Back in Action

The current state of my shoes


Today we flew from Lima to Cusco leaving the small town of Pampas Grandes far behind and it was a big reality check. We have been such scrappers going from bus to bus, hostel to hostel, so going to the airport all of a sudden we felt a little out of place. It felt posh. Wierd to think that's pretty much how most of the USA is. Posh compared to here.
We're back in Cusco and we feel like it's whole new place since we were here last. It's high season for tourists and there are Americans and Europeans everywhere. It's not bad, just different. Plus everyone wants you to pay twice as much as they were asking for 3 weeks ago. We're not falling for it. Last time we were here we scoped out some of the locals spots. We met a guy from Cusco who took us to a resturaunt that gives you a full meal for 3.50 soles. That's $1.20 US, and we're talking a big meal. The hostel we're staying at is 13.00 soles. That's $4.60 a night. If you can't tell what I'm getting at then here it is - TRAVEL. Travel while you can. It's completely doable. We have met SO many people from all over the world that are doing this for longer and for cheaper than we are. It's something that most people consider out of their reach, but let me tell you what. It's not. It's worth it.

Once again I have been blown away by what we have been able to see and do here; in Pampas Grandes more than ever. This community is so simple and humble, but they are some of the kindest most open people we have met. This is probably THE most laid back place I have ever been and I love it. Our current schedule consists of:
5:00 a.m. waked up (yes you heard me right) and go running with these two girls here that are hard core like that.
6:45 a.m. go home and squeeze in a shower and breakfast before school starts
7:45 a.m. school starts. We go to the school and pretty much just teach which ever class a teacher dosn’t show up for. Turns out it’s pretty common for that to happen. Our classes range from 11 year olds to about 17 year olds. These kids are wild and it’s kind of a joke that Teri and I are in charge of their little brains for 5 hours each day.
1:00 p.m. (this is when we start saying Buenos Tardes instead of Buenos Dias) We walk to our place that’s just across the street to take a break.
1:00 – 2:30 p.m. We head down to the restaurant that we go to everyday. I’m going to go out on a ledge here and say most people haven’t been to a restaurant like this one. There is no menu, you just sit down and they bring out whatever they are cooking back there. Most days you start with a soup that has a mysterious chunk of meat in it and next they bring out a plate of rice with another large chunk of meat. One day I made the mistake of asking for my meal sin carne. I got the biggest load of greasy chicken and the lady is like “no carne, it’s pollo”. Today I asked what the meat was and when I didn’t recognize the answer I decided it was best I just didn’t know.
3-3:30 We head to the field to make good on one or more of our promises to play soccer or volleyball with the kids. This is my favorite part of the day. These kids are tough man! They are so funny to play sports with. They’re nuts. Playing soccer with the boys is pure comedy. They are constantly running into each other and tripping in the awkward dirt/tufts of grass field they have to play on. They just do a few summer salts and keep on running. Yesterday our goalie literally came up to my hip and he was 80% the reason we won the game. The other 20% was because we had a child prodigy making all of the goals. The best part is that the girls are just as tough or more when it comes to volleyball. Teri and I whimper almost every time we hit the ball – it hurts sooo bad. My arms are finally starting to build up a resistance, but it has come at a cost. The first few days we were here my arms were black and blue. The other day the adults asked if we wanted to play “volley” and we said yes. It was the biggest shock to watch these fierce competitors on the court (if you could call it that). First of all they asked us for money to play with them. We thought at that they were just trying to rip off the gringos, but no, it was a wager on the game. My team won and I made a whole sole! (which is about 40 cents)
6-7:00 We start walking home. The sun is setting by now and so far I have yet to see a sunset that disappoints. It’s almost always stunning from our lofty spot up on the mountain top. We shuffle home with a few kids tagging along. We almost always stop on our way to get some treats.
7-9:00 p.m. Last of all we hang out in our kitchen with Diego (the main director of our program) and a few kids playing cards and drinking tea. There are very few options when it comes to food here and we usually eat avocado and pan (bread) for dinner.
9-9:30 p.m. We generally head to bed. This is the earliest I have gone to bed since I was 14 and was on the swim team, but let me tell you what I am ready every single time. It’s like a health spa here. Hard work, good food, lots of exercise, I’m in the mountains. Life is good.

24 Hours of Bliss

We made it to Pampas Grandes! Barely. We are here to do service for a program that we knew almost nothing about when we agreed to do it. Pan Peru is the program we are working for. We were recommended to them by a friend back home. The purpose of Pan Peru is pretty much to compensate for the lack of education and attention that small, poor, farming communities get in Peru. Pampas Grandes is the town they are focusing on right now. To get here we had to get to Lima where we met with the director (who doesn’t speak a lick of English by the way) and then get a bus up to Huarez. In Huarez we met another guy who lives and works in Pampas and met us to drive us the rest of the way. That transportation ended up being a little faulty. First of all turns out we were to drive up to Pampas with the mayor of Pampas, who was in a meeting. At first he said the meeting would be out at 10 am – long story short we pulled out of Huarez around 3 o’clock with 5 other passengers, one of which road in the back of the pick up truck amongst our back packs, a dirt bike, and a load of 10’ long pipes. After barreling up the windy country road for about 30 min we pulled over to check something under the hood – I wasn’t complaining because I needed a bano break anyway. By the time I made it back to the truck the mayor and Diego (the guy who initially picked us up) were arguing about something. They had taken the cap off of the (hot) radiator and it had flown off and was now missing. We searched for about an hour before heading back down to Huarez. The mayor (the driver at the time) was pretty annoyed and was cruising down the road that we had just climbed when we came across a lady and her small herd of live stock. At the last second one of the sheep darted in front of our car and the mayor ran right over it! Teri and I both gasped, but the best part is HE KEPT DRIVING. No apologie, we didn’t even slow down long enough to see the carnage, he just kept going. We didn’t know whether to laugh or what. That was just the beginning though – 2 min later Diego made us pull over so he could ralph out the window. We were going way too fast down that road and Diego proceeded to give the mayor and ear full. Diego drove the rest of the way. 2 hours later we were finally headed back up the road. No one had the right cap, but we forced one into working finally. Teri and I couldn’t help but laugh, it was the craziest day. The truck had some serious damage to the front bumper from the poor lamb. They guy in the back had to get out and walk twice as we passed police stations so they wouldn’t get a ticket for having him in the back. The cherry on top was when we stopped to have something to eat at about 9 pm after rumbling up a dirt road squished in the back of a truck for the past 2 hours and we were served soup with a swollen chicken foot floating in it. We got some serious giggles – it was all just too much.
It has all turned out fine though. We are staying in a great little house in the most beautiful spot at the top of a mountain. Pampas Grandes is a dusty little town clinging to mountain side at about 11,000 ft. One way down the mountain takes you to the ocean and the other to the jungle. Today we literally woke up to a rooster crowing. We went to the local “Olympics” where all of the surrounding towns come to Pampas to compete in running, soccer, and volleyball. Random I know. We made some fast friends with 3 little girls who took us all around town today. We can’t wait to start teaching. It’s so nice to be somewhere that we can actually get to know the people and not just be gringo outsider tourists. I really despise being a tourist. People don’t treat you like people, they treat you like a dollar sign. Here we’ll have a chance to really make friends with people and see how we live. We are living in pretty humble circumstances ourselves actually. We’re staying in this funny house, where there is really no interior space besides the rooms. It’s hard to explain, but there are no halls. All of the rooms just lead outside and there is a path outside the runs along the building that you take to get to the kitchen and the bathroom. There is no heat, the floors are cement. The water is hot though, which is just about all I could ask for at this point. It’s kind of like camping – I guess? I love it. There is a dog here that we are already friends with and our yard has big green over grown grass and flowers all over. Not a bad place to hang out for a few weeks.

Oh really? Two cute baby animals at home while I'm away?

We made it to Lima today. We are staying in the first actual hotel that we have our entire 6 weeks. Our friend here had booked it for us ahead of time so we went with it. Sooo worth it. Tonight we have sat around, watched tv (sex and the city just came on . . . in ENGLISH, it's like it was meant to be), ate candy, took hot showers (yes, first HOT shower in 6 weeks) and vegged. I can't imagine anthing better right now. We even have internet here! Real internet, the kind that works! Modern marvels.
We just got word that the place where we will be working for the next 3 weeks is another 15 hours from Lima - half by bus, half by car. It's also in the middle of it's rainy season and averages 3 degrees C. They don't really have internet turns out so see you all in a few weeks!

Good Bye Lapaz

We left La Paz early this morning and boarded the first of three buses (so far) that are taking us to Cusco. We will spend the day in Cusco and then get on a night bus that will take us to Lima tomorrow, another 24 hours by bus.
La Paz was probably the most inspiring and interesting city we have been in so far. It’s also one of the trickiest and least 1st world cities I have been in. First of all we stand out like soar thumbs there, and I never like that. It also is constantly having protests and demonstrations, making things that much more unpredictable. On the flip side it is so culturally interesting. As I mentioned before there are tons of traditional looking ladies everywhere wearing their colorful shawls and slings. Most of the city’s housing looks like adobe brick legos – one built right on top of the other. Besides being at 12,000 ft and surrounded by snow capped peaks my favorite part about this city is their markets. There is a neighborhood where there are market booths taking up dozens of blocks selling everything from shampoo to DVDs to fruit to dried llama fetuses (yes, it’s true). They call it the witches market and it kept us entertained for hours. Last night for our final meal we sat down at one of their fast food joints, which consists of one or two stout little ladies squatting in front of a big boiling pot of soup, or meat, or who knows what. Then there are these small little stools surrounding the pot where you can sit down and be fed. They serve you on their own plates so you have to stay to eat if you want a plate; otherwise it ends up in a plastic bag. When we first sat down we got plenty of stares; curious eyes peaking up from their own mound of meat and potatoes. It only took a few minutes though of piecing together a sentence or two to make friends. By the time we left practically the whole group of them said good bye. Best part – our stomachs survived! I wasn’t’ brave enough to get the meat, but Teri loved it and our stomachs are both doing well.

A few other activities La Paz involved a football match we went to with a bunch of our friends that we have been traveling with for the past week or so. Another was riding mountain bikes down the worlds most dangerous road [dun dun dun]. The football was a blast. We ended up in the rowdy crowd with our faces painted and flags waving. We stood up and jumped the entire time. Partly because it was fun and partly because I think the crowd would have pummeled us if we hadn’t. By the end I could following along with a few of the chants, but still had no idea what I was saying.

The biking I was a bit skeptical of only because I can do it for free at home, plus I haven’t been on a bike since my accident and I wasn’t sure how 4 hours of downhill on dirt roads would feel. Turns out it was a great decision – I completely loved it. The company was started by a New Zealander who did the ride himself about 20 years ago. They have awesome full suspension bikes, plus they were the only company that had rescue equipment in case anyone went over the edge. It felt so good to be on a bike, plus we were riding down some really amazing terrain. It’s considered the world’s most dangerous road because it’s a single lane dirt road that winds from a high mountain pass of 14,000 ft to the jungle at 3.000 ft. and the cliff that parallels the road reflects that. It doesn’t help that while riding you are passing dozens of crosses for those who have gone over the edge. Up until 2006 it was the only road that could take you to La Paz from the area and dozens of trucks, buses, and cars have gone over the edge whether because of late night sleepy driving or simply trying to pass another vehicle coming in the opposite direction. Now it’s mostly utilized by tour groups taking willing bikers down the road, but even then there have been a hand full of deaths. There were plenty of places where if you went over the side you would drop up to 900 ft before stopping. Sounds sketch, but I tell you it was amazing. It felt so good to be on a bike plus at the end we got to hang out at an animal reserve where you could play with the monkeys that live there. And they weren’t the nasty greedy kind they have in Thailand – they were so sweet I wanted to stay.

5 Facts About Bolivia

They use pink toilet paper
Old ladies sport top hats
They love themselves some popcorn (sold everywhere)
They have amazing scenery
I love it