Peru 2016

Well friends, this is my final blog post of my Peruvian adventures since I return to the U.S. on Tuesday. I will give you a brief overview of the past two weeks and then wrap everything up for the semester. (Make sure you read the last few paragraphs at least)

Finals are over, I managed to get good grades, I've cherished every moment here, and now it is time to go back home. Peru has treated me well and helped me grow so much as an individual. I have gained a new perspective of life and my priorities have changed a little bit. I've made wonderful friends and have truly improved my Spanish so much. I am proud of everything that I have accomplished here and can't believe that I got to do so many amazing things in just 4 short months. The time here flew by as I knew it would, and I am still being pulled in a million different ways by my emotions. I won't miss Peru as much as I will miss the people I have met here. To me, the people surrounding you is far more important than which country or city you live in. I am truly going to miss my host family, my Nebraska girls (not all of us are staying in Kearney), my professors, and Peruvian friends.

Two weeks ago I studied for finals, did well on all of my finals, and went to visit a school of high school and middle school students. Going to the school was one of the more intimidating things I've done here. We didn't know what to expect, but when we got there all of the students in the school lined up in the courtyard and waited for us to come speak to them. They sang their national anthem for us and then we got put on the spot and sang ours for them as well. It was so awkward standing on the stage in front of all of them that I laughed for a lot of the song (I have serious problems with laughing during inappropriate times. Same as Zach). We then lined up and introduced ourselves in Spanish and then let Stephen our UNK professor speak for a few minutes. Afterwards the students swarmed us, taking selfies with us and asking for our autographs. We visited a few classrooms and answered questions about ourselves and Nebraska and then finished off the visit with some food and music. It was such a crazy experience, and one that I will never forget.

I also went to another of Gio's basketball games. I met his dad at their house and rode with him to the game. It took about 25 minutes to get there and he spoke in Spanish/English while I spoke in Spanish the whole way. I am proud to say that I can carry on a 25 minute conversation in Spanish now, which would have terrified me before coming to Peru.

Wednesday night all of us girls and our UNK and UPC professors met at the Gringo Bar in Barranco to have a farewell celebration. The teachers said a few words, we danced, and drank a lot of chilcanos. It was a wonderful way to end the semester here, and I am happy we all got to be together one last time. Thursday evening we met up with one of our professors to eat sushi at our favorite restaurant one last time before saying goodbye for good.

Over the weekend I went out with Gio and his friends one evening and drank my first IPA beer (my family should be so proud). We were celebrating a friend's birthday so it was fun even though I could barely hear any of the Spanish being flung my way. I also skyped a few people back home and hung out with Gios niece and nephew, who are adorable. The next night Gio and I went on a date to a cute little Italian restaurant and I ate the best lasagna I've ever had. He drove Marki and I to the airport at 4 the next morning and we met Danielle there, who had slept through her alarm!! Luckily we all made it on our flight and the adrenaline of Danielle being late woke me right up.

The first day in Arequipa we walked around, shopped, and took a tour of the city on a bus for a few hours. We were all exhausted all day since we slept less than 4 hours the night before, but we enjoyed our relaxing first day. Our hostel was pretty nice except we had to share our room with a 50 year old man. He slept in the bunk underneath me. Needless to say hostels are interesting. We went to bed at 9 and passed out with the lights on since our roomie was working on his laptop.

The next morning we got up and went to walk around and shop some more. We went to Cruz Del Sur to ride for 5 hours to Puno, which is where Lake Titicaca (the tallest lake in the world) is located. We got to our new hostel and froze to death all night. I did not bring warm enough clothes on this trip. We got up the next morning and went out on a boat tour for the day. We got to visit floating islands which the families had made by combining roots from the water rod plants, covering the roots with the rods, and then building their houses on top over the time period of about a year and a half. The islands are staked down to the bottom of the lake. Why someone would want to spend the time making a floating island is beyond me, let alone live with the same 12 people for your entire life. Sounds horrible. But it was really neat to see. We got to try the rods, which tasted like celery and ride on a cute boat that they had made. We then rode to a big island and hiked up to the top where we got a gorgeous view of the lake. We ate a spectacular meal there and then hiked back down to return home. Us girls laid on the top of the boat for a while to soak up the sun until we got cold.

To sum up the rest of the trip, we went back to Arequipa and went to Colca Canyon, which is the second deepest canyon in the world. We had to wake up at 2:30 in the morning to get on the bus so we were tired as usual. We watched condors (huge Peruvian birds) flying in the canyon and got to try some fruit that is only grown in that area. It was a really great tour and was an awesome way to end our time in Peru.

Now comes the fun part of wrapping up my entire experience in Peru. I came up with my own little quote while contemplating life on one of the bus rides this week (original, I know). It goes:

The paradox of traveling is that you leave a little piece of your heart with the people and the places you come to love. But you find that they fill your heart a little more than the pieces you leave behind to make your heart fuller and more beautiful than when you began.

This is something that I have learned to be true in the past 4 months. Relationships have formed and strengthened, I have fallen in love with places all over Peru, and I feel as though I am leaving a part of myself behind with all of these people and places. But as I reflect upon my return to the U.S., I realize that my heart is so much fuller than when I left. I have learned so much about myself, another culture, other people, and life in general. I am happy every moment of every day because I see how incredible the world is and how much I have left to see and do in my life. I have been rejuvenated and given so much energy and passion. My only concern is that I won't be able to do all of the things my heart is now set on.

This trip has changed me in so many ways and given me many skills that will be useful in the future. I have a million memories that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Even though this journey is coming to an end, I am excited to see what the future holds. I'm already planning exciting things when I graduate next May :). I will hold on to the excitement and challenges of this journey and continue to pursue more adventure no matter where I am.

I have so many people to thank for making this trip the greatest experience of my life. Thank you to my family back home who supported me and let me move away from them for so long, it was hard on all of us. Thank you to the teachers who gladly put up with us for 4 months and taught me more Spanish than I have learned in the past 4 years combined. Thank you to Barb and Stephen (aka Starbara) for being amazing chaperones and fill-in parents. Thank you to the Nebraska girls who made the trip so memorable and became some of my closest friends. I know you girls will continue to be a part of my life, and I can't wait till we have our Perunions. Thank you to my host family who provided me with more than I needed and helped me feel comfortable in a foreign country. Thank you to my Peruvian friends who showed me what life is really like in Peru. And a special thanks to Giovanni who willingly spent the past few months with a crazy American girl and forced me to act more Peruvian and learn how to navigate the city. You are amazing, and I know our relationship will last. You will be missed so much, but I am counting on you to make me continue practicing my Spanish when I am home (please Skype me and make me speak Spanish).

Thank you to those I love in Peru for opening your arms to this Nebraska girl. Don't forget about me, I'll be back before you know it.

Chau mis amigos, se extrañaré muchisimo. Hasta luego, besos.

The Amazon. One of the most incredible parts of the world in my opinion. Filled with trees, plants, animals, and unfortunately bugs. Wednesday evening after class some of us girls got on a plane to Iquitos, which is a city in the Amazon. We got to the airport about 40 minutes before our flight left so we ran to check in, and then I ran to order us all cheeseburgers at McDonald's. I got the food 20 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave so I ran through the airport with a bag of cheeseburgers in hand and went through security as fast as possible. I'm sure I got a lot of stares but I was too busy freaking out to notice. When we got to our gate we found that our plane was running late as usual in Lima. I don't know why we ever stressed out that we would miss it, you'd think that we would learn by now that nothing is ever on time here. We stood around for 30 minutes and finally boarded. It took an hour and a half to get there. When we stepped off the plane I could feel the humidity and heat envelop my body. It felt so heavy and claustrophobic and made me wonder how the next 3 days would play out.

We had a taxi waiting for us and they took us to our hostel. The lady who owned it hadn't reserved our rooms for us, so she helped us find another hostel to stay in (which was good because it was after midnight and we were getting angry and sleepy). It was a very nice place with AIR CONDITIONING!!!! Needless to say Abby and I blasted our AC all night. But it got too cold in our room and I kept waking up because I was freezing. But I was too lazy to get up and turn it off so I slept with my arms in my T-shirt and cuddled against Abby without shame. I did not sleep well.

The next morning we went to breakfast and then got picked up by our tour guide. This is where I officially went off the grid for 3 days with no wifi and very questionable cellphone service. We drove about 20 minutes to the Amazon river. We saw big grubs that were fried and for sale. I wanted to throw up just thinking about trying to eat one. We walked across some sketchy bridges made of planks laid on top of each other to our little boat, which took us down the Amazon river for a little over an hour. We stopped at one place and saw giant Lilly pads, Cayman, and paiche fish. It was an incredible start to our journey.

We arrived at our Lodge which consisted of a big cabin with leaves for the roof. There was a wall that divided it in half with three beds and a bathroom on each side. There was no mirror, toilet seat, door lock, or fan. The outside walls were made of screen to allow the humidity to try to fit through and attack us while we slept. I took a nice hour long nap and then we had lunch, which was served buffet style. We had chicken, rice, veggies, potatoes, and even got to try some parana, which didn't taste very fishy but was hard to eat because it looked exactly like a parana. We then hung out in the hammock room until the tour began.

We started out by going to Monkey Island by boat. Right when we got there a monkey jumped on board and sat in our tour guide's lap, unscrewed the lid of his water, and started drinking it. We all piled off and walked into my dreamland. I never thought that I would get to hold wild monkeys in my entire life. There were about 5 monkeys that would run and jump into your arms or jump onto your back from the trees. The monkeys are wild and allowed to go wherever they want, but they always come back for food and companionship. It was seriously amazing. Monkeys are better than kids because it is almost impossible to hurt them, even if you drop them. They ran around like crazy and climbed up our arms and jumped from girl to girl. I put sugar in my hand and let one of them lick it off, which was adorable. They got dirt and sugar all over me, and one of them bit my neck really hard but I didn't care at all. I also got to hold a parrot, a toucan, and an anaconda!! It was crazy to watch the tour guides wrangle the huge snake from his water hole and grab his neck so he couldn't bite us. He was super heavy and it was awesome to get to hold that beast. Before we left, I got to hold one of the monkeys like a baby for about 10 minutes and tickled his belly while he wiggled around and laughed his little monkey giggles. He was so playful and kept biting my hand and grabbing it with his hands. Two little monkeys also jumped out of the tree while playing and fell right into my arms.

After tearing ourselves away from the monkeys, we rode in our boat and got to watch pink dolphins swimming in the Amazon river. We tutted around looking for sloths in the trees but never found one. It was really gorgeous and not so hot on the boat, and it was a great way to see the nature surrounding us. We came back to our lodge and put on some boots and ponchos and went out for a night time walk. We used headlamps to walk through the jungle and saw frogs, huge ants, rats, giant spiders, butterflies, and the most beautiful plants and trees that you can imagine. We took ice cold showers afterwards and then ate some dinner. We only had power from 6-9 PM every day so we used that time to charge our phones and shower while we had light. We asked for mosquito nets to be put up around our beds, which made me feel sooooo much better. At 8:55 the lights went out and we knew it was time to sleep. (It's not like we had anything else to do without light, electricity, or wifi.)

Beore the tears began.

The next morning we got up at 5:45 and hopped on the boat at 6. We went out and fished for parana!!! We used beef as bait and long sticks for poles. I was lucky enough to catch one but Shelby was even luckier and caught 6. After fishing for an hour or so we took the boat through a small branch of the river and found a snake in a tree and a tarantula on a leaf. So of course our tour guide got the tarantula for us and had us hold it. I have an irrational fear of spiders so this was the scariest thing I've ever done. It crawled on my hand for a few seconds and then jumped down to my leg. I screamed like I was dying and shook it off and jumped into Danielle's lap. My legs started shaking and I had actual tears running down my face from fear. Our boat driver patted my back and smiled when he walked by, which was adorable. It was horrible but fun at the same time. I have grown to enjoy doing things that scare me while I've been here. Our guide then crawled up the tree where the snake was to catch it, but it managed to get away. I would have preferred to hold the snake rather than the tarantula. Maybe I wouldn't have cried then....

We took the boat a little farther to a little village and right when we landed a little boy casually gave me his sloth. The sloth was sooo cute and cuddled right into me. She dug those claws in too and probably drew blood from my side. I also got to hold a little baby alligator that his sister gave us. After holding the sloth for a long time, our guide finally started to make us breakfast. We were starving. We had parana, eggs, papaya, and bread, which was all delicious. After breakfast we trucked back to our lodge for 2 hours and then laid around in the hammock room until lunch. After lunch we went back to Monkey Island and held more monkeys and another sloth! I got a popsicle and all of the monkeys started climbing all over me trying to grab it out of my hand. I managed to keep it away from them, but I let them lick my fingers afterwards. We went out in the boat later and got to swim in the Amazon for a while and saw some pink dolphins nearby. It was scary knowing that there were paranas, sting rays, electric eels, and gigantic anacondas swimming in the same water. But we all made it out alive!!

We tried some Fire Water that our tour guide had made with our dinner. It is sugar cane rum, a splash of coke, and a splash of lemon juice. It was very strong and too sweet for my liking. After dinner we went on a night boat ride to try to see more wildlife. We saw lots of bats, a rat, and got to hold a tree frog we named Choncho (pig) on our backs and head the whole trip. It was very relaxing except for the constant swarm of mosquitoes.

The next morning we got up at 4:30 to go watch the sunrise. Unfortunately it was too cloudy to see it but it was still nice to be floating on the river as it got lighter and lighter out. We came back and took the best nap I've ever taken. It was raining pretty hard so the white noise and lack of sleep allowed me to fall asleep immediately. We ate breakfast and then went to a little village where the locals dressed in traditional clothes and danced with us and let us try out a dart gun! We then came back, showered, rested, packed, ate lunch, and then headed back to Iquitos. The jungle was amazing but I was ready to be away from the bugs. I had even had some dreams about bugs so I knew it was time to get back to civilization before I went crazy from paranoia.

We left around 2 to go back to Iquitos. The boat ride was very relaxing and when we got there it was hard to say goodbye to the old man who had been driving our boat all week. He gave us all a kiss on the cheek and I almost teared up because he was the cutest and sweetest little old man. (My obsession with old people is the reason I will be going into geriatric PT when I get back to the States). We went to our hostel and dropped off our stuff before going and finding a Mexican restaurant. I ordered some camu camu juice and paiche fish, which is the largest fresh water fish in the world (and is the fish we saw on our first day). Everything was absolutely delicious. We all felt drunk the entire evening, I'm guessing from lack of sleep and being dehydrated. It was annoying because I couldn't concentrate on anything and I couldn't make the feeling stop! After dinner we walked back to our hostel and men kept telling us we were beautiful. At this point I hadn't seen myself in a mirror or applied makeup in 3 days. I guess it goes to show that someone thinks you're gorgeous, even on your ugliest days. I went to bed at 8 and slept like a baby when I finally fell asleep. 3 a.m. came around too fast and we had the pleasure of running through the down pouring rain. I was completely soaked by the time we we were checking in at the airport, but I was just happy to be leaving and going back to Lima where there aren't bugs or rain or so much humidity.

I am now safely back in Lima and it feels very good to be home!! It was an amazing trip to the Amazon, and definitely an experience I will never forget. With the start of a new week I am now that much closer to coming back to Nebraska. I have so many emotions that it is difficult to explain, but I am getting more and more excited to see all of you soon. My request for my first meal at home is cheeseburgers, dill pickles, beans, and Mike's hard lemonades. Preferable black cherry flavor. And strawberry cake with homemade ice cream. I hope mom and dad are getting the hint....

Thanks for reading this novel of a blog!

Sending love and kisses!!!