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

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!

Pachamama needs a taxi!

Fuimos a Huacachina-

For starters the bus ride was a surprise..what we thought would be two hours turned out to be four, sopresa! Anywho we went with literally no plans of where to go or stay really, we ended up in Huacachina, a desert oasis about 4.3 minutes away from Ica. Friday we didn't do much because we got in late and everyone was tired. Saturday we woke up walked around the lagoon to go get some breakfast, took paddle boats out on the lagoon and lounged by the pool. Later we went sandboarding and in a dune-buggy. I think those drivers must loveeeeee their jobs. It was like a roller coaster gone wild..but not really. Sandboarding was fun, I like lying on the board more than going standing up, less sand in yo' pants! But en serio.... I probably don't want to go sandboarding again, it hurt and I think snow is way more fun.



After sandboarding we went on a winery tour..they called it ,in English, the Shit-faced tour. We went with some other foreigners to a bodega/ winery/ place where they make pisco. It was seriously like the Museo Nacional that I didn't go to last weekend when everyone else did; they had all this old armor, Incan weapons, swords from Simon Bolivar, and other old shit that they found. We "taste-tested" two different types of pisco..as in we took shots of two different types of pisco, and if you have never had pisco..it is nasty. Pachamama (mother earth Quechua style) needs a taxi was our joke because before you take a shot you pour some on the ground to praise Pachamama and some of us "accidently" poured out a little too much. So Pachamama got drunk. Also I have never seen this done before but the pisco and wine are stored in these strange clay vessels and they dip a bamboo stick in it that has a cutout and then they pour the little shots out of the bamboo stick...extrano. And then we had 3 different types of wine, all really sweet, which I liked. Then they brought us pitchers of our favorite wine and pisco and we stayed and danced/drank there til 12 and after we proceeded on to the one discoteca in Huacachina where our sandboarding instructor was there mixing drinks as a bartender.
Lost my watch, I guess I will be adapting to Peruvian time sooner than expected.

Ella has some cool pictures of us on the dunes that I will steal from her later and post.

 The oasis, looks like nasty green water, and it was. Apparently it has curative properties and you can roll around in the mud and then cure your heart disease!

 sun sun sun

 before we fell...and before we sandboarded

 The only pyramid in this desert

 Meghan and Indy

 Please note the museum like background..and the strange vessels..all full.

...after a few

Cusco!

Well just returned from my trip to Cusco this morning; love that city!

Thursday morning we arrived, acclimatized, and conquered! After a nap in the morning we explored Cusco checking out some Incan walls and a great little store near the rock with twelve angels. Then Ella and I went out to dinner with Melvin and Marion (our site directors) to a little hole in the wall pizza place that was really good. Friday morning we awoke early and began our tour of the Valle Sagrado (sacred valley). We stopped at a site above Cusco, a llama/alpaca petting zoo, some ruins by Pisac, a chicharia(where they make chica-a drink from fermented corn) and some more ruins in Ollaytambo. After all of this exhaustion we boarded a train and headed to Aguas Calientes for the night.

Saturday we woke up in Aguas Calientes and got on a bus and headed up to Machu Picchu. The ride was incredible, through rainforest covered mountains. Machu Picchu was incredible mostly because of the location and the extensiveness of the ruins. Though it is extremely touristy with about 3,000 tourists EVERY DAY! After our tour most of us headed off to hike up Wayna Picchu(young peak), the mountain you see in the typical image of Machu Picchu. It is about 45 minutes of zig-zag stairs straight up, I definitely was not expecting to find a little village at the very tip top though. There were some amazing views down on Machu Picchu from there. Next time I go I will definitely be taking the Incan Trail, I can only imagine how awesome it would be to walk through the sun gate as the sun is rising and see Machu Picchu.

After that we returned to Aguas Calientes and boarded our 4 hour long train to Cusco. Ella and I got to sit together and it was a hilarious ride for the most part. We returned to Cusco where I met up with my cousin Cara and we went out and had some amazing Argentinian wine. After we met up with everyone at a hostel party then continued on til 4am to two different dancing spots. And now I am back, missing the sun already!

 Incan walls in Cusco

 dressing up

 dinner

 above cusco

 bigggg incan walls

 scary

 oh jaaa, wingspan like a condor! (also that is Wayna Picchu in the background, went to the very top of it!)

 some duck like things, we miss you U of O!

 at the top of Wayna Picchu, the city of Machu Picchu is behind me

Cusquenas on the train ride back, had to celebrate a 100 yrs of Machu Picchu

Getting High

As this title suggests, we got high this weekend. I'm talking physically, approximately 15,748 feet above sea level.

We arrived in Huaraz Friday morning at 6am and went straight to our hostel, Jo's Place, which was more of a quirky colorful guesthouse. There were tents set up in the courtyard and we met some really cool people including a couple who are biking from Lima, to the tip of Sur America, to Buenos Aires. Amazing people, check out their page here at inspireout.com and read their journal entry specifically about the Santa Cruz trek(Emily, all I could think was how you would have loved them!).

Anyway without wasting anytime to acclimatize to our new height of 10,000ft above sea level we hopped in a van and headed higher to ride some horses. Lets just say we didn't really know what we were getting into. Riding ponies up and up, in the beginning we joked about riding them to the glacier covered mountains above us...and then we actually did it. Unfortunately I wimped out when we were about 40mins from the top because my head hurt too much, but apparently there were some beautiful lakes at the top. Also I hit my head on a branch..not too funny at the time but now it is.

After this little adventure we realized we needed to acclimatize better, so we napped and drank lots and lots of coca.

The next morning we awoke with the roosters and went to a cute cafe for trekkers/backpackers, Cafe Andino. Where we ate huge banana pancakes, delish. Then we headed out to some hotsprings, which turned out to just be a tepid muddy pool and then these really hot sauna caves. I just did the cave thing, I think we did the coolest one and it was still too much for me.

Sunday morning we headed out at 6am to Huascaran National Park, it was about 3 hours away, on some crazy dirt roads. Driving into the park we passed some pretty teal lakes. Then we began our 6 hour hike. It started off alright, there were some struggles on the valley which was by far the easiest part looking back. The valley was soo majestic there was a river running through and just as we started about 7 horses came running down the hill to drink out of the river. After 30mins of walking on flat land we began our ascent, zig-zagging up the mountainside. Amazing views the entire way, of waterfalls and Huascaran, which is like the tallest peak in Peru, I think. Then we finally got to another flat part which I like to call Hot Poop valley, the name is self explanatory...there were probably 30 cows in this valley..I have no idea what left all of that poop though! Then started the hour and a half long scramble to the top which was literally the hardest thing I have ever had to do because of the lack of oxygen. But it was as they say 'vale la pena' when we saw laguna 69...I have never seen those colors of blue before in my life! It was just incredible I can't even explain it..the pictures do a pretty good job but still the color is not perfect.

To sum it all up I will just leave you with a myriad of pictures from my trip!

inside the sauna cuevas in Choncos

we had a cowgirl with us, thankfully

hello sun!

see that mountain..that's where we went

our first glimpse of glacial lakes

we went up there

ahhh

meghan, me, ella and emily at laguna 69

besos