Sunday January 30^th, 2011

Today I went hiking with Telma, Jean-Jacques, a friend of Jean-Jacques and all of their dogs (4 in total). We hiked in a different area this time, but the countryside is beautiful no matter where you go, and you’re likely to stumble across ruins as well. I promise to post pictures soon J

Monday January 31^st, 2011

I had a good feeling about this week going into it. Maybe it’s because I knew that other students would be arriving soon at Centro Tinku (but I wasn’t sure exactly when) or maybe I was just digging up some optimism… who knows. But so far it turns out that I was right. I found out today that another student arrived from the United States on Saturday and that she is looking forward to meeting me! Personally I feel that my sentiment of excitement to meet her is stronger than hers due to my lonely and classmate-less situation at Centro Tinku for the first 3 weeks of classes. Anyway, my professor told me they were trying to plan a time this week when all the students and volunteers currently in-country could meet. So excited!

Tuesday February 1^st, 2011

Great news, great news! I got to meet the other student today! Bye bye to exploring the streets solo and mooching off of Paty for friends, and hello to Sarah! She’s staying until mid-May, her homestay is near mine, and will mostly be doing volunteer work at a medical clinic (just currently taking Spanish classes to get back into the swing of the language). She also likes to dance and we have plans to start going to a salsa class. It’s also a possibility that she could be my travel companion for the in-country excursions I’m planning, but I’m still crossing my fingers on that one…

While my time so far in Peru has been great, I think from here it can only get better J

Wednesday February 2^nd, 2011

Today was a full and very enjoyable day. Not much interesting happened before class, but directly after class I met up with a friend of a friend from my Spanish class at Northern last semester. The friend from Northern had given me the email address of this friend (who lives in Cusco) when she found out I would be living here. But anyway, to make a long story short we finally met up today and walked and chatted all the way to a coffee shop, and I now have another person to call ‘friend’ in Cusco J

Directly after that I met up with Sarah to go to the salsa class. We thought it started later than it did so we accidently showed up late, but we were still able to join in. From now on well be going to class Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening every week and I’m very much looking forward to it.

Today was Paty’s niece’s 20^th birthday, so once Paty got home from work we went to the birthday gathering. Then (as you could probably guess) we went to a discoteca and danced the night away! Overall, quite an enjoyable day/night J

Tuesday February 8^th, 2011

So obviously I’ve been slacking on keeping up with this blog for a few days, but really what that means is that I have more of a life/am busier than I used to be, so I’m going to look at it in a positive light. Mostly I’ve been busier because I finally have a friend to go exploring/take classes/go out with and because I’m working double time in my classes right now… and have an exam tomorrow.

The most interesting thing to tell you about (and the reason I’m doing double time in my classes) is the travel plans for next week. I have been planning this trip for a while now, but couldn’t find it in myself to be super excited to travel Peru all by myself. I was desperately searching for a travel companion, and as you may have guessed, I found one! Sarah was able to push the start date of her volunteer work back a week, so she’s coming too!

Not all of the details are worked out yet (and some are being left in the air on purpose ;)) but here’s the basic plan. We’ll leave on a bus this Friday after I’m done with class in the evening, ride for about 14 hours and get off in a city called Ica. This city is famous for wine, sand dunes, and a devastating earth quake in 2007. After exploring this city, well go all the way to the coast and stay in either Pisco (this town is indeed the namesake of the iconic Peruvian liquor made of grapes) or Paracas. From either of these cities we’ll be able to hop on a boat to tour Las Islas Bellestas, which are home to incredible biodiversity (birds and sealions, in particular). Next we’ll travel north to Lima, the capital of Peru. This city is pretty huge, so we’ll probably spend a night in a couple different locations, one being a beachy area full of surfers, etc where a friend of Sarah’s is currently living. Finally, we’ll travel another 8 hours  north to Trujillo. This city I believe has a strong Spanish-colonial feel to it and is also located on the coast. We’ll then travel back to Lima to catch our plane to Cusco on Sunday after a total of 9 days of travel. We opted for the 1 hour plane ride from Lima to Cusco versus the 24 hour bus ride… I have a feeling you’d do the same…

Quite possibly what I’m looking forward to the most is the change in climate. In Cusco the weather was fairly agreeable, but recently it’s taken a pretty drastic turn. It seems that the true rainy season has arrived, and with a vengeance. I don’t mind rain, in principle, but first, it’s ALWAYS chilly and rainy and never a comfortable temperature and rainy, and second, it’s been raining quite frequently. The other day Sarah and I ended up walking in what is best described as a torrential downpour and even though we were wearing ponchos, still ended up wet and chilly L

The rest of this week will probably be occupied with my classes and getting ready for the trip, so expect another blog post sometime after February 20^th… I know that’s a ways away, but at least you can count on me (finally) having something interesting to talk about after traveling the coast!

Provecho—hasta la próxima J