my trip

I should write about my 10 day trip that I took a while ago.. i think almost a month ago..

i decided to make use of a 4 day holiday and take an 8 or 9 day trip to see some new places... those being huaraz, piura, and mancora. so i skipped some classes, didnt do any work, and left by bus with a friend (samantha) to huaraz.

im pretty much used to bus rides now. we got to huaraz way too early.. about 6 or 7 in the morning. it was freezing outside: a nice surprise. we got into some tourist shuttle to take us to a hostal and those people ended up booking our excursions for that day and the next.

the hostal was a house about 7 blocks from the main street with an amazing family that took care of us for the two days. it was comfortable with some nice hot water (because the city has natural hot springs under it) and she made us literally feel at home. We rested a little and did our first trip, which was pretty much a taxi ride to cities down a valley outside of huaraz. I was expecting like some small farm towns with a different feel, but really every city was pretty much the same.. some pleasant plazas with different buildings. the views were amazing though, and one place really struck me as an amazing oasis of beauty. There was a city called Yungay that in the 70s had an avalanche/flood wash through the city and everything and everybody were uprooted from the city, leaving almost nothing behind. thats not the beautiful part of course, but now there have a memorial site in memory of the city and the people that is a huge, i mean HUGE garden of roses... thousands of roses covering what once was the city, where theres almost nothing left standing... i have never seen so many roses, so many varieties of roses, so big roses, everything roses.. i related everything to roses for a week after that garden.

so we get back and rest in some hot springs, where we thoguht wed just jump in a spring, but it was just a tub that had naturally hot water come out of a pipe.. still nice.

next day, we get up and go with a peruvian couple to churup lagoon, which they said would be about a 4 hour trek to see it and 2 hours down....

this was not a trek.. it was a near-death hike and scale up a mountain. Note: im already about 10k feet above sea level and winded easily by that.. and then this hike wasnt just a casual stroll in the garden.. it was an uphill battle to survive! i was climbing an effin mountain without any preparation and a pudge... so yeah we took a lot of breaks, the couple from peru had to turn back due to now being 14k feet above sea level.. yes we hiked up 4.5k feet.. we had a part where we saw what was left... which wasnt a trail at all it was literally climbing up the mountain, the girl turned back.. me and samantha looked at each other and were like.. i dont care, we gotta do it. so we did.

Note: i know that i wasnt on a mountain or anything like some people hike, but this was some serious stuff. the air was thin, it got a hell of lot colder, as in in the beginning i was sweatin like crazy and near the top i was freezing. the sun was burning my face and hands, i was loosiing consciousness and barely being able to lift my legs.. but determination pulls through.

so we got up there to see the amazing lagoon and an amazing site and it was all worth it... of course it had to be hah. beautiful though, i got pictures on facebook.. the site was literally worth it.. but having to go down from there.. oh no

luckily there were already some locals on top just chillin (jealous), so they talked to us and we met some friends but ME...me.. I was dead... literally, i felt like pukin, i had a head ache, i couldnt talk to anybody barely, i just wanted to get down from the hike and nothing more, i coudlnt even think that far ahead hah.. that was me, my most exhausted time of my life, probably due to not bringing water or food for the hike.

so thats mainly our hauraz time, now we are goin to split, she going to cajamarca for some inca hot baths and a beautiful place and me to go to piura to meet a friend and see some stuff there..

piura, well was a city.. nothing too special haha. maybe should have gone to cajamarca, but it was actually good because i needed some time to do my registration for classes and relax a little.. i also went to catacaos and bought a lot of stuff that made me realize how bad of a shopper i am. while i was there i went to some ruins that were washed away by el niño en the 80s so wasnt much to see. it was the people of Tallan.. or soemthin.. there i met two local kids that took me back to catacaos and i chilled with them for a little while.. different hah.

in piura was a friend i met randomly at a discoteca in lima and her friends and such.. that was about it, piura was nothin.. but then i left to Mancora.. a beach in the north of Peru.. i had a full day to myself before samantha would get there.

Mancora was pretty sweet.. i went walkin for3 hours down the beaches and it was calm and smoothe, a little hot was some cold water.. also there was some reefs or i dont even know what you call it but on the beach were some sea rocks or somethin that was pretty cool. hah..

so one thing about mancora: the sun is INTENSE... dont forget that Equador is on the equator.. and Mancora is probably an hour and a half away from that country.. so basically the sun is beaming down on my really pale skin that has never been able to handle sun really well.. i saw some locals that were literally dark red... i dont even know if that is natural...

but the beach was nice, there were peruvian families for the break, and a lot of surfers and sports stuff.. and me.. just sittin there and chilling..

that was pretty much mancora.. sittin and chillin, and drinkin and what not.. samantha came that night and we went out and relaxed.. the next day we met a guy named STEVE! from new york.. a chill guy who was a big obama supporter.. i mean big.. i think he took a vacation to kick his obama addiction since obama won..

it was nice, i enjoyed mancora a lot.. i bought some other bad stuff that no one is going to like and i went home haha.

oh yeah food, so we ate some ceviche, which is kinda like peruvian sushi.. they dont cook it they just let it be semi cooked by lemon (or limon, i forgot if thats lemon or lime) and its amazing.. i had octopus, fish, and crab.. mmmmmmm and its all fresh too from mancora beach... then we had amazing sushi that was really good... and some burgers and i dunno nothin else too special..

that is pretty much my trip. that and lots of hours on the bus... and beautiful land and some things to think about.. i dunno what else to add.

Good job me, for never posting

I knew i would be bad at this. i got 40 minutes ish to talk about some needed subjects about my stay in peru.. so here i go

My trip to Teoria, Peru.. in the Junin provincia at the edge of the central jungle. It was me and 8ish education girls goin on a trip to the Ashaninka pueblo of Teoria, an old culture with its own language and customs... some modern advances of radio and electricity with a library that has internet... some sure signs of civil intervention.. i got to spend the night there and pass two days with the kids of the pueblo doing projects and just hanging out.

For this classroom project we did a story... and we made books, puppets, and a scene to tell it. The story was how an ashaninka boy captured a star, and eventually the star turned into a princess and they got married.. touching... by the way it was based off an ashaninka legend so dont acredit me for the ingenuity.

of my group, me and fiorella (a peruvian group partner) went to the place and man it was an experience. First, the scenary was amazing, as some of you know thats all i take pictures of.. it was a great relief from the concrete jungle that is called Lima. so i was basically outdoors, with the buzz of nature from the two rivers that surround the pueblo and the common insects (crickets, lightning bugs, etc) that are somehow everywhere in the freaking world. the kids were kids, thats the reality of the world.. they got their customs and language but in the end they got the same cares, needs, and things to work on haha. Some of the kids were shy, some were open, I basically tried to be open with everyone after everyone got use to us. We did the puppet show and storytellin time with success the first day, everyone responded and participated... wehihc made me feel good because i am still a bit insecure with my communication skills.

So about 10 of the kids took us to their hang out.. which was the teoria river.. where theres some good places to relax and also some cool rapids to go down... that was great and our group and the kids had some fun, except that we left too late and couldnt really see our way goin back.. oh well

the night sky was... i cant even describe it.. it was no longer a picture frame sky like you get from the city lights, but rather a profound and awe inspiring view of the huge space that we are a part of... which made me repeat oh my f!$%# $#$% a couple of times.. since really that was the most I have ever seen of the true space thats beyond the city lights... and to think before electricity people saw that almost every night (except in lima because 9 months out of the year its cloudy)

Also a bat got stuck in our room and i didnt want to kill it haha the girls complained, i tried to capture it without sucess, and we slept with the fear of Nasferatu's return

Next day we spent the whole morning with preschool children ages 3 to 5.. and talk about a hand ful.. so we did the storytellin and puppets.. with some blank faces and some picking noses and such,.. typical i guess.. but others got it. then they drew some pictures and made their own puppets AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW PICTURE TIME!

that was good, then we went to the OTHER river called the mazamari river and waded around, where i took my picture for my facebook profile pic a while ago and we hung out with the kids even more... all in all an amazing experience that i will keep with me for a while.

when we got back to the main city (satipo), i hung out at the plaza and we ate at a restaurant for FREE (gracias a la catolica) then we got back

so... if you remember my delirium from not sleeping in the techo para mi pais trip in chincha.. get a load of this...

we left 9ish... and immediately the bus got hot... miserably hot.. i was in a sweat within an hour.. but bearing through it all... until the movie ended.

so the lights went out and everyone got to sleep.. except me.. whose only focus was the sweat and tiredness that dont mix well together... i think i went into a deep conscious sleep, but some might call that.. i dont know

then suddenly the bus stopped... for 2 hours... without ANY air flow, and i had to take off my shirt and try to not think, until i saw elmer fudd again.. that was awkward because we got into a fight last time we met. basically the trip lasted 11 hours when it should have lasted 7, and i did not sleep through it at all, but i did get some nice thoughts in! but i survived and here i am...

Its a long post but i want to add the next weekend, where i watched a peruvian soccer matchup La Universitaria versus Cienciano

so.. peruvian soccer isnt particularly good, and this game was not a peruvian highlight tape.. more like a clumsy practice tape. but the cool thing was that the music and cheering NEVER ended.. never... ever.. which kept a pretty cool rhythm through the whole game...and it makes me wonder if all pro soccer games are like that.. since football you got the constant breaks and basketball has lots of down time.. really soccer has short enough breaks that you can just cheer constantly.. hh well sidetrack.. but yeah it was with the whole group and was cool to be there.. plus the seats were really colorful.. like a gumball machine on the sides

there, peace yo.