A girl can change her mind...

So since I arrived in Peru, I have been pouring through my guidebook and looking on the internet, for my next leap. At some point i came across this awesome prospect of going to this town, Tarapoto, and then hopping on a cargo ship for 3 to 5 days to get to Iquitos. Iquitos is the worlds largest city that can only be reaced by plane or boat. Thats right, no road trips to good ole Iquitos.  I was excited to do it as soon as i found out about it.  The problem is that as soon as i got to Tarapoto, I wasn{t really having that great of a time.  The jungle wasnt really welcoming me with open arms.  I got to thinking? Do I really want to spend 3 to 5 days more in the sweltering jungle and another 3 or 4 days in Iquitos? ]When ive been in the jungle 2 days and im not really digging it. Why did this sound like such a good idea?  Was it just the thought of having this story under my belt that interested me?  I also felt strangely uneasy about it. A feeling that i rarely have when i travel, i might be nervous, but never uneasy.  So i tossed and turned about it the night before i left, i flipped coins, i made pros and cons lists (you know the normal way that everyone makes decisions).  I told everyone i was going, i felt obligated, then i realized the next morning. Its your journey, your vacation, go do what sounds like the most fun.   The joy of traveling on your own...you can do whatever you want! And you can change your mind about anything, at anytime!   So with that thought i caught an early morning rainy taxi to the TSP bus staition and bought a ticket for Piura.  I got to the station early with the intention of leaving again, but it was such a downpour, i wound up sitting their for...four hours or so. In the meantime i practiced my ukulele, relearning everyones favorite Jason Mraz song.  I also attracted unwanted attention of one of the bus terminal workers, Victor. He wasn{t so bad at first, but got increasingly worse. Making jokes about marrying me, ha ha...heard that in Peru before.  But it was when the bus came that things got creepy, he showed me to my seat, the Panorama seat i was so excited to have. Its on the top of a two story bus, so its like youre driving, withour all the driving.  He then sits next to me and tries to hold my hand asking me if i{m cold....ummmm...NO!  Then he makes gross kissy lips at me and i shove him away and say "Victor, POR FAVOR!" He leaves me alone thank god.  Then i begin to realize that my wonderful panorama window leaks and is dripping all over me and my stuff, grand. This bus is ancient and like many things in Peru, it smells like pee. Also like wet socks...gross....this is going to be an awesome 17 hour bus ride.  My neighbors get on and they are actually quite sweet and friendly to me, thats a plus.  But it all seemed to just add up to my conclusion that the jungle wasn{t for me this time.  I had a taste of the Amazon, and it tasted like pee and old socks.
         Hee hee, anyhow, wow panormic window! AKA see how scary close to death you are at everymoment going around hairpin turns all night long, but it was kinda fun. Any how....I made it to Piura and hopped a mototaxi to the Eppo bus station which took me to Mancora in 3 short hours.  I decided what would i like to do on my vacation? Sit on a beach for a week before my friend michael comes and were in a different place everyday for 2 weeks.  So Mancora is in the north of Peru on the Pacific coast, its Perus best beach, so they say. whoever they are, they arevery opinionated.  I met a really nice guy on this bus, whose family owns a restaurant in Mancora...the ocean always treats me well so it seems.  I find a sweet hostel called kokapelli and locate my dear ol irish rose Sarah, who is working at a nearby hostel.  her hostel is dang swanky. Like a beach resort, hostel style.  I spent the afternoon walking up and down the beach, swimming, and sunning, and reconnecting to my inner mermaid.  I love the sea! And it seems that i have made the right decision.  Jai! for the freedom to change your plans!  hey you know, keeping up with blogs is easier than trying to write an entire week all at once.  Love to you all, I will try to keep them coming!

Into the Andes and the Amazon

Incredible. The ride to Cajamarca was the best. The desert of trujillo melted away, and was replaced by beuatiful mountains, lakes and rivers jutting up in all directions. We drove through what seemed to be some sort of mango paradise. Everywhere mangoes of all colors dangled from limbs. I wanted to stop and climb the trees and be coated in sweet mango slime! However, we were on a bus, so it was only a fantasy. As we approached Cajamarca the city was tucked into a grandmotherly pathworked blanket of green farmed mountainsides.  A raincloud hovered over the valley, and a brief rainbow welcomed me into the city.
     The change to all this greenery, and moisture, and cool air had sarah and i feeling quite all right.  We met up with our couchsurfing host Hans Pedro.  He introduced us to his lovely german pals Clara and Philip.  Then Hans showed us to our place....what...our place? Yes that´s right,we wouldn´t be sharing his house, his family owns an apartment complex, and one is empty. We were given the keys to our own mostly furnished beautiful two bedroom apartment, for free for four days. Thank you couchsurfing, and thank you Hans!  Then Hans was kind enough to take us the plaza de armas, with lovely trees and flanked on either side by ornately faced churches.  He showed us up circularly shaped steps to a look out over the entire city. I huffed and puffed my way up...altitude, wow.  Glad i´m not a smoker!  The view was spectacular, and worth the climb.  We walked through the city streets and waited for Han´s friend in a park.  I watched children playing on a giant trampoline filled with huge bouncy balls. Others squealed down a big inflatable slide. While we waited a carnavale band came to practice and it was fun to watch and listen.  Han´s friend Carlos arrived, he was a lovely bracket toothed individual. We all taxi´d out to Clara and philips volunteer house, where we met Christopher. He flies in for carnavale, every year from Germany!  We sat playing a drinking game called chispe, that involves rolling dice, and bluffing.  I drank water however, as i was still a bit sick and didn´t want to rush things before the big carnavale!  It was fun listening to the mix of Spanish, English and German.  Also, the spanish in the mountains is loads easier to understand and the boys are cuter, says Sarah.
       The next day Sarah and I headed back to the plaza de armas past stalls of beatiful weavings, and campesinos begging, back up the huffy puffy stairs. At the top you pay one sol to wind your way through cobblestoned teraced gardens, in a big spiral to reach the real lookout over the city, and wow!Sarah and i waxed philosophical at the sight of such splendiferous beauty...This is why we travel we decide. Because if you don´t you don´t get to see things like this. Wow. Wow. Wow.   Back down we take in lunch at Don Paco´s New Cajamarqueno Cuisine. So good, Sarah had the best veggie burger i´ve ever had, and i had mushroom ravioli in a saffron cream sauce topped with balsamic reduction, mmmmmm. Life is fine!  We meet up with Sarah´s british friends for a drink at ¨"our house". Then down to the Plaza for the beginning of Carnavale festivites. There are bands playing in the street everywhere. They follow us around playing, and singing. Everyone is driking and passing drinks. It´s just a big fun friendly party. We run into more friends from the beach town of huanchaco. I remeet Sam that i met in huanchaco, hes from austrailia, and traveling with Camille from France. They will be staying with us at "our house" for the rest of carnavale! Great, it´s a late night of dancing and goofing off. Everything smells like pee. The air is full of laughter and music and drums. They make this drink for carnaval that is cane liquor and maracuya (passion fruit) juice heated in big tea kettles and poured into plastic bottles, and sold for 3 soles.  I think its disgusting, but everyone seems to love it.  We head back to the house after some questionable street food.... at 5am?  Is this how you party in South America I guess so!
       Damn tummy has me up at 8am though!  So yoga and meditation for breakfast!  Then  Hans comes by with sam and Camille, they´ve been attacked with paint already. It´s Saturday, the day for the big Pintura (paint).  It´s supposedly an all out war of being attacked with paint.  We all go have some Pan con huevo in a nearby cafe and they are playing this song over and over, and it´s our first recollection of the music of carnavale...it´s not the same song, the words are different but the tune is always the same. I think after 4 days of it i will be able to sing this tune for the rest of my life.  We are full and amped up for the war to come. We take a cab over to a fellow couchsurfers house. Upon exiting the cab a band of women and children come to attack the too clean gringos, i get a shot of green paint right in my mouth, it tastes awful, if you want to know.  The parking lot attendent invites us over for a shot of pisco...so this is how carnavale goes eh? well...when in peru!  Then we head to Herberts the other couchsurfer and meet lots of wonderful people. We all start painting each others faces, and passing some drinks as well. We head to the neighborhood barrio party and the mayhem begins! So much painting and so friendly really too! So many coats, the red, then the blue, then green, and all the fluorescents!  Learning to dance like shakira, and Sarah and i having to pause for moments to just enjoy that this is all actually happening.  It starts to rain, and we run away to wash our hands in a down spout a campesino woman sees this and is giggling her head off. Her name is Victoria.  Campesinos are perus farmer peasants. You´d know them if you saw them, tall straw hats, big skirts with pointed colorful petticoats and usually a bright woven shall that´s strapping a child, or a large amount of vegetables to their back.  Back to the party we end up splitting off with a bunch of people and partying and playing music into the streets.  We meet up with other revelers and just keep dancing and celebrating. A lovely time!  Sarah and i head back to don paco´s in our drunken painted revelry, honestly we had no business being in a nice restaraunt in this state, but they let us in and fed us more wonderful cuisine.  Then back to clean off and head out again. But Sarah´s tired, so i grab sunshine and head back to the plaza. I play for some kids and folks. I make lots of peruvian friends that night, and spent hours speaking my broken spanish, which felt great.    After hours of conversations with this fellow on topics from astral projecton to US politics (in Spanish), i decide to step out of the bar, where i see sarah running down the street toward me, we run and leap into each others arms, epic!  Camille had just been swept off her feet and onto the back of a motorbike, and we found sam, still painted and so drunk we had to walk him around and take care of him all night.  It was such a fun day and ended with Camille and Sarah and i hand feeding poor drunk Sam!
         The next day was the big parade, and i was excited for it but quickly remembered that i dont really like parades, not even big fancy peruvian carnavale ones.  So we all wandered and Camille and I bought bus tickes to Tingo Viejo.  Carlos invited us to a barbeque, and we headed over there. Where we sat in a circle drinking beer Peruvian style.  You open a beer (beers are big here) pour a glass full and hand the bottle to the person next to you, you enjoy the glass of beer, and then when you{re finished, you fling out the remainder, and pass the glass to the beer holder, who repeatst the process. It{s interesting. I had sunshine with me and i was quickly prodded into performing, again, and again and again. One of the fellas in the circle proposed marriage to me, ha ha ha. There was a guitar too, and so i played a bit. Then this fella picks up the guitar and lays down amazing lyrics to excellent guitar playing His voice was so good, as well as his playing, and it was a classic memorable moment.  Afterwards they told me he was in a famous peruvian band in the 60s called fragile.  Cool!  He was a nice fellow and complimented me on my voice , thank you!  It was a mellow day, we went home and found Sarah and went out for some Chifa, >Peruvian chinese food.  We wandered the plaza looking for fun, but didnt compare to the day before. We met some jewelry making rastas and they hung out with us for a while, but i became tired and annoyed and so the gals took me home.
      The next day we had a lovely breakfast, since my sickness i{ve only been eating bread and cheese it seems, as i have a new found fear of fruits and vegetables. So Pan con queso it is!  Sarah heads off to get her bus ticket and Camille and i take off on an adventure.  We grab a combi to los Banos del Inca, hot springs outside of town where the inca warrior Atahualpa once took residence(before losing to the spanish unfortunately).  But what a Combi ride it was, it took us through a market, out on crazy wet muddy country roads, waaaaaay out of the way. We were a bit confused until they explained that they had to go that way because of the road closures due to the parade. We were a little nervous for a moment, it took forever but we got there.  We got our own private room and soaked while chatting for 2 hours.  Our partied out bones were grateful. Afterwards we wanted to find the Ventanillas de Otuzco. They are hundreds of square "windows" carved into a cliff side, used for the enterment of human bodies.  We got directions, and started walking, and got lost, and got directions again, and again. We were walking and i say " wouldn{t it be great if we got picked up by some dudes on motorcycles to take us there?"  Just then a big pickup drives by and we get waterbombed by a bunch of girls in the back, they then pull over, and wave to us to come jump on board. What a trip!  We weave through the gorgeous countryside, its all so very green. Campesino women milk cows and farms with fat pigs roll on by.  And we are in an all out boys versus girls water fight. We are just a bundle of giggles, attacking everyone as we pass by. The boys are equipped on the roadside with huge buckets of water and we are absolutely drenched by them.  After about 15 minutes and hundreds of gallons of water, they drop us right off at the entrance to las Ventanillas.  Everyone there is laughing at the wet gringas, and we laugh at ourselves. What a great journey, and the Ventanillas were cool too, but just getting there was the best part.  We listen to a bit of the history, but we are too cold to sit around in the fading sunlight and start our walk back. We were hoping for a taxi but there werent any. So we start to walk and after a few minutes a Combi stops and we ask where they are heading..Cajamarca, we hop in and just after we pass a huge group of boys with massive buckets of water who would have destroyed us!  What luck! And the combi ride is beautiful, and we are safe from the water attacks. The combi drops us nearly at our door, a perfect day for sure.  We run in to tell sara of our perfect day!  We were so high from all the beauty and fun.  Then we take sarah out for her last meal before she heads west to Mancora.  Oh yah, its tradition to turn off the towns electricity until 6 pm on the monday of carnaval. So we eat a huge plate of chips and Chicha morada in a darkened restaurant! Buen viaje Sarah!  She heads to the bus station and we go back to the plaza to say goodbye to Hans and all his friends! Thanks so much Hans!
      The next day we are up at 3am for our 4am bus to Tingo Viejo.  I{d read a lot about the crazy trip, it takes 11 hours and is not very many kilometers, but it is hairpin turns and switchbacks through cloud forests and Andean peaks. Its unbelievable, i am so tired, but do not want to sleep because to miss this amount of beauty would be acrime.   I have about a thousand pics on my camera now of stunning mountain vistas, but they were so damn good°!  We arrive in Tingo Viejo and find a room at Hospedaje Leon, right next to the tingo river, with a balcony overlooking it.  I write in my journal on the balcony and enjoy being in such a peaceful quiet place for a while. nothing but the sound of the river. So wonderful.  We meet Alexandra from Germany who is also staying there. Shes been traveling through Chile and Argentina on a bike for months, such a badass. I am a baby traveler in comparison.  The next morning we are up at five to start the 10 km hike up to Kuelap, the ancient Chachapoyas village, built out of an incalcuable amount of stone. Some say almost as much as the great pyramids. The hike takes about 4 hours up, we rise over 1,000 meters in elevation. If i thought i was huffing and puffing up the stairs in Cajamarca, whew! What a hike, i am grateful that my body can do these things!   And more pictures of stunning mountain vistas! Amazing flowers the whole way, and crazy amounts of orchids.  We pass through a village where men and children are busily making adobe bricks. We are so close to the top!  We are greeted at Kuelap by the grounds keeper who seems amazed that we have arrived so early! when did you wake up? did you even eat breakfast?  he informs us we need to buy tickets, another 2km away, so we walk there and on the way i spy a rare Marvelous Spatulae tailed hummingbird! There{s only like a thousand mating pairs left in peru an I saw one! Oh and I found a four leaf clover tooo....no big deal.  We hike the 2km back up the mountain to the entrance and are entranced for the next hour in the circular stone ruins of kuelap. We meet up with alexandra and make the descent together.  10km back down in about half the time, and i don{t think i had any feet left upon my return.
     We pack quickly and hop a combi into chachapoyas where i buy an early bus ticket to Tarapoto.   We eat some "italian" food, well there were noodles. I sleep in my little shabby hotel room and head out on my own early the next day.  Its a combi stylebus, not a proper bus, and its again, a beautiful mountain road of twists and turns, and lo sientos as i bump into my busmates as we round the corners.  Slowyly over the 7 hour ride things get increasingly more tropical, giant ferns, and vines and tree canopies appear. And then the heat....wooooweeeeeee its hot, i mean i{m not comlaining, to those of you who are in missouri, where its freezing right now but....damn sweltering missouri in august heat. im sweating just typing on this keyboard.  So i find suitable accomodations and internet and book a tour of a local waterfall.  That was yesterday, I wake up this morning and it is a torrential downpour...but i arrive for my waterfall trip anyway!  Its me and a family of 4 from Chiclayo, Peru.  We head through the rain, me wiping the condenstaion from the inside of the window so the driver can see.  rocks are tumbling down the mountains into the road. At a roadblock, our driver speeds around, and tells the guy to let us pass....ummmm....is this a good idea?  So we pass, and make it to the waterfall. We tumble out and put on ponchos, The little girl with the family is only five, and such a trooper.we walk the pathways to the falls but one section is completely overtaken by the river,  a guy wades out and leads me across to the rest of the stairs up to the falls.  The family doesnt follow, and our crazy driver Leo, leads me up to the falls.  Its thunderous an forceful mist is flying everywhere, holy cow, so much for my idea of a peaceful swim in the waterfall.  A girl and her boyfriend are there though, and shes wearing a bikini! Not swimming though, just for a good photo.  It was crazy, beautiful and intense.  When we return the rain has stopped, but they have closed the waterfall, so we drive back home....weird, wonderful day in Peru.  I know this was a long post, so thanks to those who stuck with me!  Where am i off to next?... I{ll get back to you.....Love to you all!

To Carnavale, and beyond!

Hi There!
I thought i{d take advantage of having a nice free computer to use for the last time. It{s the end of my three weeks here, already!  I have really loved my experience with Espaanglisch. All the volunteers that i{ve met will hold such a special place in my memories!  And All of the students as well, especially my Gringlisch students! You will be so missed!   Last night was our last time out together and it was so hard to say goodbye!  I really wish i could stay for longer, but carnavale awaits in the northern town of Cajamarca so sweet Irish Sarah and i will venture off for funtimes there!
   How have my last few days been here? Well, I wish i could say they were all sunshine and lollipops, but unfortunately Tuesday I became really ill, fever, vomiting the whole nine yards (of toilet paper).  Well, mostly likely dysentery, which is common here and i figured I would get it at least once. Dang though¡ so soon?  I tend to pride myself on my iron stomach!   So the last few days have been....slightly unpleasant. Tuesday being the worst.  I still managed to get out of the house for some fun trips to the market.  Sarah and I went looking for cheap clothes to wear to Carnavale, because apparently we will be doused with paint, flour, water...you name it, upon our arrival...can{t wait!    I encountered a strange shoe store that makes the weirdest awesome clown shoes/stipper boots, or a combo there of that was confusing. Perhaps if i wanted to be a clown for the band KISS, this is wear i would shop.  It{s been a good few days despite the sickness, I managed to finish a nice mandala painting for the Espaanglisch house.  I{m going to miss so much. Bumpy combi rides with all my buddies, late nights with students and friends dancing on the beach, the beach, sigh, having someone to do something with always, David{s absolute goofyness, Carmens insistence that i speak spanish, Emmas Americana, Sweet Janna, Evas conversations, my roomie Adrienne! Eppy and her hybrid-french-english accent, everything...i could go on about everyone and everything i will miss! It{s been an absolute blast volunteering!  Alright, wanted to keep you updated before i slip into the melee of Carnavale!  Wish my sensitive tummy luck on the 7 hour bus north today! Nos Vemos!

School, Surf, Temples...the usual

Another stupendous week in Peru has passed me by already!    Teaching has been really fun.  Eppy and I make quite the team at the La Cantera school. I really appreciate teaching the younger students, they appreciate my goofy demeanor.  They also seem more interested in learning English.  The schools are so absolutely basic here.  We are in the desert so the school grounds basically consist of some cement buildings for classrooms, and a lot of sand, all enclosed in a big concrete wall.  The town of esperanzas is dirty brick buildings with corrugated tin rooves, scrappy street dogs, dusty dirt streets, piles of rubble brick everywhere, mountains in the background and slow walking peruvians.  The combis always swerve from left to right to avoid the complete uneveness of the streets.  But it all works, people are happy, the children smile and love to play with us, everyone gets to where they are going.  I love riding the combis to and from school, reading the signs of random businesses, observing the street vendors and daily lives, the shouts of the combi man as he yells out his destinations rapidfire, random grafitti, and this incredible mosaic tile wall that about 1000 yards long by the university, they{ve been working on it for ten years, and still are. It depicts the history of Peru, Its amazing i will have to take some pics.  on a side note, university is free in peru....some third world huh? they{ve figured out what we havent.

     The week was filled with classes and food. It seems that when we are not teaching we are eating, or talking about what-where we will be eating next. There was a vegetarian restuarnat iwas excited to try. I drug Jack, Holly, Adrienne, and Sarah with me.  Alas though, it was not that great.  Dang, We did have some amazing pizzas at the Casona Deza restaurante inside this beatiful historic house. I had the best Chicha Morada so far there.  Food is everywhere here, it seems every ten feet there is another sandwich board on the sidewalk with a menu for a restaurant.   Not to mention, random street vendors selling anythingfrom fresh fruit to hamburgers and my new fave raspadillas. Its like a slushy, but instead of strange artificially colored crap, its these wonderful thick fresh fruit syrups.  I love the maracuya syrup(passion fruit). 

        We all went to cheap movie night on Tuesday. Its funny becaue everywhere we go, we go with like 10 people in tow, between volunteers, students and friends.  The popcorn bucket at the movies is ridiculous!  They say american portions are crazy, >I have never seen such a bin of popcorn!  Also, they will come and take your food order while youre in the seats, and come back with your popcorn, how has america not done this?  We watched the brad pitt flick Fury. It was okay, life is tense enough so i dont prefet to watch downer movies, but i{m glad i had the experience of a movie night in peru.  

   Thursday Eppy and I taught action verbs to the kids, and had a blast doing some silly games with them. After class I was invited to go to a small school to talk to the kids and help them practice there English. My friend Ellen invited me and picked me up to take me there.  The room was cute and tidy and the students all quite nervous to talk to me. It was fun though, communicating in smiles and trying to drag some answers out of them. They were quite interested in what music i liked, but they didn{t know who the beatles were....dang. A good experience though, that left me floating.  That night we all went to the beach for cheap cocktail night.  We listened to the live reggae band and enjoyed mojitos...And stayed out until four in the morning...doing what? who knows... dancing, chatting excitedly in our mixtures of english, spanish, french and spanglish, walking and drinking on the beach. It was a grand night, and I got to ride on Emma{s boyfriends Tito{s motorbike, yeah, I love motorbikes!

        Friday was Jack and Hollys last day, so we headed back to the beach to share a dinner, and a nice sunset together.  They are heading off to Brazil for Carnaval, and then skydiving over the worlds biggest waterfalls tomorrow.  We spent there last night in Trujillo hanging out in the park and telling stories. We will miss you guys!

      Saturday I spent the day at the beach, doing some sun bathing and swimming. Sarah and I also bought our own bus tickets to Carnaval. We are staying in Peru however, in Cajamarca.  Apparently its the best place to celebrate in Peru.  We have found a couchsurfer to stay with and are excited to go!  I can{t believe that my time here is almost over though. I was planning on staying for 3ish weeks, but since i{m going to carnaval i{m already heading north, so i{m just going to keep on going.  I have had so much fun with espaanglisch, and i{m going to miss having so much support, and friendly people around me. I{m also ready to see some more of Peru, and be independent too.

      Sunday I did something that i{ve wanted to do forever. I{m a bit embarassed because i lived in southern california for three years and i never went surfing, nope, not once. My boyfriend even surfed...but i never got to go.  So Adrienne and Janna (new volunteer) and I went surfing with Luciano and Antonio, our instructors.  It was a blast! thanks to yoga, I was quite a natural, and stood up quickly. I know i have a lot to learn, but it was super duper fun. I love the sea so much, and this was just a ridiculously fun way to interact with it!.I am so glad i went, it was one of my goals while i was in Peru. I spent the rest of the day lazing on the beach with Eppy and enjoying that display. The beach was packed with smiling happy peruvians. Vendors wandered the beach selling, cotton candy, chips, these sweet orange cakes with crispy layers and honey, and ...caramel apples? Sure why not?  

       Today we went to do some ancient Moche ruin exploration.  Eppy, Adrienne, Janna and I took a taxi to the Huacas del sol y luna(the temples of the sun and the moon).  Huge Adobe brick ruins of a society built almost 2000 years ago.  The taxi dropped us off way to early (JERK)¡ Although as we were walking we were picke up by some nice fellows in a pick up. Yes¡ I have now hitchhiked in 4 countries!They took us all the way to the museum. The museum was full of pottery and I had such a great time looking at it. So much about there life was learned by the stories depicted on the pottery.  One of the tombs that was unearthed was a potters tomb. Potters were considered and elite upperclasss in Moche society. Yeah, me too right :D?  I do love this strange connection i feel between myself and all pottery i come in contact with.  The murals and reliefs painted on the walls of the temples were also quite incredible. The scale of the adobe structure is massive! So many bricks, and each is marked with a special symbol as a signature of the maker.  Quite a week!  Now i{m about to go teach a Gringlish class. I love and miss all of you.  Leave a comment won{t you? Any questions? Comments? Concerns? Threats? just kidding!

A Peru-llel Universe

Well Well Well, I must be busy and having a blast because I am just now finding time to write!  The adventuring in Peru has been awesome. I arrived in Lima after 3 planes and 16 hours.  On the plane from Miami to Lima, I made my first Peruvian friend. He was really friendly and was helpful and patient with my Spanish. It was just forshadowing of all the Peruvian kindness that awaited me.  I made it through customs in a flash, and as i was walking for the airport exit i felt pressure on the back of my ankle. I turned around to see a beagle, pawing at me.  His owner(a customs officer) asks me to come with him.  I'm thinking "oh dear, someone has put drugs in my bag somehow". He asks if i have any fruit, lol, yes i have an apple, here you go! okay, and onward into Peru!
      I had my hostel pick me up at the airport, they told me they would be there with a sign. When i exited there was a sea of people with hundreds of signs. I scanned and scanned until i finally found my name.  I met Jorge, and he drove me bouncing through the streets of Lima to my quiet and sweet hostel.  I awoke to doves lowing and beautiful trees outside of my window.  I met a wonderful Columbian woman and we had breakfast. Then off to the bus station.  I arrived way too early and had a blast people watching and pacing.  The bus was sooooo comfortable and the 9 hour journey to Trujillo passed quickly. I dozed on and off, and seemed to open my eyes at just the right time to see such gems as: A man chasing down a truck carrying three giant inflatable ducks, two peruvians in swimwear tanning in sunchairs, in the back of a pickup as it sped down the Panamerican highway, an entire mariachi band playing to no one.  As Lima drained away behind me, a mountain of sand rose to my right, and the Pacific Ocean glittered to my Left.  The mountain of sand gave way to wind carved wonders, and eventually smooth dunes.
        At the bus station i was met by Sarah from Ireland, Ana from Spain, and Mateo from Italy.  We hopped in a taxi and arrived at the Espaanglisch house, where  I met David the founder and settled into my room. I was pretty tired so i crashed. The next day I woke and showered. I met Carmen, David's aunt.  She challenged my spanish comprehension (and still does) but was sweet and showed me around the house.  The other volunteers came back from school in the afternoon and Ana showed me to the nearest supermarket.  Great fresh mangos and avocados, so good!  Back at the house I met Eva from England and also Jack and Holly, also from England.  Eva and i walked to the beautiful Plaza de Armas. Its spanish colonial house fronts were painted in bright primary colors and a stunning series of statues are in the center of the polished square.  And there's a mcdonalds on the corner, ha ha!  Well that night Mateo left to go back home, and another volunteer came from france, her name is Eppy. That night was my first "gringlish" class. It's a class of adults that mostly for conversation and we had great debates on political issues. They asked a lot of great questions about where we're from, and that led to lots of great jokes.  One student asks: Is it true that Britain has never lost a war? I respond No! They lost to us, and we all had a good giggle.
       Eppy,Ana, Sarah and I caught a combi (like a small VW type van full of seats) to our school in the outskirts of Trujillo called Esperanzas.  The combi system here is amazing, there are combis to everyhwhere all the time,they're quick, efficient and they cost about a quarter.  Why cant we have awesome transport in the US?  Anyhow...The kids are cute, but they all seem a bit tired and quiet.  We teach them some vocab and play hangman.  After class a student hands me her little sister, and says "here a gift" and the kid starts crying, pretty funny.  After class we hop on the combi back to our house.  We all walk through the streets getting to know each other and head to a restuarant.  I get a huge fresh pineapple juice and an avocado, onion and tomato sandwich. YUM!
    Trujillo is a huge city.  It's loud and horns are constant. I think taxis outnumber people and they are constantly beeping at you as they pass by, in case you've forgotten that you needed one.  Things are mellow though, and the people are extremely kind.  I have had so many curious peruvians welcome me to Peru. It's quite a change from some of my asian experiences and I am grateful.
    Our organization has decided to do a social project to help the street recyclers who collect plastic for money.  They can carry enough plastic to make between 15-30 cents per kilo.  The aim of our project is to raise money and buy used tricycles, to give to them so they can collect more plastic, and make more money.  We spent our week planning our "BarbeCUY" Cuy is a peruvian delicacy, known mostly to us as Guinea pigs.  We had many things to do, I was in charge of gathering things for our bar.  This involved going to the market(not a supermarket but a huge outdoor market with hanging chickens and freshly gutted fish, open sacks of everything from lentils to olives to sugar, and heaps of all the fruit and veg you could desire).  There's also random party supplies, our founder david leads me through aisles of pinatas, balloons, and decorations. I look down to discover that the dirty pavement is completely coated in glitter. YES! I love it.  David is leading to where we can buy the cheap Pisco. Pisco is peru's alcohol, its a clear brandy made from grapes. I think it tastes a little like tequila.  We approach a stall selling, glitter things, and cupcake wrappers, nothing to do with alcohol at all. David asks the woman for the Pisco and she pulls it out from behind the counter. 7 soles for a bottle, about $2.50. Nice!  I try aguamantay, a tomatillo looking fruit that is covered in a husk that's pulled back to reveal a slightly sour orange fruit, yummy! They also have Cherimoya here, one of my favorite fruits in the world,its like a coconut banana strawberry custard fruit!
     Ana from Spain is at the end of her time here, so we all go out to a fried chicken restaurant for her last night.  It was fun, and we took all of the Gringlish students with us.  I ate avocado salad and a massive plate of chips (or french fries, but being around all the english folks is rubbing off on me).  And then Ana was off for Columbia with her ukelele playing boyfriend.
         Thursday morning was class at our other school, Simon Bolivar. We taught them animals and I sang old macdonalds farm on my ukelele.  It's summer school right now, so we get to have a bit more fun and play lots of games. It's so much less stressful than teaching in Thailand, and I have so much more help with all the other volunteers that are here.  I'm loving it so much!  After class Eppy and David and I headed to the most gigantic market i've ever been to.  Bananas for days, and more potatoes than I have ever seen.  David is silly and jokes with all the vendors and charms them to get the best deal for all of our barbecuy supplies.  We buy 100 kilos of potatoes, for 45 soles, that's 200 pounds of potatoes for about fifteen dollars. Wow.  The market is vibrant and loud, the people are friendly, theres piles of sacks of onions twenty feet high, people carrying and selling anything imaginble: knives, lemons, air freshners, tank tops, huge containers of fresh flowers, gladiolas and calla lilies. women in straw hats with backpacks overflowing with fresh chamomile flowers, fresh juice, chicha morada (a peruvian drink from purple corn) and picarones, peruvian donuts! delicious! The market is astonishing and just a great experience. We collect our goods and joke with the taxi driver about our "dead body" i.e. the sack of potatoes.  Our party is in the beach town of huanchaco, about a thirty minute ride away. We take a taxi there with our party supplies.  Eva and Sarah and I head to "my friend" bar for live music and 3 sole ($1) cocktails.  Then we listen to warbling love songs in english in the taxi home.  Our volunteer coordinator, Emma from Chicago, returned that day from Machu Picchu so we went with her to have drinks. You buy your own little personal keg of beer that they bring to the table it was great, and I tried to convince everyone to dance, to no avail.  Eva and Sarah and I decide to walk for street food, and get whistled at incessantly as we go.  We get a tasty egg sandwich at 2 in the morning. Lovely.
     We spend friday, finishing up our shopping for the barbeque that is on saturday.  We all head to huanchaco and i catch my first daytime glimpse of the ocean. It's no thailand, but i love the pacific any way i can get it.  The beach is lined with traditional reed boats and happy families playing. Sarah and i wash about 30 kilos of potatos and then we all meet up for lunch. We climb a good hill of stairs to a Cathedral overlooking the ocean. Behind the cathedral is the cutest little restaurant. I have my first taste of fish in 6 years,  I ate ceviche, Peru's national dish, and it was...just fine and delicious! Friday was an exhausting day. So much prep and walking the beach, handing out flyers. As the sun was setting over the pacific we look to the east to see a rainbow, and the moon!  What? really, so cool!  We finished the day at Casa Fresh, the new Irish hostel.  Sarah was dying to here another Irish accent and have a guinness.    There was another uke player there, from california.  He and the Irish owner did a sweet version of "Move bitch get out the way"  It was magnificent, and i wish i had it on video!  Then home, where I  met Adrienne, my new roommate/volunteer from Belgium, and immediately crashed!
        Early Saturday we all combid off to huanchaco for more barbecuy prep and handing out flyers, and cold convincing strangers to come!I played a bit of rooftop ukelele to the sea in the rain.  Sarah and i walked among the street vendors and beachgoers, trying to invite folks to our party. Slowly folks trickled in and we made our plates of guinea pig.  It was awful that morning seeing them get quartered, cutting the feet off and heads, gross.  NO, i didn't try any. But i ate a massive amount of potatoes. In the evening lots of tourists, couchsurfers, students, and friends came out and we had a great time mixing, and drinking cocktails.  We raised some funds, and had a great time as well!  Then we headed down the beach a bit to another club, it was okay and i danced a bit. Then we walked across the road to play drinking games on the beach with some students, it was hillarious.  Eventually we headed back to Trujillo, and were sensibly in bed by 4 am.
    Sunday I awoke to nervous messages from my family.  i was so busy with party planning that I had forgot to message them woops, Sorry if you guys were worried about me!  There's so much to say about Peru, that its hard to cram it all in.  I am happy, I love that I'm travelling again. I hope that you all will travel too someday. It's scary and uncertain sometimes, but most of that is just in your mind. Once you arrive you realize its life, just like everywhere else, only different and new. It challenges you, and mystifies you and I'm just reveling in it!  OKay, tired of typing, i'll try to keep it up more regularly!

Packing the Backpack again!

It's that time of the year again:

It's time to fill the backpack up with everything i'll "need" for the next few months and head out into certain adventure.  Saturday I'll be blessed enough to hop on a plane for South America, Lima, Peru.  I've found an amazing organization to volunteer with.  Sunday I'll take a bus to my home for the next month. Trujillo, Peru on the Pacific coast.  I am excited to work with children again, to help them improve their English skillzzzzz.  I'm looking forward to all the changes that come along with traveling abroad.  I'm feeling much more confident after my trip teaching in Southeast Asia last year.  I wasn't sure about trying to keep up a blog again, but my dearest friends and family, you've asked for it. I'm happy to humor you, as long as i can find the time to keep you adventuring alongside me.  Alright, you know what's coming, now its time for me to go pack, unpack, repack, whittle, roll, stuff, strap,pack, repack,pack,pack, pack. Infinite Love to all of you <3!

Koh lipe and cliff diving in railey!

Alright baby! I'm super motivated to catch you up on my adventures, because so may more are coming! Also I'm jacked on caffeine and sitting in an airport, what else am I going to do?
        So where did I leave us? Karthick and I boarding a ferry for the legendary koh lipe island in Thailand?  Before we board I find a Starbucks, and can't resist my favorite soy green tea latte, just because! We have to go through immigration before we board the ferry . I pass through with ease, but I realize Karthick hasn't made it through yet. I go back to the gate and they won't let him through because of his Indian passport. So we say an awkward goodbye and I head down the ramp to board the ferry. As I'm about to step aboard someone grabs my arm, it's Karthick! He made it! They finally let him go yay! We sit aboard the vomit comet and watch the movie shooter in Thai, as everyone around us pukes into plastic bags. I'm grateful for my lack of smell and iron stomach!
         A few hours later it's koh lipe! And I am on island time! Usually we book accommodations ahead of our arrival but we were sure we'd find something so we didn't. After a beautiful long tail boat shuttles us to shore we start trying to find a room. Everything is super expensive or booked. We hike up and down the shore in the hot sun, to no avail. We eventually take up a guys offer to let us stay in his massage shop for five hundred baht a night. Well take it! And it makes for a good story! We hop on another long tail to go snorkeling, the water here is faerytale Thai island water. Clear as vodka and blue as a bottle of gin, not that I'm an alcoholic or anything.   I have dreamt of an island this beautiful my whole life and being here is stunning and startling and I feel triumphant! So we cut across this sea to another island and pull up beside a lot of other long tails to snorkel. Remember in my last post when I said ko rong had the best snorkeling is ever done? Scratch that, it's koh lipe! Clown fish creep out of coral everywhere a new fish a new color, just addictive to swim and watch in wonder.  Best snotkling ever and I can't wait to dive here!
       We return to the soft sands of koh lipe, Karthick arranges his travel back to koh samui the next day.   I play uke with the owner of the massage shop and chill at the bar next door. We get a foot back and neck massage. Best one so far and it puts Karthick and I in this very spacy blissed out mood. Which leads us to going to an Italian restaurant and ordering a pizza, each. I eat an entire pineapple pizza that's fantastic!  Afterwards I leave Karthick to walk solo down the sands in the company of the full moon. I hang upside down on some rocks watching the moons reflection bob and ripple in the waves.  Then I retire to the open air massage shop mat and hose myself with Insect repellent. I still get devoured by Mosquitos.  Karthick leaves the next morning and I am finally traveling solo!
       I'm ecstatic! I can do whatever I want! I check into my hostel and sit in the aircon trying to talk my friend elysse into coming to thsiland! I only had one day at the hostel so I set out to scour the island for cheap lodgings. I walked most of the island until I ran out of tourists. I sat alone on the beach gazing out at koh adang across the idyllic andaman sea. I took random trails back to the hostel and came upon a place with nets to rent for three hundred baht a night! I guess I know where I'll be staying! Strolling with my uke I talk to dive shops and sign up for a two dive discovery scuba tour.
        Up early to the beach packing my bag an heading to the dive shop. We hop a long tail out to the proper dive boat and start churning the waters heading on to the faraway islands( yeah that's what they are actually called). I meet Pasquale, my heavily French accented dive instructor for the day, he's kooky, hard to understand but full of pep. I suppose the diving is probably easier than it sounds. An hour later I'm suctioning on a wet suit, strapping s tank to my back and jumping in the ocean. It's pretty easy this scuba thing. I didn't  see to much spectacular on my first dive, but on the second I saw huge puffer fish, giant morey eels, lion fish, star fish, the entire cast of finding nemo. Okay I'm hooked scuba diving is great.  I think I'll have to get my certification,someday when I have more money.
       The next morning I ferry away from koh lipe, I sit on the front of the speed boat with the other backpackers who wipe away tears as they say goodbye. It's a choppy ride past deserted islands. We stop for more passengers in turutao national park. There's an entire ferry boat of monks that smile and
 wave. Six hours and a minibus later I'm in krabi town gabbing with two sweet Canadians in my dorm room. I tell them my plans to go climbing in railey beach. Oh really? Their cute dreadlocked Austrian
 friend loves climbing! So the next morning I head out with the boy and I climb the faerytale
limestone crags of railey beach! It's exhilarating with dramatic ocean view at the top!  I love climbing it's difficult but so worth it!  My buddy heads back to krabi town and I watch the sunset into the ocean. I'm staying in the hippie rasta part of town called tonsai beach. I can't walk there until the tide goes down. It's well dark by the time I get there and I can't find my guesthouse. No one seems to know where it is either. My gps is leading me into the middle of nowhere. After questioning a half dozen people I find it, tucked way back in the woods up the mountain. Okay they lead me to my room, oops there's someone in it! They give me a different room instead. It's filthy there's huge dead cockroaches in the bathroom. But I'm a trooper I just want to shower the sweat off. The shower doesn't work, oh well, I'll shower with the butt sprayer, I have no pride. Once my hair is soaped the lights go out. Okay that's the last straw! Naked and covered in soap in the dark I wrap myself in a blanket and go outside, none of the staff are around and the other guests ignore the crazy half naked American, sigh, I return to my room.   I find my headlamp and finish showering, the water stops working, luckily I'm rinsed. I lie on my bed in the dark and write ukelele songs about how sucky this room is. It's early but I'm in no mood to go out so I wrap the mosquito net around my bed and go to sleep. I have the weirdest dreams ever and escape to the beach early the next morning.
       There's not much to do, I swim stare at the gorgeous limestone peaks, play uke, people watch. I discover that  there's another beach voted one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. I walk through cavey stalactites to get there, it's an incredible beach, densely populated. There is a cave of carved wooden penises in every conceivable shape size and color! I'm not making it up! Do patently it's some ancient offering to the legend of some sea goddess or some such thing all I know is that it's a fun spectacle in usually bashful thsiland. On the walk home I see a sign that says lagoon with an arrow piointingbup a steep climbing slope covered in ropes and vines and branches, yeah I wanna go! It's a fun climb up and a gorgeous view of the railey peninsula. I meet an incredible traveller there named Op and together with a bunch if young English people we trek down a steep slope into the lagoon. It's breathtaking, the loud sounds of construction on the beach left behind. We are sheltered in
this cave, the water a cloudy brackish blue. I jump in and float out to the middle, I feel tiny and
ancient. The opening to the sky is shaped like an eye and puffy clouds drift by on the sky blue sky.  It's a great memory and I wish you could have come with me. I climb and walk home I sing Ecuadorean traditional songs with a gal on the beach. I book my trip to go deep water soloing the next day. That means I sail out to an island and free climb with no equipment over deep water, so when I fall I'm caught by the ocean, awesome! Can't wait!  Back at my lovely room they make me move into my bungalow, it's actually a move up, though the mattress is beyond broken down and I sleep in a funny ball. It was a weird day full of Beauty and emotion.
       I eat muesli the next day and meet a pleasant Oregonian uke player before I head for the boat. I meet more Americans on my climbing trip today than I did in my entire travels up til then. as always the boat trip is amazing, the view of islands breathtsking!  We anchor by the cliffs we climb rope ladders to. I don't do anything too dangerous, but live jumping into the water from a good height! It's fun to watch the good climbers go scary high and jump I the sea! Weeeeee! After a few hours we pull to a private cove and enjoy lunch before going on to our next rock walk location, this one is more challenging but ivves scaling a huge stalactite before jumping off! I feel like a badass though I am admittedly a novice! It was an exceptional day! I hop a boat to so nang beach and climb in a pick up truck buss that winds me through the krabi romantic road back to krabi town as a Swiss man talks to me about life.   That winds up my this ocean adventure and it he next day I fly to northern Thailand, Chiang Mai!