Chao Peru, You Will Be Missed

Well it's December 10th, 2011. Our very last day here in Peru. And we can hardly believe it! We came here on August 1st, over four months ago, and it seems like we've only been here maybe a fourth of that time. We have experienced so much, gained wonderful new friends, learned amazing things in school, and enjoyed every day of this incredible journey. Here's some memorable highlights from the trip:

* Meeting the amazing IFSA group, with friends from all over the States and amazing directors and patas *

The first group outing to Mango's at Larcomar!

* Seeing campus for the first time, including the campus deer *

Paul meeting one of the deer for the first time.

* Trying ceviche (and loving it) *

Delicious? To say the least.

* The visit to Caral, the oldest civilization in the Western Hemisphere and the third oldest in the world *

On site at Caral! Excuse Paul's horrific hair.

* Mastering the combi system (and surviving to tell about it) *

A typical Lima combi. Thanks to

* The visit to Cusco and all the surrounding sites, especially the visit to the girls in the mountains *

Caitlyn getting her hair done with some of the girls.

* Machu Picchu *

Enjoying the view after lunch.

* Swimming in the Pacific Ocean for the first time *

Beautiful, warm, salty.

* Escapades around Lima -- sunsets on the oceanside, weekly movies at Larcomar, the Park of Legends, the Park of Waters, museums of all sorts, La Punta, and more *

Enjoying the sun and boats at La Punta (with our friend Elise in the background).

* Caitlyn making a pumpkin roll for Thanksgiving, and us having a beautiful holiday with our group *

Whipping up the delicious cream frosting!

* Paragliding *

Paul coming in for the landing.

Most of you probably know by now, but since we have yet to post anything about paragliding here on the blog, we did! It was a sunny day with clear skies and good breezes, so we went to paraglide as we'd been waiting to all semester. It's 150 soles ($55) for 10 minutes, but it's completely worth it, and an inspiring experience. If you've never done it then you should give it a shot some time!

And So We Say Goodbye
So here we are. Our final day here in Peru, here in Lima, here in the houses that have been our homes here for the past four months. Each day brought a new memory, a new experience, a new moment. And though it is sad to be leaving, the day is here. So with frowns on our faces and our hearts yearning to return, we leave. But all is well! No need to be sad; we have grown and lived and appreciated every second of this. It was a blessing just to be able to come, and we will be forever thankful for the opportunity we were given to be here.

This also means we will no longer be writing here, until our next adventure begins in New Zealand! That will be halfway through February, so we will have a very nice break at home with our families and friends. We've missed you all remarkably and we cannot wait to get back to Ohio! Thank you for reading and we wish you all a happy holiday season!!

Giving Thanks, Peruvian Style

We hope that all of you in the United States had a very happy Thanksgiving last week!  Despite being in Peru and away from home for Thanksgiving, we managed to have a really good time celebrating the holiday twice!  We really have so much to be thankful for, so it was fitting that we were given two celebrations to give thanks.  

Thanksgiving Day: 11.24.11 

On Thanksgiving day, we had dinner with all of the other students in our study abroad group, as well as the directors of the program.  Everyone made a dish at home and then showed up at our study abroad office for an amazing dinner.  Caitlyn decided to attempt to make Mica's famous pumpkin roll for the very first time this year (it's just not Thanksgiving without Mica's pumpkin roll!), so we got together at her house and our host moms helped us make it.  We ran into a few bumps during the baking process, so the final product didn't look as nice as it could have.  As we were trying to actually roll the pumpkin roll, it started to break apart.  Once it was rolled, our host moms were trying to make it better, but they just kept transferring it from plate to plate, which really made it worse.  Luckily, after it had chilled in the refrigerator for almost four hours and we added some powdered sugar, it didn't look too bad!  Best of all, it tasted absolutely delicious.  Goes to show, never judge a pumpkin roll by it's cracks.

The finished product! We sliced it and then cut it down the middle so there would be more pieces.

We also had two turkeys, which were very moist and flavorful, along with many other traditional Thanksgiving dishes: stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, etc. Because they don't have cranberry here, someone made mango chutney instead, which was really good.  

Delicious homemade bread made by our friend Anne!

Most of the food.

Paul's plate! Delicious.

Oh, and did we mention that there were TONS of desserts?  Even more arrived after this picture was taken.

After eating, we sat around with some of the other students and played Uno and Pictionary, which was really fun.  We love board games, and we've missed playing them since we've been here!  It turned out to be an amazing Thanksgiving, and we were very thankful for that!


Thanksgiving Part Two: 11.25.11


The day after Thanksgiving, Caitlyn's host mom threw us another Thanksgiving dinner.  She invited Paul's host parents, Caitlyn's host uncle, and her best friend Rafita.  The only traditional Thanksgiving dish we had was turkey (which was very good), and the rest were just random Peruvian dishes. They made arabic rice (some kind of sweet tasting rice with raisins), a salad in the shape of a wreath and covered in ham, apple puree, and cake!  We really enjoyed being able to spend time with our host families, and we thought it was nice that they wanted to help us celebrate the holiday.  

Caitlyn's plate.  Much different than our IFSA Thanksgiving plate, but very good.

Left to right: Paul's host parents Ricardo and Marilu, Rafita, Concho, us, and Caitlyn's host uncle Luis.

Brisas de Titicaca: 11.26.11


On Saturday night, we had another event with our study abroad group at a place called Brisas de Titicaca (Breezes of Titicaca).  Brisas is kind of like a La Comedia type place -- you get dinner and a show.  At Brisas, they put on performances of traditional dances from all over Peru.  We had the best seats in the house, literally right in front of the stage!  The cool thing is that the dancers will come out and perform, and then for about 10 minutes in between each dance, they play music and allow all of the people from the audience to come up and dance, like at a club.  The whole spectacle is about 5 hours long -- it started at 10 and when we left at 2:30 AM it was still going!  We had a great time dancing together, and the performances were beautiful.  

These skirts each had tons of layers under them!  The white skirt was biggest, it probably has almost 20 layers.

During the Marinera, a dance from the north of Peru.  It was very artistic and entertaining.

A dance similar to the Marinera called the Tondero (thanks Jaz!), danced by couples.

Us with two of the dancers!

All in all, we had a really nice Thanksgiving weekend!  We have so much to be thankful for: our families, friends, homes and country.  And of course we are incredibly grateful to have had this experience to come experience life in Peru!  Being here has taught us a lot about ourselves and the world, as well as made us appreciate what we have at home.  Speaking of which, we'll be home in less than two weeks!  The countdown has begun. 

Dancing in the Desert

Well here we are, about a month after our last blog post once again.  Sorry for being so lazy about writing the blogs, it's just kind of tedious sometimes.  We only have three weeks left here in Peru, and we are starting to feel the time crunch!  We have papers to write, exams to study for, plus we want to try and have fun and enjoy the last few weeks that we're here.  Since we last posted, we've done some pretty interesting stuff, though, so here goes!


A few weekends ago we decided to finally go down to the beach and actually get in the water.  Neither of us had ever been in the Pacific Ocean before, so we were really excited!  The beach that we went to is actually all rocks and despite being incredibly smooth and not jagged at all, they really hurt your feet when you walk on them barefooted just because of the balance of pressure they create.  Another thing we didn't think about when going to a beach covered in rocks is that the waves bring the rocks in, so when you stand in the water the waves throw rocks at your legs!  We decided to sit down, but despite that, Paul kept getting pelted by rocks and ended up with several welts on his shins.  It was still really fun, though, and now we can say we've been in the Pacific!

A couple weeks ago we also decided to visit the Parque de las Aguas again.  If you've been following our blog, maybe you remember that we went there during our second week here in Peru with our study abroad group.  We wanted to go back because we didn't really get to fully enjoy it the last time.  The cool thing about revisiting it was that we ended up getting to see the light show that they display on the main fountain, which was really beautiful.  While shining all different colored lights on this line of fountains, they would also project moving images, such as a ballerina dancing, as well as lasers.  

We thought the silhouettes looked cool in this picture.

The main fountain. Such pretty colors!

They kind of look like they're dancing!

The dancing ballerina being projected onto the fountain.

Just last weekend we went on a trip with our study abroad group to a tiny little town called El Carmen which is located in a more desert-like area.  Much of the afroperuvian population lives in the area as well, so we went there to learn about their culture and traditions.  The trip was very relaxing, as we spent a majority of it hanging out by the pool at our hotel.  

Our hacienda!

The gorgeous pool area.

While in El Carmen we also had some afroperuvian dance lessons, which was definitely a sight to see.  Neither of us are really born dancers, so we looked pretty hilarious trying to keep up with our instructors.  After all of our hard work trying to learn the dances, we got to visit the home of a famous afroperuvian family who lives in El Carmen and has kept up the traditions of afroperuvian dance and music.  These traditions have been passed down through the generations since the slave days.  They put on an amazing dance and music performance for us, but unfortunately we didn't have our camera to take pictures of it all.  Then on Sunday, we went to visit some pre-incan ruins just outside of El Carmen.

The cross has been there since the Spanish first arrived, but the wood has been replaced many times.

View from the top.

This week we have a ton going on, including a Thanksgiving dinner that we're putting together with our study abroad group, which should be fun.  All of us are bringing a dish, and it seems as though there will be tons of food.  Caitlyn (and Paul is going to help) is going to make Mica's famous pumpkin roll for the first time, so hopefully it turns out well!  Happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the United States!  We miss you and hope that you have a happy holiday.

Sun, Sand and Cinema

We know, we know.  It's been a really long time since we blogged.  We even promised in our last post that we would start blogging every week and here we are, about 4 weeks later, with our next post.  The past month has been really busy with studying for midterms and doing school work, so we didn't really have much time to post.  Besides that, we hadn't really done anything super exciting enough to blog about. Haha.  But we figured that it was about time for us to update everyone in the good ole USA about our lives, so here's our next post (finally!).  


Like we said, for the past couple weeks we were doing a lot of school work and studying for midterms.  They have two weeks of midterms here, but for us it ended up being about three weeks because our Quechua midterm got delayed.  We still haven't gotten all of our grades back yet, but the ones we have gotten back have been good scores, so yay for us! 


Besides studying for midterms, we've mostly been hanging out at the parks near our house that we love to go to. Spring is finally coming into full force and there have been way more sunny days, which is great.  Lima is amazing when it's sunny!  Here are a few pictures from the park:

Paul relaxing and looking pensive as he watches the waves.

Some French tourists recreating this statue in the Park of Love.  We thought it was cute!

Some of the many colorful flowerbeds in the Park of Love.

Last weekend we also went to the cultural center that our university has here in Miraflores because they were showing Brazilian films (for free!) all week.  The movie was in Portuguese so we had to read the subtitles in Spanish, but we were able to follow along perfectly and we both really liked the movie!  It was called (in Portuguese) "Antes Que O Mundo Acabe" which means "Before the World Ends." 

[Thanks to]

This past weekend we went to the park (yes, again) to see the sunset over the ocean.  Paul realized that somehow we had managed to be here all this time and not see the sunset, so we thought it would be the perfect thing to do for the evening.  Needless to say, we got some amazing pictures:

What a perfect time to be paragliding, right?!

On Saturday we went to Barranco (you may recall it from one of our earlier posts, known as the "bohemian district") to have lunch and wander around.  It was a beautiful day, and there was a wedding going on in the main plaza, which was really cool.  There were also a ton of people in the restaurant that we went to, as well as a band playing, and everyone was dancing and having a good time.  We were planning on taking a combi back to Miraflores, but then we ended up just walking back along the beach.  It took us about an hour, but it was gorgeous out, so it was a really nice walk.  

The set up of the wedding in Barranco's Plaza Municipal.

Many of the ladies in the restaurant dancing and having a good time!

Some kids running down to the beach.  It was a better view than this picture (taken with Caitlyn's old camera) lets on.

That structure built into the cliff there is Larcomar, the shopping center where we always go to see movies!

So that's a general update on what has been going on in our lives the past few weeks!  Sorry for such a long wait.  However, we aren't going to promise when our next blog will be... we don't want to disappoint you all.  Hopefully it will be very soon, though!  

Exploring the Incan World

We know, we know, it's been more than a week. But we have a legitimate excuse this time. We just got back from Cusco! The trip was incredible, and also extremely busy, so we had very little time to even be online let alone write a blog. Now we have time, so here we go!


Day 1 (9.21.11)
The day we left for Cusco we got up bright and early and took a taxi to the airport around 6:45.   Our flight went well and we arrived in sunny Cusco at 10:30 and headed to the hotel.  The day before we arrived as well as the first day there we had to take medicine to prevent us from getting altitude sickness because Cusco is 11,200 feet above sea level!  When we arrived at the hotel, we all drank mate de coca, which is a tea made using coca leaves (they come from the same plant used to make cocaine).  The people in the Andes have been using coca leaves for hundreds of years to cure many different ailments, including altitude sickness. It wasn't until people turned the plant into a drug that there was anything wrong associated with it.  After drinking our tea, we all took naps in order to let our bodies adjust to the altitude. 


The rest of the day was spent visiting many different ruins around the edge of Cusco.  To go to the ruins, we ended up driving about an additional 2,000 feet up the mountains!  We were practically in outer space.  We went to Sacsayhuaman, Qenqo, Pucapucara, and Tambomachay, but we don't really remember which ruins go with which names.

The first ruins we saw. Folklore says the fountains here are water from the Fountain of Youth.

The next ruins. That statue is supposed to be a frog facing the sky.

The most interesting ruin was definitely Sacsayhuaman (sock-sigh-wah-mahn).  Many English speakers also refer to it jokingly as "Sexy Woman."  Sacsayhuaman is a walled-in temple made of huge polished stones that are cut perfectly to fit together.  There was also a giant "rock slide" near Sacsayhuaman, which we all slid down! 

The rock slides near Saksayhuaman.
It was fast, and hurt at the bottom, since you had to catch yourself from hitting the ground.

Saksayhuaman. It used to be much larger, and covered in gold, before the Spanish pointlessly destroyed it all.

Our last activity of the day before heading to dinner and bed was visiting a cathedral in Cusco.  To the people who built the temple, Cusco was the center of the world, and this temple was built in the center of Cusco, therefore it was the center of the center.  To take this idea even further, they placed a rock in the center of the temple, which represented the center of the center of the center.  Basically, this means that it was a very important spot.

This was the center of the Sun Temple, which was the center of Cusco, which was the center of the Incan Empire.

The leftover rebuilt parts of the temple after an earthquake in the 1350s.

Day 2 (9.22.11)


Our second day we traveled 3 hours outside of Cusco deep into the Andes.  The landscape was incredible, with huge mountains surrounding us and many different sparkling lakes.  We arrived in a tiny rural town to visit some families who work with an organization called Sierra Productiva.  Sierra Productiva helps rural Andean families to create gardens from which they can sustain their families as well as make a living by selling produce at the market.  The organization helps them to improve their quality of life in many ways, helping them to create a system of heating water, giving them the tools to create separate bedrooms for their family members and much more. 

The nice farmer showing us his plants, and guinea pigs, and greenhouse.

The farmer's wife, showing us how she cooks without any electricity.
She made delicious beans and corn for us all.

The greenhouse used to grow plants that could never grow so high in the mountains.
It was very hot inside -- the system works very well.

After visiting the families we had lunch in another very small town, and we tried guinea pig, which is a very typical food in the sierra.  It was actually very tasty, especially if you didn't think about it as a pet. 

Our first time tasting cuy (coy, meaning guinea pig)! It's that chunk in the middle.

We then traveled to a shelter for girls who generally come from abusive families or families who don't have the resources to take care of them.  The girls were incredibly sweet, and the older girls in the group actually put on a really great dance show for us!  We also had a "show" prepared for them, which consisted of singing a couple songs that we translated into Spanish.  We spent the rest of the day playing, dancing, singing, and generally having fun with the girls. They are really good at doing hair, and they braided many of the girls' hair in our group into cool designs (including Caitlyn's!)  At the end of the night, it took about 20 minutes for everyone to say goodbye because everyone was hugging everyone else.  We wish we could visit them again.

The girls dancing for us all. They were really good.

Two of the girls braiding Caitlyn's hair. It looked great when finished.

Day 3 (9.23.11)


We began our day with a delicious breakfast and left Cusco in the bus with our bags for Aguas Calientes (we'll tell you what that is in a moment). We drove outside of Cusco and through the mountains to Aguana Cancha (ah-gwah-nah con-chuh), a llama/alpaca farm and production site for wool products. We were able to walk with and feed each of the four kinds of South American camels (llama, guanaco, alpaca, vicuña), which was really fun, as you can tell:

Paul and our friend Kaleigh managing to feed the elusive and very cute baby.

The difference between using fake/industrial ink (his right hand) and real/natural ink (his left hand).
The fake ink looks better at first, but fades quickly, while the natural ink stays the same forever.
By the way, this is Victor, who was our great tour guide for most of the trip.

Afterwards we drove further through the mountains to Pisac (pee-sock), an ancient Incan city and current-day town. We climbed up the mountainside along terraces and structures (much like Machu Picchu, as both were built by the Incans), learning a great deal about the site from our great tour guide Victor along the way. When we reached the top we were at 10,980 feet and Paul decided to climb even further up onto some peaks.

The Pisac Terraces.

Victor explaining how the ruins were built up on the Pisac cliffs.

After the ruins we ate lunch in the town and then were given time to explore the market there and purchase anything we liked. We were supposed to leave at 3:30 but a series of unfortunate events lead us to leaving at 4. We had planned to get to the next town, Ollantaytambo (oh-yawn-tie-tom-bow) by 4:30, but instead arrived at 4:50. Ollantaytambo is home to another set of Incan ruins as well as the train station to get to Aguas Calientes (meaning hot waters, because of the natural hot springs there), the town at the base of Machu Picchu. We were admitted to Ollantaytambo and our guide started showing us around, but the site closed at 5 and soon the guards were literally yelling at us to leave. Thankfully we had our guide, Victor, who stood up to and ignored the men, showing us as much as he could of the site before finally leaving. We were only able to see about half of the site, but even that was amazing. As a side note, Caitlyn fell down the last few stairs while climbing down the ruins, but managed to not break or sprain anything luckily.

The Ollantaytambo mountain. Can you see the face carved into the cliff?

The Ollantaytambo ruins, with the town of Ollantaytambo below.

After the ruins we had two hours before our train left, so we all got dinner in one of the many restaurants and diners in the town. The town is essentially a rest-stop between Cusco and Machu Picchu, and so is very oriented towards tourists and very filled with them. We rode the train to Aguas Calientes (the first time on a train for us both!) and finally made it to the hotel by about 11:30, getting to sleep by 12:30.


Day 4 (9.24.11)


You may wonder why we mentioned when we went to sleep, so we'll tell you. It's worth mentioning because we didn't sleep until 12:30, and had to wake up at 4:30 to leave by 5. So we were prepared for our busiest and most physical day with 4 hours of sleep. But that's alright, our excitement pulled us through!


We woke up, ate breakfast, got our bus tickets, and left at 5:15. The system is simple: an endless hoard of busses takes people from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu all day long, starting at 5:30. We got in line at 5:15, but were on the seventh bus. It may sound like there were a lot of people, and there were, but not nearly as much as there would be later in the day (hence the group waking up early). Arriving early allows you to both experience the sun rising over Machu Picchu as well as avoiding the droves of tourists who arrive later in the day around 10.


We rode the bus up to the site and were inside by about 6. It was surreal, to say the least. So quiet, so isolated, so real, and so amazing. We all took turns taking the classic Machu Picchu pictures and then began exploring the site. We also walked along a path to an old bridge used by the Incans, but the path was very skinny, right along the cliffs, usually with no railing, and we most certainly did not cross that bridge, because it was more like several boards hanging over thousands of feet of air rather than an actual bridge.

Our first view of Machu Picchu!

The classic Machu Picchu shot.

There were very few people there early in the morning -- it was quiet, peaceful and amazing.

The "bridge" (really wooden boards) we hiked to. Scary!

One of the most incredible views we've ever seen. This picture does no justice whatsoever.

The other side of Machu Picchu.

At 10 our group was scheduled to climb Huayna Picchu (wine-uh pee-choo), the tall mountain you always see connected to Machu Picchu. It's about 1,200 feet above Machu Picchu, which may not seem like much, but physical exertion in high altitudes is much harder due to the lesser amount of air. Climbing 1,200 feet of steep cliff is hard at sea level; doing it about 8,000 feet above sea level is a whole new story. The climb was fun, but is by all means dangerous. The paths are wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side, but generally have no railings, and go right along the edge of the mountain. Paul discovered his extreme fear of cliff edges; it seems he loves heights (such as being in planes and on top of mountains) but absolutely hates being on the edge of anything up high. We made it the very top, the very peak of the entire mountain, and sat and relaxed at the top. Caitlyn, a normal person without horrific phobias of falling to her death from a mountainside, wondered around the peak enjoying the views. Paul didn't budge from his sitting spot at the top, fearing a certain death. Deaths of course rarely happen, however, it's worth noting that each person who climbs the mountain is required to sign in and out, in case he or she were to fall to a grisly death and search parties were needed. As our Program Director would say, it's something you "check off the list" -- you do it once, and never again.

Huayna Picchu in the rising mist, calling us to climb it.

Machu Picchu as seen from the peak of Huayna Picchu,

After Huayna Picchu we slowly descended, which isn't as difficult aerobically as climbing, but is tougher on your muscles. We spent a bit more time at the site and then left around 12:30 for lunch down in Aguas Calientes, saying good bye to Machu Picchu for the time being. We returned to the town, ate lunch, then left to go to the hot springs just outside the town. We know what you're imagining: beautiful ponds of warm water bubbling from the mountainside, with steam rising and rocks all around you, at one with nature in a wonderfully-relaxing setting. We thought it'd be that way too; we were wrong. It was great, and it was naturally-heated spring water, but it was a tiled and very unnatural bathhouse sort of setting. Definitely fun though!


We left the baths, packed up, rode the train back to Ollantaytambo, then rode the bus back to Cusco. We got to bed around 1, after being up for 21 hours and having exerted about as much physical energy as we each do in a year. Worth it? No question.


Day 5 (9.25.11)


Our last full day in Cusco was luckily a free day, so we all tried to sleep in a little bit (since we had gotten up super early pretty much all of the previous days) and then explored Cusco a little bit.  We went with all of the girls in our group to a chocolate museum, which was deliciously fun.  They had lots of interesting facts about chocolate and its history, as well as free samples of cacao tea, which was pretty good.  They also had a menu that we all ordered from.  The two of us shared chocolate frio (cold chocolate) which was like chocolate milk except 1,000 times tastier. 

The delicious chocolate frio. It may be hard to believe, but it's better than hot chocolate.

We then dragged ourselves away from the chocolate museum to go to the Inca Mercado (Incan Market) to buy more gifts for ourselves and our families.  The two of us both bought some Andean looking sweaters, and lots of stuff for our family and friends back home (not telling what we got you, though!).  


After resting for a little bit in the hotel, we all went to a folkloric dance performance.  It was traditional Andean dancing and music with fun traditional costumes and everything.  There was one dance in which the women pretended to hit the men with these long furry things because the point of the song/dance was that "where there is love there is punishment."  We thought that was funny.

The traditional dancers dancing away.

That was our last night in Cusco. The next morning we returned to Lima, tired but full of experiences we'll never forget. It was an incredible trip, to say the very least.