The latest from Lima!

I have returned to Peru, for the 4th time..! This time I am working and living. I am doing some blog updates but it will be just as good as before, full of travel stories and ideas, stories from volunteering and working and much much more!  Just like before feel free to email me with any questions about travelling in Peru, scaponi212@gmail.com.

xx

Thanksgiving and lobos del mar!

Finally  a worthy post!

pretty sunny Lima loou!

Wednesday I went straight from my last  etnografia class(wohoo!) to Ella's house with Jacey, Mauricio met up with us then we all went to the center of Lima to go see our friend Adet sing traditional Andean music. It was a cool cultural experience, music from different provinces.

                                 Surfing last weekend with some ladies. Looking away though because it was so sunny!

Then Thursday was Thanksgiving of course. Went to my last history class, thank god. Prepared some asparagus then headed over to Jen's house with Viole and Mauricio. It was an awesome way to spend Thanksgiving, everyone in my program prepared/brought something traditional and we all brought some Peruvian friends/family to share the experience.

Turkey on the Pie

afterwards

mis amigos!

And todayy woke up way to early for my liking and headed out with the group to Callao to go see the Isla Palomino. Snoozed on the boat until we reached the islands with the sea lions. Smelly and loud..only way to describe it. I was soo tired so I decided not to go swimming with the lobos del mar..but then when everyone went in I decided why not and jumped in to! They were so funny just popping up their heads and looking at us. We also saw humboldt penguins:) And everyone got burned to a crispy crisp..ooops!

 oh we wont get burned it is cloudy- se dice

 I spy a penguino! Do you?

jajajajajj yesssss

busy busyy

So what have I been doing lately..glad you asked.

Friday I went to watch my friend play soccer. For 3 hours....it was not right. What was fun at first quickly got cold and boring.Lets just say I entertained myself by flicking ants off the bench...
Later that night we taught our peruvian friends how to play flip cup...turned out well.

Today woke up at 7am and headed to the beach to do a little surfing. First time without a lesson..the waves were big and scary but I caught a few myself. Got some sea urchin spines in my toes though:( Didn't realize it because it went from sunny to overcast this morning but I am now red as a tomato...
It has been sunny and 70 here everyday basically.

here are photos of the taller de cajon and the taller de cocina....I've been doing other stuff I swear, just can't think of it right now. Two more weeks of classes, exam week then I'm done, increibleee!

Dia de Los Muertos

I never want to miss Halloween again.

On Monday we carved a pumpkin, a very very small pumpkin. It turned out really cute though! It was weird seeing all the kids dressed up and walking around because no one really hands out candy. They must go to 30 houses before anyone even answers and then they only give them the smallest little candy.

 Yesterday was Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, we didn't have school but we had to wake up early still and head out to el cementario Nueva Esperanza. Words can't really describe this place..I have never seen a cementary so large and informal. People bring food to their dead, sell you food and beer, paint and clean the graves, set of fireworks and light candles. I saw one old lady, she had to be 80, in a wheel chair being pushed up the dirt/rock path just to go visit her dead. They hire bands and dancers to dance by the graves of their family members. Apparently though this grave is mostly immigrants from the Andes, meaning that the people who come are often of the lowest class. Most Limenos would tell you that these people are crazy for drinking and partying with their dead all day and that it is a horrible example of what Peru is like.

 It is so large that there are moto taxis in case you don't feel like walking all the way up the hills 

This is people dancing in front of a grave..notice in the background those are all graves.. all they way up the hill

Lunahuana

I had another baking experience, and let me tell you they just keep getting better! Last week decided to bake cookies with my boyfrandd, yes you read that correctly, and his sister. I swear they thought I was a magician or something and they were only chocolate chip! We burned the shit out of them but they still loved them. The funniest part was that they were surprised an hour later when the cookies weren't soft anymore...hahaha

Anywhoooo went with my program this weekend to Lunahuana- a lush green valley en el campo. Shortly after arriving we headed out white water rafting. The river was beautiful, we all got drenched and swam in some rapids. After lunch we headed out on a city tour-we hiked a hill to see some ruins, walked around little lunahuana, went to an extremely old vineyard and tasted some wine and pisco, went to some other place where  we taste tested delish honey and then went to a real haunted house! Apparently ten days after it was built everyone who lived there died..and I don't remember the rest, but we walked through in the dark and it was spooky.

 My new profession..cobrador...the people who rally you onto the micros and take yo moneyz..this is how they appear yes.

 Today we woke up at dawn and were told we were going zip-line ing and on a short trek. The zip-line was nothing like costa rica..see picture. It was more of a pully system that took forever. The trek lasted over an hour, in the hot desert, at 8 am all just to see... a mummy. The mummy was pretty cool but due to lack of breakfast no one was feeling the trek. After breakfast and pool time we went horseback riding. Which alright but nothing like Huaraz when we rode horses up to glaciers for 5 hours. We lunched and pooled some more before heading out to go on cuatrimotos(four-wheelers, atv's..I don't know what you people call them). We started out single file, mind you two on each cuatrimoto, going through the center of Lunahuana, then we went off on some strange mountain trails and that's when the fun began. Lets just say it was sort of like mariokart in real life. Ella and I came in second only because Tonisha is a crazy driver.

 "zip line"

 Loquitos behind mee

...evil

Tomorrow is Halloweeen...so hopefully we can celebrate it well down here. Tuesday is Dia de los Muertos/ Dia de la cancion Criolla...going to the largest clandestine cemetary, should be interesting!

Cajon

Today we made a band...

We learned how to play the cajon, which is the most well known Peruvian instrument. Basically a wooden box with a hole in the back. We dropped some beats and I have a really good video but it won't upload for some reason:( 

 La chica on the left is holding the jaw of a cow ..an instrument in peru!You bang the bone and the molars rattle making a rather interesting sound I would say...so creative those Peruvians!

Tomorrow I am going to a castle:) 

sara en la selva!

This weekend I went to the Amazon jungle city of Iquitos..only accessible by plane or boat.So we flew..out of our seats after our history midterm and raced to the airport with less than an hour before we took off. It was like a scene from a movie..we went to security then had to run all the way back to the front desk to get a sticker on our tickets, then run all they way back up to security. But we made it!


So Thursday night we got in and were whisked away by our guide in mototaxis..lets just say I want to be a mototaxista for a day or my life. All they drive in Iquitos are motorcycles, mopeds or moto taxis. Entire families on a motorcycle..including infants, eek! Anyway we met up with my host sister Viole and Emily who had left earlier in the day, got dinner and went to bed. But by went to bed I mean I just layed there waiting until it was time to get up because it was 95 degrees and there were 4 of us in a very small room and one fan.....

meghan and her coco- coconut water!

We tried to see the sunrise and sort of failed. Then we went with our guide to the market in Belen to buy some selva drinks. It was huge..and smelled bad..and I wanted to run out of it. Then we drove a little further because some people wanted to try Suri..worms. Grilled,fat,worms. They looked like what they eat in the Lion King...I was the only one who didn't try it, and I'm so okay with that.Anyway we drove to Nauta and from there got in a boat, it was basically an XL canoe with a paddle that had a propeller on the end...but that's what they use to get around so we did it. As we were cruising down the Amazon it began to thunder, like the loudest cracks of thunder you can imagine. And then it rained for a little bit..it felt so nice because it was mmm about 98 degrees and humid as what! We got to the lodge in the middle of the jungle where we were the only people along with our guides and the 5 or so people who would cook for us. We lounged in some hammocks before taking a walk through the jungle..I got to carry a machete:) We walked for 3 hours, saw monkeys monkeying around way up in the tree, swung from jungle vines, got stuck in mud, drank milk from trees we weren't supposed to, and saw giant bugs! After dinner we took a night walk through the jungle to a lake where we went in a canoe looking for alligators..mind you it was pitch black. We didn't see any sadly but we had a good time doing a 21 point turn in a dense carpet of lily pads. Also there were 3 foot wide lily pads and lightning bugs all around.

The next morning we went on a bird watching boat ride..boring. Then to a puebla of about 40 families...where we met a snake and drank coconut water. Then we ate some breakfast and went out on the boats again. This time we went fishing for piranha's... with a wooden stick for a pole and a piece of string....After that we motored around and saw some of the famous pink dolphins jumping around. Then we jumped around..right off the boat. The water was so warm it was hardly refreshing...so we smeared this rejuvenating mud all over us and ran around. My skin still feels so soft. I want more of that mud! We returned to Iquitos, ella got a little sick off the side of the boat, some people did Ayahuasca with a Shaman, some people got massages, Meghan and I watched Toy Story 3 in the air conditioning and fell asleep.

Sunday we got to sleep in a tad before we met up with our guide and took a boat ride to see the lower part of Belen. It is basically a floating suburb that is extremely impoverished. After that we went to a manatee reserve and I got to feed the little baby manatees. One thing we have noticed here that is very different from the US is that in the US living on the hills or on the river usually means you have money and here the poorest areas are the ones closest to the water or on the hills surrounding Lima. Anddddd that's about it...fotos!

                                                     shaving ella's armpits with my machete

                                                             George of the jungling it!

 jungle boogie

 awesome sunset

 baby parrot

 baby jungle kid

 baby chickennnnnnnnnnn

 my future home

 This is the jail. You sit in this small box for a certain number of hours depending on what you did...

 Does anyone want coconut water?

 on the way to Belen

 Belen's number one discoteca!

me feeding a baby manatee..they said I had to prepare for the future....it was weird