So... yesterday I got peed on by a baby llama.
...my infatuation with the cutesy cuddly creatures has probably ended...
Daniel and I are in a mad tear to get to Maximo to get our taxi to the airport. We´re leaving for the amazon rainforest in two hours.... we´ll be back around lunch time Tuesday... but we wont have internet until then. So.... don´t worry !!!! As soon as i can get to internet on tuesday I´ll write even just to say we´re fine.
xoxoxoxoxo
Love you, Family!!!!!!!!!
-A.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Friday, August 10, 2012
¨The Island¨ continued...
Haayyy,
I sit here, with Daniel, in Puno at Balsa Inn (not to be mistook for bolsa which means Bag... we are NOT at Bag Inn... I know, I´m almost as disappointed as you...) after what is almost definitely the biggest and best meal we´ve had since arriving in Peru two weeks ago. It´s taken us a long time to write anything since the last week has been haywire with business and trips and all sorts of lacking interweb. Presently, we´re waiting for a taxi to bring us to the bus for our 7hr bus ride back to Cusco... so now is as good a time as any to cram in everything possible.
The Cauliflower story: we´ve been trying to decide where to stay for our last night in Cusco, as our prepaid days at the homestay are up as of August 12. I´ve been kind of on the cheapskate end saying we should pay the extra 45 bucks american to stay at the homestay again, but Daniel´s been feeling a little under the weather with the food (or lack thereof) that we´ve been getting. On the final day there for lunch before heading out to Lake Titicaca, we were served three pieces of cauliflower. . . and a bun... over the course of an hour and a half waiting at the table.... so, after lunch we decided that maybe we´ll splurge the extra 40 bucks or whatever to get a hotel that has continental breakfast. And THAT, is how the cauliflower changed the course of our journey!
In the cauliflowers defense, it was grilled in a pan and tasted MIGHTY fine to me. Just sayin´. lol.
So we had our last day of construction which was lovely. Lots of lifting and plastering and getting wet cement stuff down the shirt n in the hair, eyes... whatever.... all in good fun though. We had a great time with the other volunteers, as they were always in great spirits so I really enjoyed my time being manly helping build a preschool/daycare.
We packed up and headed to Puno over a 7hr overnight bus, then got here at around 530am. We were given until 8am at a hotel to sleep, pee, eat breakfast, and hightail it to the next taxi to take us to the dock where we´d catch our boat to take us to the first of three islands in Lake Titicaca. The breakfast was pretty sweet... and neither of us got sick which is always a plus. The first island is one of those islands made entirely of reeds and floats around all weird like. it was cool to visit, but not to live haha. It took about an hour to get to in our LUXURIOUS boat that was STATE OF THE ART and ENVIRIONMENTALLY FRIENDLY.
HA. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
The next island was ¨three¨hours away... but that took more around four because we broke down. Hilarious.
It is so funny to watch some random dude try to poke reeds out from this ole diesal gas guzzline motor creature that was backfiring everywhere with some random Stick that he found. All in good fun! Daniel and I hung out mostly on the roof of the boat where there were a few seats and took pics, but after the Reed Floating island, he was feeling pretty allergic to everything so it was kind of a sin for me to stay up there with him drippin out of every orifice. Poor guy.
The next island was where we were staying overnight. It had no cars, no horses, no cows (but one bull!)... no real running water... lots of outhouses and it was a mountain. As in... the entire island was a mountain. So when we got off the boat n met the man who would be our Padre for the night, we had to hike to his house halfway up a mountain with bookbags chocked full of clothes and water, in addition to our coats and sleeping bags since it gets REALLY cold on the lake. I genuinely thought I was gonna keel over... and Daniel was nice enough to take my sleeping bag so I didn´t have to carry so much. It sucks being so high in altititude since no matter how fit you are you get winded super easily.
Our room was WAY better than expected since it had beds and windows and a door with a lock AND a teensy little light! The doors here are all like... 4 feet high max so I bashed my head off the doorframe more than once going in and out but it was great. The food scared the crap out of us but we didnt have much choice in the matter (quinoa soup, ¨potatoes¨and ... rice I think...). We made our own tea from leaves they gave us. I was afraid I would get an epic parasite but apparently not! woot!
After supper the man and woman we were staying with kind of ambushed us with traditional peruvian clothes and sort of were all AHHH TAKE UR COAT OFF WEAR THE SKIRT NO PANTS WHEEEE so I ended up wearing like 20lbs of garments that were all kinds of almost... rainbowy-amish...ish... and Daniel had a 15lb grey poncho thing to wear. Then we wandered through the bushes and ended up at a dance hall in the pitch black where all the other tourists were equally foolishly dressed and a band played us random flute music and we danced and such. Great times!
Somewhere between landing, and eating supper, we climbed a mountain up to soething like 4130m above sealevel which was INTENSE and all things awesome. Lots of pics!!! Lots of ruins and ancient rock things. It was really super cool too cuz we got to watch the sunset up there. :D
The next day (being today) didn´t really work out as well.... but for better or worse we ended up at another island (after a LONG night being scared shitless from a moth... but we didn´t know it was a moth I thought it was a monster so man cut me some slack hahaha) where we climbed another mountain with two buns in our systems... but then some... Miscommunication we´ll call it... resulted in a bit of a botched lunch... which then kind of went a bit sour mainly because Daniel n I were in the mood to cause a scene.... so we´ll see how that all plays out. We may be getting some money back from the tour ppl... I hope so. If not, than ... well... we´ll see :)
So we ended up back on the AWESOME BOAT that steamed out all this black smoke from this huge pipe in the back whiich was HILARIOUS to all us passengers who were all BFFs by this point. We were getting passed by all the other boats as we ´chugged right along´ our best pace of maybe 5km per hour. hahahaha. Daniel was feeling a bit under the weather from the heat, so he stayed inside the hull of the boat and i went up on the roof again n lid down on a bench n kind of just chillaxed up there with some people from some random country who were all really nice and I got a lovely tan (burn) on my face. Yee! It seriously was an awesome boat ride... no joke it was hilarious and super relaxing as long as you kind of ignored the tour guide lol.
So we ended up back here in Puno where we ate this HUGE meal of cheeseless pizza, cheeseless garlic bread, two bellinis, and a cup of nutella (random but WOOO!!!!) over the course of... 3 hrs? Something like that. We had time to kill so we didn´t really mind the garb service.
So now we´re back at the hotel we started at waiting for the taxi.
A LOT more happened that I wish I could get into epic detail, but this is already super long and then i´ll have nothing exciting to ramble on about when I get home! Safe to say though, i cannot WAIT to be back to the land of toilets that flush without manually throwing a bucket of water into the bowl, and toilets that allow you to throw toilet paper into them... and showers... mmm... showers....
Daniel is feeling much better now that we´ve got a decent meal into us (as well as a few childrens multivitamins lol).
So TOMORROW is Maximo Nivel day where we explain to the company our... experience... with Lake Titicaca... and we´ll see if anything gets fixed up before we head off to the amazon rainforest on sunday. Which, btw, I´m kind of worried about cuz appaently the mosquitos are RIDICULOUS according to these Dutch(?) people we met on the boat. So... we´ll see. Fingers crossed all the bugs died between when those ppl went and when we get there.
Oh... and if you´re wondering about the title about The Island... it was a gem spoken by our dutch friends after our... Lunch... experience... which was all in good fun because really what are you gonna do in the middle of B.F. Nowhere (which, btw, is quite near Bolivia!) ... other than have a laugh and be happy for all the great experiences that make you really appreciative for being born and raised in Canada!
Until next time! Ciao!!!!!!! :)
I sit here, with Daniel, in Puno at Balsa Inn (not to be mistook for bolsa which means Bag... we are NOT at Bag Inn... I know, I´m almost as disappointed as you...) after what is almost definitely the biggest and best meal we´ve had since arriving in Peru two weeks ago. It´s taken us a long time to write anything since the last week has been haywire with business and trips and all sorts of lacking interweb. Presently, we´re waiting for a taxi to bring us to the bus for our 7hr bus ride back to Cusco... so now is as good a time as any to cram in everything possible.
The Cauliflower story: we´ve been trying to decide where to stay for our last night in Cusco, as our prepaid days at the homestay are up as of August 12. I´ve been kind of on the cheapskate end saying we should pay the extra 45 bucks american to stay at the homestay again, but Daniel´s been feeling a little under the weather with the food (or lack thereof) that we´ve been getting. On the final day there for lunch before heading out to Lake Titicaca, we were served three pieces of cauliflower. . . and a bun... over the course of an hour and a half waiting at the table.... so, after lunch we decided that maybe we´ll splurge the extra 40 bucks or whatever to get a hotel that has continental breakfast. And THAT, is how the cauliflower changed the course of our journey!
In the cauliflowers defense, it was grilled in a pan and tasted MIGHTY fine to me. Just sayin´. lol.
So we had our last day of construction which was lovely. Lots of lifting and plastering and getting wet cement stuff down the shirt n in the hair, eyes... whatever.... all in good fun though. We had a great time with the other volunteers, as they were always in great spirits so I really enjoyed my time being manly helping build a preschool/daycare.
We packed up and headed to Puno over a 7hr overnight bus, then got here at around 530am. We were given until 8am at a hotel to sleep, pee, eat breakfast, and hightail it to the next taxi to take us to the dock where we´d catch our boat to take us to the first of three islands in Lake Titicaca. The breakfast was pretty sweet... and neither of us got sick which is always a plus. The first island is one of those islands made entirely of reeds and floats around all weird like. it was cool to visit, but not to live haha. It took about an hour to get to in our LUXURIOUS boat that was STATE OF THE ART and ENVIRIONMENTALLY FRIENDLY.
HA. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
The next island was ¨three¨hours away... but that took more around four because we broke down. Hilarious.
It is so funny to watch some random dude try to poke reeds out from this ole diesal gas guzzline motor creature that was backfiring everywhere with some random Stick that he found. All in good fun! Daniel and I hung out mostly on the roof of the boat where there were a few seats and took pics, but after the Reed Floating island, he was feeling pretty allergic to everything so it was kind of a sin for me to stay up there with him drippin out of every orifice. Poor guy.
The next island was where we were staying overnight. It had no cars, no horses, no cows (but one bull!)... no real running water... lots of outhouses and it was a mountain. As in... the entire island was a mountain. So when we got off the boat n met the man who would be our Padre for the night, we had to hike to his house halfway up a mountain with bookbags chocked full of clothes and water, in addition to our coats and sleeping bags since it gets REALLY cold on the lake. I genuinely thought I was gonna keel over... and Daniel was nice enough to take my sleeping bag so I didn´t have to carry so much. It sucks being so high in altititude since no matter how fit you are you get winded super easily.
Our room was WAY better than expected since it had beds and windows and a door with a lock AND a teensy little light! The doors here are all like... 4 feet high max so I bashed my head off the doorframe more than once going in and out but it was great. The food scared the crap out of us but we didnt have much choice in the matter (quinoa soup, ¨potatoes¨and ... rice I think...). We made our own tea from leaves they gave us. I was afraid I would get an epic parasite but apparently not! woot!
After supper the man and woman we were staying with kind of ambushed us with traditional peruvian clothes and sort of were all AHHH TAKE UR COAT OFF WEAR THE SKIRT NO PANTS WHEEEE so I ended up wearing like 20lbs of garments that were all kinds of almost... rainbowy-amish...ish... and Daniel had a 15lb grey poncho thing to wear. Then we wandered through the bushes and ended up at a dance hall in the pitch black where all the other tourists were equally foolishly dressed and a band played us random flute music and we danced and such. Great times!
Somewhere between landing, and eating supper, we climbed a mountain up to soething like 4130m above sealevel which was INTENSE and all things awesome. Lots of pics!!! Lots of ruins and ancient rock things. It was really super cool too cuz we got to watch the sunset up there. :D
The next day (being today) didn´t really work out as well.... but for better or worse we ended up at another island (after a LONG night being scared shitless from a moth... but we didn´t know it was a moth I thought it was a monster so man cut me some slack hahaha) where we climbed another mountain with two buns in our systems... but then some... Miscommunication we´ll call it... resulted in a bit of a botched lunch... which then kind of went a bit sour mainly because Daniel n I were in the mood to cause a scene.... so we´ll see how that all plays out. We may be getting some money back from the tour ppl... I hope so. If not, than ... well... we´ll see :)
So we ended up back on the AWESOME BOAT that steamed out all this black smoke from this huge pipe in the back whiich was HILARIOUS to all us passengers who were all BFFs by this point. We were getting passed by all the other boats as we ´chugged right along´ our best pace of maybe 5km per hour. hahahaha. Daniel was feeling a bit under the weather from the heat, so he stayed inside the hull of the boat and i went up on the roof again n lid down on a bench n kind of just chillaxed up there with some people from some random country who were all really nice and I got a lovely tan (burn) on my face. Yee! It seriously was an awesome boat ride... no joke it was hilarious and super relaxing as long as you kind of ignored the tour guide lol.
So we ended up back here in Puno where we ate this HUGE meal of cheeseless pizza, cheeseless garlic bread, two bellinis, and a cup of nutella (random but WOOO!!!!) over the course of... 3 hrs? Something like that. We had time to kill so we didn´t really mind the garb service.
So now we´re back at the hotel we started at waiting for the taxi.
A LOT more happened that I wish I could get into epic detail, but this is already super long and then i´ll have nothing exciting to ramble on about when I get home! Safe to say though, i cannot WAIT to be back to the land of toilets that flush without manually throwing a bucket of water into the bowl, and toilets that allow you to throw toilet paper into them... and showers... mmm... showers....
Daniel is feeling much better now that we´ve got a decent meal into us (as well as a few childrens multivitamins lol).
So TOMORROW is Maximo Nivel day where we explain to the company our... experience... with Lake Titicaca... and we´ll see if anything gets fixed up before we head off to the amazon rainforest on sunday. Which, btw, I´m kind of worried about cuz appaently the mosquitos are RIDICULOUS according to these Dutch(?) people we met on the boat. So... we´ll see. Fingers crossed all the bugs died between when those ppl went and when we get there.
Oh... and if you´re wondering about the title about The Island... it was a gem spoken by our dutch friends after our... Lunch... experience... which was all in good fun because really what are you gonna do in the middle of B.F. Nowhere (which, btw, is quite near Bolivia!) ... other than have a laugh and be happy for all the great experiences that make you really appreciative for being born and raised in Canada!
Until next time! Ciao!!!!!!! :)
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
The Cauliflower was the Deciding Factor.... Prt1
We bought peanut butter
Then we went to the Muse during Happy Hour and put it on a warm brownie with some pisco sours (43%alcohol) and had a lovely dessert.
In other news, Daniel will write you later before we catch our 12 hr bus to Puno.
Until then..... To Be Continued!!!!
Then we went to the Muse during Happy Hour and put it on a warm brownie with some pisco sours (43%alcohol) and had a lovely dessert.
In other news, Daniel will write you later before we catch our 12 hr bus to Puno.
Until then..... To Be Continued!!!!
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
50 Shades of Brown
Olah!
Today was our earliest rise so far... had to be at our work site by 9 which is wayyyyy out of the way, at least 20-25 minutes from where we are staying in Cusco by taxi. After the sketchiest 20-25 minutes of our lives (without really recognizing anything en route from the day before, and with pseudo-faith in our driver) we arrived at our placement!
Today was a really productive day, with very little down time and loads of manual labor. As soon as we got there Marco (the foreman) got us to bring up bags of cement mix (110 pounds a pop!) from the bottom of a huge hill to the top where our daycare is. After 10 minutes I was pretty much gassed, and then I got to bring 2 wheelbarrow loads of fine cement (for solidifying the foundation from the inside) from the storag shed (probably 100 meters from the daycare, nopt complaining!)
I filled in the inner foundation with another woman from South Africa, which was pretty tricky in`places because there were fairly deep holes in the cement we were filling in. But after a while we figured out the right consistency to mix up the cement so it was a lot of fun! Really similar to mixing up mortar for layin ceramic tile if you´ve ever done that before! This finer cement apparently burns your hands when it mixes with water so we had to wear gloves, and every time we mixed up a new batch (it dried quickly so had to mix A LOT of batches) dust would form a billowing cloud and there was no way to avoid breathing it in. Nasty stuff to say the least, masks would definitely not go astray.
Angie was on plaster duty all day.. she pretty much plastered her whole house so she was already an expert at it :P Only problem was the ceilings are at least 9 feet tall, and we don´t have a ladder so no one can really plaster the upper walls! She rigged up some bricks for steps but without a ladder, no one but Shaq was getting up there.
So tomorrow I guess we will figure out some way to get up there with the plaster..we are just touching up things tomorrow (chistling down imperfections in the walls and floors and plastering a ceiling) and the painting will be done once all the plaster and concrete dries.
After construction we followed our group to a random Combi we´d never taken before (different route). On our walk to the random Combi, we noticed how you could probably paint a picture of the entire region with varying shades of brown (with the exception of occasional greens or yellows).
And then we got lost.
Instead of ending up at the main Plaza, we got off close to our homestay (15+ minutes from the Plaza, lol) Apparently that Combi goes way, way out past the district of Cusco into another ¨Plaza de Armas¨, so for anyone planning on coming to these parts, theres a ¨Plaza de Armas¨ for every district. Wish we thought of that... almost ending up leaving the city! The district of Cusco is within the city of Cusco but there are different districts, or something along those lines.
So after 45 minutes of Combi riding, a 15 minute taxi ride and 15 minutes of walking around, we finally got to Jacks Cafe (our safe haven for cuisine in Cusco). At this point we were pretty well on the verge of collapsing from hunger so we ate a small feast before proceeding to the next destination. Christo Blanco.
It wasn´t as far up as we expected it to be, but a 30 minute trek up cobblestone steps after 3 hours of construction was pretty taxing to say the least! When we finally made it to the top there was huge white statue of Chirst himself (surrounded by a barbwire fence), many merchants selling the typical Cusco merchandise, and most importantly a llama to take pictures with. After we´d had our share of llama pictures and the city (we were at around 3600 m at this point, so we had an amazing view of the entire city!) we decided to head back and down and explore the side streets close to Plaza de Armas some more. We found a few gems for restaurants, including a hippy-ish restaurant/bar/swingers club called the Muse. Literally felt like we walked into an Austin Powers movie.. all sofas and poofy chairs, low tables, and a 5-song playlist with Kings of Leon and Radiohead playing on repeat.
After we finished up at Muse, we dropped into Maximo to finalize our arrangements for the trips to Puno/ Lake Titicaca and the Amazon (SOOO EXCITEDD!!!) We were still wearing shorts and t-shirts and it had dropped to around 5 degrees Celsius at this point, so we were basically on the war path to get to Maximo and then to get a taxi to avoid getting hypothermia, or at the very least buy some clothes off a street merchant out of desperation.
We had planned to meet up at Normans Tavern for a drink with the construction team, but only Angie myself and the woman who I was paired with at construction and her son showed up. We ended up having a drink at the pub (Angie daringly ordered a Pisco Sour, the countries drink of choice, with no egg white... it tasted like a Whisky Sour from ack homek, but 100000 times more sour) before coming back to the Muse later in the night to try and make it for happy hour. Turns out we missed it by around 10 minutes, so we decided to just split a bottle of Champagne between the 4 of us.
It tasted like dirt. But it was cheap as dirt. No harm, no foul I guess... I still drank close to half of it so no complaints here :P
And now its just after 1230 here and we are volunteering (final day tomorow! :( ) at 9 am so I s´spose I´ll head off to bed.. more to come tomorrow hopefully! Doubt there´ll be another post until Saturday after tomorrow as the Titicaca Tour sounds to be very old-school (a.k.a, nar bit of internet)
Until next time, Buenos noches and word to your moms!
(<3 u mudder!)
-DD
Today was our earliest rise so far... had to be at our work site by 9 which is wayyyyy out of the way, at least 20-25 minutes from where we are staying in Cusco by taxi. After the sketchiest 20-25 minutes of our lives (without really recognizing anything en route from the day before, and with pseudo-faith in our driver) we arrived at our placement!
Today was a really productive day, with very little down time and loads of manual labor. As soon as we got there Marco (the foreman) got us to bring up bags of cement mix (110 pounds a pop!) from the bottom of a huge hill to the top where our daycare is. After 10 minutes I was pretty much gassed, and then I got to bring 2 wheelbarrow loads of fine cement (for solidifying the foundation from the inside) from the storag shed (probably 100 meters from the daycare, nopt complaining!)
I filled in the inner foundation with another woman from South Africa, which was pretty tricky in`places because there were fairly deep holes in the cement we were filling in. But after a while we figured out the right consistency to mix up the cement so it was a lot of fun! Really similar to mixing up mortar for layin ceramic tile if you´ve ever done that before! This finer cement apparently burns your hands when it mixes with water so we had to wear gloves, and every time we mixed up a new batch (it dried quickly so had to mix A LOT of batches) dust would form a billowing cloud and there was no way to avoid breathing it in. Nasty stuff to say the least, masks would definitely not go astray.
Angie was on plaster duty all day.. she pretty much plastered her whole house so she was already an expert at it :P Only problem was the ceilings are at least 9 feet tall, and we don´t have a ladder so no one can really plaster the upper walls! She rigged up some bricks for steps but without a ladder, no one but Shaq was getting up there.
So tomorrow I guess we will figure out some way to get up there with the plaster..we are just touching up things tomorrow (chistling down imperfections in the walls and floors and plastering a ceiling) and the painting will be done once all the plaster and concrete dries.
After construction we followed our group to a random Combi we´d never taken before (different route). On our walk to the random Combi, we noticed how you could probably paint a picture of the entire region with varying shades of brown (with the exception of occasional greens or yellows).
And then we got lost.
Instead of ending up at the main Plaza, we got off close to our homestay (15+ minutes from the Plaza, lol) Apparently that Combi goes way, way out past the district of Cusco into another ¨Plaza de Armas¨, so for anyone planning on coming to these parts, theres a ¨Plaza de Armas¨ for every district. Wish we thought of that... almost ending up leaving the city! The district of Cusco is within the city of Cusco but there are different districts, or something along those lines.
So after 45 minutes of Combi riding, a 15 minute taxi ride and 15 minutes of walking around, we finally got to Jacks Cafe (our safe haven for cuisine in Cusco). At this point we were pretty well on the verge of collapsing from hunger so we ate a small feast before proceeding to the next destination. Christo Blanco.
It wasn´t as far up as we expected it to be, but a 30 minute trek up cobblestone steps after 3 hours of construction was pretty taxing to say the least! When we finally made it to the top there was huge white statue of Chirst himself (surrounded by a barbwire fence), many merchants selling the typical Cusco merchandise, and most importantly a llama to take pictures with. After we´d had our share of llama pictures and the city (we were at around 3600 m at this point, so we had an amazing view of the entire city!) we decided to head back and down and explore the side streets close to Plaza de Armas some more. We found a few gems for restaurants, including a hippy-ish restaurant/bar/swingers club called the Muse. Literally felt like we walked into an Austin Powers movie.. all sofas and poofy chairs, low tables, and a 5-song playlist with Kings of Leon and Radiohead playing on repeat.
After we finished up at Muse, we dropped into Maximo to finalize our arrangements for the trips to Puno/ Lake Titicaca and the Amazon (SOOO EXCITEDD!!!) We were still wearing shorts and t-shirts and it had dropped to around 5 degrees Celsius at this point, so we were basically on the war path to get to Maximo and then to get a taxi to avoid getting hypothermia, or at the very least buy some clothes off a street merchant out of desperation.
We had planned to meet up at Normans Tavern for a drink with the construction team, but only Angie myself and the woman who I was paired with at construction and her son showed up. We ended up having a drink at the pub (Angie daringly ordered a Pisco Sour, the countries drink of choice, with no egg white... it tasted like a Whisky Sour from ack homek, but 100000 times more sour) before coming back to the Muse later in the night to try and make it for happy hour. Turns out we missed it by around 10 minutes, so we decided to just split a bottle of Champagne between the 4 of us.
It tasted like dirt. But it was cheap as dirt. No harm, no foul I guess... I still drank close to half of it so no complaints here :P
And now its just after 1230 here and we are volunteering (final day tomorow! :( ) at 9 am so I s´spose I´ll head off to bed.. more to come tomorrow hopefully! Doubt there´ll be another post until Saturday after tomorrow as the Titicaca Tour sounds to be very old-school (a.k.a, nar bit of internet)
Until next time, Buenos noches and word to your moms!
(<3 u mudder!)
-DD
Monday, August 6, 2012
Making Mud Pies
Hey,
It´s been a LONG and BUSY week since I last wrote. I came down with the ¨Cusco Cold¨ around the time of my last journal entry, and since then have pretty much been either MIA from the interweb in general, or too tired and crooked from blowing my nose and coughing up parts of lung to do much writing lol. Daniel was nice enough to write a bit ago... but lots has happened since then so I´ll do my best to keep this as brief (but as vibrant) as possible:
Last friday was our last day at the orphanage. We spent a lot of it playing hopscotch or running around or with soccer balls.... whatever we could find... but later in the day, Freddie (child prodigy) myself and Daniel all got together in where the piano is and had a jam session. His favorite songs were RHCP By The Way and One republic´s Apologize so I brought my iPod and made a mini playlist with those (among other coldplay songs) so we could all sing and have a time. My voice has been on and off since the flu started, so I sounded mostly like a happy walrus or something... but it was great fun until we told freddie that it was our last day.
I´m not a huge fan of sadness or crying.... especially when its in that type of situation... so it ended up being a rough Goodbye... I was kind of upset about it after we left so Daniel and I went to normans for wine and fries to cheer me up. Hopefully, freddie will be happy with the new volunteers. I hear that one of the volunteers (the one that introduced him to the piano, I believe) has been fund raising to build a scholarship for him so that he can go to music school. So i guess.... never think that being only One person isn´t enough to make a difference.
Ít´s always hard to say goodbye though. . .
ANYWAY....
Sautrday morning we headed out on our two day excursion to Machu Picchu which ended up being the most awe inspiring, beautiful.... i don´t have enough adjectives.... place in the world. I got to ride a train for the first time ever (that I know of.... Trinity Loop doesn´t count haha) and we stayed in a hostel in the town Aguas Calientes. the hostel was SICk cuz it had THE SIMPSONS in ENGLISH on a TELEVISION .... aaannnd we had THREE beds in the room to ourselves as well as a private bathroom. Of course... we didn´t really use much of our amnemities(sp) because we had to get up at 3:30am to boot it out into the unknown to find the bus stop that would take us to Machu Picchu.
Turns out that even thouh the first bus leaves at 5:30, you need to be lined up before 4:30 or you´ll be too far back in the line to make the first round of buses and in turn end up missing the sunrise. Luckily there was a third bus in the 1st series so we JUST made it!
Watching the sun rise in one of the biggest Wonders of the World through a metropolis of mountains while sitting amidsts thousands and thousands of steps carved by hand hundreds of years ago for pretty much unknown reasons.... I can´t explain to you how perfect that sun looked when it started sprouting the first few rays of light into the haze and a few minutes later its whole brilliance overtook everything .... everything was a golden color... It was perfect.
and then it got HOT (as balls) and after around 3 1/2 hrs of hiking on no sleep and no food (well... one bun for me and two buns for daniel that we rogued from the ¨breakfast¨at the hostel... breakfast being buns and jam . Daniel thinks she was going to cook us eggs. I was too tired to care. hahaha) we decided to Cheese it outta there onto the bus to take us down.... Careening down over the mountainside with reckless abandon, no guardrails and nothing but faith in dear Jesus to get us down in one piece.
There was a lot of religion found on that trip lol
BUT .... by the time we got back to Aguas Calientes it was like 11:30am.... so CLEARLY that was a good time to start bar hopping.
Later that day we caught a train that took four thousand years to get back to a place called Poroy (sp)..... actually it was about 4 1/2 hrs of train riding nonstop.... to course us through a Raging 92km.
.... yes. Ninety Two Kilometers.
I´m pretty sure I saw a sloth pass by us... and we all know how speedy those little buggers can be! (ba dum dum psssh).
Anyway Daniel fell asleep on the train like halfway through, leaving me to my own devices. My devices turned out to be me using the table in front of us, the window to my side, two cameras and my ipod as an imitation drum set and air-piano.... so for like an hour i was WAILING on this table like Beethoven or something havin a TIME and a half while the creepy non-english dude to my side stared incredulously at my complete insanity.
Then I decided to start taking pictures of myself throuhg my reflection in the window.... so here i was making all kinds of weird ole faces at myself with this camera perpetually flashing and me laughing away like a maniac...
I am pretty much the coolest person I know. ha.
THEN the guy that runs the tours picked us up in his family van (family included!) from Poroy and drove us the hour or so back to Cusco.... Only we had a road block half way through ....
...only the road block consisted of what looked like Cirque du Soleil on some kind of strike as expressed through Interpretive Dance.... There was tubas and drums and glocks everywhere... sequins and people dressed like Can Can dancers, clowns... I think I saw a dragon at one point.... Rannnndom!
And see.... okay.... you really need to BE in Cusco to understand this... but the roads are like... seven feet wide and between massive buildings made of concrete and adobe.... the roads are cobblestone and from what I can gather the only Road Rules that exist are ¨honk the horn all the time for no reason and every reason possible¨HONK PEDESTRIAAN HONK IM ON A ROAD HONK I LOVE TRAINS .... etc.
Anyway.... the van that picked us up was, much like the Machu Picchu bus, CAREENING around town in the middle of the night as if the Feds were on our tails.... and what happened!?!?!?!?
We ran into a ... building!
So all you hear is this RA RUMP CHQQQDHHHHSHHHH BANG!!!! and I was SURE we lost the full tire into the wall or the curb or something.
.... but do you think that slowed us down???? F no! HONK HONK I HIT A BUILDING HONK BEEP BEEP THERES A UNIVERSITY HONK HONK DOG HONK.... excellent.
TODAY we had our first day on the construction site in the middle of no where... actually no.... where we live is basically the middle of no where... the site is kind of like the ¨¨out around the bay¨of the ghetto in that it has less of what little is here.... meaning its pretty much just dirt and some random buildings that MAY be houses .... not sure....
On the way to catch the Combi (like a minivan but with like... seventy two people rammed into it and probbably built in the 60s)... WHO HAPPENED TO BE AT THE BUS STOP ON THE WAY BACK!!!!
The Circus striker folk!!!
Great to see you again you random glittery people with your stilts and your drums !! whee!!!
.... We made concrete out of dirt and rocks and some concrete powder on the floor-to-be with shovels and water.... its all manual labor all the time hardcoreness here! but it´s awesome! reminds me very much of Making Mud Pies in grade 1!!!! Tomorrow we´re plastering and I think us and the construction crew (80% of which are Canadian btw) are going out for Pisco Sours (the national drink... which has raw egg white in it... I haven´t had it yet because I don´t want worms or salmonella But hey.... when in rome!).
...Okay os this seems long enough. There´s UBER more to write about but seriously, I can´t expect anyone to read my ramblings when they trail on longer than what a short novel would be.
So, I guess in short, the main premise of this story is.... Daniel and I really miss the food at home.... and we can´t wait to show you our pictures!!!!!! YAYyAyyaYaYyYyy!!!!!!!
xoxoxo,
-A.
PS: I LOVE MY MOMMABEAR!!!!!!!!!!! :-D
It´s been a LONG and BUSY week since I last wrote. I came down with the ¨Cusco Cold¨ around the time of my last journal entry, and since then have pretty much been either MIA from the interweb in general, or too tired and crooked from blowing my nose and coughing up parts of lung to do much writing lol. Daniel was nice enough to write a bit ago... but lots has happened since then so I´ll do my best to keep this as brief (but as vibrant) as possible:
Last friday was our last day at the orphanage. We spent a lot of it playing hopscotch or running around or with soccer balls.... whatever we could find... but later in the day, Freddie (child prodigy) myself and Daniel all got together in where the piano is and had a jam session. His favorite songs were RHCP By The Way and One republic´s Apologize so I brought my iPod and made a mini playlist with those (among other coldplay songs) so we could all sing and have a time. My voice has been on and off since the flu started, so I sounded mostly like a happy walrus or something... but it was great fun until we told freddie that it was our last day.
I´m not a huge fan of sadness or crying.... especially when its in that type of situation... so it ended up being a rough Goodbye... I was kind of upset about it after we left so Daniel and I went to normans for wine and fries to cheer me up. Hopefully, freddie will be happy with the new volunteers. I hear that one of the volunteers (the one that introduced him to the piano, I believe) has been fund raising to build a scholarship for him so that he can go to music school. So i guess.... never think that being only One person isn´t enough to make a difference.
Ít´s always hard to say goodbye though. . .
ANYWAY....
Sautrday morning we headed out on our two day excursion to Machu Picchu which ended up being the most awe inspiring, beautiful.... i don´t have enough adjectives.... place in the world. I got to ride a train for the first time ever (that I know of.... Trinity Loop doesn´t count haha) and we stayed in a hostel in the town Aguas Calientes. the hostel was SICk cuz it had THE SIMPSONS in ENGLISH on a TELEVISION .... aaannnd we had THREE beds in the room to ourselves as well as a private bathroom. Of course... we didn´t really use much of our amnemities(sp) because we had to get up at 3:30am to boot it out into the unknown to find the bus stop that would take us to Machu Picchu.
Turns out that even thouh the first bus leaves at 5:30, you need to be lined up before 4:30 or you´ll be too far back in the line to make the first round of buses and in turn end up missing the sunrise. Luckily there was a third bus in the 1st series so we JUST made it!
Watching the sun rise in one of the biggest Wonders of the World through a metropolis of mountains while sitting amidsts thousands and thousands of steps carved by hand hundreds of years ago for pretty much unknown reasons.... I can´t explain to you how perfect that sun looked when it started sprouting the first few rays of light into the haze and a few minutes later its whole brilliance overtook everything .... everything was a golden color... It was perfect.
and then it got HOT (as balls) and after around 3 1/2 hrs of hiking on no sleep and no food (well... one bun for me and two buns for daniel that we rogued from the ¨breakfast¨at the hostel... breakfast being buns and jam . Daniel thinks she was going to cook us eggs. I was too tired to care. hahaha) we decided to Cheese it outta there onto the bus to take us down.... Careening down over the mountainside with reckless abandon, no guardrails and nothing but faith in dear Jesus to get us down in one piece.
There was a lot of religion found on that trip lol
BUT .... by the time we got back to Aguas Calientes it was like 11:30am.... so CLEARLY that was a good time to start bar hopping.
Later that day we caught a train that took four thousand years to get back to a place called Poroy (sp)..... actually it was about 4 1/2 hrs of train riding nonstop.... to course us through a Raging 92km.
.... yes. Ninety Two Kilometers.
I´m pretty sure I saw a sloth pass by us... and we all know how speedy those little buggers can be! (ba dum dum psssh).
Anyway Daniel fell asleep on the train like halfway through, leaving me to my own devices. My devices turned out to be me using the table in front of us, the window to my side, two cameras and my ipod as an imitation drum set and air-piano.... so for like an hour i was WAILING on this table like Beethoven or something havin a TIME and a half while the creepy non-english dude to my side stared incredulously at my complete insanity.
Then I decided to start taking pictures of myself throuhg my reflection in the window.... so here i was making all kinds of weird ole faces at myself with this camera perpetually flashing and me laughing away like a maniac...
I am pretty much the coolest person I know. ha.
THEN the guy that runs the tours picked us up in his family van (family included!) from Poroy and drove us the hour or so back to Cusco.... Only we had a road block half way through ....
...only the road block consisted of what looked like Cirque du Soleil on some kind of strike as expressed through Interpretive Dance.... There was tubas and drums and glocks everywhere... sequins and people dressed like Can Can dancers, clowns... I think I saw a dragon at one point.... Rannnndom!
And see.... okay.... you really need to BE in Cusco to understand this... but the roads are like... seven feet wide and between massive buildings made of concrete and adobe.... the roads are cobblestone and from what I can gather the only Road Rules that exist are ¨honk the horn all the time for no reason and every reason possible¨HONK PEDESTRIAAN HONK IM ON A ROAD HONK I LOVE TRAINS .... etc.
Anyway.... the van that picked us up was, much like the Machu Picchu bus, CAREENING around town in the middle of the night as if the Feds were on our tails.... and what happened!?!?!?!?
We ran into a ... building!
So all you hear is this RA RUMP CHQQQDHHHHSHHHH BANG!!!! and I was SURE we lost the full tire into the wall or the curb or something.
.... but do you think that slowed us down???? F no! HONK HONK I HIT A BUILDING HONK BEEP BEEP THERES A UNIVERSITY HONK HONK DOG HONK.... excellent.
TODAY we had our first day on the construction site in the middle of no where... actually no.... where we live is basically the middle of no where... the site is kind of like the ¨¨out around the bay¨of the ghetto in that it has less of what little is here.... meaning its pretty much just dirt and some random buildings that MAY be houses .... not sure....
On the way to catch the Combi (like a minivan but with like... seventy two people rammed into it and probbably built in the 60s)... WHO HAPPENED TO BE AT THE BUS STOP ON THE WAY BACK!!!!
The Circus striker folk!!!
Great to see you again you random glittery people with your stilts and your drums !! whee!!!
.... We made concrete out of dirt and rocks and some concrete powder on the floor-to-be with shovels and water.... its all manual labor all the time hardcoreness here! but it´s awesome! reminds me very much of Making Mud Pies in grade 1!!!! Tomorrow we´re plastering and I think us and the construction crew (80% of which are Canadian btw) are going out for Pisco Sours (the national drink... which has raw egg white in it... I haven´t had it yet because I don´t want worms or salmonella But hey.... when in rome!).
...Okay os this seems long enough. There´s UBER more to write about but seriously, I can´t expect anyone to read my ramblings when they trail on longer than what a short novel would be.
So, I guess in short, the main premise of this story is.... Daniel and I really miss the food at home.... and we can´t wait to show you our pictures!!!!!! YAYyAyyaYaYyYyy!!!!!!!
xoxoxo,
-A.
PS: I LOVE MY MOMMABEAR!!!!!!!!!!! :-D
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Riot Shields and Lemon Pledge
Hola!
Finally found enough energy to make a post.. been pretty exhausted during the nights but I think we are finally aclimatizing (after 20 odd coca teas and a box of Tylenol)!
Woke up this morning with a dozen empty water bottles that accumulated over the past 4 days, so took us 10 minutes to figure out how to cram most of the bottles ( along with the soccer ball and drawing supplies for the orphanage and our mini pharmacy we bring with us) into our bag to bring to Maximo Nivel to get rid of.
We walked to the corner around 2 blocks from where we are staying and 10ish minutes after we got there tracked down a taxi who knew how to get there ( a "legit" taxi stopped for us but neevr knew where Maximo was so we skipped on it). Finally got a taxi for 3.50 soles which is apparently the going rate unless you speak spanish as poorly as we do :P All others have been 4 soles or more so it was pretty good aside from the fumes, but it seems no matter where we go we´re followed by a shroud of smoke (in combination with the dry air our throats are a bit on the dry side).
Once we got to Maximo and I dumped out our quota of plastic in the "No Organico" can we went into our Spanish lesson and learned a bunch of adjectives. Me and Angie compiled a list of useful words and phrases to use at the orphanage for our teacher to translate for us which made communicating today somewhat easier! Angie wrote "We need more lemon pledge" on the translation sheet (a Family Guy quote) which I forgot about before handing our instructor the sheet. Bit awkward for me to explain, for Angie hilarity ensued. We all played a matching game (similar to the game in Mario where you memorize the cards that have been flipped and if you pick a pair you take the cards) Terrible explanation I know, but we played it with opposite adjectives (ie. black and white) which I am absolutely horrendous at :P Angie tied for first though, and her reward was to bring chocolate for tomorrow. I like this country.. I lose and get chocolate, weeoo!!
Then we went to a market just outside of the plaza.
Awesome (According to Angie, lol)
There were at least a dozen little shops that you had to walk down a small dark alleyway to get to, but once inside it all opened up (there was a small hub of market stands, all outside with overhangs over the majority of the stands), and holy ponchos!! Angie was lost in a sea of hobo llama gloves and handcrafted rainbow hobo bags (a type of purse...that is also awesome, according to A.). I´m not one for trinkets or souvenirs but the place was actually amazing.. definitely going to head back there later and barter for some hats/scarves/random Inca attire once we brush up a bit more on our espagnol.
Before we went to the orphange we grabbed a bite to eat at another one of the Irish pubs in the Plaza and had nachos (no cheese, vege chili on the side) and a plate of fries which were decent. We did order 2 bottles of water though which we weren´t too certain about.. the bottle said something along the lines of "natural Peruvan water" which made us a little nervous, but no problems so far!
The most interesting thing about lunchtime today was when we walked outside after lunch we were greeted by close to 100 policia with riot shields scattered around the outskirts of the Plaza. I panicked, thinking of brutal moments in Call of Duty, whereas Angie went and got her picture taken with one of the policia. Turns out the riot shields were more for show then anything else and they turned out to be really good humoured. She even got her picture taken, riot shield in hand! Was a little jealous after that.. may go in for a photo op if the opportunity arises again.
Today was an awesome day at the orphanage, and personally I found it to be the best day so far! It was a little bit slow starting off (the kids were all outside the orphange somewhere, and 10 minutes after we got there 30 kids came plowing through the front door, really caught us off guard). Angie found some chaulk at Maximo so she had the kids playing different games of hopscotch, which really took off! Hours later there were still kids playing and drawing out there own games with the chaulk, which was pretty neat to see. Angie also played 21´s with some of the kids (they LOVEEEEE cards!) and I ended up teaching some of the kids the difference between pull ups and chin ups. Angie did a pushup to demonstrate the difference between a plank and a pushup (apparently plancha is pushup in spanish) and shortly afterwards a posse formed around her. I guess they dont see many girls doing pushups around those parts.
The best part of the day for both of us with volleyball with a kid (probably around 16 years old) who we hadn´t met at this point who turned out to be a child prodigy with the piano. He played a bunch of Coldplay, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Cascada that he leanred by ear, as he doesn´t read sheet music, which we thought was incredible. He also played us a song that he is presently composing on his own. We told him we´d be back tomorrow with lyrics to the songs he played us. Angie found it rough to meet someone with so much talent and such a great personality in a place such as that. (Angie: It´s unfortunate that we can come so far and do so much, and indeed make a difference in many kids lives, but to have to leave knowing that there is so much more that needs to be done to allow these kids to grow as people and become the successes they deserve to be.)
Rat Tavern Round 3 (I think ?)
Had a few more drinks with Francisco as our server. Got him to try a chocolate covered piece of corn that Angie bought thinking it would actually taste good (it really, really wasn´t). He agreed.
Met a guy at supper tonight at our homestay whose been sick several times but told us antibiotics are fairly cheap here. Good to know in case we run out, hopefully it doesn´t come to that.
And my long winded first entry comes to an end.
Buenos noches
Daniel
Finally found enough energy to make a post.. been pretty exhausted during the nights but I think we are finally aclimatizing (after 20 odd coca teas and a box of Tylenol)!
Woke up this morning with a dozen empty water bottles that accumulated over the past 4 days, so took us 10 minutes to figure out how to cram most of the bottles ( along with the soccer ball and drawing supplies for the orphanage and our mini pharmacy we bring with us) into our bag to bring to Maximo Nivel to get rid of.
We walked to the corner around 2 blocks from where we are staying and 10ish minutes after we got there tracked down a taxi who knew how to get there ( a "legit" taxi stopped for us but neevr knew where Maximo was so we skipped on it). Finally got a taxi for 3.50 soles which is apparently the going rate unless you speak spanish as poorly as we do :P All others have been 4 soles or more so it was pretty good aside from the fumes, but it seems no matter where we go we´re followed by a shroud of smoke (in combination with the dry air our throats are a bit on the dry side).
Once we got to Maximo and I dumped out our quota of plastic in the "No Organico" can we went into our Spanish lesson and learned a bunch of adjectives. Me and Angie compiled a list of useful words and phrases to use at the orphanage for our teacher to translate for us which made communicating today somewhat easier! Angie wrote "We need more lemon pledge" on the translation sheet (a Family Guy quote) which I forgot about before handing our instructor the sheet. Bit awkward for me to explain, for Angie hilarity ensued. We all played a matching game (similar to the game in Mario where you memorize the cards that have been flipped and if you pick a pair you take the cards) Terrible explanation I know, but we played it with opposite adjectives (ie. black and white) which I am absolutely horrendous at :P Angie tied for first though, and her reward was to bring chocolate for tomorrow. I like this country.. I lose and get chocolate, weeoo!!
Then we went to a market just outside of the plaza.
Awesome (According to Angie, lol)
There were at least a dozen little shops that you had to walk down a small dark alleyway to get to, but once inside it all opened up (there was a small hub of market stands, all outside with overhangs over the majority of the stands), and holy ponchos!! Angie was lost in a sea of hobo llama gloves and handcrafted rainbow hobo bags (a type of purse...that is also awesome, according to A.). I´m not one for trinkets or souvenirs but the place was actually amazing.. definitely going to head back there later and barter for some hats/scarves/random Inca attire once we brush up a bit more on our espagnol.
Before we went to the orphange we grabbed a bite to eat at another one of the Irish pubs in the Plaza and had nachos (no cheese, vege chili on the side) and a plate of fries which were decent. We did order 2 bottles of water though which we weren´t too certain about.. the bottle said something along the lines of "natural Peruvan water" which made us a little nervous, but no problems so far!
The most interesting thing about lunchtime today was when we walked outside after lunch we were greeted by close to 100 policia with riot shields scattered around the outskirts of the Plaza. I panicked, thinking of brutal moments in Call of Duty, whereas Angie went and got her picture taken with one of the policia. Turns out the riot shields were more for show then anything else and they turned out to be really good humoured. She even got her picture taken, riot shield in hand! Was a little jealous after that.. may go in for a photo op if the opportunity arises again.
Today was an awesome day at the orphanage, and personally I found it to be the best day so far! It was a little bit slow starting off (the kids were all outside the orphange somewhere, and 10 minutes after we got there 30 kids came plowing through the front door, really caught us off guard). Angie found some chaulk at Maximo so she had the kids playing different games of hopscotch, which really took off! Hours later there were still kids playing and drawing out there own games with the chaulk, which was pretty neat to see. Angie also played 21´s with some of the kids (they LOVEEEEE cards!) and I ended up teaching some of the kids the difference between pull ups and chin ups. Angie did a pushup to demonstrate the difference between a plank and a pushup (apparently plancha is pushup in spanish) and shortly afterwards a posse formed around her. I guess they dont see many girls doing pushups around those parts.
The best part of the day for both of us with volleyball with a kid (probably around 16 years old) who we hadn´t met at this point who turned out to be a child prodigy with the piano. He played a bunch of Coldplay, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Cascada that he leanred by ear, as he doesn´t read sheet music, which we thought was incredible. He also played us a song that he is presently composing on his own. We told him we´d be back tomorrow with lyrics to the songs he played us. Angie found it rough to meet someone with so much talent and such a great personality in a place such as that. (Angie: It´s unfortunate that we can come so far and do so much, and indeed make a difference in many kids lives, but to have to leave knowing that there is so much more that needs to be done to allow these kids to grow as people and become the successes they deserve to be.)
Rat Tavern Round 3 (I think ?)
Had a few more drinks with Francisco as our server. Got him to try a chocolate covered piece of corn that Angie bought thinking it would actually taste good (it really, really wasn´t). He agreed.
Met a guy at supper tonight at our homestay whose been sick several times but told us antibiotics are fairly cheap here. Good to know in case we run out, hopefully it doesn´t come to that.
And my long winded first entry comes to an end.
Buenos noches
Daniel
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