Home yet again

I wasn't going to post this yet because my laptop with the pictures is ill, but...

After Machu Picchu and Aguas Calientes, we headed back to Cuzco. The city center is beautiful, and with blue painted balconies, large plazas, and intricately architecture tall buildings, it had a bit of a European feel. We hung out there for a few hours, did some shopping, and ate some super delicious food. I have had few sandwiches in my life that were as delicious as the sandwich I had a Cuzco Bar. Yum.

We took a night bus back to La Paz. Let me tell you, night buses seem WAY quicker than the day buses. Plus, we got the camas (they are like the first class of bus tickets), so that was a lot more comfortable.

Rachel went back to Santa Cruz, and I hung out in La Paz again for a couple of days. I ventured into the city for a couple of hours. Honestly, I was so overwhelmed by all the people that I couldn't handle much more than that.

The trip was such a blessing. I had adventures (which were great), but I also got to spend time with amazing friends that I don't get to see very often. And really, that's one of my most favorite things in the world. Good conversation over a cup of coffee or Mexican food, or on a train to an ancient mountain resort adds such a wonderful depth to the experience. I love it.

My next step is an adventure of an entirely different sort. As much as I love to travel, I'm ready to be home for a while, not living out of a backpack. Also, funds are running low. I need to find a way to make money that's actually enjoyable. I don't know if it's irresponsible or not, but I kind of refuse to work a job that I know I will dread. I firmly believe that humans were created to work, but that does not mean that we were created to loath our work. And since I work to live not live to work, I'm praying for something that I actually like. We'll see how that goes :)

I think I'll just post this sans pictures. Because even though my fantastic father did some work on laptop, it's still not really working. Pictures could take a while.

Yay! I'm a llama again! (Finally, some pictures)

Peru is beautiful. So is Cuzco. Sixty to 70% of the city's local industry is related to tourism, so they keep the city really clean. We stayed with a missionary couple there that run a guest house. The bed had a heated mattress cover! What?!?! It was great :)

Saturday morning we started our drive to Ollantaytambo, the location of the train station. The whole thing is a *bit* misleading. If you get a train ticket from Cuzco to Machu Picchu, it's actually from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes. It's an hour and a half drive from Cuzco to O-town by bus, but the Strongs (the missionaries) needed to go up that way anyway, and really, it was amazing.

First we stopped off at a wildlife refuge. Not a wide variety of animals,  but check out this bad boy.

The Andean Condor with an 10ft wing span

About a minute down the road, we stopped to see llamas and alpacas! Rachel was giddy with excitement (I was pretty excited too, I just tend to be a tiny bit quieter about it)

I will call you Chewy, and you will be mine. You will be my Chewy.

We stopped in Pisac for some shopping and food. Cute town. Then there was a stop at was at a pottery factory. It was very difficult to decide what to buy, because seriously, everything was just so fun. And decently priced.

And then on to the train station. We got out, used the bathroom, and then Rachel realized that she left her camera in the Strongs' van. There was a bit of a panic moment or two,  until we tracked down a phone and called them. They were super gracious and turned around to bring it back to us.

The train to Aguas Calientes was fun, mostly because we were super impressed by the raging river of death next to us. It's the rainy season here, so it was really high. And scary.

Not the best pic, but it shows the river going over the bridge. 

We got up at 5am on Sunday (please take a moment to appreciate that fact) in order to be on the bus to Machu Picchu by 6. We managed 6:15, because we had to buy tickets and wait in a tiny line.

If any of you reading this ever get the chance to go to Machu Picchu (MP for now on), go early. The low clouds make for some magical looking pictures, but it's also a lot quieter at early in the morning. We did not follow the arrows, but wandered wherever we wanted to go, so for the first hour at least there was hardly any one around. But enough of that, here's some pictures!

"RACHEL!!!"

The view of MP from Intipuntu along the Royal Incan Trail

After reaching Intipuntu, this is how I felt

We had no idea how long it would take us to see all that we could see, but we were done around noon. After that we wandered Aguas Calientes, and came across this gem of a statue. This, I think, is one of my most favorite pictures of Rachel.

The Bridge to Peru

The last eight days have definitely been an adventure. I'm going to update in chunks, I think.

Santa Cruz was full of very nice people, including Rachel. AND it was warm. As someone who finds winter highly overrated, I thoroughly enjoyed being very warm/on the brink of hot for a few days. 

I got to hang out with the youth group on Monday night. Then Tuesday I went to check out things at the school where Rachel works. Listening to seventh graders do presentations on biographies is a fairly interesting anthropological experience. Ah, the memories of junior high awkwardness. Then I got to "enjoy" the sixth grade music class. If I start to ask, "what?" a lot, it's probably because I can't hear anymore.

Wednesday I went to school again, got to experience eighth grade literature and fifth grade music. Then I went with Rachel to the SAM prayer meeting, and got to meet more great people. 

Thursday morning we went over to the hangar to take a tour flight around Santa Cruz. Unfortunately they got an emergency medical call right as we got there and weren't able to. However, because we were supposed to, the plane was all set for the emergency - so that's a blessing for the other person. 

Our flight to La Paz in the afternoon was super delayed because it's South America and these things happen. We had to be at the bus station at 8:00pm to catch our ride to Cuzco, so we had Sarah and Scott meet us there with all my stuff (which I was originally going to go back to their house and get, but didn't have time). When we went to the terminal, we discovered we were only 12 hours late for the bus. 

That's right, the translation barrier again. Man, it can get discouraging. What we thought was a night bus (and what I thought I had clarified to the ticket lady) was in fact an 8:30am bus. Oops. So we bought new tickets for the next morning and went to Sarah's for the night. 

The bus to Peru was...confusing. We stopped before the border so they could check our passports. Most the time we didn't know what was going on because the bus guy only spoke Spanish, and that he spoke super quickly. When we got to the border they told us to get out, walk a ways, then go to the Bolivian border control. Rachel didn't bring her passport so we ran back through the muddy marketplace to the bus and then back to the border control. It was a little stressful.

But not as stressful as it was after we got our passports stamped. No one told us what we were supposed to do, so we just tried to follow the guy in the green jacket that we saw from the bus. We walked across a bridge packed with people, completely unsure of where we were supposed to go. On the other side, Rachel asked a police officer what where the bus was. We managed to understand, "Bolivia, Peru, Bolivia." I think that meant, "Go through the border in Bolivia, then Peru's border, then back to the bus in Bolivia." I think.

So we meandered until we found the Peruvian border control, and the giant line there. Seriously, it took us almost 2 hours to get through that line. And it was mostly outside in the sun. In the middle of the day. Totally unprepared was I, so I ended up with a nice little sunburn. When we were almost through the line, we saw something that was so relieving - the BUS! Yay! Seriously, it was like all the stress just melted away. 

We got to Cuzco 3.5 hours late. Before crashing for the night, we swung by the train ticket place and got some new ones (since we messed up our whole schedule earlier). THEN we got to crash. 

I realize that there is a lot that has happened since then, and I'll get to that, but I'm going to end here for now.  Look forward to pictures and fun things in the next update!

I think I scarred some little kids

This is the view out my window. Not bad.

I did, indeed, get a bunch of parsley. BUT! Not all was lost. Basil was acquired by others, and it went into a delicious pesto sauce. Really, everything that night that we had for dinner was amazing. Some of Sarah and Scott's friends came over for a dinner party, and we ate pizza, pesto/noodles, other noodle goodness, garlic bread, and brownies. So good.

We also played some board games, which I always enjoy. None of them had to leave particularly early because there was no school the next day. That's the funny thing about Bolivia, and La Paz. You just never know when school is going to be cancelled.

You see, the city is trying to reforming the public transportation. The drivers (buses, minibus, trufi, taxi) will occasionally go on strike because of it. And it's not good enough to just not drive for that day, they also set up blockades so no one can go anywhere. Including teachers and students.

So Tuesday, what did we do? We put up curtains, ate some yummy food, played Ticket to Ride, and just hung out. It was wonderful, because really, the reason I came to La Paz was to see Sarah, and I got to do that all day!

Thursday I visited the school where both she and Scott work. Apparently her students had been anxiously awaiting my visit for the entire week. They are just so sweet. I got to be "Social Studies" for that chunk of time, showing them pictures of Australia (mostly the animals) and talked about farming there. Then they got to ask me all sorts of questions. One of them made the mistake of asking what I ate while in Australia. I told them I ate a lot of sheep. Sheep are pretty common here in Bolivia, so I thought that was a pretty safe one.

I was wrong. They were a little bit mortified, if being a little mortified is possible. And to add to their already distaught little minds, I added, "I also ate some kangaroo." Well, you can imagine how that went with a bunch of 9-yr-olds. Here I thought it would be somewhat okay since they eat things like llamas, but again, I was wrong. 

Other than that, it went really well. The also got to ask me questions about me personally. 

"What's your favorite color?"

"How many siblings do you have?"

"What Australian animal do you prefer?"

"What Australian animal was your favorite?"

"What's your favorite not-Australian animal?"

"What's your favorite animal pet?"

Sometimes they get in a rut. I think my favorite part was when they would throw their hand up in the air like they had a very urgent question, but then when I called on them they would have to think and think to come up with something. It was so fun. And adorable.

That night we went to get anticuchos. It was pretty good meat with some potatoes. And you know what kind of meat it was?!?! That's right, folks, cow's heart. La corazon de una vaca. Because I'm hard core like that. Haha. Seriously though, it was pretty tasty - a little greasy - but tasty. Also, the lady cooking it was using a hair dryer to build up the flames for the grill.

Friday we loaded up the Beast (a just-about-ancient Toyota Landcruiser) and headed down to the jungle again. This time to participate in the staff retreat for the school. They let me go, 'cause they're nice like that. Sarah and I hung out most of the time. We climbed through the jungle most the way up a mountain until the path went into the yard of a super random house. Then we laid out, read a bunch, went swimming, read some more, the usual. (She lent me this book called In the Time of the Butterflies. It was really good). 

Tomorrow I leave for Santa Cruz to visit my lovely friend, Rachel. It's going to be a fun, busy adventure for the next week. Feel free to pray for us as they are threatening more transportation strikes (not dangerous for us, but it could end up being very inconvenient). 

Mount Herb

Some of you might not know, but I'm not in the States right now. I'm in Bolivia. This is actually my second time visiting the county.

You see, I went to college with this fantastic person who decided to move to Bolivia to teach third graders. She arrived here over four years ago, and in 2009 I came down to visit her. We did an exciting trip around Argentina, Chile, and finally some things in Bolivia. When we got back to Bolivia, I got pretty sick so it severely limited what I could do the week I was here. Still, we managed to see Tiahuanaco (which was pretty sweet) and a little bit of La Paz. 

Flash forward to 2012 and another one of my lovely friends decides to move to Santa Cruz for a year and teach. Of all the places I would think my friends might decide to move, I would not have guessed Bolivia. But anyway, I thought to myself, "Self, I should visit Bolivia again." So here I am!

I'm currently in La Paz, which is always an adventure. It is Carnival season, which means school-aged people are often caught throwing water balloons at those walking down the street. And although I got hit with one last time I was here, I've managed to avoid it so far this time around. Of course, I intentionally haven't been out much during the times when the kids are out of school.

We also left the city over the weekend to spend some time in the jungle, which was super relaxing and fun. The drive to Coroico is simply amazing. Stunning. Spectacular. Breath-taking - you name it. The Andes Mountains are decently sized in these part, and wow! Pictures do not do them justice, but just in case...

The weird spots on the picture are because it was taken out of the window of the "Beast", an ancient Landcruiser. There was a lot clouds and mist action around the mountains, so naturally I had the song from the Hobbit stuck in my head the entire time.

Part of the trip we were driving through clouds. At one point the road went right along the mountain ridge and it just dropped off on either side. 

While we were there we ate some wonderful food (I ate llama with a fruit sauce and it was delicious), and we went ziplining! It was three platforms that stretched over a beautiful valley. So fun. We got back yesterday afternoon and just chilled for a while, then ate the most amazing French toast concoction. I'm going to try to make it when I get home, and I might just need to have a French toast party.

Today I went into the city to do a bit of grocery shopping. I may have mentioned before my fear of public transportation. Well, I still suffer from that, so I was super nervous, especially since my Spanish is sub par. I took a taxi to sort of where I needed to go (I think some things got lost in my butchering the language). Burger King was my reference point, so I walked up and down the street a couple times, until I gave up and decided I needed to decide which way I thought was the street I needed (yay for poorly marked streets). I found it! Finally. 

I was on a quest for Basil, brazil nuts, and milk. Milk - leche in Spanish. Totally got that. I was warned that Brazil nuts were called something closer to Almond-something-or-another. Got that. Basil? The other day they had shown me what the basil looked like and where it was. Four days later it was NOT in the same spot. And it is NOT called Basil here. No, it's called albahaca. This, I did not know. And since I don't ever cook anything that requires fresh herbs, I don't know what it looks like. Everything else I saw looked like lettuce, so I grabbed the closest thing I could find. Then I sucked it up and took a bus back to the house. 

Yeah...I'm pretty sure I just got a bunch of parsley. 

Two thousand twelve is done; bring it, thirteen!

I realize that it has been 2013 for three weeks now, but sometimes it is hard to get motivated to write anything. However, there is much to be thankful for because it was a really good year. Sure, it started a little slow, but by the end there was no denying that it was a year to remember.

I went to six weddings this year, one being my brother's. It's always fun to celebrate things like love and such. 

I read a ton this year, including some classics that have been sitting on my shelf waiting for me to read them (like the Complete Sherlock Holmes, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Man in the Iron Mask, and Robinson Crusoe). There is something very satisfying about reading a giant and/or challenging book that was written many many years ago. Sometimes I'm convinced I was born in the wrong era, but then I turn on my iPhone and am not so sure.

Speaking of different eras, I've been SLOWLY typing up letters from my great great grandmother's brother, my great grandfather, and my great grandmother. I love being able to peak into their world - a world of flowing script, socials, visiting friends for extended periods of time, and taking the wagon into town, etc. And my great grandmother addresses her husband as "dear boy" in all her letters, which I think is just adorable.

My sister and her little family were able to come to NJ for my bro's wedding and for Christmas. And they are moving back here, so that's exciting! 

Another big thing that happened this year that you MIGHT be aware of is traveling. It's always been a dream to see a good chunk of the world and I have. There is so much more to see, but it's been incredible so far. It's something that I'll remember forever, and those kinds of things just don't happen everyday. 

I'm continually thankful that I've had the courage to step out of my comfort zone and enjoy amazing experiences. And I'm thankful that God has protected me throughout the journeys and shown Himself to be so patient, kind, and faithful. Cheers to 2012!