Perú! (and a Merry Christmas to all!)

Hola amigos,
I really didn't think I'd be catching up on blogging right now,with my sister here and all. But as of right now she is sleeping in until an indefinite hour, so I'd like to take the chance to catch up and do our trip to Peru justice instead of cramming into a one paragraph summary ten days later. So here goes the description now, which I will do my best to encompass the amazingness that Peru is in one post.

Day 1: Lima

We took a ridiculously early morning flight into Lima, to take advantage of our full day and one night there. This city proved to be eventful right away. Our taxi driver was an older man who weaved through the crazy side streets to "show us the real side of Lima.".Note:Taxis in Peru don't have meters. That means you have to do some serious negotiating over the price before getting in. It helps to ask a local a typical price beforehand, to have leverage for bargaining and to know you are not being ripped off. He also talked about how he lived in New York 22 years, before he was deported back to Lima...22 years! How does that even happen? I can't even imagine being kicked out of a place you start to call home. Anyways, Claire and I were definitely noticing how Lima is an edgier city than Santiago. Our hostel( Pariwana Backpackers), however was in a really nice area called Miraflores. It was gringo paradise...it kind of reminded me of a freshman dorm. There was a bulletin board with activities for each night (pub trivia, city tours,etc.) and a cafe to buy food. We took a map of the city and a metro brochure and took to exploring the city ourselves. We had lunch in a bohemian-esque district called Barranco, where I feasted on anticucho(cow heart!) and a Peruvian pisco sour (grape liquor, lemon juice, sugar, and egg whites). Note:One reason why Peruvians and Chileans don't have the best relations is the argument over what country pisco originally comes from. Quite silly really. Pisco is great and all, but does it really need to be a subject for a big feud?
After we strolled along the stone beach, watching paragliders overhead, before heading down to Downtown Lima a little bit....emphasis on a little bit. With the hoards of people, constant honking, and cars that assumed they had the right of way this place was too loco to stay in for more than fifteen minutes. At night we headed out on a hostel activity, which was a giant water fountain light show in a park. It was really random, but amazing because this park had a huge number of fountains.

On the beach in Lima

Plaza in Downtown Lima

part of the water-light show

Plaza in Barranco 

Day 2 and 3: Cusco
The difference between Cusco and Lima is night and day. Perhaps it's the high level of tourism here, the general attitude of it's inhabitants, or a combination of these elements but I have to say Cusco is much...calmer. Knowing we were doing the Inca Trek soon, Claire and I didn't exert ourselves too much here. That didn't stop us from checking out the local salsa club our first night ;). We also did an afternoon city tour and checked out tons of markets for shopping. Everything is cheaper in Peru and they actually bargain! Plus meals are a pretty great deal. A full plate of food, plus a drink can be 7 dollars or less, if you're willing to explore beyond the touristy places.

Plaza de Armas

Days 4, 5,6, and 7: Inka Trek!
Hands down best part of the Peru trip. Back in August, Claire and I signed up for the 4 day, 3 night Classic Inka Trail to Machu Picchu. The first day was tough. Claire woke up feeling really sick, most likely from something she ate (cheese is not as processed here...). I was internally freaking out a bit, wondering if we would actually do the trek! Our guide said if she couldn't make it through the first hour, we would have to turn back. But Claire is a trooper and we made it through our first day. On day two Claire woke up feeling a lot better. Still, we decided to hire an extra porter, to carry one of our bags, so we could trade off a bag throughout the day. Note:The porters are amazing. They carry at least 50 pounds, practically running up the mountain, some of them even in sandals. Most of them are farmers, who do porter jobs to get extra income. They were shy with us, because many didn't speak English, some not even Spanish. All of them spoke Quechua, an indigenous language. This saved our lives! It was literally over three ours of climbing steps, until we reached Dead Woman's Pass, with an altitude of over 13,0000 feet. Then came the descent, which was difficult in its own way. Talk about knee pain! Day 3 ended up being a half day, with a slow descent into our camp. This was also the last night of our trek, which was bittersweet. We had a total of 14 people, plus our two guides and the porters. Everyone got along well, and over a short four days we really bonded through this experience. At dinner this last night, the porters even baked us a cake! I still don't understand how they "baked" a delicious cake using some kind of pot and steaming method...
On the last day of the trek,we had a 3 a.m. wake up call, to make it to the final check in point before the other groups (there's about 500 people on the Inka Trail per day). Afterwards, we trekked about 2 hours before reaching the Sun Gate...which wasn't very sunny. There was still a morning fog coating the mountains below. We continued descending, where we finally got the first glimpses of Machu Picchu through the patches of low hanging clouds. Our guide was insisting that everyone do bird calls, "to clear the fog!" It was a pretty funny scene. When we made it around the final curve of our trek, we saw the classic view of Machu Picchu, you know the one from postcards. But it was better than any postcard. What the photos don't show you is every angle of this amazing place, with the ruins and the valley surrounding them. Plus having the trek leading up to the actual day in Machu Picchu (which felt rather short!) made me appreciate the story behind the ruins and the Inca Empire. Everything from their architecture from their method of communication (they used "runners"!) was just amazing to me.

Our group at the start of the trail

Top of Dead Woman's Pass on Day 2

At Machu Picchu on Day 4!

View from Wayna Picchu(the peak behind Machu Picchu)

Day 8 and 9: Puno 
The day after our trek, we woke up to take a bus ride from Cusco to Puno, the folkloric city of Peru. It was a good thing this tour along the way was relaxing, because we were still beat from the trek. Our day literally consisted of sleeping on the bus, stopping for 30 minutes or so in a small town, sleeping some more, then arriving into Puno that afternoon. Our hostel was completely different from Lima's and Cusco's. This one was a tiny family owned one on a dirt road. The owner even made us pancakes for breakfast!
 The main reason I wanted to go to Puno was to see Lake Titicaca( yes, that's the name don't laugh...), the highest elevation lake in the world. The next day we took a short tour to the Uros Islands, a set of manmade islands. The way they are made is pretty amazing. They use blocks of compacted dirt as the floating base, with a certain types of reed weaved together to make the floor of the island. In fact everything appears to be weaved here...the houses and the boats included! Families who speak the local Aymara language live on the island. We finished with a ride on one of their weaved boats, which they jokingly named "The Mercedes Benz."
The rest of our time in Puno consisted of last minute shopping, a ride in a crazy motor taxi, and packing up for our overnight bus back to Cusco.

A model of an island

The "Mercedes Benz" we took a ride in

Day 10: Travel Day-Chao Peru :(
So after our overnight bus, we got in around 5 a.m. to Cusco. After swinging by our first hostel to get some bags out of their storage, we headed to the airport to wait around for our flight to Lima. Once we got to Lima, we had a four hour delay but it passed by so quickly. We actually ended up running into a guy that was on our Uros Island Tour and chatting about traveling for about 2 hours. Then, we ran into another guy from our hostel the first 2 days in Cusco. He joked when you're making "the gringo circuit," you start to running into the same people!
We finally made it into Santiago around midnight, tired, dirty, but already missing everything about Peru. It's a beautiful country, that's definitely worth visiting at least once in a lifetime.

Also late Merry Christmas! Claire and I ended up spending a relaxing Christmas in Santiago. We saw The Hobbit and couldn't help comparing it to our Inka Trek...o.k. so maybe the trek wasn't as perilous but still there are some definite similarities...
Next on the agenda? Valparaiso for New Years! Keep an eye out for updates! Chao for now!

Summer Preview!

Hello folks!
Well the semester is finally finally over! I have to say coming from the quarter system to a semester system is hard to adjust to, but I made it through the long weeks. It was defintely not the end of semester I predicted either. Unfortunately the Tuesday before last my laptop was robbed from a Cafe Literario, which is like a cafe with a library upstairs. I went to the bathroom and within one minute it was gone! It just goes to show that bad things can happen even when you study abroad and you can´t let your guard down for one second...even in a room with over 30 people and two security guards. That robber sure had guts! Everyone has been really helpful through it all. My professors gave me extensions on essays I had to restart, and my host family and study abroad center lent me computers. Plus my sister is coming Monday and bringing my dad´s old one for me. It´s never good timing to have a computer stolen, but in this case the timing could have been worse!

Aside from the whole laptop fiasco not much has happened since my last post. It´s been more goodbyes for the people staying only one semester, which are never easy. I´ve really enjoyed making American friends out of context and sharing this experience with them. It´s just something that will always connect us, ´´that semester in Chile...´´ Plus we all have elaborate, exciting ideas for reunions in the states...Vegas anyone?  Now it´s time to look forward and share my summer plans! All of them just kind of came together in the last 2 weeks, and there is actually a lot going on...

• December 10th to January 1st, my sister comes for a visit! We are gonna hang out for a couple days in Santiago before we head to Peru to do the classic Inca Trail trek. It´s 4 days and 3 nights   through parts of the original Inka trail, with the last day finishing in Machu Picchu. We had to book it way in advance, because permits sell out really quickly. That just means the suspense and excitement have been building for months! After we get back from Peru, we´re spending Christmas with my host family. I will definitely miss the at home traditions I´ve had with my family, but it will be special to share this holiday with a Chilean family and with my sister! And finally the peak of our adventure will be New Years Celebration in Valparaiso. We´re going to head over a couple days prior and meet up with my friend Andrea from my program.  We´re actually going to give Couchsurfing a try, because I almost had a heartattack when I saw the jacked up hostel prices. Sorry parental units if you are finding out this way. For those who don´t know what Couchsurfing is, it is an international, online community where travelers can build a profile and be a couchsurfer or a host. At first I was iffy when I heard about it, but a few people from my program have done it and only have positive things to say. This site doesn´t cut corners on safety either. Hosts and surfers can get reviewed, vouched for, and verified or reported to make it a safe trip.  So I did some searching for people who had those credentials, except for being reported of course! The person were staying with has apparently hosted a lot people from all over the world in the past for the New Years celebration.  It has the biggest fireworks show in Latin America, and it´s also one of the biggest in the world! It´s also really a popular event, with thousands of people on the beach and in the streets staying out all night and into the morning. And we have to catch the bus back  the morning of the first, so my sister can make it back for her flight out of Santiago that night. She will sure have a crazy end to her South American adventures!  
• January 3rd to 14th I signed up for a volunteering project through my host university and got in!It´s in Region VII, or the Maule Region of Chile, in a rural town affected by the 2010 earthquake. I don´t know all the details, but it strikes me as a Habitat for Humanity esque project. I honestly don´t know what to expect, because I´ve never done an extended volunteer project even in the U.S. I can´t imagine it not being a rewarding experience!   
• Rest of January to mid February A former EAPer recommended a site called helpx.net, where you can find volunteer work on hostels,farms,etc. in exchange for room and board. I got in contact with a family who owns some cottages in a small beach town called Maintecillo. I´ll basically be helping out cleaning the cottages, watering the garden, or other doing other jobs they need help with. Plus staying by the beach in the summer sounds great to me...what can I say, I´m a true California girl!
• mid to end of February My dad comes! We´ll meet up in Santiago, then we´re heading over to Patagonia to do the 10 day circuit hiking trip through Torres del Paine National Park. Just google it, it is absolutely gorgeous. I can´t even begin to imagine what it will look like in person!   

So there you go! I finally get a summer break seeing as my program started 10 days after spring quarter and I´m certainly taking advantage of it down here. I´ll try my best to keep the updates and photos coming. Chao for now!