new clothes!!!

I am so bringing the Ashaninka look to the states! jaja!

I really think it will be a big hit! Maria, i know you are quite jealous... don't worry. I bought you an outfit so that we can match later. ;) I know you are going to wear it like every day.

If you haven't figured it out, we visited a native village and they gave us clothes so that we could participate in the native dances... lol. I was impressed by the beading, but can't say the dress does much for me... it's sort of shapeless and not the prettiest color. The guy who welcomed us though, he spoke first in the native language and i have to admit, it was awesome! It sounds so cool!

Now, i know you are all waiting, so here he is! The child of the trip. I've discovered that if i were ever to commit a crime, i think it would be kidnapping. I just want to keep them all!

After the native village, we did some more driving. Seems like i'm always in a bus... and today especially! By the end of the day, i had spent more than eight hours in a bus. Talk about tiring! But as the sun was setting, it was beautiful!

We went to a butterfly sanctuary, but unfortunately, we arrived later than originally planned and the butterflies were already 'sleeping' for the night. We only got to see three or four and they weren't very brightly colored. It was disappointing.

The exciting part of the butterfly sanctuary was the animals. Ok, so i have no idea what these things are called exactly (i was asking Maria Elena a question and missed the guides speech...) I do, however, know exactly what they are! ROUSes!!!!! Rodents of unusual size from The Princess Bride! Check these things out! It's hard to get a size guestimate here, but think racoon-like... a big racoon!

Catarato El Tiro... sorry

haha, that little ripple is not the waterfall. Oops, let's try this again - Here is the waterfall!

waterfalls....

Day two started with a three hour drive into the selva. :) Today includes an incredible amount of driving... which is quite unfortunate. Especially since i can't read on the bus. i think it's less the bus, more the roads. I don't think the concept of straight exists here...

Waterfall number 1: Catarata Cabello de Angel ... quite beautiful, but too far away to hear. and the sound just might be my favorite part of waterfalls...

Waterfall Number 2 (abajo): Bridal Veil falls (why is this such a popular waterfall name? Can't we come up with something a little different?)

So, while we were chilling near waterfall number 2, there were guys working on the next stretch of road. No big deal... we couldn't hear them, they didn't bother us, it was all peachy. But i can't lie... i was greatly amused at the differences between the states and Peru. In the states, there is a little rock slide and they close the road till it's cleared...in the states, if there is more than a two foot drop, more than likely, you've got a guard rail. Haha, not in Peru!

In Peru, we've got a drop of about 20 ft... if not more. And there is no guardrail in sight. Not only that, but half of the road decided that it didn't want to be part of the hill anymore, but would rather be part of the valley down below. So, we have this brilliant idea to put up yellow caution tape on these flimsy poles so that the people realize you can't use that lane. The concept of a lane, however, is also foreign (seriously, the people here are so used to it, they probably would have stayed in the lane and just woven in and out of the parts that were missing. Regardless of the fact that the rest of it could fall at any moment). If you were trained to drive defensively in the states... don't drive in Peru.

They tell me that the best is yet to come, so i'm still waiting for the last waterfall... This one, we had to walk to... about a half hour through the jungle. :) Stupid me, i thought i could make it without bugspray... i did it in Iquitos for two days and only came home with one bug bite... here (southern Peru), aparentely, the bugs are different. I hope i don't die. jaja. The walk to the waterfalls was absolutely beautiful. I can't even begin to describe how much i love the selva. Everything is just sooo green and full of life. It's absolutely beautiful!

CATARATO EL TIRO

We finally got to the waterfall... I was climbing all over the place, and ended up taking pictures of the group 'swimming' in knee deep water. I took some pics, but then i went to get in the water too... It was sweet! So much power behind that little spout of water. It was basically awesome! I took a ton of pics, but the mist was so bad, that not many of them are clear. You can make out people and more than likely tell by the swimsuit who it is, but they are all really blurry. Here's one of the first ones that i took before my camera became so waterlogged that i got worried it would never work again. It still works though! No worries... that camera has been through everything i think. It survived 24 kids in Guate last year, it survived freezing weather in the Swiss alps, it's survived multiple falls and wettings in Peru and I'm sure it will be through more before i finish with it. :) Anyway, we got alot closer to the waterfall after this, to the point where it was hard to stand up because of the water swirling around your legs... so, it was a sweet experience, but a wet one and i had no towel to dry off... Yep. i'm that lazy, i decided i didn't feel like carrying a towel on a 30 minute hike... so i didn't. I'm sure i'll learn someday, but i'm not sure when it will click.

So, today, I was completely disappointed for the first time in Peru. :( So, we went to this awesome little restaurant to eat lunch. We didn't eat until like three, so i was basically famished (breakfast was at 7). So, we're allowed to order whatever we want and i open the menu and the house specialty is VENISON! I was basically exstatic. No, that doesn't even describe it. I was soo ready to order. I was going to order venison, now that is my kind of meat. I'm done with the chicken/fish that everyone eats here... it was time for the real stuff.

And then my order came. :( Who knew venison in peru is completely different from venison en los estados. It was sort of tough and not very yummy. I was bitterly disappointed... The rice wasn't cooked either. It was a very disappointing meal...well, except that we had yucca. :) That made it slightly better, but didn't make up for the venison. I think i can officially say that venison is now my favorite meat...and my least favorite at the same time.

So, i'm getting tired of dragging pictures around on here, so i'm going to post and start another one for the post-lunch adventure.

Huancayo!!!

This adventure started off with a thirteen hours in a train. How totally awesome is that? My "plan" was to work on homework for the majority of the ride... and look out the window of course, but i quickly decided that I didn't really want to do that. I tried though, honest. I went back to the bar where it's in the open air and you are allowed to stand up and move around. I brought my homework, but ended up meeting a guy. :) Story of my life here...

Anyway, his name is Miguel and he was really nice, overly nice maybe, he's definitely a charmer. But, we talked for like three hours (he speaks fluent English, so we had the sweet sort of Spanglish going on) and just watched that landscape change. Beautiful! After lunch and an accidental hour nap, i met up with him again at the bar. He'd been offering to buy me a drink all morning, and i finally gave in. After two months of living in a country where everyone drinks about every weekend, i gave in to my first Bailey. He was actually quite sweet about it and bought me "a lady's drink". He worked as a bar tender for a few years before he was promoted and he promised me i wouldn't get drunk. haha. I was really surprised, but it was quite good. I guess the creme part of it covered up the nasty alcohol flavor enough that i wasn't grossed out. We hit the highest point in the trip. If i'm not mistaken, this was like the second highest railway summit in the world. It was cold!!! And snowing! Not hard enough that there was snow on the ground, but it was in the air... little tiny, almost invisible flakes. But it was there at 15, 681 ft. :)

That evening, they had a "fiesta" in the bar. Music and dancing to break up the monotony of the ride... It was alot of fun! I think we were all so tired of not doing anything, that we were all a bit loco.

We finally, finally arrived in Huancayo around six thirty or so. We met up with our guide outside and boarded the bus that took us to our hotel. Later, about ten of us met in the lobby to go out to eat. Chifa! It was so good, as usual. There was talk of going to a discoteca tonight, but we all dropped that idea in favor of going to the hotel and watching TV. haha, it's sad that we're on vacation and are all excited about watching tv, but honestly, none of us have watched tv in like months.

Cusco

The city of Cusco. :) Random pics...again. We spent our last day in the city... being Easter Sunday, I chilled in my room for a while. During the afternoon, Rita and i decided to go wandering. Everyone had disappeared to who knows where (we apparently missed the memo). oh well, we had a grand time roaming the city. The only problem was that it was hard to navigate. We didn't really want to get lost, so we tried to stick to the larger streets and walk for a while and just turn around. Well, you know how that works, you see something down this street and you go to see what it is and yeah: lost. We did make it back to our hotel though and we went with Andy (one of the ISA peoples) on a city tour. He has lived in Cusco so he knows alot of the history of the city which was really interesting!

Dinner, I went out with about seven friends and we tried cuy. :) It actually wasn't terrible. Definitely not my favorite food ever, but it wasn't bad. I can't really say it tasted like greasy chicken like everyone says. It was greasy without a doubt, but i couldn't really say it tasted like chicken. It was pretty sweet to see that thing on a plate though. Like, they give you the whole thing. Guinea pig on a plate... with french fries. :) lol.

Just for an interesting fact. Alpaca... is really good. I tried that in Aguas Calientes. That i could eat alot of. But my favorite meat by far has been Anticucho. Never in my life thought i would say this, but a month having passed since i tried it for the first time, i can say that i've had it three or four more times. Me, being cheap, decided to eat on the streets on day (spent less than 2 dollars and was so full i couldn't move). So i bought anticucho and tried it. Yum, yum, yum. Maybe it's just the way they cook it here, but cow heart never sounded very appealing in the states. Or maybe it's just the fun name: anticucho.

Day 3: Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu... I'm sorry about the mountain of pictures in this post. Really words just can't do it justice... not that pictures are much better. Oh well, I'll give it a shot. Here we go, history lesson: Machu Picchu, the "Lost City of the Incas", is located about 8000 ft above sea level. This incredible city was built just over 500 years ago... around 1450 and abandoned 100 years later as a result of the Spanish Conquest. The city, in a word, is amazing. The architecture is incredible. Everything is dry stone... meaning they didn't use mortar, but fit the stones together in an incredible piece of craftsmanship. I know, it doesn't sound too impressive, but check out the size of the stones in one of my pics (stupid me, i didn't get a picture in front of the wall, so i'm using Rita to give you a size comparison).

I basically explored the city for the entire day. Around every corner, in every cranny...there was something spectacular. I have a ridiculously active imagination and really enjoyed imagining the people going about their daily lives 500 years ago. Some people go to Machu Picchu because they 'feel' the energy and power of the city and it's people/gods. I prefered to look out across the Andes and worhip my Lord for the incredible works of His hands... it's a beautiful world we live in for sure!

During the afternoon, i hiked up part of the Inca Trail to Wayna Picchu "young mountain" (Machu Picchu is 'old mountain'). You feel as if you're on top of the world in the city...and i climbed higher. I'm finally getting used to the altitude, so i could actually hike up the trail without stopping every five steps to catch my breath. I stopped every seven. :) haha, no, today wasn't as bad, seriously!

I really don't have words to describe the view from teh top, so I'm going to stop rambling and let you see for yourself. (and i have a million more pictures on facebook!)
I feel like i ought to be able to find some big bugs here... This little guy must be the baby. haha.

only one word for this place. WINDY! The zigzaggy line to the left... that's the road that we had to take to get to Machu Picchu. It was a crazy bus ride, let me tell you!

on top of the world... literally.

chinchilla

I swear this guy cocked his head at me when i went to take a picture.