I've never seen so many llamas in my life!

We got home from spring break in Peru about a week ago, but I've finally had time to sit down and write about it! The trip was amazing but exhausting, and I had to spend all last week catching up on homework and sleep! The flight took a long time--I didn't realize it, but the distance from Montevideo to Cuzco is about the same distance as Miami to Cuzco. One really interesting thing that we've learned here: there's a famous Uruguayan artist from Montevideo named Joaquin Torres Garcia who started this really cool idea of drawing the world upside down. After all, the direction "north" is just relative--if you were looking at the world from space, you'd have no way of saying which way is "up." And since Europeans were the first ones to create world maps, they made their land on top. So every once in awhile here you'll see an upside down world, symbolizing the idea that South America can be just as important and powerful as the European world. Interesting, isn't it?


Anyways, the reason that I've put off writing about Peru for so long is that honestly, I can't think of any words to do it justice. I can't describe what it felt like to be hiking through the Andes mountains; to be standing at one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, seeing a city built by Incan architectural geniuses, a city that was never even discovered by the Spanish conquerors; to be eating dinner with my friends at a restaurant on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean; to be surging through rapids down a river in the mountains. There are no words for it. Peru was absolutely a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I really hope that everyone who reads this gets to go someday.

I went with Lawson, Ashley, Sam, Sara, and Rachel, and it was so much fun getting closer to all of them through our nine days of traveling together. First we flew through Santiago, Chile, (the first of four national capitols that we would be in during that nine days!) before landing in Lima, Peru, and spending a couple of days there. While in Lima, we stayed in the beautiful and wealthy Miraflores district, where we took a city tour to see the beautiful old Spanish cathedrals and town square. Probably the funnest part of the tour was when we saw the "fertility fountain" in the town square. It's a huge, beautiful old fountain where women go to dip their hands in hopes of healing their infertility. Also, the city of Lima fills the fountain with Pisco Sour (the national drink which is something like lemonade with vodka) once a year and all of the people get to drink from it! We also got to go into the catacombs underneath an old cathedral, where thousands of people were buried a long time ago. It was so creepy, seeing so many real bones and being so far underneath the earth! And it was also so humbling, to realize that each of those skulls was at one time part of a living, breathing person with hopes and dreams, and that my life won't last forever either. Sometimes it's nice to remember that you're not immortal. It makes life a lot sweeter.

A few other things we did in Lima: see the Watchmen movie because movies in Montevideo come about about 3 months later than in the U.S. and Lawson's been dying to see it, get a donut at a Dunkin Donuts in the Lima mall (I don't even really like donuts normally, but we've been so starved of American food that it was like a gift from the gods to find an American restaurant), and went shopping at the artisan markets around town. Seriously, the trip to Peru is worth it if only for the shopping! They have the coolest souvenirs and crafts that I have ever seen at these enormous markets, and they are all so cheap. I bought a beautiful handmade cloth suitcase and completely filled it with amazing souvenirs and crafts for everyone back home (plus Ashley and I got a bunch of things for our house in Abilene that we get to move into in 62 days!) and in total I spent less than $100 on all of it. It was so great.

After staying in Lima we flew to Cuzco for five days, and that was where the real adventure started. Cuzco is up in the Andes mountains, pretty high above sea level, so you have to be really careful to avoid altitude sickness. We drank lots of tea made from coca leaves to help settle our stomachs and keep from getting sick, and luckily we all managed to avoid it except for Lawson who was already sick with a cold almost the whole trip. Cuzco was another world from anything I've ever seen. The people there were tiny and we stuck out as obvious tourists with our white skin and the amazed looks on our faces. The food there was incredible, and people on the streets would come up to you and beg you to eat at their restaurant, and they wouldn't go away until you said yes. Luckily, you could get an entire meal--appetizer, main dish, drink, and dessert--for 10 soles, which is about $3! No matter where you were in the town, you could see the gorgeous Andes mountains in the background. One night while walking back to the hotel after dinner, we got caught in a rainstorm and it was just beautiful, with the cold rain and the smell of mountain air and the six of us running through the cobblestone streets. When we got back to the hotel we were soaking wet so we all changed into pajamas, pushed two of our twin-sized beds together, and cuddled up to watch The Emperor's New Groove--it was perfect since we were in Cuzco! That movie is even funnier when you can actually understand so many of the little Peruvian details. Like llamas. They were everywhere in Peru! When we were at Machu Picchu, they were just grazing around in the ruins, eating grass and enjoying themselves. We toured the city of Cuzco, traveling outside of it a little bit to see some of the other, less famous but still amazing Incan ruins, and saw an enormously gaudy Spanish cathedral whose inside was completely covered in gold, altars, and beautiful paintings. The only thing that wasn't perfect about Cuzco, though, was that there were street children and people in poverty everywhere you looked. Most of them were selling different things--crafts, handmade dolls, or paintings--and they would follow you around, begging you to buy from them. So a lot of times, I did, but it's just not possible to buy something from everyone that asks...especially when after you buy from one, five others rush over to beg you to buy from them too. And that was a little heartbreaking. Peru is such a beautiful place to see, probably my favorite place I've ever been, but it also reminded me of how very fortunate we are to have all of the opportunities that we do--and not only me, but almost anyone who lives in the United States and has plenty to eat and a place to live.

After spending a few days in Cuzco, we took a four-hour train ride to Aguas Calientes, the town outside of which Machu Picchu is located. I took about a million pictures as we sped through the mountains, but not a single one could do justice to the view. Once we were at Machu Picchu, all I could do was be amazed. The architecture, the history, and the beauty of it all was breathtaking. (Literally. At the high altitude, it was really difficult to breath as we had to hike up the mountain for parts!) We had a guide who was a young guy from the area and he spoke English pretty well. There were some pretty entertaining tourists at Machu Picchu--huge groups of older Chinese people, a man in indigenous garb carrying a wooden flute and taking dramatic flute-playing pictures from every angle in Machu Picchu, and middle-aged white women standing at the Incan sun dial with their hands outstretched, trying to capture the "energy" of the place. After our tour, which was honestly too incredible to describe, we decided to hike up into the mountains to try to find the Incan bridge. By then it had rained and most of the tourists had left for the day, so we were able to quietly enjoy the park by ourselves. We took tons of pictures, hiked along part of the Incan trail, and eventually found the Incan bridge just as it was time for us to head back before the park closed. We spent the night in Aguas Calientes and the next day ventured out to find the hot springs for which the town is named. Along the way, we ran across a butterfly garden, a museum full of Machu Picchu artifacts, and a botanical garden, all of which we took the time to visit. We finally arrived at the hot springs in the afternoon and spent hours in the pools there, relaxing in the springs as every once in awhile it would rain, and the combination of cold water falling with the hot spring water we were swimming in was incredible. The next day we took the train back to Cuzco, where we spent a day white water rafting in the rapids of the Utuamba River before flying home through Chile (where we spent five hours sleeping in chairs in the airport) and finally returning to Montevideo.

Wow, this blog turned out to be long. If you've managed to make it this far, I think you deserve this as a "thank you":


So to wrap this all up, Lawson and I celebrated our first anniversary on Sunday! I woke up in the morning to a slideshow of photos of us next to my bed, along with a castle built out of my favorite chocolate bars. He asked me if I wanted to go to a fancy restaurant to celebrate, but all I really wanted was Subway. But once we got there we found out that Subway is closed here on Sundays. We ended up going to a food court instead, since we were tired from walking, but it was wonderful anyways! It's been such a blessing to be able to be here and travel together.

I love and miss you all very much and hope that everything is well back in the U.S.!

La Vida Uruguaya

As much as I love all of the traveling and once-in-a-lifetime things that we're doing, I think my favorite parts of living here in Uruguay are the simple, day to day things. This morning it rained so Raquel and Mariela made tortas fritas for breakfast. It's a tradition here in Montevideo to make them when it rains and I love them; they're kind of like a fried pancake and they're delicious with cinnamon and homemade whipped cream called chantilly. You know it's going to be a good day when you wake up to the smell of tortas fritas cooking in the kitchen.

The other day Ashley and I went to the mall to find a bookstore so that Sam could buy a kid's novel in Spanish. While he was looking for a book, we sat down in the toddler's section next to a little girl who looked two or three years old, about Adah's age. She pulled books off the shelves and wanted us to read them to her, but the funny thing was that she ended up teaching us Spanish! Just like I do with Adah in English, we pointed to pictures and asked her, 'Que es esto?' She'd say 'Un avion!' and point at an airplane or 'Un arbol!' and point at a tree. It was just the cutest thing because we'd repeat what she had said and she would say 'No. Un avi-on' if we had pronounced something incorrectly. Eventually her dad came over and looked at us a little strangely. 'Estamos aprendiendo espanol!' I told him. 'Con ella?' he asked. 'Si.' It was a sweet and also humbling experience to realize that a two year old here knows more than we do. Even with as much as we've learned, we have a long way to go!

I have become an expert in packing. Our flight for Peru leaves tomorrow so I've spent the afternoon trying to get everything ready, and I've managed to pack everything I'll need for the nine day trip into my one hiking backpack. I'm pretty proud of myself--I'm starting to feel like I'm actually a world traveler. It's about time!

I just didn't feel right posting a blog without a picture, so here's one from horseback riding in Rocha the other weekend!

Rocha

This weekend Lawson and I sat on a beautiful beach in La Poloma early in the morning to watch the sun rise over the Atlantic and celebrate a day that doesn't technically exist. Our 11-month-iversary was February 29 but because it's not a leap year, the calendar skipped right over it. We thought that was pretty cool so we celebrated by waking up at 6:30 AM to see the sunrise. We are so, so blessed to be having all of the opportunities that we are. This weekend our whole group took a trip to Rocha, the beautiful eastern coastal part of Uruguay, and it was definitely the most fun trip we've taken so far. We stayed in a town called La Poloma, where our hotel was on the beach and we could open the windows and fall asleep to the sound of the waves at night.

We didn't have classes on Friday so we left that morning and had a four hour bus trip to Rocha. After arriving, we went to the coolest place I've ever been to, called Cabo Polonio. It's on the ocean and it is surrounded by miles of huge sand dunes so hardly any people live there, and the only way to get in is by riding a monster truck or a horse through the dunes. We all piled into a big truck and then spent the day in Cabo Polonio seeing the lighthouse, buying handmade crafts from the few locals, and relaxing on the beach. One of my favorite things there was a little house painted teal and covered in a mural of the ocean with tons of little mirrors to make it glitter in the light. I just kept thinking about how housing associations back in the States would never allow something like that, but it was just so beautiful.

On Saturday we woke up early to go take a boat down a river to visit a forest of Ombu trees. Ombu are amazing--genetically, they are actually classified as grass rather than trees, and they have large holes in the trunks big enough for our entire group to climb inside. Ombu are only found in Uruguay so it was really special to be able to see them. And now I can say that I've been inside of a tree--or a grass. Whichever way you say it, it sounds pretty cool. The boat ride down the river was just beautiful. As far as you could see, there was no "civilization." Along the banks there were palm trees and cows...something you'd only ever see together in Uruguay! We had lunch at an estancia, a small ranch taking care of all kinds of wild birds and animals. They had a one-armed monkey who had been an escaped pet from Montevideo and I got to hold his hand. It was precious. The owners cooked one of their own lambs for us for lunch but I couldn't really eat it because I felt so bad after seeing them!

After lunch we went to Punta del Diablo to see the Fortaleza Santa Teresa, a fort built in 1726 so it's actually 50 years older than the United States! We're learning a lot of South American history here in our classes and it makes me sad to learn some of the terrible and wonderful things that have gone on, yet we are never taught about it in school in the States. There's so much to learn in the world but life is too short to learn it all, I guess.

We spent Sunday riding horses through the countryside and along the beach in La Poloma. I've been so sore and a little sunburnt the past two days because of it, but it was an incredible time. Yesterday I had to carry around a pillow to sit on in my classes because I was so sore! Lawson's horse was a little wild so occasionally he'd get left behind the group and then have to run to catch up. It was funny--he looked like a man from a romance novel, galloping across the field with his hair blowing in the wind. My horse belonged to a twelve-year-old boy who worked at the horse riding place; he had received it just the day before as a gift for working there for two years. That's a long time to work somewhere when you're only twelve years old. But his horse was sweet and I was glad that he was so well-trained since I haven't ridden a horse in years. We got back to Montevideo Sunday night and have spent the past two days catching up on homework and looking forward to another long weekend this week. Next weekend, starting on Friday the 13th, we'll be heading out to Peru for ten days!

The view while boating down the river to the Ombu forest

I have another album of pictures up on facebook from our trip this weekend. If you want to check them out, you can click here.

Chaille turns eighteen tomorrow. I wish I could be there. Happy birthday little sis! I love you!

My friends Zanessa, Carolyn, Sarah, and I on the beach in Punta del Diablo.