10 things I've learned about Peru so far...

Since I've been here for over two months (can't believe it!) I though I should share some observations and things I've learned about this country. Where to begin...

1. Time - Everybody is on what's called "Peruvian time" here. This means showing up 30 minutes late to everything and it being ok. It's been frustrating and difficult to get used to, since in America we're always on such a tight schedule and it's rude to be more than 5 minutes late. Peruvian time means if we're supposed to leave somewhere at 9 am, everyone actually wakes up at 9 am. It also means if I have a class that starts at 4, I can leave my house at 4 because I know the professor will casually stroll in at 4:15 or 4:20.

2. Bags - They love them. I don't know why. When I go out for chifa (Chinese food) and want to take rice home, they put it in a plastic bag and tie it up. If you order food to go, the restaurant will put sauces in little bags, since they don't have factory-made packets.

3. Cleaning liquids - There really aren't that  many! Laundry soap is in a powder form (of course it comes in a big bag). Instead of liquid dish soap, the soap is like this green paste stuff in a container that you have to scrape out with a sponge to clean your dishes.

4. Honking - Oh my, my ears will not know what's happening when I return to the US. Honking is all I ever hear. I feel like when I'm driving in Madison, I only honk if I'm about to get into an accident or somebody in front of me doesn't realize the light has turned green. Here, they honk CONSTANTLY!! For everything. Taxis drive down the street and honk and every single person walking on the sidewalk to see if they need a ride. Cars honk to let you know they're turning (why not just use a blinker?) Some buses and cars even have special horns installed so that they're especially loud or make a unique song. Oh, and there are tons of car alarms constantly going off, too.

5. Vendors/Beggars - I can handle a change cup being shaken at me as I walk down State Street, no problem. But here, the beggars work a lot harder. Many times when I'm riding the bus a person will get on and start making a speech to all of the passengers about some sob story then go around asking individuals for money. Sometimes it will be a woman with a baby or a man who offers to sing a song. Sometimes they are also selling little candies or random things, other times just asking for money. The vendors on the street walk on the busy roads with the most random assortment of things - dolls, flashlights, lighters, etc. - and ask everyone in cars and cabs waiting at stoplights if they want to buy anything. Water and soda is also sold like this on the street. I have yet to buy anything out of a cab window!

6. PDA - It's everywhere! I always see people kissing and making out on the streets, on campus, in parks, everywhere. They're in love and apparently need everyone else to know it.

7. Cell phones - This has been a strange adjustment. I am so used to being able to call or text anyone whenever I want and not really worry about how many minutes I'm using since I have a whole boat load to use every month. In Lima, everyone has prepaid cellphones. Texting is cheap but calling is SUPER expensive. I have barely called anyone because it uses up my saldo ("credit") so fast. It makes it annoying when you can't just call somebody and talk for 5 minutes about plans - you have to send a bunch of texts and it takes forever!

8. Mail - No more luxury of simply slapping a stamp on a letter, throwing it in the mailbox, and knowing for sure it will get to the destination in a day or two. In order to mail a letter here, you have to go to the post office, a 20 minute walk from my house, ask for stamps, physically glue them onto the letter with a gluestick, and pray that it will get to the US. The last time I mailed letters they told me it would take 8 days and of course it took 16 (again, Peruvian time). As for receiving mail, if it's a letter, it will usually come in about a week. With packages, however, they take forever! My friend Kris waited almost a month for a package from his mom. Keeley got a big package from her mom and a brand new cell phone had been stolen out of it - but not the Visa giftcard or other things in the package. It's crazy - you would think there would be more security in the postal service!

9. Entertainment - Everything seems to come from the US. At the movie theater, it's all new American films that they play with Spanish subtitles. TV shows are also from the US, but are at least a season behind what's planning in the US. As for music, they have lots of South American tunes, but this one radio station, 107.7 (la planeta, tu musica en ingles!) plays English music. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "Dirty Bit" by the Black Eyed Peas be played in this country. It's crazy!

10. Stores - There are super small tiendas (stores) on every block that sell the same things - some food items, beverages, alcohol, and cell phone credit. A lot of the stores have a constant gate up so you can't walk around and pick up your own things and pay for it. You have to tell the guy working what you want and he picks everything out for you and you pay him through the gate. It's kind of crazy, but I guess it's a foolproof prevention for getting robbed.

That's all I can think of for now!

Semana Santa in Ayacucho

This weekend was a very interesting one. I think 22 or 23 of us took a trip to Ayacucho, a city southeast of Lima in the mountains. We left at 9:30 at night on Wednesday and got there around 7:30 am Thursday - it was a very bumpy and curvy 10 hour bus ride. (Megan, I can just hear you saying "ohhhh I'm SOOO car sick) Since it was Semana Santa, or Holy Week, everyone had Thursday and Friday off of school, allowing us an extra long traveling weekend. We picked Ayacucho because it's the most famous place in Peru during Semana Santa - they have crazy celebrations and festivities all weekend so we had to see what it was all about!

A friend of a friend, Isaac, used to have a house in Ayacucho with his family but when they moved out into the country they decided to turn it into an elementary school. This means we got to stay all weekend in a little school, free of charge! There were no beds but Kalli and I bought a blow up air mattress to share for the weekend - other people just used sleeping bags on the tile floor.

Our little classroom full of travelers 

A few of us in the group!

After relaxing and unpacking a little bit on Thursday, we took an hour van ride to a smaller town called Huanta. We waited out a rain storm before taking a hike to a beautiful waterfall! 

Driving to Huanta

Pretty sky :)

Little piggies we found on the walk to the waterfall

Group photo

David and I

A couple of people went "swimming" through the waterfall - not me, though!

Cute Peruvian girls in Huanta

On Thursday night we had a bonfire on top of the school and invited our other international friends that were also staying in Cusco. I was testing out my night settings on my camera to try to take a picture of the bajillion stars but it only kind of worked. 

Ayacucho at night (from the rooftop of the school)

Fogata (bonfire)

Moon

My camera died on Friday so I have no pictures to document the crucification of Jesus... Townspeople of Ayacucho acted out the entire scene, including a man playing Jesus who carried his cross up the side of the mountain while everyone followed. It was unlike anything I've seen before! After watching the entire reenactment, we went to a "fair" in Ayacucho. It was kind of similar to fairs in the US because of the games, rides, craft sales, music stage, and beer. Just different because of the alpaca rides, live Andean folkloric music, and different animal  body parts being sold. I was having a great time until Keeley realized her wallet had been taken out of her purse while waiting in line to buy food. What a horrible thing to be robbed - I should know! She called her dad right away to cancel her cards and luckily no charges were made... but it still sucks having your money and IDs and all of your wallet contents stolen. We went home after that to rest a little before going to the procession. This was in the central square, or Plaza de Armas, where a ton of people crowded around all four sides of the plaza to watch a fake dead Jesus be carried around in a crystal coffin covered in flowers. People were crying and lighting candles and it seemed as if everyone was on their best Christian behavior - until we realized that Kris and Kalli had both been pick-pocketed in the crowd of people. Kalli just had money taken from her zipped pocket, while Kris had his whole wallet and small video camera taken out of his zipped chest pocket. It's unbelievable - three robberies in one day. I understand it could happen anywhere, but really, Ayacucho? We come to your town to observe your cultural celebrations and all you do is rob us. Ughhh so frustrating! Trying to keep our hopes up, we went out to dinner at a local place where Kalli got to blow out a candle and have a glass of wine for her 21st birthday (yes, she got robbed on her birthday). We were pretty tired after the day's depressing events so we went to bed early on Friday.

Saturday was a veryyy interesting day. There is something every year called "the running of the bulls" where they literally let one bull at a time run around the streets (while everyone is wearing red) and you just have to run from it. I've never literally ran for my life. Andre, Kalli, Rebecca, Kris, Keeley, and I were all waiting for this bull to come out from behind a closed gate. I thought it would be on a leash or SOMETHING because nobody looked panicked and people even had little kids there. Then all of a sudden everyone was screaming and I got pushed into a sunglasses cart. Kris got pushed into a motorcycle. A nun pushed Kalli behind a pole when she was a few feet away from the horns of the bull. Then the bull ran all the way up to the central square, chasing everyone away in it's path! I didn't really understand why everyone has so much fun with this tradition. It was so scary! After the first one we found a safe spot by the food stands and the marching band and watched from a distance as a new bucking bull was released from the gate every five minutes. Crazy!!

Andre, Kalli, Rebecca, Kris, and I - all happy before the first bull release

After relaxing in the sun and having lunch, the bulls were finally all gone. We walked up to the central plaza to find something sort of like the Mifflin Street Block Party, Peruvian style. Crowds of people covered every inch of the plaza, drinking beers, making human pyramids, throwing people up in the air, and getting sprayed with water from a firetruck. It was a very fun afternoon!

Walking up to the central plaza

One of the four streets of the central square - see the human pyramid and the firetruck?

Battle wound after falling from a pyramid

A couple of us enjoying the fiesta!

Cute Peruvian baby that survived the running of the bulls...

Semana Santa

A couple people left early on Sunday morning, but I had a bus ticket for  9 pm so I had another full day in Ayacucho. Some of the remaining people took a van ride to a city called Quinoa, where the battle of Ayacuho was (for Peru's independence). There were a lot of artesian crafts being sold there, as well as horse rides (which I didn't do this time) and hiking paths. I could tell that the town was really poor - every few minutes a little boy would come up to me telling me he could describe the battle of Ayacucho for a couple of soles... or a group of little girls would come offer to sing to me for money. Four of us hiked to another waterfall, just because I love waterfalls so much!

Horses

Monument to the battle of Ayacucho

Kristina, me, and Vera in Quinoa 

Vendors

Hiking to the waterfall

Gotta love those mountains :)

Me at the waterfall in Quinoa

Although I liked Ayacucho, it wasn't my favorite place I've visited in Peru. Probably because of the robberies, crowdedness, and the difficulties of traveling with a huge group. Also, the 10 hour bus ride sitting next to a smelly man wasn't the most fun after sleeping on an air mattress all weekend and being so tired! I had never been so happy to see Kusi Wasi. But overall, it was a good experience! 

Now that I've done trips to the mountains three weeks in a row, I think I'll start traveling to the north for some beach time. Next week is "midterms" and since I don't have an exams I basically have a week off of school! Currently planning my next adventure... :)

Marcahuasi!

What a fabulous, much-needed weekend. Matt, Rebecca, Kalli, and I took an adventurous trip to a place called Marcahuasi. It was quite the adventure just getting there! We took a bus from Lima to a town called Chosica, only to find out buses to where we needed to go had stopped running for the night. Instead of going back to Lima we just decided to stay in a hostel for the night in Chosica. It was fun - we went to dinner at a great pizzeria and hung out in our room watching an old Al Pacino movie before going to bed early. 

We woke up early on Saturday to get to the bus station by 8 am - we took a bus from Chosica to San Pedro, a VERY small pueblo in the mountains. The bus ride was 2 or 3 hours, including the time stopped in a pueblo changing a flat tire. When we got to San Pedro it was freezing - even with a sweatshirt and fleece on. While on the bus we happened to meet 4 people around our age (all Peruvians) who were also trekking up to Marcahuasi. Two of them had been up there before so we got some details before hiking up. We found a man who agreed to rent us two of us donkeys (yes, donkeys) to carry our stuff up to Marcahuasi. 

All ready to hike up to Marcahuasi - my huge hiking backpack! (borrowed from a friend)

A little boy getting our donkeys ready 

Getting packed up...

Although a man had offered us his horses to ride up the mountainside, we decided to walk. I was exhausted after 5 minutes! There was so little oxygen up there... I think San Pedro is at about 3000 meters elevation. However, the eight of us, including our "guide" and his 3 donkeys, powered through it and after 3 long hours we made it to Marcahuasi. We stopped a lot along the way to catch our breath and take pictures! 

Picture of San Pedro from above

Flattest part of the hike

Beautiful flowers all along the way 

I couldn't believe my eyes when we finally got to Marcahuasi. I was breathless - from the amazing beautiful scenery around me AND from hiking for 3 hours up to 4100 meters. The thing that surprised me the most was the unbelievable amount of silence that surrounded us. Over the past two months I've become accustomed to the constant honking, yelling, and other noises of Lima. My ears didn't know what was going on when there was absolutely nothing around me. We were the first people to get there so we set up camp. Kalli and I had bought a "2 person" tent at Wong (the supermarket) for less than $12 and set it up - it was tiny but it worked! Unfortunately Rebecca and Matt, who paid like $25 for their tent, had some bad luck... their tent was broken! But after a lot of time and creativity they made it work. 

Kalli in our tiny but functional tent

Marcahuasi - beautiful rock formations

The fog came and went SO fast - one minute we could see for what seemed like miles and the next we could barely see our neighbor's tent. I couldn't believe how cold it was up there. I was cold with a sweatshirt, fleece, and raincoat on... Kalli and I were so poorly prepared due to doing zero research before the trip so we didn't have hats or gloves - I guess we'll remember for next time! After snacking and drinking lots of water to help with the altitude, a bunch of us decided to go on a walk. There were around 5 groups of people up there, including us, the people we met on the bus, and a whole Peruvian rock band! 

Of course we went exploring and got lost in the middle of the Andes in the dark. At least I can check that off my bucket list! We could see where camp was but just couldn't figure out how to get down due to the crazy dangerous rocks. I was scared but tried to stay calm... at one point we saw this hazy orange light on the horizon. I'm pretty sure it was some type of UFO - Marcahuasi is known for UFO and alion sightings! It was probably just my imagination but I'd like to think we saw something. We eventually found our way and I was soo relieved to be back at our campsite. The band that was there played us a mini concert while we sat around our attempted fire (it had rained a ton during the day on our firewood). 

Campfire - kind of. 

That night in the tent it was sooo cold - I was bundled up in 2 layers of pants and 2 sweatshirts and warm socks and still freezing! Between the cold and Kalli and I squishing into the world's smallest tent (with our two huge backpacks) we probably got 2 hours of sleep between the two of us. That's ok, because as soon as it got light out we got up and saw this:

"campsite"

Marcahuasi :)

Me in front of the famous rock structure

We took a hike - this time safely during the day and without loads of fog - and ran into our Peruvian friends. Oh, and our dog! This stray dog had walked all the way up from San Pedro with us and stayed with us the whole trip. We named him Lobo or Bobby, I'm not sure, everyone kept calling him different things. He guided us all over the place and would occasionally get rowdy and chase a donkey or cow on the mountainside. Here are some of the pictures I took on our gorgeous, relaxing hike:

In the clouds

Kalli and I - still not believing where we actually are!

Dog chasing donkeys...

Kalli, me, Lucia, Rebecca, Melissa - having a rest in the sun!

Even found ruins on the walk. Kalli, me, Rebecca, Matt (and of course our dog)

Looking into the campsite

We had originally planned on camping for two nights, but by Saturday we were almost out of the 7 liters of water and loads of snacks we brought. Also, the cold weather and cramped tents didn't persuade us to stay, so we decided to head out on Sunday with our new Peruvian friends. We didn't use donkeys this time for our stuff - although it was all downhill, it was still tiring to walk on rocks with a huge backpack for an hour and a half. The eight of us (nine if you count our dog!) got back to San Pedro just in time to catch the 2 pm bus back to Chosica. After a long ride from Chosica to Lima I finally got to shower and have a good night sleep in my own bed! Back to the chaos of Lima... but Marcahuasi was definitely rejuvenating :)

Rebecca, Kalli, and I - all ready to hike back down to San Pedro