Mustache Picchu

Happy Belated 4th of July! So what did we do for the 4th? Probably the most American thing you can do in Peru - we hiked to Machu Picchu. Of all the places we have been in Peru we have never seen so many gringos. Unfortunately with the gringo faces comes gringo prices but we´ve still been haggling and getting prices down.
We ended up flying in to Lima and taking an 7 hour bus ride to Nazca. We got to the bus station around 9 but continued to wait in the safety net of the station until the midnight bus so we could get to Nazca in daylight. Lima can be an unfriendly place. To pass the time, we walked one door down to the supermarket and purchased one whole rotisserie chicken accompanied with french fries. To our dismay, we forgot the leftovers on the bus which we presume are still there judging by Peru´s trash clean-up system.
To avoid paying for a hostal, we spent the day in Nazca (went for a run, walked around, played cards) and took another overnight bus to Cusco aka the gringo capital of Peru. With Peruvian bus drivers, it seems like you can´t win - it´s either too fast, too bumpy, or waaaaaaay too slow like our bus driver from Nazca to Cusco which turned our 12 hour bus ride into 16 hours. Luckily (according to Mike) we were able to watch Rambo 5 on the way.
After hours of food, hostal, and machu picchu tour hunting we went to the local market to make our own dinner for the evening. Our hopes were up (aka my hopes) for cooking a nice spaghetti vegetable dinner at the hostal... of course, it didn´t come out quite like home but it did only cost $1.33 total. After that long bus ride, walking around all day and not having a bed for the past two nights nothing would have felt better than being clean. I´ve jumped in the ocean on new year´s day and have not felt water as cold as what came out of our shower. Needless to say, we smelled like our ¨fish market home city¨in Peru for another day.
The next day, we started our 4 day trek to Machu Picchu. After driving 3 hours in a van, we were dropped off a the top of a mountain. The rest of the day was spent biking down the steep yet scenic slopes of the Andes. The road-trail got bumpy at times - my hands are still sore from gripping the handlebars and brakes so hard and trying to keep up with Mike, a Chilean 19 year old guy and our tour guide - a 20 year old Peruvian guy.
The second day was a 7 hour hike complete with moutain climbs, river rapids and trails cutting the side of a cliff. It was definitely the best day of the excursion besides the reward of machu picchu.
The third day was a little less challening - only about 5 hours and mainly flat. We added four more people to our group - two from England and two from France. During our hike upriver we came across the source of 3/4 of the river. It was the most powerful waterfall I have ever seen - more like a jet stream blasting out of the side of the mountain. Of course, Mike and the Chilean guy got as close as humanly possible by scaling down the brush and crossing the slippery rocks. During this day, we had our first glimpse of machu picchu which is what made it a special 4th of July for us!
We awoke at 3:45am on the 4th day in order to get to machu picchu for sunrise - thinking that the tough trekking was behind us. By 4:15am we were powerwalking to the base of the mountain. At 4:30am we started the hour ascent to the top which was equivalent to an hour of the stairmaster at the gym. We were so relieved to arrive at the entrance after the trek but little did we know we would be climbing many many more stairs throughout the day...
As our pictures give a little hint of, machu picchu was extremely impressive and the views surrounding it were amazing. The whole thing was definitely a lot bigger than Mike and I both thought. Also, we were one of the first 400 people there so we were able to hike up wanu picchu which overlooks the entire ancient civilization. It was another tough climb and probably would have had a lot more railings and caution tape in the US, but it was very rewarding.
We could have spent a lot longer there but overall it was a great experience - we would definitely recommend it. We even had a train ride back - which is the way most people get there so it can be easily accessible.
We are now back in Cusco doing laundry for the first time (thank goodness!) and we will be taking another overnight bus ride to our next destination tonight!

Where the Wild Things Are

Goodbye Chimbote!!! Jill and I left Chimbote and are not looking back. The city itself had little to offer us besides the smell and the fact that it is the 2nd most contaminated city in Peru. However, all said and done, it did become home after a while. The people are what made the difference. I was not looking forward to working with children every day but they were really the most enjoyable part of the stay. It felt good to know that our work was appreciated by all. Our host families also went out of their way to make both me and Jill feel at home - very nice people all around.

So that's it. Life goes on and its going fast. We left Chimbote and headed north east to the jungle - yes it is the real jungle. In order to get to this distant, isolated city we had to take 2 buses which consumed roughly 22 hours to get to the remote city of Tarapoto. From there. we split a taxi with two random people to drive through forest mountains to get to Yurimaguas. Yurimaguas is located down stream from Iquiots (our ultimate destination). At Yurimaguas we bought food, water, and hammocks for our two day boat trip into the jungle. We boarded a cargo barge and shipped off. It was not a bad trip but slow. The only entertainment I had was a book, a deck of cards, jill, and thankfully a bottle of rum. It was a peaceful and uneventful voyage but something I wont soon forget. The most unnerving part was the bugs. Wow. Bugs. They had big bugs, little bugs. flying bugs, crawling bugs, black one, greens ones ...... I could easily keep going....so to get away from it all we get off the boat and book a 3 day jungle tour.

Okay, now im getting a little ahead of myself - getting off the boat. ha, Dad, this part is for you. We had this large cargo barge 100 plus feet long, 30 plus feet wide trying to dock on the beach where all the other large barges were located. There was about a 10 foot gap between two already parked barges and our fearless boat captains tried to make our boat fit. (I worked a fishing boat for 6 months and never saw anything like this.) He just banged his way between the small gap and hit the throttle repeatedly until... That's it! He was in after about 40 minutes and adjusting the paint designs of his and his neighbors´ boats. Graceful. Anyway Jill and I went on a hostel hunt, found breakfast, and looked for jungle tours. We found a decent one, and haggled, found two more, and kept haggling. We picked the one which we felt would rip us off the least and then went back to our hotel to prepare for our early jungle departure.

The jungle trip. How to describe it... good, bad, wet, scary, dirty, shady, hot, exciting. You decide. They all play their part but the one that rings turn constantly. Buggy. Great trip. Starts by taking a car an hour and a half to get to our boat. ok. Road is closed. Native uprising in the area and we have to get out of the car early and walk two hours. (shady) Jill and I think that they really just didnt want to pay the taxi to drive into the city. Walk two hours through humid jungle. Get to our little boat and shove off into the amazon. 3 hours, two rivers, river dolphins, and countess birds later we end up at our camp. This place was cool.
Everything was up on stilts. The water in the amazon river basin rises and falls 10 meters a year. The river was 2/3 full ( stay positive! ) when we got there. Everything was connected by bridges and all rooms were screened in. As soon as we got there, we dropped our things and hiked into the jungle. Oh, and our camp was the furthest one down the black river (name of the river we were on). Jill, our guide, Junior - a 12 year old local boy, and I hacked our way into the jungle. Let me tell you, Junior and I give deforestation a new name. I dont speak the launguage but I sure can communicate with a 12 year old boy and his machete. We had unoffical hacking contest. I think I lost. (Insert here - this is Jill talking - throughout the jungle we saw some pretty dangerous-crazy animals, plants, and insects. The number one thing I was scared of? Mike and a machete.)

So while in the jungle we did all kinds of adventures from hiking, to canoeing, to fishing. We did your traditional fishing. Jill was all over those paranas - not a scary fish when jill is on your side. Jill and a fishing pole is a deadly combination. Now, that being said Im glad she wasnt in charge of getting dinner when it came to spear fishing. In order to spear fish you wade in the water and wait for a fish to swim by. I had to stand on land durning jills turn because apparently my feet look like fish to her. One more thing. We went out at night in the canoe to look for small crocks. It is freaky being on the water, in the jungle, no light, throught the brush (when you know that thier are scorpins and deadly snakes hanging of trees). You feel so helpless and the hardest part is trying to look brave in front of your girlfriend. Anyway, I have so much more to say but no more time or patience for writing. If you want to know more, come to South America and let me know. You´ll just have to go searching for me because Jill and I get on a plane in a few hours and our next expedition begins!!!!

P.S. The entire time Mike wrote this he had dog poop squished between the bottom of his foot and his flip flop. (The stray dogs out number the clean up crew 10:0)

Host Families

Biblioteca Terminado

Biblioteca

Estamos terminados! The once glorified storage closet is now a functioning library.

The pictures are in chronological order. The first one is obviously before we started. The first thing we did was wipe down the whole room and then we painted the ceiling, walls and floor. Once we finished putting our paint-water mixture on the wall we moved to our next paint project.

We wanted to get the kids involved so we drew a tree trunk on one wall. Then we undertook the daring challenge of painting each kids hand and having them somewhat-neatly put handprints on the wall for leaves. It went suprisingly well. Even the 3 year-olds clothes stayed paint free. Also, we thought the older kids might not want to get involved but it turned out they saw what we were doing and were eager to join in. It was nice to see how happy all of the kids were to join in and even the director of the school wanted a turn. We had so many participants that we even put a row of ¨grass¨ on the bottom to make sure everyone was included. Before packing the paint up for good, we added clouds to the ceiling.

Our next challenge was to actually build a place for the books to go. We spent half a day wandering Chimbote trying to find building materials and another half a day carrying those materials to the school. Crossing a highway with an unassembled 8 foot bookshelf is no easy task. We ended up doing this a second time so in total, we constructed 3 bookshelves and refurbished one bench.

While going through all the old piles of junk on the roof of the school we gazed over at the neighbor´s roof junk pile and spotted a winner. One old woman´s trash is another man´s treasure. We saw a used, old, booth from a Chinese restaurant on the same roof where two women were doing their laundry. After a quick discussion, we thought it would be best to shout out at the women in our broken Spanish to ask if we could buy it. After several failed attempts to get their attention and then communicate what we wanted they motioned for us to come over. After carrying the booth and the years of dust accumulation that came with it; we cleaned, sanded, and spray-painted the ¨couch¨ seen in the picture.

Now that our library was complete, we had the difficult task of filling it with books. Throughout the whole project, we were in constant communication with the United States trying to get books down here. We were successful - books are on their way. We didn´t want to leave an empty library so we went to two local book stores and cleaned them out. We filled the shelves using these books and some books which were piled in the directors bedroom (located at the school). We ended up having enough to make it look like a decent library, but unfortunately there is no way they can add variety to the library without having them sent here.

On our last day at school, we had a grand-opening celebration. The entire school gathered in the courtyard and the director said some kind parting words. After we both gave a short speech (Mike´s consisted of improptu beat-boxing) we comenced the breaking of the champagne bottle tradition. They hung a champagne bottle from the doorway, and Mike smashed it with a hammer with the kids unsafely close.

All in all, it was a great experience and hopefully something that will benefit the school for a long time to come.

... and now, reader participation time. As said before, books are on their way. We have been in contact with the Bayard Taylor Library in Kennett Square. They ¨adopted¨ the biblioteca at Mi Segundo Hogar as their summer project. They are not only collecting Spanish books but also money donations for shipping which can be more than the books themselves. We have been in contact with Donna Murray who is very kindly making flyers and possibly putting an ad in the newspaper. If you would like to donate, the contact information is:

Phone: 610.444.2702

Email: dmurray@ccls.org

Bayard Taylor Memorial Library

216 East State Street

Kennett Square, PA 19348

Yungay Redemption

Well lets start by saying that we are glad to be alive. The bus driver/nascar wannabee took those pin hair turns with out the slightest concerns of the ragging river running 50 feet below. the 9 hour bus ride started out smooth but quickly turned into an off road adventure. Unexpectedly, it continued this way for 7 out of 9 hours of the trip. Although it was bumpy and dust filled the views definitely made it all worth it. (picture 1)

Saturday was a great day even though we had our first taste of defeat in Peru. Jill and I greatly underestimated the mighty Andes trying to trek up to 14,600 feet. We had to turn around due to lack of daylight, possibility of rain, our lack of adjustment to the altitude and 100 more excuses but none of them good enough. The only way I could jusify not making it was that even my marathon running partner was stuggling with the steep incline. (picture 2) Although we failed we vowed to makeup for it the next day...

With an extra day of being adjusted to the altitude and a great nightssleep in a new record low $2.50 hotel room we woke up early with a plan. We set out at 7:00am with abou 5 different taxi drivers arguing over who would take us to our 12,000 feet starting point. After the1.5 hour taxi ride up mountains we set off to start trekking toward our 14,400 feet goal. The whole trek had amazing views. Absolutely Amazing! (picture 3)

We walked a round trip 10 mile hike through valleys, up past countless waterfalls, through a marshy plateau and up and up some more and upeven more until we reached Laguna 69 at 14,400 feet. The lake was a breathtaking bright, clear, turquoise-blue fed by a melting glacier no more than 300 feet above it. Of course, hiking this trek with Jill, we had to swim in this just above freezing water. (picture 4)

After having a bread and cracker lunch, we started our trek back down knowing we had some extra time for exploring. From our altitude, we saw a way to get to the top of one of the waterfalls. After some careful treking, I tried to get a picture to give the steep dropjustice but was quickly forced away by Jill´s shrieks to get away from the edge. I could go on forever about the amazing sites of the day but I hope the pictures will prove to be more interesting and give the views some degree of justice.

We got bus ticket that left at 8 that was supposed to get us home ¨5 hours later¨. We actually got on the bus at 9 and got home at 5 in the morning.

Beginning of Week Two - gratis and pisco sours

On Sunday night at dinner my host parents asked if Mike and I wanted to go dancing that night. I was pretty tired myself and then I asked Mike and got the ´´ugggh´´ look in return but we went anyway because we want to make the most of it. Of course, it ended up being a lot of fun and we even got some positive comments on our dance moves! Mike was worried about standing out on the dance floor but after a few cervezas we were breaking it down.

While searching for some supplies we passed a sign that said ´´gratis´´ which means free so of course we had to stop and look in. Turns out it was a beauty-type school and they were giving free haircuts. Mike took advantage of it. He got a basic trim and a neck shave with a straight razor blade - old school style.

After school on Tuesday we went with Rudy, a guy who works at our school, to an orphanage. We´re really glad we were able to play with the kids but it was definitely very sad as well. Some of the kids are orphans because they are mentally challenged so it takes a big heart to volunteer there which is what Rudy and another teacher from our school do. Five of the kids that live there go to our school for free.

We´ve been keeping very busy with our volunteer project. We´ve been running around everyday getting supplies and fixing things up. Errands have taken longer than expected because lack of knowledge of the city and the pesky stomach bug that bit Mike first and got me next. Getting sick was no big suprise and if this is as sick as we get we´ll be very happy. Even though we both really enjoy the food here sometimes we have no idea what we are eating. The staple of chicken and rice is always comforting but suprises can be nice. Last night, Mike had a whole fish on his plate, no sauce or sides, without the slightest idea of which parts were edible. Luckily, he came to visit me that night and got a big plate of chicken and french fries for dessert.

Also that night, my host family wanted to make Peru´s infamous cocktail for us called Pisco Sour. Several friends and family came over which was fun to see them all interacting. After they demonstrated how to make the first pitcher we got the opportunity to try to make rounds 2 and 3 which they called¨Michael sours¨ and ¨Jillian sours¨ respectively. We will try to make them for all of you when we get back!