Christine's Trip to Peru

I'm back from a two week trip through some fantastic places in Peru. I went with three fellow volunteers, Johnny, Joe, and Paul. We left Saturday, July 12, in the evening to go to Arica. It's a mid-size city, wealthy, and right along the coast near the border of Peru. It's a perfect midway stop between Antofagasta and Cusco.

Here's our gang at the bus terminal leaving Antofagasta.

In Arica we climbed El Morro de Arica, which is a national monument standing 110 meters tall. It pays tribute to the Chilean military victories in the 19th Century Pacific War.

The next morning we headed for Cusco, Peru. It's a very charming city that has created an atmosphere tailored to tourists, which has its advantages and disadvantages. I was very struck with the fact that although Peru is not economically as stable as Chile, they have nicer looking roofs made out of clay stucco material and not aluminum metal. However, most of their building material are mud-clay-straw bricks versus cement in Chile.

I loved Cusco and had a great time. Not to mention things were cheap. You could get a great meal in a very local atmosphere right out of the center downtown for 3 soles or about $1.

In and around Cusco, we saw Saqsaywaman (pronounced like "sexywoman") ruins and of course I had to give a "Saxy Woman" pose......

We visited Machu Picchu which was beautiful!!

We tried Chicha, a drink made out of fermented corn but not considered an alcoholic drink, unlike Joe's expression might suggest-haha.

We saw Cuy (Guinea Pig) being raised or kept for future meals. Yes, we did try these little guys during our trip. Tasty but a lot of work for a little bit of meat.

After Cusco we headed to Puno which is right on Lake Titicaca. There we visited the floating islands of Uros and a couple other islands. There are just over 50 floating islands. They are built with about 3 feet of a plant root that floats very well, topped with 3 feet of a cat-tail like plant. We visited two separate islands. On the first island there were 8 families that lived on the island, which was probably less than an acre big. Here we are approaching the first island on our boat.

Here I am posing infront of their kitchen. There is a black blob in the picture which was a dead bird they killed to make the soup she was cooking.

We also stayed with a family for one night on one of the main islands, not a floating island. Her name was Carmen and she and her husband had 6 children. Our room was small and cozy, made out of mud bricks, fishmeal sacks for the roof, twin size beds, and a small sitting table to eat at. There was no electricity so the night was lit with a candle.

This is the front door to the house. The sheep pen was to the left.

For lunch they fed us soup with bits of rice, potato, and carrots. We had a side plate of 3 types of potatoes and bits of carrots, tomatoes, and cheese. For dinner we had the same soup except noodles instead of rice. Our side was rice and french fries. For breakfast the following day, we had sopapillas or fried dough. With each meal we were given Muña tea which is very healthy for the stomach. Joe and I shared a room. As you can see, not much, very simple but decorated tastefully.

The night at Carmens house was cold. The wind was strong and sometimes it blew so hard you wondered if the house would stand. Having no electricity also meant that there was not a bathroom in the main part of the house. Yes ladies and gentleman, they had outhouses. My families outhouse was slight nicer than others on the island, meaning it had an unflushable toilet. However, on an emergency bathroom break where I had to use some random neighbors toilet, I just had to take a picture of what I was up against. Also shows that within the "lower" economic class, there are levels of status- those with toilets and those without.

And on our last day Carmen was polite enough to let the gringa take a picture with her.

I have too many pictures to post but overall I had a great time in Peru and would definately like to go back one day. The people were nice, spoke Spanish clearly and understandably (unlike the Chileans), had beautiful culture, and magnificent history of the Incas. I highly recommend those to go who have not been.

Thanks for reading and your interest in my blog.

CW

Costa Rica Vacation Days

Well Miss Julie Wilson came down to visit me for a two weeks and WOW what a trip. Here is a picture of here after she got off the plane. Sorry about the wierd face, sometimes I do that without realizing that sometimes it would be nice to have a good picture.

After she got into San Jose, we stayed a day in town and just checked out the mall and had dinner. Then that night we went to a Salsa Club, a huge one with a huge dance floor, but found out that on Monday nights no body goes. So Julie and I had the entire dance floor to ourselves for the whole night. It was a blast. The next day we went to a beach town called Cahuita. It was amazing. The whole town was like Jamaican and everyone spoke a little English and Spanish. We went to the beach, layed in hammocks, and read. One day though we we in the jungle right off the beach on a nature trail, and Donny got a little too close to a tree and pretty soon a troop of monkeys started wooping and hoolering and since it was almost closing time anyways, we ran as fast as we could back to the entrance of the park.

After Cahuita we went back to my hometown, San Juaquin, so that Julie could see where I am volunteering, what I am doing, and who my family is. She got along great with the family, and I tried my best to translate everything. We went swimming in the river on day, attended an English class of one of the other volunteers here, and read alot. Also Julie helped me work on my Community Service Project, to refinish some tables and chairs in the Cafeteria. It was fantastic.

Now Julie is back on a plane back home and I am getting ready to catch the bus back to my home. Only a few more weeks and then I will be back in the United States. Hard to believe all this time has gone by so fast. It has been fantastic, but I think I will be ready to get back to Family, friends, and my cars and toys.

Christine's Birthday

Thank you all for making this day so special, and it's not even over yet! I've received so many birthday wish notes and I really appreciate it.

To start my day, I opened a lovely package from home. Thank you from my #1 parents for your sweet surprises. I loved the necklace and here's me wearing it! I love how you had Antofagasta, Chile inscribed in it. Beautiful detail!

Was my birthday card predictable or what!!!! Trust me, I will have my ice cream today!

Then I headed to school with a bag full of cookies for a birthday lesson and party with my 5th grade B class and 8th grade A class.

Here are some pictures from my classes this morning!

5th grade- What a group they are!

The girls and I! The young lady on the far right is such a sweetheart. She stays after class to help straighten the chairs and she asks me all the time in a very formal tone, "Good Morning Miss. How are you today?" Look out Chile, I could see her as the future President. Jajaja.

The boys (at least the ones that were present) and I!

I'm trying to load a video and when i figure out how to do it in less than an hour, i'll post it.

Then I arrived home to find some wonderful reminders of my younger years. I'll leave the bug eating and mullet pictures for later. I can share the one below of me getting a perm.

Then, I received the most hilarious video from my wonderful parents. I had cramps from laughing so hard. Gracias madre y padre!!

Thanks all for making my birthday great!

Christine's BBQ and early birthday celebration

What a fun weekend it was! Friday evening the volunteers from Antofagasta and the cities of Tocopilla, and Taltal gathered for a BBQ. We first met the mayor of the region and after formal introductions were made, we headed to the south for the BBQ. It was chilly that night but it was fun to be around friends, new and old. Below were several of the volunteers gathered around the BBQ waiting for the Chorripan, grilled zuchini, and beef to be ready. Rico!

Below I'm pictured with Rachel and Amy, other volunteers from Antofagasta.

After the BBQ was over, myself, Jennifer, Sasu, and Kristina headed for Tequila. It's a pub not far from where we live. I've been there for Saturday Salsa nights but not for a regular hangout.

We stayed for a couple hours mingling and Jennifer and I shared this yummy manjar (caramel)crepe and ice cream dessert.

So that was Friday. Then Saturday rolled around. I had a great morning, met some friends in the afternoon to plan our vacation, and then got ready for the night to celebrate my birthday a little early since my birthday is actually Tuesday (tomorrow).

At 8:30 I met some friends at a spot close to the restaurant. It was that spot that I had an interesting moment. A rugged looking, almost homeless looking, man was bothering us and something happened to my voice and I just started shouting "Sale, sale, sale" (not pronounced the same in English). That pumped a little adrenaline in me.

We walked a block to Mochica, a peruvian inspired restaurant. The group surprised me with a present from Lush and earrings that Amy handmade.

And the wrapping even goes with my outfit!

Close up of the soaps and bodywash from Lush, taken the next day. They use popcorn as a filler.

All of us at Mochica right before heading to my FAVORITE salsateca, Candela! There we danced the night away! It was SOOO much fun. Even those that don't dance salsa danced!


Then when I came back from getting my water (yes I got a water as my second drink during Happy Hour) they had a SURPRISE birthday cake for me!! It even had my name on it! It was AWESOME and such a nice surprise.

It was so delicious. It had a layer of manjar and fruit. Rachel brought forks and plastic cups and we enjoyed!



Joe, Willian, and Paul. The two gringos I take salsa classes with and our profesor in the middle. Title of this photo is three muskateers.

Paul and I.

The live band was great and the singer, Oscar, even gave a couple shout-outs to me for my birthday. A great time was had by all and I left around 3am thoroughly happy and tired.

Wahoo to birthdays and turning 27. It's going to be a GREAT year!

CW

Christine's Chilean Diet

As much as I would love the food here to be black beans and rice, plantanos fritos, malanga, and the likes, it's not. It's definately not.

I thought I would write some on the food here.

Breakfast consists of "normal" food with the exception of milk. The milk here is not that great and it's not fresh. It's all shelf stable. So, yogurt (which is slightly less thick here and often frozen as treats for children), an apple or pear, and cereal frequent my plate. I did fix myself scrambled eggs today- yummy! Typically my family has bread, sometimes toasted, or leftover desserts. For example, a tres leches layered cake.

Above is pan con huevos (bread with eggs). It's not a typical breakfast for me but it's something I can grab on the way to work if I don't have enough time to eat.

Below I'm including some photos of some frequent lunches I have. I always come home for lunch.

This is made with a type of lettuce, onions, and a layer of cheese on top. It's very rico!

This is Cazuela and it is a yummy soup. It has a piece of tender meat, 1 potato, corn, rice, and squash.

Fideos con salsa (pasta with sauce). It has chunks of meat and carrots. Very yummy.

This is fideos con salsa too but prepared slightly different. I prefer this peparation method over the other.

Lentils, another very tasty dish, packed with FIBER. Oh how I love my fiber!!

Dinner consists of bread with sides of butter, jelly, manjar (carmal), avocado in addition to cheese and usually a meat, either ham or salami. I don't know how I'll be able to go back to sliced bread once I've been eating this delicious, fresh daily, bread. It's very easy to get a carb overload here so I make a conscious effort to keep the bread to dinner/tecito hour. The food isn't the best in Chile, but it's not bad. My host mom makes some very yummy meals.

In between meals there is very little snacking. It's just not common here to do so there are little to no "snacks" at home. If I need a bedtime snack, it's probably bread or cookies that I bought myself.

More to come! Thanks for reading.

CW

Christine's follow up to the last blog.

Well, I still have my room....fortunately! Last night Raquelita and I had a short photo session with Hercules. It's cute seeing a 3 year old try to pose for a photo.

He found a new favorite toy.

Have a great day,

CW