Vida es bueno.

In the lottery of host families, I hit the jackpot. They are young, beautiful, and so in love. My host mom just turned 30 and is 5 months pregnant. When she was working, she was a teacher for a modern kindergaten where she used a hands-on, active teaching style with her little ones. She is perfect for me because I speak just like her 4 year olds and she is used to desiphering jibberish. My host dad is an adorable little round faced man who loves soccer. He is an engineer, and designs machinery to use in the andean mines. They have been married three years and are anxiously awaiting their first child who they just found out last week is a girl. Lucky.

They like talking to me and ask me a lot of questions about Oklahoma. They love the fact that we have indigenous people there like they do here. They are always very nice and patient and just sarcastic enough to keep things interesting. They know when to give me my space though, which apparently is rare among Peruvian host families. A few of my friends are struggling to find time to themselves with their over-eager or over-demanding families. I haven´t had one single problem with mine.

I´m starting to get to know Cusco a little better and I love it. It was wonderful and much needed to see some familiar faces on Skype last night, but I´m not homesick yet. I am so happy here.


I have class now, but I have much more to say so check back for an update later!

Last night I slept on a island in lake Titicaca

but the best part was (other than the monsterous South American spider waiting for me on my pillow) that the island was made of reeds and floated. For some reason, people post-Inca times preferred to construct these floating islands and live on the lake instead of solid land. Its hard to blame them. Lake Titicaca is beautiful and plays a huge part in connecting with ancestors past, and is often called the Lake of Spirits. I was really looking forward to having a dream with messages from the other side but to no avail. I wrote everything down I could remember just in case there was some hidden messages that just aren´t clear yet, but I have my doubts.

Before we slept, the family that was hosting us on the island and my group exchanged songs from our countries. I got the goosebumps when they sang in their native language about importance and their appreciation of the lake on which they lived. We relpied with a Britney Spears song. I was ashamed.

I have to go to school now. That seems weird considering I haven´t been to a class in about 2 months. I´m actually looking forward to the hours of Spanish that are in store for the afternoon. I have so much I want to say to people but I don´t know the words. That seems to be a common theme here in Peru. There are no words to describe.

Machupinchme

Machupicchu is the most incredible place Ive ever seen. The ruins were cool, but the hour and a half trainride through the jungle to the mountain was more impressive. After a Spanish tour through the ruins we took a hike to the Ican Sungate. It was absolutely breathtaking. I mean this literally, I was gasping for air like a fish out of water in the attempt to climb ancient stone steps laid by Incans in a time that I can´t imagine existing. When we finally reached the top it was more than worth it. Words cant describe, so I wont try. Ive seen some beautiful views in my life, but this tops all. Andes mountains as far as you can see until they disappeared into the clouds, untouched waterfalls pouring into a river below, and a flawless stone structure to rest on and take it all in.

I took part in a ceremony of gratitude for Mother Earth by saying a quick prayer and a swig of wine after pouring a drop into the earth. I have no doubt that my prayer was heard because if its true that Heaven is a place located in the clouds, I was knocking right next door.

I found internet access outside next to the cactus.

Peru gets cooler the more I get to know her (Obviously Peru is female). I woke up early this morning to the sound of my poor roommate throwing up. By the sounds I heard I thought she was running a bath. I sat outside with a cup of coffee and watched the fog lift from the mountaintops while jotting a few goals down in my journal.

Goal #1: Make a 4.0
Goal #2: Leave this place not feeling like a tourist.
ect.

(I tried to upload some pictures here but the connection just wouldn't allow it)

Yesterday we had an assignment to make a dish out of an assigned food. My group of 3 got the pepper. We walked down the stone road to the plaza and attempted to find the market on our own to no avail. Finally we asked an older woman wearing a tan top hat who was selling peanuts from the sidewalk where the market was. She pointed, and we bought a bag of red peanuts.

6 chili peppers, 7 carrots, 2 onions, 3 eggs, two handfuls of peas, a bag of flour=4 soles. $1.30

When we got back our director was a little disappointed that we let the women in the market take advantage of us like that. We should have gotten a much better deal on those eggs.

Our dish was a disaster of course, but that is beside the point.

It is interesting to see the differences of standards between Peru and the US as far as sanitation goes. The market was absolutely beautiful with carts full of brightly colored fruit whose names I could not pronounce, and piles of potatoes as tall as the stalky women who sell them. But the meat. The meat for sale is literally half of an animal hanging from a hook and covered in flies in which the men chop off the requested amount and toss into a plastic bag. It looks like its been there for days. My friends and I couldn't stop staring at the blood drip to the floor as a man sawed at a piece of beef to sell. We gagged and moved on to the veggies.

But the chicken for dinner tonight was delicious.

PERU IS REAL!

Well pals it looks like I finally made it! Flying all day and night was not pleasant, but I met some pretty interesting people in the process including a Chilean man who complimented my Spanish skills, an Argentine guy my age who laughed when I attempted to share travel stories in his language (he soon grew tired of trying to figure out what I was saying and put on headphones), and a herd of senior citizens wearing bright Hawaiian shirts and name tags around their necks that said in big red letters "South American Trek Team".

When I finally made it out of the doors at the Cusco airport I had a heart attack. I opened the doors to find this place that I dreamed up in my head anxiously awaiting my arrival. I was offered a small bag of cocoa leaves, a wide brimmed hat, and an awe-inspiring view of carpeted mountains in every shade of green you can imagine. I only accepted the latter.

Next thing I know I'm being put on a bus to a town called Urabamba. My new friends all fell asleep instantly (the luckiest of us had only been traveling for 13 hours) but I pried my eyes open long enough to see women carring infants in blankets of bright colors, men keeping a watchful eye on their pigs that are about to step into the oncoming traffic, and a little boy pee into a pile of thoughtlessly discarded garbage.

The houses are Tiffany's green but definitely don't share the same level of elegance. People were living in constructions that I thought were surely debris from a bad storm that must have ripped through the mountainside. But there was no storm, and those shanty towns are what these people call casa. I can't help but think that they aren't too concerned about what their shelter looks like, because their backyard is a true paradise.

We did some exploring, some napping, some orienting. The town is bustling with kids whizzing by on their bikes, homeless dogs hunting for some leftovers, and men in little buses trying to convince you that you want to go wherever their bus is headed.

Now the mountains are black against the dark blue sky. They look like sleeping giants, and I'm pretending that they are my protectors sleeping right outside to keep the mosquitoes at bay.