"Al sur" Heading South (Summer 2009)

The Case of "Misty" the Missing Dog and Other Arequipa Adventures

2009-07-06T18:17:00.000-07:00

Arriving in Arequipa from Puno is always a blessing. Puno is a cold, high, somewhat dark city, whereas Arequipa is a beacon of good food, warmth, and things to do. The air is warm, the altitude is low (which means we aren't sick), and there is even a Dominos. The past few days have been full of adventure and exploration.

One of my favorite adventures in Peru thus far has actually been a visit to an art museum/monastery that was only recently opened to the public because of its need for restoration. The convent, “Santa Teresa,” might have been one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Our tour lasted 3 hours as we examined old art that had been donated and learned about how the monastery had been founded.

I was most fascinated by the lifestyles of the nuns who live there today. There are 21 full nuns, 4 “pre-nuns” (please excuse my lack of catholic vocab), and 1 student. The “pre-nuns” and the student are not yet committed to a life inside. They each spend periods of time at the convent and then are sent home to pray about their decision. The more questions we asked, the less we learned about the art and the more we learned about the daily drama at Santa Teresa.

Apparently, for the past three years the nuns have had a dog by the name of Misty. Since Misty grew up inside the walls of the convent, they (jokingly) consider him a member, and very integral part, of the church.

Three days ago, Misty walked right out of the convent and down the road.

In his entire life, he had never left the walls of Santa Teresa, but Friday Misty decided to take an afternoon constitutional and never returned. According to our guide, the nuns are less than pleased. They are threatening to close the museum if the management cannot find the dog. From what I hear, a search ensued, and a few leads (hehe) were found.

Someone reported that another museum guard found Misty and took him home for the weekend. Others saw Misty dodge traffic on a busy highway appearing as if he was heading towards the market.

Something to keep in mind: Misty is a hairless dog. People know Misty when they see him.

We continued with the tour, but were saddened to see Misty's little dog house and empty bowl. I hear the nuns are praying for his safe return.

For it is better to lack running water than things to do: PUNO

2009-07-06T18:01:00.000-07:00

We went to Puno. There is ABSOLUTELY nothing to do in Puno. “There is more to do in Cusini (which lacks running water) than there is to do in Puno,” says Amos. I think he's right

(click the image above for a 360 (ish) tour of the Cusini school)

Below you'll find photos from Cusini, a small village (waaaay) outside of Puno that the government has given laptops. We spent two days trying to repair the machines and give surveys to asses whether or not the computers are benefiting the students.

All photography is compliments of Amos Espeland -”The One Photographer”

The Day I Rode Many Things

2009-07-05T15:58:00.000-07:00

I write this from Arequipa, with sincerest apologies for my extended absence. I've been traveling like crazy and barely have time to turn this computer on, let alone write anything.

I did celebrate a birthday a few days ago and to ring in my 21st, we decided to take to things of high adventure in the grand city of Cusco. Picture this Sunday morning:

9am: Picked up by sketchy taxi and taken to “ranch.”
9:30am: Realize that “ranch” translates to field of horses.
9:35am: Realize that “guide” means cute old Peruivan who doesn't care a bit about ruins
9:45am: Are dropped off and sent walking to find the temple
9:48am: Have found a cave (left) that may or may not be the temple
10am: Decide that we don't care about the ruins either
10:01am: Communicate that we don't care about ruins and gallop through fields (with the provided helmets)

11am: Realize the taxi driver has abandoned us (and taken my Snickers bar!) and start walking towards the main road. We caught a taxi back to town and had a great lunch!
11am-1:30pm: LUNCH/shower

2pm: Arrive at ATV office and climb in sketchy taxi #2
2pm-7pm: Dusty, dusty, dusty ATV riding.

Riding ATVs is a sometimes challenging affair even in the US. Paths are sometimes not clear, machines sometimes break, and vision can be a bit misconstrued. Now I want you to imagine a line of 14 ATVs driving down a road. Not just any road, but a big road with cars and taxis and buses. Peruvian traffic is not the most predictable of situations and so I was a bit shocked as we took to the highway. Not to fear though, we were just changing trails.

Peru, in the winter is dusty. No, no, you don't understand. DUSTY. There isn't any rain and the dust is absolutely everywhere. In fact, the ATV trail is made of dust and as I close my helmet over my eyes (see Mom, helmet!), I wonder exactly how dusty I'm actually going to get.

The answer is REALLY DUSTY (see below). Our group of 14 spends four hours riding ATV trails, crossing small rivers, and jumping things. At one point, we got stuck behind a cow crossing and spent considerable time waiting for all the cows to get across the small path. Seven of the fourteen riders made it before the cows decided (of course) that the grass was greener on the other side of the path. So we waited another 10 minutes for them to make their way back across.

Returning to the base, there was a nice gentleman with a hose. One by one we went up and he used air to blow the dust off our clothes, bags, hair, etc. I went last. The guy looked at me and started laughing. So did Amos. He gave me a few puffs of air and shrugged his shoulders. There was little he could do to help me. I was a mess.

Familia de Lima: Family in Lima

2009-06-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

I spent three excellent days in the great city of Lima. I didn't go to a single museum, had only a few cultural experiences, and found an excellent hotel costing only $35/night. Nonetheless, my arrival was certainly not boring. Upon entering the terminal someone did attempt to sell me Machu Piccu (in its entirety) for only a few thousand dollars. We then found a taxi driver who told us our hotel “wasn't very nice” and tried to take us to a different one. By 7am Sunday morning I was happily napping in a fairly clean room featuring cable AND hot water. Lucky me.

Now on Monday morning, things got a little interesting. I had sent word a few days back to the our contacts in the Ministry of Education that we would be coming into town in the near future. I don't think that message was ever received because when arrived at the office everyone was very surprised to see us. Including the boss. Amos and I might have been two of the biggest surprises the Technology office has ever received. But not to worry, the ministry had surprises for us as well.

Apparently, a delegation of Mexican officials was currently visiting Peru and deciding whether or not to purchase laptops. As soon as we arrived we were shuttled right into the fiesta, sitting in 4 hour meeting and going to great dinners with the Peruvian and Mexican officials. We ate one night at a restaurant that had Inca ruins built right into it (imagine that). After four hours of appetizers, drinks, dinners, deserts, ruin tours, and speaking in Spanish, I was so exhausted I had to excuse myself.

I do have to say that the nicest thing about being in Lima is having friends (more like family) there. Maria (one of the women who works in the office) adopted us last year and was absolutely thrilled to see her ninos americanos (American children) even if our arrival was a bit of a surprise. She was kind enough to take us to Pizza Hut, explain recent happenings in Peru that we didn't understand, and make sure we had a concrete plan for the next few weeks.

Oscar, the head of the office (also the one who hosted me last year) was quite excited to see us once again. He and his wife went out to a fantastic Italian restaurant with us and caught up on everything we had missed over the past year.

Leaving the foggy Lima is always a joy, especially when the arrival destination is Cusco. I sit in my favorite Peruvian city now. I would write more, but my quite cafe just got interrupted by a windpipe cultural experience. The music sounds faintly like the song of the ancient potato flower and I'm afraid that this song has no distinct stopping point. To this end, I'm going shopping for some sandals. Amos and I are going river rafting tomorrow.

The Trials of Travel: Getting there

2009-06-21T16:58:00.000-07:00

There is something I'm afraid I will have to admit in my first post of the summer. I absolutely hate the “travel” part of traveling. Hate it. I hate being lost or delayed in ways that strong vocabulary and exclamation points cannot even begin to express.

Now, don't get me wrong, once in my new locale, I love seeing things, meeting people, having cultural experiences, and riding horses through the mountains. But thing having to do with planes (cough, cough delayed departures) and lost luggage, I would happily delegate to someone (anyone) else.

Each summer's travel has led me down a different path of adventures involving the airline industry. Picture this:

I am 16 years old returning from Spain by myself for the first time. I have booked my tickets through a travel agent in the hopes of avoiding any of the issues that international travel usually entails. The plane out of Madrid is boarded 20 passengers at a time (a 600 person flight I might add). All of us are shuttled out to the runway where we (and I kid you not) walk up the stairs of the 757. Alas, my layover time was then too short to make it through customs. I left customs and immediately got in the “rebooking” line. One hour later, I had a new ticket and the got in the “I need to check my bags” line. One hour after that I had missed my second flight of the day. I got to the front of the line the second time and made the best move any desperate underage traveler can make.

I cried. No, actually, I balled. I wept so hard the entire Continental staff was paying attention to me. I was rushed through the “rebooking” line, was able to skip the “I need to check my bags” line, given a stall of my own in “security” line, and personally driven to my gate. Now that's service.

I write to you now from a nice runway in Washington DC. Some combuster-thingy on our plane doesn't work and boy do I wish it did. I'm already stressing about missing our flight in Miami and hoping my baggage doesn't become the new wardrobe of some hustler in Lima.

I might be paranoid?

Nonetheless, I'm scheduled to arrive in Lima tomorrow (Sunday) at 4:45 am-- (yes that's a terrible time to arrive in Lima). I will make a decent attempt to play the infamous “hotel game” and then hopefully meet some friends for dinner. Then we spend a few days in Lima before hitting the road in Peru. The summer itinerary is (very, very, VERY, tentatively) as follows:

6/20-6/28 (or 6/20-6/31ish)- Peru
6/29: MY BIRTHDAY!
6/28ish-7/10ish- Chile
7/10ish-7/20ish- Argentina
7/20: Erin arrives in Argentina
7/22-8/18- Uruguay

So welcome back to those of you who followed along last year, and welcome aboard to all the new folks. I hope that my experiences over the next 8 weeks will be as entertaining for you to read about as they will be for me to experience. I vow to exclude the gory details (that's for you, Mom), to be as amusing as possible (that's for everyone who isn't my mother), and to rarely provide you with a 25 page list of all the things I did during the day. Cross your fingers that my flight down south doesn't crash into some ancient Incan ruins and I'll write again from Lima.