the way back

Ecuador was splendid. I only spent a few short days there but I certainly loved it. I think the transition from states right to my site in Peru would have been seriously more difficult if I had not gone to Ecuador. It was still Latin America, so of course we encountered hiccups with our plans but it was a vacation so I was not overwhelmed by it; while I have admittedly spent a lot of time isolated in my room since I have been home in Pimentel, I believe that is more for a need for alone time, lack of anything to do, and processing/reflection from my trip home and haven't felt too sad about my return here.

Four other PCVs and I met up in Montañita, Ecuador which is a beautiful beach town, I had heard from others, (volunteers and Peruvian)s that Montañita was even more crazy than Mancora (a town on the Northern coast of Peru with an intense party atmosphere-to give you some insight on how insane it is there, 3 volunteers were injured there last year on New Year's Eve night). Honestly, a part of me was nervous about the excursion because I'm not the type to enjoy that kind of scene but it turned out to be a fantastic vacation, in large part due to the awesome ladies I got to share it with.

Leland, Betty, and I

Betty, Heidi, me, Andrea, and Leland

 The beach was magnificent; I have NEVER felt sand that soft in my life, I'm not a huge fan of sand because I really dislike the gritty feeling of it but I  happily napped on that sand, like laying in powdered sugar. The atmosphere was energetic but I don't feel overwhelmed by it as I did in Mancora. It just felt SO chill. There were only two instances in which I was like, whoa intense. One was the night before NYE, my friend and I were sitting on the beach and some guy comes up to us and offers us acid.  My friend was not surprised but that was the first time I had been offered anything like that so I was a little dumbfounded (don't worry I did not partake). The other instance was on NYE night, we were walking down the street (crowded with probably hundreds of people) and this guy stops me, says, "You're so pretty" and proceeds to stick his tongue in my mouth! What the hell?!?! Who does that? Gross, at least start a conversation with me or have the decency to ask, "May I kiss you?" I know I looked smokin' that night, but damn, have some respect boy.
Moving on, one of my favorite parts of Montañita were the mixed drink stands- a few of the major streets towards the beach were lined with these stands. Daquiris, mojitos, margaritas, rum, vodka drinks all served to you in a plastic cup to allow leisurely walking while drinking-definitely something the US is missing.

To Go? Yes, please!

Dream Team

NYE night

leaving at 7am on New Year's Day, to give you an estimate on how I felt, I went to sleep at 6am

Border of Ecuador and Peru

Our 5th and last mode of transportation from Montañita to Peru....long day of travel

I am so happy to have gone on this trip and would love to return when it is not NYE to see how the atmosphere is...I could seriously see myself living there for a short time, maybe whoever I end up with and I can open up a restaurant and run a hostel when we are older...I mean...I didn't think about that at all when I was there...

Being back home in Pimentel has been bittersweet. Spending time with my host family has been great, I once again acted as the Virgin Mary for Three Kings Day and my host family one 1st place in the competition! (Another blog post in the future for that.)

 I will be getting started with teaching a couple summer classes this week. I am going to be teaching one class of silly American party dances like the Cupid Shuffle, Cha Cha Slide, Wobble, etc. The other one will be similar to one class I taught last summer about different cultures of the world; my students and I will "travel" to a different country every week and learn about the culture and geography of that place, with this activity I also hope to start and finish the World Map project I have failed to do. Look for updates on all that.  Hopefully I can have a summer busy enough to pass the time but slow enough to not feel overwhelmed. 

Still trying to process my trip home (Des Moines/Cedar Falls) but I will hopefully be writing that one soon. 

If you are an Iowan friend reading this, bundle up  and remember  that you could come hither to be warm :p If you are a fellow volunteer reading this, "just keep swimming" it's hard to be here sometimes but you are a rock star, and you inspire me to be a better volunteer. If you are anyone else, I love you, thanks for reading, abrazo fuerte!!!!

A love letter to Peru- Honor Heindl

This blog post is written by my dear friend and sister, Honor Heindl who came to visit me in October. This is the entry she wrote in her journal after our trip and these are some of the amahzing pics she took. Captions done by me.

Dear Peru,

You have taken me on quite the ride these last two weeks. You have taken, but you have also given me a lot. You have driven me absolutely crazy and you have rendered me speechless. Our little fling was short-lived and has definitely left me craving more. You have your fair share of scars and imperfections, but who doesn’t? Your history is drenched in vibrant colors and woven through intricate tapestries, layered in treasures and stories left behind from so many other lives. Thank you for letting me in for a small glimpse of your glory, ruins and all. The deserts, the mountains, the warm faces, the treacherous bus rides, and the ancient Incan trails that stencil your geography—it all possesses a beauty I will not soon forget. Thank you for the near death experiences in collectivos and the hospitality of selfless strangers. I love you and look forward to meeting again someday.

Love,

Honor

two beauties

cathedral in Cusco

architecture in Cusco is wonderful

Church in Cusco's main plaza

Day 1 ok trek to Machu Picchu

love hug

Cusco's main plaza at night

trek to Machu Picchu

terraces of Pisac in the Sacred Valley

Pyramids in Tucume, Lambayeque

Church in Lima

I am so so so happy to have had a visitor here with me in Peru, it was like piece of home with me for 2 weeks. I am also so lucky to have gotten to see this lovely young lady when I went home to Cedar Falls, it was a wonderful trip (upcoming posts about my trip home and to Ecuador to come).
P.S. come visit me people, for real

How I feel when people ask me if I'm ready to go back to Peru

'

I'm comin' home

Its crunch time before coming home: I’m wrapping up my projects for the year; I’ve started packing, begun to watch movie trailers for what I want to see in the theaters while I’m home, and got some YouTube time in. I keep thinking of all the things I want to do, see, and eat while I’m home and of course thinking of all the lovely people I will get to embrace, but to be honest there is a part of me that is nervous to come home. People at home have many aspects of their life, work life, love life, personal life, etc. I have one life, its Peace Corps, living and working in Peru, and friends, there is no love life to speak of and I won’t know how to talk about anything else but Peru. Be wary that all my sentences will start with, “I was working on this project…” or “My volunteer friend and I…..” or “This one time in Peru…”, I am trying to do my part though, I watched the parody of Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball….amahzing, and trying to memorize some songs so I can sing along in the car…but  I can’t promise that I won’t be bursting to tell you about my Peruvian life. So I’m trying to prepare myself as much as possible but I decided to make a list (buzzfeed style) to prepare all of you for my arrival…because folks, I’ve only gotten weirder.

I will speak to you in Spanglish. I might say “Salud” after you sneeze. Say “Gracias” or “de nada.” I will also insert random Spanish words into English conversation. My favorite is “falta” which means not enough. I also like to add “ing” to Spanish verbs.

I may pick my nose in public….I hope to not do this but I catch myself doing it all the time.

My reaction when I walk into a public bathroom and there is toilet paper and soap, or go to a restaurant and there is good service

I might cry a lot. I can’t say when or where but I can see it as a possibility. I may from joy of seeing a long lost friend or could be that we go to a restaurant with free refills.

I’m a little nervous of not fitting in with my friends...

but mostly feel this

I'm also used to being able to swear and have no one understand me, so this might be me

Stuffing my face with American grub, aside from that, I've just become much messier when I eat.

and this will probably happen

So friends and family, be ready for me. We are going to have so much fun and really all I want to do is eat, drink, hug and cuddle. Love you all! Can't wait for real live Xs and Os in ONE WEEK!!!!!

Home is when I'm with you

Sorry for the delay, I’ve been really busy which is great because I am counting down the days until I come home to visit and it makes time go by faster!

My very dear friend Honor came to visit me in October. It was very heartwarming to see a familiar face from home. By now, all my friends and family here in Peru are familiar faces but there was something special about seeing someone from my pre-Peace Corps life.  I took a day bus down to Lima, (not as bad as I thought it would be I was able to sleep most of the trip) and waited for Honor’s flight to get in later in the night. When I saw her walk through the gate from customs I literally ran towards her and I’m sure if she hadn’t been weighed down by luggage I could have easily toppled her over. Tears of joy, laughter, and smiles were definitely present, it was a great moment.

We slept (or tried to sleep) in the airport until early early in the morning when we flew into Cusco. One word on our arrival: Brrrrrr. We had a rest day to get acclimated to the altitude before our hiking trip. Cusco is incredibly beautiful; the mixture of Spanish and Incan architecture is so breathtaking.

Honor was the responsible one to wake up early in the morning and forced me out of bed when I just wanted to hit snooze on the first day of our hike. We embarked on the “Inca Jungle Trek” through Lorenzo Expeditions with three days of biking/hiking and the last day spent on Machu Picchu. 

The first day was all biking so unfortunately I was unable to participate because (shame face) I still do not know how to properly ride a bike, I’ve gotten the point of being able to pedal but my steering abilities are awful, I need to practice. In the evening we went river rafting which was very fun. It was only for about an hour and half but our guides were really fun so it was enjoyable experience….I brought a waterproof disposable camera with me that I stuffed into my life jacket thinking it was snug enough but I realized about halfway downstream that it was missing, another reason why I wish I had cleavage. The second day was a loooooong day of hiking. There were a few times I was literally terrified of falling off the side of the mountain; the path was narrow and in case you didn’t know, I am very clumsy. 

Some parts were very steep, luckily we had a guide who scheduled many breaks for us, which was definitely needed, I was gasping for air, I kept blaming the altitude but we weren’t really that high up, I’m just a wimp. In the afternoon we relaxed in some hot springs for a couple hours. In the morning on the third day we went zip-lining which I highly recommend. We went through 4 zip lines and one was about a mile long and several hundred meters up. On the last zip line I went “super woman” where I was attached to the guide and was lying horizontal, stomach down and flew down the line with my arms spread out, it literally felt like flying. 

The only thing I didn’t like was that I felt like I was choking on the wind but still, you should do it. Thankfully the last day of hiking was mostly flat and we arrived in Aguas Calientes early in the afternoon.

Aguas Calientes

 We climbed into bed very early in order to wake up at 4 am to walk down to the bridge to begin the 1,800 step climb up to the front gate of Machu Picchu.

This is what 4:30 am looks like in case anyone was wondering

steps up to MP

 It was sprinkling in the morning and was mostly dry-ish on our climb up and continued to sprinkle when we got in line around 6am. By the time we entered Machu Picchu it was full on raining. 

This put a damper on our moods but we continued to stay optimistic, hoping the rain would stop around 9am (via what our guide said about rain in the morning)…it didn’t. Poor Honor was really upset, she had traveled thousands of miles and had been really looking forward to it and couldn’t even take out her super nice camera (photography is one of her passions). It rained until about 12:30 which was pretty unfortunate because we had to leave around 2 to make our train back to Cusco but it was still an amazing sight.

 I felt so lucky to see a wonder of the world in person. Please go see Machu Picchu, and if not Machu Picchu, pick a wonder to go see and go see it. Don’t wait around thinking, I’ll go someday. Go now. Most of you are young professionals and don’t have kids yet; traveling is the best thing you can do for your soul. Go see something beautiful, stop worrying about all the money you’re trying to save, you can always save more money but you won’t always be this young and free of anchors keeping you home.  OK I’m off my soapbox…sometimes I feel like I need to get on once in a while.

After some brief sightseeing around Cusco and one day in Lima we headed to Pimentel, my host community. In retrospect, planning a big event (vocational fair-see next blog post) the same time my friend was visiting was an awful idea. I was on the phone, running around when I would have much rather been enjoying time with Honor, bless her, she was a good sport about it all. After spending a couple days in Pimentel and some sightseeing in Lambayeque we headed to Mancora (beach party town) for some relaxing time before her return to the states.

Tumbes Reales Museum in Lambayeque

Pyramids of Tucume

Pyramids of Tucume

Loki blood bombs during bar bingo....fun game but dangerous

body painting

Foxy men we hung out with on our Mancora trip, actually really good guys

Honor and my host mama

 I did not want to leave Mancora…the morning of the day we left, I called my Peace Corps Volunteer Leader, bless him, bawling my eyes out and convinced my fair was going to be a failure and Honor was unhappy with the trip, that I was a terrible volunteer and I should just call it quits. Así es Peace Corps, sometimes we have irrational breakdowns, my fair turned out fine and Honor had (overall) a great experience and I’m sticking around til the end folks. Love you all. Iowans: I can’t wait to see your faces in 23 days (or 27 days if you are in CF)