Planes, Buses, Trains, Boats, Taxis, Walking, Climbing, and Finally Home

After 3 days of flying I am home. In those 3 days I was:

•  at 6 airports in 3 countries
• on 5 flights that totaled 15 hours
• in the airport a total of 18 hours
• drove 6 hours
• slept very little
• read a lot
• listened to music a lot
• slept in a 24 hour starbucks in the lima airport
• got home :)

But all is good. No travel troubles. I got home. I survived all the flights. I started out in Cusco peru with beautiful mountains surrounding me and I ended in Jackson, Wyoming with beautiful mountains surrounding me. Can't complain about that. Although the weather went from 70 degrees sunny and humid to 15 degrees snow covered, dry, and cold. Ahhh winter. Tried to escape it long enough I suppose.

Altogether I had a great trip to Peru. I spent some time learning about teaching (which is much more difficult than I thought). I traveled to the wonder that is Machu Picchu and the giant Lake Tititcaca. I got to hang around the awesome city of Cusco for an entire month! And hey I didn't get anything stolen or get sick (well beside seasick at least). 

Peru is a beautiful country, and I only saw a minuscule amount of it! I would definitely go back someday. But now I am home for the winter. On to the next frolic.  I am spending a week working down at Old Faithful in Yellowstone to kick off the new year. Should be beautiful (and a little chilly).....

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my friends and family (here and there and everywhere)!

Stairmaster Cusco Hike

One my last day in Peru, I hiked up to the top of Cusco to the Cristo Blanco (White Christ).

The stairs went on and on and on.......

But the view on top was worth it.

Cusco from above.

The other side of the view....

And then on the way down, some ruins of course!

Llamas frolicking...

Not a bad way to end my adventure in Peru :)

Busy Busy Busy

I have had a busy week with practical teaching! It is tough! Anyway, haven´t posted in a while! Here are some photos from the week.....

In Cusco, dogs run around everywhere! Here is a photo of our alley dogs hanging out.

 On Sunday, I went to the Pisac market (in the Sacred Valley). It was great!!

Lots of people, food, and colors.

Cool water drainage in the town.

 

Only a little more time left in Peru :(. 

And only a few days left of teaching then I am CERTIFIED! 

What´s on the menu.....

POTATOES! Did you know that in Peru there are over 3000 different types of potatoes? So most meals I eat here either have mashed potatoes, fried potatoes, cut potatoes, baked potatoes, big potatoes, small potatoes, white potatoes, yellow potatoes, orange potatoes, purple potatoes, potatoes, potatoes, potatoes!!!

That´s a lotta starch in my diet. A food second to the potato here is QUINOA! What is quinoa you might ask. Good question. Only the mother of all grains! It has been an important food in the Andes for over 6000 years! The Incans considered the crop sacred. Peru produces the most Quinoa in the world. Quinoa has an incredible amount of nutrients in it like high protein, dietary fiber, magnesium and iron. The food itself is kinda like rice meets cuscus meets pasta. DELICIOUSO!

And then there is the norm of corn, bread, and guinea pig! Haha....in general the food is a little bland and needs to be spiced up. It is a lot of starches and carbs. The desserts are lovely....cakes, breads, pastries, mouses, and ice cream. Okay, I´m starting to get hungry for lunch....Buen provecho!

 

 The Alpaca burger I ate the other day. :)

Lakesickness

For this weekend I went on an excursion to Lake Titicaca. THE HIGHEST NAVIGABLE LAKE IN THE WORLD! It sits at 12,507 feet above sea level. Wowza! The trip was a little bit of good, bad, and ugly.

The trip started out with a night bus down to the coast city of Puno. Then we took a boat out on to the LAKE! First up was the floating islands of Uros. These are cool islands that are artificial made of floating reeds. Below is a photo (or will be) of a mock island. It was cool to see, but a little touristy. You could ride on the reed boats for about $3. Myself and a few others decided not to. It was funny though because the women sang Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star while they were pushing off. Why not row, row, row your boat I wonder?

Next up was the LOOOONNNG boat ride to Taquiele. It used to be a prison during the Spanish colony. They are a real community and wear traditional clothing. They also practice the Inca moral code ama sua, ama llulla, ama qhilla, (Quechua for "do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy"). We had lunch here overlooking the lake with sheep baaahhhhing in the background. Very quaint.

When we pulled off the island, the winds had picked up. The boat started rocking......and nearly rolling. The waves were probably 4-6 feet tall. And it seemed that the boat was close to capsizing at times! Which you don´t want to happen because the water is very COLD!Then, I started to get seasick (or lakesick). And that was the ugly part. There went my nice lunch at Taquiele. Finally, the tour guide said ¨Aqui estamos!¨ meaning we are here. As we got closer the waves died down. But I have to say that is probably one of the worst boat rides that I have experienced! It was FREAKY!

Finally on land, we went on to our homestays. These were with traditional  families.Very interesting to see their lifestyle. Much slower, simpler, and more relaxed than our lifestyle. They mainly speak Quechua, but they spoke a little bit of Spanish. There are no roads, cars, a few small stores, and very limited electricity. Recently a lot of homes have been using solar power. They cooked some food for us, I chatted with my housemates who were french about politics and the french fry. :)

After a good nights sleep and no rocking, we hiked up to some ruins on the top of a hill in the island. Even after being here a couple of weeks I still feel the elevation. Which makes that little hill feel like a MOUNTAIN. Getting to the top you see views of the island, lake, and surrounding area.

Walking down the hill I was preparing my pre-boat ¨I´m not going to throw up¨ game plan. I was anxious because the boat ride is 3 hours long! I didn´t have dramamine, but I did have anti-histamine. I figured that might help in knocking me out. I also took Advil and ma-lox hoping those would also do something. When we got on the boat the waves were not quite as bad as the day before. Woohoo, no sickness!

Finally on land...and before you know it was time for another overnight bus back to Cusco. It was an adventure of a weekend on the lake. But I think this weekend I will just stay in Cusco and relax :)

I saw the sign......and it made me smile

I made it through grammar week! YES! Not so tough after all, especially when school house rock is involved. If you were wondering that ¨yes¨ that I just typed, was an interjection. I also learned all about adverbs, verbs, tenses, modals, conjunctions, and more than we ever learned in English class. Although I have to admit, just then the computer had to correct my spelling on grammar and verbs :(.

One mini-lesson lesson tomorrow and then I am away for the weekend. It is very difficult to top last weekend at Machu Picchu. But I will try with the largest highest lake in the world: Lake Titicaca.

Here are some funny signs I have noticed this week:

Huggies: The prefered diaper of the Incans at Machu Picchu:

This photo is great for two reasons:
1) It is a tooth dressed as a knight advertising a dentist and
2) The tooth is holding back the statue.

And then there is the garbage truck with a tomato cleaning up the city.
I want a tomato to clean up all my messes. :)

Happy December to all!