Hi everyone. If my lost in time calculations are correct it's been about a week since we last wrote. So much has happened though that it truly is difficult to keep track. We last wrote from Puno, on Lake Titicaca. After a very bumpy ride we made it to Cusco. Cusco is, on it's own, a gorgeous city. We found a place to stay very close to the historical center, and spent the next few days leisurely exploring the area. On the first day, whilst in search of an ATM, we happened upon an awesome Indian restaurant that was also the base for a volunteer organization called OM Project Cusco. www.omcusco.com We checked out their fliers and info, and decided we definitely wanted to spend a day with them volunteering to feed children in a rural village outside of Cusco. It ended up being the highlight of the entire trip for both Chris and I.
We got up early and met the small group of other volunteers and coordinators and took a minibus about 2 1/2 hours into the mountains. Along the way Samir, the founder, made stops at special places like the Inka gates to the old city of Cusco, a town that is known as the bread capitol of Peru, and a museum where they are housing a skull that they believe to be an alien.
When we arrived at the village we were greeted by eager but shy children. There were over 300, which is the most they´ve had to date. Nurses and a few police officers came along with us, and were talking to the children about hygiene (hand washing and teeth brushing) to start off. Then us volunteers had some time to play with the kids. They started with tug-o-war volunteers vs. children. The volunteers were beaten brutally and tug-o-war proved to be a dangerous game due to the prior days rain making the field slick and muddy. Some children chose to play futbol (soccer for all of you Americans out there). I dug deep into my experience working with kids to think of some new games to play. The results: 2 classics, Simon Says and Red Light, Green Light. After a few practice runs and several explanations of the rules in different gringo-fied broken Spanish, the kids caught on and seemed to have almost as much fun as the volunteers did. After some time playing and laughing and attempting to pull the shyest of the children out of their shells, it was time to eat.
We had 6 massive buckets; 3 of rice, 3 of curry. The children lined up and it seemed to go on forever. Wind and sun burned faces with snot drip waiting patiently with a bowl or cup, looking at you expectantly. Some of the children didn´t have anything at all, so we found plastic bags for them to use, and filled them with rice and curry as if they were bowls. Most of them thanked us quietly as we scooped portions of food for them, some of them were too shy, or possibly too hungry and eager to eat. It was a close call, and if by miracle, we has exactly enough food to feed everyone, even though there were at least 50 more than expected.
As the children sat and ate on the edges of the field with their parents, we felt the rain beginning. We scrambled to gather all of our things, said goodbye, and ran for the bus before the downpour started. As we started to leave, the most shy of the children came forward and followed us to the bus, hugging and waving goodbye, and begging me to take 1 more photo.
As the bus drove away children ran behind and waved, as well as ran ahead of us down the road to meet us waving as we wound our way down from the village. I think Chris and I both had a few tears in our eyes. I know our hearts both felt so whole. In Hinduism there is a practice called Seva (Sewa) that is basically the art of giving without expecting to receive in return. When we started out, I know we felt like we were doing our Seva, or Karmic duty for the time. What we discovered was that we had actually received so much in return, more than we could ever hope for. The children brought us happiness, fulfillment, and true satisfaction.
We still haven't been able to post photos, but Tim, one of the volunteer coordinators put all of my photos onto his personal computer and got them uploaded. If you would like to check out the photos that Chris and I took on our trip to the village with Om Cusco, you can check out their facebook www.facebook.com/omprojectcusco under the photo album titled 2012-02-07 Adventure to the Villages. I believe we took all of the photos in this album save for possibly a few. Again, I will do my best to get them up ASAP.
So thank you Om Project Cusco. You have really made our trip to Peru complete and worth while. We would do it again in a heartbeat if we had the opportunity, and we recommend it without a second thought to anyone looking for a short term volunteer project in Cusco.
I´ll be writing more soon, but for now, we've got miles to go...
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Up We Climb
Hey everyone!
Sorry it's been a while since we've been able to write. We've been all over the place, and haven't had the greatest luck with computers. Since we last wrote we left the capitol city of Lima and our first stop was Nasca, home of the famous Nasca lines! Nasca was a dusty little city in the desert about 7 hours south of Lima. We arrived late in the evening, and stayed only 1 night. As soon as we got into town we immediately booked our flight over the lines the next morning. We were a little disappointed to find that it was twice as expensive as we anticipated, but neither of us wanted to miss out, so we went for it. Our flight was bright and early the next morning in a 4 person Cessna plane. The lines were absolutely incredible, but as I was snapping away photos I began to feel a bit ill, so I handed the camera over to Chris, who happily accepted the duty. Unfortunately the longer we were in the air the more nauseated I felt, and by the end, it started to creep up on Chris too! The lines were truly incredible, but I'm sad to say, my experience was a bit marred by my motion sickness. After an incredibly long, hot, and nauseous day in Nasca, we hopped on another bus at about 1 am (it arrived super late) and headed to Arequipa.
Arequipa was the beginning of our altitude climb, at about 8,000 feet. This gorgeous city has much of it's Spanish architecture intact, has a happening nightlife (it's a college town), and is set in the most amazing surroundings with snow capped volcanoes all around. We spent some time here relaxing, strolling the narrow cobblestone streets, and taking in our beautiful surroundings. We visited a massive monastery that is still inhabited by nuns, and is a functioning citadel. This we did at night, all by candle light. It was pretty incredible to see the way the nuns have lived (and are still living) for the last 500 years. We also got a chance to visit Serita, a frozen child sacrifice that was discovered about 10 years ago at the peak of the volcano. She was one of 4 children they discovered sacrificed to the mountain Apus (gods), but she was believed to be the most important. It was pretty incredible to see how well she had been preserved, and to see all of the offerings that came out of her grave with her as well!
From Arequipa we headed to Puno, the highest altitude that we will reach on this journey. At almost 13,000 ft, it's taken us a few days to adjust to the altitude of Lake Titicaca and all of it's affects. The first day we arrived we both felt fairly sick, though I definitely had the worst of it. And to make matters worse, the place we booked to stay was absolutely horrible. So after a night of discomfort we moved into the city center, to a much more comfortable and secure feeling place, which we have definitely enjoyed a lot. The highlight without a doubt of our visit to Puno has been the massive Virgen de la Candelaria festival. A massive religious festival televised throughout Peru, there is a large procession of the Virgen and tons of parades of folkloric music and dance. It was great fun to watch the starting processions on Thursday, and we took tons and tons of photos! Another exciting part of our visit to Puno has been the crazy weather. During the day it has been absolutely clear and beautiful with puffy white clouds in an otherwise clear blue sky. But each night we have had some pretty serious rain. Thursday night took the cake by far. We were hit with not only rain, but snow, thunder, and lightning. The streets became rivers and the power was knocked out twice. It was pretty exciting, and we enjoyed some food and drinks in a cozy bar with a traditional brick oven fire heating the place, and candle light.
Today, as the sensitivity to the altitude has finally begun to ware off, we explored the city on foot. We walked down to the docks at the lake, and soaked in the incredible views. The whole scene looked fake, like something from a movie. Exquisitely beautiful and striking, the mountains and the huge lake seemed to go on forever. On our way back we ran into the Saturday street market. Full of colors, smells, and sounds, a person could find virtually anything they wanted at the street market. From booths selling pigs heads and grapes, to socks, stove knobs, and pirated dvds, they seemed to have it all. We had lunch in the market, starting with an amazing freshly blended juice/smoothie of papaya, banana, and apple, then a slice of the most amazingly sweet watermelon I've ever had in my life, to a papa rellano (stuffed potato, a typical Peruvian specialty) filled with vegetables and egg. We ate all of this food for 2.5 Soles, which is less than a dollar US. Another delectable treat we've found that is a specialty of Puno are alfajores, a layered treat stuck together with drizzles of honey and sprinkled with coconut. They are absolutely amazing, and Chris and I have definitely consumed our fair share from our favorite alfajore vendor, a toothless Andean woman with a sweet smile and infectious laughter. I told her that we will be lost when we go back home to the US and don't have her treats around the corner. This made her laugh, which of course made us laugh. The people of Puno have been another real treat. Generally ready to lend a helping hand or give advice. After a rocky start in this steep Andean town, I think it will always keep a piece of our hearts.
Tomorrow we head to Cusco, which promises to be absolutely amazing. And from there it's our jumping off point to see the ruins of the Sacred Valley, including the much anticipated Machu Picchu. We'll leave it at that for now, as we have our last night here in Puno to enjoy, and then it's off to the bus station bright and early tomorrow! We are also sad to say that we have had no luck trying on multiple computers to upload our photos, and it's looking like those will have to wait until we return home. We promise to get them up asap though everyone!
So much excitement as our journey continues... We've got miles to go.
Sorry it's been a while since we've been able to write. We've been all over the place, and haven't had the greatest luck with computers. Since we last wrote we left the capitol city of Lima and our first stop was Nasca, home of the famous Nasca lines! Nasca was a dusty little city in the desert about 7 hours south of Lima. We arrived late in the evening, and stayed only 1 night. As soon as we got into town we immediately booked our flight over the lines the next morning. We were a little disappointed to find that it was twice as expensive as we anticipated, but neither of us wanted to miss out, so we went for it. Our flight was bright and early the next morning in a 4 person Cessna plane. The lines were absolutely incredible, but as I was snapping away photos I began to feel a bit ill, so I handed the camera over to Chris, who happily accepted the duty. Unfortunately the longer we were in the air the more nauseated I felt, and by the end, it started to creep up on Chris too! The lines were truly incredible, but I'm sad to say, my experience was a bit marred by my motion sickness. After an incredibly long, hot, and nauseous day in Nasca, we hopped on another bus at about 1 am (it arrived super late) and headed to Arequipa.
Arequipa was the beginning of our altitude climb, at about 8,000 feet. This gorgeous city has much of it's Spanish architecture intact, has a happening nightlife (it's a college town), and is set in the most amazing surroundings with snow capped volcanoes all around. We spent some time here relaxing, strolling the narrow cobblestone streets, and taking in our beautiful surroundings. We visited a massive monastery that is still inhabited by nuns, and is a functioning citadel. This we did at night, all by candle light. It was pretty incredible to see the way the nuns have lived (and are still living) for the last 500 years. We also got a chance to visit Serita, a frozen child sacrifice that was discovered about 10 years ago at the peak of the volcano. She was one of 4 children they discovered sacrificed to the mountain Apus (gods), but she was believed to be the most important. It was pretty incredible to see how well she had been preserved, and to see all of the offerings that came out of her grave with her as well!
From Arequipa we headed to Puno, the highest altitude that we will reach on this journey. At almost 13,000 ft, it's taken us a few days to adjust to the altitude of Lake Titicaca and all of it's affects. The first day we arrived we both felt fairly sick, though I definitely had the worst of it. And to make matters worse, the place we booked to stay was absolutely horrible. So after a night of discomfort we moved into the city center, to a much more comfortable and secure feeling place, which we have definitely enjoyed a lot. The highlight without a doubt of our visit to Puno has been the massive Virgen de la Candelaria festival. A massive religious festival televised throughout Peru, there is a large procession of the Virgen and tons of parades of folkloric music and dance. It was great fun to watch the starting processions on Thursday, and we took tons and tons of photos! Another exciting part of our visit to Puno has been the crazy weather. During the day it has been absolutely clear and beautiful with puffy white clouds in an otherwise clear blue sky. But each night we have had some pretty serious rain. Thursday night took the cake by far. We were hit with not only rain, but snow, thunder, and lightning. The streets became rivers and the power was knocked out twice. It was pretty exciting, and we enjoyed some food and drinks in a cozy bar with a traditional brick oven fire heating the place, and candle light.
Today, as the sensitivity to the altitude has finally begun to ware off, we explored the city on foot. We walked down to the docks at the lake, and soaked in the incredible views. The whole scene looked fake, like something from a movie. Exquisitely beautiful and striking, the mountains and the huge lake seemed to go on forever. On our way back we ran into the Saturday street market. Full of colors, smells, and sounds, a person could find virtually anything they wanted at the street market. From booths selling pigs heads and grapes, to socks, stove knobs, and pirated dvds, they seemed to have it all. We had lunch in the market, starting with an amazing freshly blended juice/smoothie of papaya, banana, and apple, then a slice of the most amazingly sweet watermelon I've ever had in my life, to a papa rellano (stuffed potato, a typical Peruvian specialty) filled with vegetables and egg. We ate all of this food for 2.5 Soles, which is less than a dollar US. Another delectable treat we've found that is a specialty of Puno are alfajores, a layered treat stuck together with drizzles of honey and sprinkled with coconut. They are absolutely amazing, and Chris and I have definitely consumed our fair share from our favorite alfajore vendor, a toothless Andean woman with a sweet smile and infectious laughter. I told her that we will be lost when we go back home to the US and don't have her treats around the corner. This made her laugh, which of course made us laugh. The people of Puno have been another real treat. Generally ready to lend a helping hand or give advice. After a rocky start in this steep Andean town, I think it will always keep a piece of our hearts.
Tomorrow we head to Cusco, which promises to be absolutely amazing. And from there it's our jumping off point to see the ruins of the Sacred Valley, including the much anticipated Machu Picchu. We'll leave it at that for now, as we have our last night here in Puno to enjoy, and then it's off to the bus station bright and early tomorrow! We are also sad to say that we have had no luck trying on multiple computers to upload our photos, and it's looking like those will have to wait until we return home. We promise to get them up asap though everyone!
So much excitement as our journey continues... We've got miles to go.
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