interesting as it shed light on the Moche culture, and the tombs of Senor de Sipan.  The club was extremely fun although it got pretty hectic near the end.

  

   

   

  
 The next day we went to the beach, which turned out to be a muddy, very windy, cold beach (we were all pretty dissapointed.)  When we returned to Piura I was greeted at my house with Christmas decorations everywhere, since it has been getting hotter and hotter, Christmas had slipped my mind.  It was extremely fun putting the lights on the tree with the kids, they look adorable in there Santa Hats.  With AFS we are doing a volunteer activity for Christmas where we are making goodie bags with candies and cookies to give out to under-privileged children at the english school.     Also since we just passed the summer solstice we have been having wonderful sunsets, I will post some pictures.  Feliz Navidad a todos!!!