HOLA! HOLA! HOLA!
So this upcoming weekend with be my 5th straight weekend of trips! WOW! I am pretty sure if I calculated the days I am actually in Lima (where I am currently studying) versus the amount of days that I am away on trips to other provinces of Peru, the amount of trip days would outnumber the days spent in my "home province." Although living out of a suitcase for weeks on end has become a little bit exhausting, I would not trade it for ANYTHING!! I have loved having the opportunity to see so many different parts of Peru during my 4, short months here. Although, it is a little embarrassing that I will be seeing much of Lima for the first time just as my parents will be seeing it for the first time when they come. I just have not had the time to go explore Lima on days that I have school, so there is truly so much of this city that is unknown to me! But, regardless, I still have 2 months left here (thank goodness!!) to explore Lima and continue learning about this amazing country!
This past weekend two of my friends and I took a spur of the moment weekend trip to a cozy, little town named Lunahuana. We had slim to no plans for this trip, so we were truly flying by the seat of our pants as my Mamaseta always says! All we knew is that there was a bus station that we were 'pretty sure' had buses that would leave every hour or so to go to a town called Canete. From Canete we could then take a taxi, bus, or some other means of transportation to Lunahuana. We didn't have any hotel room set up and we were unsure of where or how to book horseback riding and white water rafting, all we knew is that we wanted to do it! So, Friday morning we hopped on a bus and did just that. The bus ride was an easy 2.5 hours with minimal stops in between. I like taking buses to other districts and provinces because it gives me the opportunity to see the views and landscapes of Peru. Much of this drive was desert, at some points the "worse casinerio" thoughts would pop into my head and I thought if the bus broke down there was literally no source of food, water, or shelter for miles upon miles and then we would be really in a pickle! But luckily that did not happen and we safely made it to our destination. A Peruvian friend of a girl who came on this trip two years ago now lives in Lunahuana, so she met us at the bus station when we arrived and took us to the beach for the day! We first started to set up camp with our umbrella and chairs which were not free and we had to rent. Originally the man started talking with us and goes, "oh you beautiful ladies, wow you are so gorgeous, I am going to give you such an AMAZING PRICE for these awesome quality chairs so that you may sit in them for the day...." blah blah blah. So naturally being sassy me I said in a precious little voice, "oh yea, how amazing of a price are we talking here?" (this is obviously all translated since the man didn't speak English haha). And he tried to convince we that it was going to be 5 soles PER chair...I said 6 soles for all 4 chairs and he gave it to me. It seriously frustrates that heck out of me that they try and rip us off so so badly just because we are white. I am thankful that I am not a typical tourist here and know what prices of things should be or else I would be losing money left and right. One more complaint here really quickly, it really really REALLY irks me when people assume that I speak no Spanish at all and they think it is ok to talk negatively about us Americans who are standing right in front of them. I don't understand why they don't just ask if we speak Spanish and give us the benefit of the doubt. Or what is even worse is when they KNOW that I am fully capable of speaking Spanish and then they tell other people that I CAN'T!!! SO ANNOYING! Alright, I'm done. Anyways, we spent the taking soaking up the sun and ate a Churro on our way to go grab dinner. I had the most massive plate of fish, vegetables, salad, rice and yucca that I will probably ever come across in my entire life and it costs me like $5! So cheap, so good.
We ended up staying the night in the hostel that our friend Josi's grandfather owned. It was basic and clean and had almost everything we needed (minus hot water and wifi), but it worked out perfectly. We originally were going to have to pay a whopping $5 per night, but then her grandfather gave it to us for free :) The next day we woke up nice and early to get our day of adventuring started! We hit up a little cafe to grab a chicken sandwich (I'm not sure why they eat our lunch food for breakfast at restaurants, they just do) and Fresa con leche (strawberry smoothies that are absolutely incredible here in Peru) and then made our way out to Lunahuana since we were technically in a different area called Nueva Imperial. We arrived and first and foremost got our paddles and helmets ready to go white water rafting!!! It was my first experience white water rafting and I absolutely LOVED IT! I would seriously consider returning to Lunahuana just to go rafting again! The waves were huge, the son was hot, and the water was ice cold which felt amazing! By the end of our journey down the river we were drenched and my throat hurt from screaming and laughing so much! Afterwards we grabbed lunch, I ordered a typical Peruvian dish called Lomos Saltados which is steak, onions, tomatoes, fries and rice. We then went to buy some pictures from our rafting adventure and grab some lucuma ice cream (such a shame we don't have lucuma in the states). Our day continued with a nice wine tour around Lunahuana and ended with an evening horseback ride up the mountain. These horses were just so tiny though that I thought I was going to break them in half! But they were strong warriors and carried us up the mountain just fine to watch the sunset fall softly into the valley. The view was amazing and the fact that I was watching it while riding a horse made it even better. We headed back home after the wine tour and spruced up a bit for the night to come. Josi's parents own a bodega (little shop) of Pisco and Wine, so they let us come and do a wine tasting of all of their wines which was really cool and interesting! They even let us into the back rooms where the wine is made so that we could see how everything was done. Afterwards we went into Canete to eat some dinner and hit up a Karaoke club! Anna and I sang the night away to some awesome tunes like "Poker Face" and and then Anna killed it singing "Congo"! That song is so fast and Anna whipped it out like it was nothin'! Once our night of fun came to an end we had to pack up our things Sunday morning and head home. Before we got on the bus we had fruit salads and smoothies the size of my head at a Juice shop with Josi's grandfather and one of his co-partners of the hostel. They were so kind and generous and even paid for our breakfast. When we went to get on the bus the grandfather was so precious and continued wanting more and more pictures of what he said, "the beautiful American girls that I have met." It amazes me the fascination that people have with us solely because we are American.
So, my trip to Lunahuana was all in all a huge success! We returned on Sunday and I had the day to relax which was nice. One more quick story before I wrap this novel up. On Tuesday (yesterday) some girls and I went to Barranco (my favorite district in all of Peru) to get some chips, salsa, and margs at El Burrito. It is funny because for years the kids from the last groups have always called it "The Burrito Bar" and when we went to go find this mysterious restaurant without a sign over top it, none of the locals seemed to anything about it. Well that is because we have been referring to this once nameless so we made up a fake name for it, restaurant, as the wrong name! With that being said, we then had our hearts broken as we discovered that El Burrito was closed on Mondays. We instead stumbled upon a chocolate museum where we taste tested tons and tons of different chocolate piscos which are quite interesting. My concern is...what do I mix such a thing with? Coffee is the only thing my professor and I could come up with..but I certainly do not need pisco at 9am. We then came across a restaurant called Rinca which was by far the largest restaurant I have seen in all of Peru! Most restaurants have around 10 tables tops and this one probably had 50 or so. Two of the girls I went with ordered drinks called Llamas en amor (lamas in love) and the drink came out on fire! Too fun! After our dinner we had a pleasant surprise outside as we watched break dancers show us their moves! One of my friends on the trip, Karina, also break dances so she showed up some of the boys as well! It was so great getting to watch dance again, I love it!! On our way back to Surco we decided that we did not want to hassle with finding and paying for 2 cabs, so we found a driver who willingly allowed 6 of us into a 4 person car! Like I have said before, every road law is simply a mere suggestion. Not a strong suggestion even, just simply a mere suggestion.
Well in other news Mamaseta and Daddio are coming to visit their "little girl" in one week from yesterday and I am PUMPED! Also, my bestie in the westie Lauren Greufe is coming here for a spring break mission trip and she told me yesterday she thinks she is staying in Miralflores which is super close to Surco! Ahhh I am so excited to see my family and friend that I miss so dearly! I have been thinking lately that yes, there are things like peanut butter and nice public restrooms that I miss in America, but those things are so menial. And life here is becoming so normal I barely even think about them and long for them anymore. More so, I miss the people in my life that I love. But, thankfully I know that I will shortly be reunited with them. I try my hardest to not miss them and simply live in the moment, which so far has not been too difficult seeing to that I am traveling and go go go going all the time!
So I forgot to add my list of Peruvian "stuff" so here we go:
*I am currently laughing my booty off watching my host family put together a homemade lasagna. Literally he has his reading glasses on and they are pushed down on is nose and he has cooking utensils in both hands that it looks like he is performing surgery or something! He is working so seriously and intricately it is quite the sight to see! He so delicately places each piece of cheese and so precisely spreads the sauce! bahahah!
*When Peruvians eat it is ALWAYS with fork and knife in hand. I usually just use my fork and finger to scoop up that last little bit since there is not other food to push it against, and my host dad gave me the strangest look and goes, "Maujorie" and holds up is knife hahah.
*Giselle finally blew up and had an all out brawl with Jaime about my name since he always says it wrong. I tried to calm the waters and changed the spelling of my name so that he could pronounce it Peruvian like, Malori.
*Peruvian don't drink water...like ever.
*The milk here is weird. Idk what is wrong with it. It may or may not have something to do with it being in a bag form...
*Trash cans/ dumpsters is not a thing. Trash is put on the streets and then picked up at mysterious hours during the night.
*On that note, they do a lot of strange things at night...like taking incredibly noisy semi trucks full of water down the streets at 2am to water the grass in the medians.
*Speaking of strange, breast feeding in the middle of anywhere is acceptable. It reminds me of the movie Grown Ups hahahah.
*I had to forewarn Beth Ann of this the other day: sometimes, for unknown reasons to me, toilet seats lack. For instance I walk into the bathroom at school and 3 stalls have the seats and 3 stalls don't. I'm wondering if there is a toilet seat thief in Peru.
*Public bathrooms. Don't use them if you can avoid it. Rank. Also we usually have to pay which is strange. I can't believe someone makes a living off of paying people 50 centimos (which is about 15 cents) to use the restroom. But no worries!! They get an extra 50 centimos if you don't have toilet paper on you (yes I carry roles of toilet paper with me in my purse).
*As a child I always loved the Ding Ding man because his bell sound was so cute and made me want to chase him around to find where the sound was coming from! Well...here the obnoxious bird calls that the ice cream men use make my ears bleed they are SO LOUD and awful!
*I have long legs, therefore my speed of walking is slightly above the general population in America. Here I tower over every single human because they are so short. So with the combination of them having very short legs and for whatever reason walking at a pace SIGNIFICANTLY slower than Americans, I could probably lap them around a track 4 times...unfortunately that is impossible here because 1. the sidewalks are extremely narrow so they create a blockade that forbids you to pass, or 2. the sidewalk is simply not existent so we walk on the farthest edge of the street in single file praying to the Lord, Jesus Christ that a car barreling down the neighborhood street at at least 75 mph doesn't smash me. One last thing about walking, the sidewalks are so stinkin' slippery that I have slipped and fallen on them. No, there was no rain. And no, there was no ice from snowstorms like there is in Nebraska. I thought I would have a winter free of falling on my butt in public, guess not.
Well that is about all I can think of at the moment! I'll write again soon!
Chau!
Mal
So this upcoming weekend with be my 5th straight weekend of trips! WOW! I am pretty sure if I calculated the days I am actually in Lima (where I am currently studying) versus the amount of days that I am away on trips to other provinces of Peru, the amount of trip days would outnumber the days spent in my "home province." Although living out of a suitcase for weeks on end has become a little bit exhausting, I would not trade it for ANYTHING!! I have loved having the opportunity to see so many different parts of Peru during my 4, short months here. Although, it is a little embarrassing that I will be seeing much of Lima for the first time just as my parents will be seeing it for the first time when they come. I just have not had the time to go explore Lima on days that I have school, so there is truly so much of this city that is unknown to me! But, regardless, I still have 2 months left here (thank goodness!!) to explore Lima and continue learning about this amazing country!
This past weekend two of my friends and I took a spur of the moment weekend trip to a cozy, little town named Lunahuana. We had slim to no plans for this trip, so we were truly flying by the seat of our pants as my Mamaseta always says! All we knew is that there was a bus station that we were 'pretty sure' had buses that would leave every hour or so to go to a town called Canete. From Canete we could then take a taxi, bus, or some other means of transportation to Lunahuana. We didn't have any hotel room set up and we were unsure of where or how to book horseback riding and white water rafting, all we knew is that we wanted to do it! So, Friday morning we hopped on a bus and did just that. The bus ride was an easy 2.5 hours with minimal stops in between. I like taking buses to other districts and provinces because it gives me the opportunity to see the views and landscapes of Peru. Much of this drive was desert, at some points the "worse casinerio" thoughts would pop into my head and I thought if the bus broke down there was literally no source of food, water, or shelter for miles upon miles and then we would be really in a pickle! But luckily that did not happen and we safely made it to our destination. A Peruvian friend of a girl who came on this trip two years ago now lives in Lunahuana, so she met us at the bus station when we arrived and took us to the beach for the day! We first started to set up camp with our umbrella and chairs which were not free and we had to rent. Originally the man started talking with us and goes, "oh you beautiful ladies, wow you are so gorgeous, I am going to give you such an AMAZING PRICE for these awesome quality chairs so that you may sit in them for the day...." blah blah blah. So naturally being sassy me I said in a precious little voice, "oh yea, how amazing of a price are we talking here?" (this is obviously all translated since the man didn't speak English haha). And he tried to convince we that it was going to be 5 soles PER chair...I said 6 soles for all 4 chairs and he gave it to me. It seriously frustrates that heck out of me that they try and rip us off so so badly just because we are white. I am thankful that I am not a typical tourist here and know what prices of things should be or else I would be losing money left and right. One more complaint here really quickly, it really really REALLY irks me when people assume that I speak no Spanish at all and they think it is ok to talk negatively about us Americans who are standing right in front of them. I don't understand why they don't just ask if we speak Spanish and give us the benefit of the doubt. Or what is even worse is when they KNOW that I am fully capable of speaking Spanish and then they tell other people that I CAN'T!!! SO ANNOYING! Alright, I'm done. Anyways, we spent the taking soaking up the sun and ate a Churro on our way to go grab dinner. I had the most massive plate of fish, vegetables, salad, rice and yucca that I will probably ever come across in my entire life and it costs me like $5! So cheap, so good.
We ended up staying the night in the hostel that our friend Josi's grandfather owned. It was basic and clean and had almost everything we needed (minus hot water and wifi), but it worked out perfectly. We originally were going to have to pay a whopping $5 per night, but then her grandfather gave it to us for free :) The next day we woke up nice and early to get our day of adventuring started! We hit up a little cafe to grab a chicken sandwich (I'm not sure why they eat our lunch food for breakfast at restaurants, they just do) and Fresa con leche (strawberry smoothies that are absolutely incredible here in Peru) and then made our way out to Lunahuana since we were technically in a different area called Nueva Imperial. We arrived and first and foremost got our paddles and helmets ready to go white water rafting!!! It was my first experience white water rafting and I absolutely LOVED IT! I would seriously consider returning to Lunahuana just to go rafting again! The waves were huge, the son was hot, and the water was ice cold which felt amazing! By the end of our journey down the river we were drenched and my throat hurt from screaming and laughing so much! Afterwards we grabbed lunch, I ordered a typical Peruvian dish called Lomos Saltados which is steak, onions, tomatoes, fries and rice. We then went to buy some pictures from our rafting adventure and grab some lucuma ice cream (such a shame we don't have lucuma in the states). Our day continued with a nice wine tour around Lunahuana and ended with an evening horseback ride up the mountain. These horses were just so tiny though that I thought I was going to break them in half! But they were strong warriors and carried us up the mountain just fine to watch the sunset fall softly into the valley. The view was amazing and the fact that I was watching it while riding a horse made it even better. We headed back home after the wine tour and spruced up a bit for the night to come. Josi's parents own a bodega (little shop) of Pisco and Wine, so they let us come and do a wine tasting of all of their wines which was really cool and interesting! They even let us into the back rooms where the wine is made so that we could see how everything was done. Afterwards we went into Canete to eat some dinner and hit up a Karaoke club! Anna and I sang the night away to some awesome tunes like "Poker Face" and and then Anna killed it singing "Congo"! That song is so fast and Anna whipped it out like it was nothin'! Once our night of fun came to an end we had to pack up our things Sunday morning and head home. Before we got on the bus we had fruit salads and smoothies the size of my head at a Juice shop with Josi's grandfather and one of his co-partners of the hostel. They were so kind and generous and even paid for our breakfast. When we went to get on the bus the grandfather was so precious and continued wanting more and more pictures of what he said, "the beautiful American girls that I have met." It amazes me the fascination that people have with us solely because we are American.
So, my trip to Lunahuana was all in all a huge success! We returned on Sunday and I had the day to relax which was nice. One more quick story before I wrap this novel up. On Tuesday (yesterday) some girls and I went to Barranco (my favorite district in all of Peru) to get some chips, salsa, and margs at El Burrito. It is funny because for years the kids from the last groups have always called it "The Burrito Bar" and when we went to go find this mysterious restaurant without a sign over top it, none of the locals seemed to anything about it. Well that is because we have been referring to this once nameless so we made up a fake name for it, restaurant, as the wrong name! With that being said, we then had our hearts broken as we discovered that El Burrito was closed on Mondays. We instead stumbled upon a chocolate museum where we taste tested tons and tons of different chocolate piscos which are quite interesting. My concern is...what do I mix such a thing with? Coffee is the only thing my professor and I could come up with..but I certainly do not need pisco at 9am. We then came across a restaurant called Rinca which was by far the largest restaurant I have seen in all of Peru! Most restaurants have around 10 tables tops and this one probably had 50 or so. Two of the girls I went with ordered drinks called Llamas en amor (lamas in love) and the drink came out on fire! Too fun! After our dinner we had a pleasant surprise outside as we watched break dancers show us their moves! One of my friends on the trip, Karina, also break dances so she showed up some of the boys as well! It was so great getting to watch dance again, I love it!! On our way back to Surco we decided that we did not want to hassle with finding and paying for 2 cabs, so we found a driver who willingly allowed 6 of us into a 4 person car! Like I have said before, every road law is simply a mere suggestion. Not a strong suggestion even, just simply a mere suggestion.
Well in other news Mamaseta and Daddio are coming to visit their "little girl" in one week from yesterday and I am PUMPED! Also, my bestie in the westie Lauren Greufe is coming here for a spring break mission trip and she told me yesterday she thinks she is staying in Miralflores which is super close to Surco! Ahhh I am so excited to see my family and friend that I miss so dearly! I have been thinking lately that yes, there are things like peanut butter and nice public restrooms that I miss in America, but those things are so menial. And life here is becoming so normal I barely even think about them and long for them anymore. More so, I miss the people in my life that I love. But, thankfully I know that I will shortly be reunited with them. I try my hardest to not miss them and simply live in the moment, which so far has not been too difficult seeing to that I am traveling and go go go going all the time!
So I forgot to add my list of Peruvian "stuff" so here we go:
*I am currently laughing my booty off watching my host family put together a homemade lasagna. Literally he has his reading glasses on and they are pushed down on is nose and he has cooking utensils in both hands that it looks like he is performing surgery or something! He is working so seriously and intricately it is quite the sight to see! He so delicately places each piece of cheese and so precisely spreads the sauce! bahahah!
*When Peruvians eat it is ALWAYS with fork and knife in hand. I usually just use my fork and finger to scoop up that last little bit since there is not other food to push it against, and my host dad gave me the strangest look and goes, "Maujorie" and holds up is knife hahah.
*Giselle finally blew up and had an all out brawl with Jaime about my name since he always says it wrong. I tried to calm the waters and changed the spelling of my name so that he could pronounce it Peruvian like, Malori.
*Peruvian don't drink water...like ever.
*The milk here is weird. Idk what is wrong with it. It may or may not have something to do with it being in a bag form...
*Trash cans/ dumpsters is not a thing. Trash is put on the streets and then picked up at mysterious hours during the night.
*On that note, they do a lot of strange things at night...like taking incredibly noisy semi trucks full of water down the streets at 2am to water the grass in the medians.
*Speaking of strange, breast feeding in the middle of anywhere is acceptable. It reminds me of the movie Grown Ups hahahah.
*I had to forewarn Beth Ann of this the other day: sometimes, for unknown reasons to me, toilet seats lack. For instance I walk into the bathroom at school and 3 stalls have the seats and 3 stalls don't. I'm wondering if there is a toilet seat thief in Peru.
*Public bathrooms. Don't use them if you can avoid it. Rank. Also we usually have to pay which is strange. I can't believe someone makes a living off of paying people 50 centimos (which is about 15 cents) to use the restroom. But no worries!! They get an extra 50 centimos if you don't have toilet paper on you (yes I carry roles of toilet paper with me in my purse).
*As a child I always loved the Ding Ding man because his bell sound was so cute and made me want to chase him around to find where the sound was coming from! Well...here the obnoxious bird calls that the ice cream men use make my ears bleed they are SO LOUD and awful!
*I have long legs, therefore my speed of walking is slightly above the general population in America. Here I tower over every single human because they are so short. So with the combination of them having very short legs and for whatever reason walking at a pace SIGNIFICANTLY slower than Americans, I could probably lap them around a track 4 times...unfortunately that is impossible here because 1. the sidewalks are extremely narrow so they create a blockade that forbids you to pass, or 2. the sidewalk is simply not existent so we walk on the farthest edge of the street in single file praying to the Lord, Jesus Christ that a car barreling down the neighborhood street at at least 75 mph doesn't smash me. One last thing about walking, the sidewalks are so stinkin' slippery that I have slipped and fallen on them. No, there was no rain. And no, there was no ice from snowstorms like there is in Nebraska. I thought I would have a winter free of falling on my butt in public, guess not.
Well that is about all I can think of at the moment! I'll write again soon!
Chau!
Mal