Life Across the Pond...: Compañeras

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Less than 24 hours from now I will be the happiest girl in Peru, dare I say it, the world! Thats right, my tall, dark and handsome + intelligent boyfriend is coming to visit me! So much to do, so little time to do it in, both before and while he's here. For starters, I'm doing all my homework in advance. I'm turning in a paper early, and reading the mandatory lectures in advance, because I have a test right after he leaves. Not to mention I need to clean my room, buy all his favorite foods and plan out trip to Machu Picchu!! !! !! !!

While Andrew is here, I have so many things I want him to see and do!

*Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu

* The Historic center of Lima (including the art musuem, the Plaza de Armas, Abancay, etc.)

*Pueblo Libre (my district) with our awesome museum, the bar in front of Simon Bolivar's house, the market)

*La Universidad Católica (with our cute deer and ancient ruins)

*Barranco (the ocean side view and the crazy night life)

*Miraflores

Not to mention he's also got to try Ceviche, Pisco Sours, lomo saltado, the exotic fruits, chifa, mariscos, etc, etc, etc.!!!

It's going to be 10 wonderful days, full of things that neither of us have ever seen before and me showing him my favorite things about Lima! I'm so excited :)

For the past couple of weeks, I have been hanging out a lot with my compañeras from la Cató. I'm lucky to have two wonderful Peruvian friends, and although they were "assigned" to me, per se, we get along great and are actually true friends and not mandatory ones.

Huaraz

About 2 weeks ago, Serena, Four Ofelia and I took a trip to Huaraz. Probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. Huaraz is come to the Cordillera Blanca and Cordillera Negra, 2 big chains of the Andes mountain. El Huascarán, which is on the Blanca, is the highest point in Peru at 22,200 feet. People come to Huaraz for adventure tourism. There are companies and programs throughout the city, if you want to white water raft, ice climb, trek, mountain bike, etc. Some really fierce climbers trek to the top of El Huascarán. Huaraz is also home to the mountain Alpamayo, voted Most Beautiful Mountain in the World.

View of Alpamayo from the bus, isn't is surreal?

The bus trip was about 8 hours. The whole point of taking a night bus makes plenty of sense. Its best to be asleep when a huge bus is driving crazily up mountain switchbacks. The only downside--when you're awake, not only are you on a crazy bus driving erratically up crisscrossing mountain roads (some unpaved) but its doing it in pitch black dark!!! We got to Huaraz at about 5:30 in the morning, but the man who arranged our tours was waiting for us, and took us to our hotel. We only got a fews hours rest, before we were off to our first adventure of the weekend, Llanganuco Lagoon.

The lagoon

The trip wasn't exactly what i thought it'd be. For some reason, the fact that we were taking "tours" and not "treks" didn't really register in my mind. So where i thought we would be taking long hikes, we road in a bus straight to the sights of interest. By chance, I think it was actually better this way. Not only was I suffering from soroche--altitude sickness, the bus also had some lovely pan flute covers of songs from classic artists such as ABBA, Queen, and Michael Jackson. You haven't lived til you've felt like poop on a bus, bouncing along unpaved roads up the Andes, listening to Billie Jean pan flute style.

View from the bus

The Lagoon was beautiful. Sparkling, crisp and cold turquoise water. We took a boat ride around it and got some good views of El Huascaran, the highest point in Peru. It was freezing cold, so after a quick photo shoot with a local llama, we bought mate de coca and papas rellenas (stuffed baked potatoes) so delicious. The mate was really good, it was made from actually steeping the leaves in boiling water, and not a tea bag like some restaurants give you.

Llama shoot

That day we also visited a town that was completely destroyed during an earthquake induced avalanche. The entire city was leveled, the only thing standing were 4 palm trees. Remember that, cuatro palmeros. The tour guide kept talking about them like they were miracle trees. He built up the anticipation too, for before we got to see the cuatro palmeros, we walked up a hill to the cemetary with a huge statues of jesus. We also got to see a completely mangled bus and the remains of the church.

The mangled bus

When we finally reached the much anticipated 4 palm trees, 3 of them were dead. What a disappointment. Apparently, 2 Japanese tourists were visiting the cemetery the day of the avalanche and got it most on tape. Why 2 japanese tourists were in a relatively unknown town with a 4 pound camcorder in the 70s visiting a cemetary is unknown to me. Why a man kept trying to see me a dvd of the black and white footage is sort of understandable, everyones got to make money. But why I really wanted to buy one, I have no idea. I didn't though!

Photos of the disaster

It actually took me a while, but when I realized that all the boulders I had been taking photos of were actually the same ones that had come rolling down the mountain, destroying the city and killing its citizens. It was crazy to imagine those things in motion. Thats when the sadness of the place I was at really hit me. But the entire town was moved and rebuilt a mile and a half to the side of the old site of the town. It was crazy and inspiring to see how they had rebuilt from nothing. I would have wanted to as well, the scenery was so breathtaking.

Imagine that rolling towards you!!

Breathtaking!!

At the end of our trip, we stopped at a restaurant to have traditional Andean cuisine. Ofelia got cuy (guinea pig) and I tried pork charque (jerky...I was advised by Fabio to try). I like jerky, but this was deep fried jerky...so extra baked bacon. I don't like bacon and i don't like grease, but I tried it, and thats what counts. The potatoes that came with it were delicious. Sometimes, I see the point of pictures on menus lol.

We also took a shamelessly obvious "plug" trip to a really small store that sold some sort of Andean honey product. It was obviously run by his friend, it was really out of the way and we al didn't fit in the store at the same time. This was when i started to think they were wasting my time. I hate it when they cart you around like your just walking wallets. Same thing happened in Nazca, our pottery "demonstration" lasted all of 2 minutes before we were herded into the pottery store. I just don't like being labeled a tourist, I'd rather just discover things on my own.

That night, we met up with Bobbi and Calin (the two other OU girls studying in Lima) and went to Tambos, a local and highly recommended bar. We got there and it was pretty empty, there was a pan flute band playing, and they were really good. We got a pitcher of Cuba Libre (rum, coke and lime) and it was pretty strong. That, combined with the high high altitude, led us to feeling the rum, and later sangria, and later wine, quite a bit. Which then led to us dancing with two local professor (don't ask) and me showing off my "salsa" skills. We finally called it a night and went back to our hotel.

The next morning, we sort of took our time getting breakfast. That, along with the fact we never really knew what time our tour left, resulted in us being late and the van having to double back to pick us up. We then headed straight to Pastoruri, a huge mountain glacier inside the National Park of Huascaran. The ride took us a while, along the way we stopped to see some natural mineral springs and rinse our faces with its healing mineral waters (or something like that). We also saw some very huge plants, the la Puya de Raimondi, which only grow in Peru and Bolivia. They were pretty amazing, and larger than a lot of trees.

El Huascaran National Park

Puyas de Raimondi

Pastoruri was beautiful--from afar. Up close, it looked like dirty, melting mud. A lot of the great views you see from photos online are from people to physically hike up the ice. So it wasn't as breathtaking as I had imagined it, but man was i proud of myself for making it to the top.

View from the top of Pastoruri

Sunday brought a crazy, bumpy and scary taxi ride to the top of a "hill" ( i would have to call it that compared to the Andes, but its a mountain in Texas standards) to see the view from the huge cross placed at the top. Peruvians have a thing for placing huge crosses or statues of Jesus at the top of hills. The trip back was easy...although not only did they play some horrible sci fi action movie with a chimp as the protagonist, Space Mate or Space chimp or something, but they followed it up with Percy Jackson, the "son of poseidon movie".

The mirador

View from the mirador

Callao

Last Sunday, Serena and I took a day trip to Callao with Lisset to see La Punta. We went with a friend from her work. They say Callao is too dangerous to go without Peruvians, but it didn't seem that bad while we were out. We started with a trip to the naval fortress "Real Felipe".

Front entrance

The tour was pretty interesting, although very fast pace. They had a lot of old uniforms and weapons and many busts of military leaders. The most shocking part was the jail inside the tower. Its U-Shaped and just wide enough to stand in. There are small holes on the inside wall so that guards who were seated inside the U shape could hear all that the prisoners were saying. Prisoners had to eat, sleep, and defecate while standing up. Food was put through one hole in the middle of the U. Prisoners had to eat what they could grab, if they could reach it before it was all gone. Once the smell got to much they would splash water in the cell. All of this the tour guide told us as we were inside the cell. I started to freak out.

The best part was the view from the tower. Seeing the port was beautiful. I've been to the coast of Peru, but all the huge ships and yachts were pretty amazing.

the Torre

Amazing view not done justice in this picture

Even better up close when we took a turn around the port in a small motor boat and got to see the "Humboldt" a Peruvian-Antarctic research ship.

such a crazy view!

It was mother's day, so a lot of familys were out and about. We got lunch (chaufa con mariscos), then walked along the beach picking pretty rocks. It was actually a long day and we didn't get home until 6 almost, Callao is pretty far away. But all in all i was glad i finally got to see La Punta and the pretty colonial houses that line the boardwalk.

On the Boardwalk

Parque de Aguas

On Wednesday we went to the "Park of Magic Water" in central Lima. They have a bunch of beautiful fountains and light/picture shows. It was pretty comical. Instrumental Backstreet Boy tunes with lasers and timed fountain sequences. They also projected images onto a wall of water. some of the other songs were nicer and the fountains in general made for a very pretty scene. The park is fenced off with bushes covering the outside world from sight. It was like a private oasis. The scene of the street, with its crazy buses and honking traffic was a lot different from the scene inside. It was like stepping into a bubble, and you couldn't even hear the bustle outside unless you really concentrated. It was also packed with couples, holding hands and kissing and big tour groups. That kind of ruined the ambiance just a little. Picture taking was fun though.

Near the entrance

Serena and me and the magic fountain

ofelia and serena

Eating the water!

Loving the water!

Commanding the water!

Mirador

Finally, on Thursday, Serena and I meet up with Calin and Bobbi and went to the Plaza de Armas. They hadn't made it out to the historical center yet, so we decided to show them the place. We grabbed lunch and chatted for a while, and then took a bus/tour (except her microphone went out halfway through the trip) to the mirador. Yet another cross on top of a hill. But this cross is a replica of the one Pizarro placed there when he first founded Lima.

The mirador

The view was incredible, and mind blowing. I had never realized just how FREAKING HUGE Lima really is. Sure it take forever to get to places, but theres so many districts to the South of Pueblo Libre that I didn't even know existed. You look out from the top of Cerro San Cristobol, to the back of you are mountains, but every which way you turn, you can see nothing but buildings and more buildings. No green space, just roads and roofs. I remember vaguely seeing the same scene in Seoul, but that was so long ago. Such a sprawling metrocenter...and I live in it!! And can manage my way around it! It was crazy. If it hadn't been smoggy, I'm not sure if we could have seen the coast. I felt like i was looking down on a huge, life sized maze. Which is basically what the city is. Building are put up where they fit, and the sprawl, yet clutter showed how 6 million people we able to live in the same vicinity.