I can think of 25 ways I would prefer to spend these next 25 hours.

We got back to Puno on Tuesday evening, and from there took a bus to Lima...are you ready for this one? A 25 hour bus ride. What, what. If you can imagine the grossest bus ride through the middle of no where, it would probably be half as gnarly as our trip. I think the bus ride actually enhanced our experience though (seriously.) For one, it was mind-blowing to see the kind of poverty that people live in. The majority of the bus ride that I was awake for was through the desert, with literally nothing but sand for miles. Then all of a sudden there would be a collection of pueblos that were all dusty and dirty, but people still lived there. And there was nothing. I am so thankful for my house back home, and hot showers, and just water in general. You don’t realize how lucky we have it until everything is taken away. In reality, not much was even taken away from me, because I could still afford to buy clean water and at least try to find hot showers (which were more or less non existent).

You can only imagine how excited life was when we got off that bus. Anywhere would have been better then inside it, but things were so much more awesome because we were in Lima, the capital of Peru which is on its coast. When we were in Cuzco we met an Aussie who gave us good vibes and recommended a hostel in Lima, so we headed over to it…and I am 100% sure this guy was a God-send. For the first time we were in Peru, we were at a place that was clean and had running, hot water. Basically, this hostel was the shit. It had really good food, super cool people working there, bomb drink specials. We were in heaven.

Nothing went down Wednesday night because we were all strangely tired after the bus ride. After dinner, we treated ourselves to ice cream, and ended on the open porch of the hostel, attempting to play drinking games, but failing miserably for lack of motivation.

Thursday we walked around the city and just relaxed. I was basically just thrilled to be clean. It was an easy-going day, the highlights were basically just eating. Low point.

On Friday, things were still pretty slow. Jackie, Anna, Austin and I went paragliding which is basically the calmest adventure sport I have ever done, especially after all the hardcore activities we have been up to these past few weeks. You are connected to this huge kite-type contraption with a guide who navigates the wind; it’s a wonderful way to check out the city and look over the ocean and I would definitely recommend it to all types of people. Even if you have heart conditions. It’s that calm.

Afterwards, we went down to the beach and dipped in the water…which was pretty dirty. Haha, there were pieces of trash, and probably hair…body parts, I don’t know, but we survived and crawled out only to lie on the rocks and nap under the sun. As we headed back to the hostel to hang out for a little bit, we ate sushi and I tried ceviche for the first time. Ceviche is a dish of I think just raw fish, as dangerous as you may think the dish was delicious, and no one got sick of it. A little more shopping, then back to the hostel to pick up our bags and then we were off to the airport. Our plane back to Santiago late Friday night and I was SUPER bummed to leave. Peru was such the adventure of a lifetime <3

on the beach in lima..


walking through the city


jackie, me, anna, and lena

Lago Titicaca and third world fun

Sunday night was all about transportation. We took a train from Aguas Calientes to a place called Ollantaytambo, at which we got picked up and taken to Cuzco. From there we took a 9 hour bus ride (the equivalent of $3 USD) to Puno. How did I know I was roaming around in a third world country? When we got woken up at 4:30 in the morning randomly to connect to another bus. It was a shitshow; the 6 of us were running around between two buses with our huge backpacks alongside all these women with their kids meanwhile there were randomly a bunch of bicyclists who try to take you around like a taxi. UGH. But in the end, we found ourselves in Bus #2 with all our things, and all of our people, and without too many problems.

Puno probably has some perks to it, but we didn’t see it because our next stop was Lago Titicaca. (The name is funny really only until you get there, and then you realize, damn I have been so immature up until this point). The Lake shares a border between Bolivia and Peru and has the highest altitude in the world. Just taking a boat on the lake is equivalent to the height of most mountains. Wonderful, yes, except if you have lived at sea level your entire life and get altitude sickness that constitutes not eating and surviving only through sleeping. No big deal. I’ve had worse problems, and the best part about it was I could wake up and look onto a beautiful lake view.

Anyways, our stay on the lake was over the course of 2 days-Monday and Tuesday. On Monday we boated to 3 islands, the first two I missed because I got SUPER sick from the change in altitude. But my friends who were on the island for the tour had a little dress-up session and got to try on traditional clothes from the island while singing and dancing. Throughout the tour, we got a taste of the culture there which included a traditional round of breakfast/lunch/dinner foods, a hike up one of the mountains to get a picturesque view of the lake, and a festival. All in all it was a good time. I’m sorry I can’t give you details. Basically this part of the trip=sleeping for me. I can tell you however that the view was absolutely gorgeous, and while I have never been to Greece I imagine the views are something similar.

the Lake (I had to steal this pic from a friend because I never made it up to this view!)


Anna and I with our host mom for the night, and some random little boy from the island


this was some of the cultural and dressing up going down on the island..
(joe, anna, lena, austin, and jackie)


Lena and I after lunch on the second day

Machu Pichu

Machu Pichu=bomb.com. Simply put, words and pictures together barely do the ruins any justice. After 3 hardcore hours of sleep the night before, we awoke to a free little hostel breakfast and got in line to take the buses up to the ruins sight (which are in the mountains…which is part of the reason the whole idea of Machu Pichu blows my mind—that a civilization could basically just pick a place in the middle of no where and make it one of the most reknown places in the world. Rep the Incans.) If you don’t know, Machu Pichu was actually discovered relatively recently, and part of the mystery of the ruins is the fact that historians/archeologists don’t actually know the reason behind the place. Mainly there is just speculation about what it COULD have been. Whatever it was, it still takes your breath away.

Being that we were one of the first 400 visitors (it gets thousands on any given day), we were able to also climb Waynapicchu. Almost 9000 feet of sweat and haggardness has never been so rewarding. And here we thought little Ms. Rockville, MD would willingly spend her time climbing a mountain.

Random side fact: the mosquitos at Machu Pichu make you want to scratch your legs off. Thank you nature. It is a week later and I still have nasty remnants from those little suckers. The craziest part though? I wasn’t even the one who suffered from the most bites. My friend Jackie literally had/has hundreds of bites all over her legs. She has some amazing willpower though, because while I couldn’t resist scratching she kept her hands off to let things heal. Good work Jackie.

climbing up Waynapicchu...


my friend Joe heading up one of the parts of the trek...


Machu Pichu!




up on top...

Sacred Valley Saturday

On Saturday, we went on a private tour of the Sacred Valley ruins…a compilation of different ruins dating back to pre-Columbian cultures thousands of years ago. Each has its own distinct identity and it seemed odd to me that one could just sit and become lost in thought on a rock just looking at the wonders around them. We were hiking through nothing much, and so much all at the same time. And even with hundreds of people around us, it felt so quite. And peaceful. Oh, I love Peru <3


we visited a llama/alpaca farm on our tour






if you were wondering, yes that is a baby lamb.





Saturday night, we took a train to Aguas Calientes, probably the weirdest town in the world, in preparation for Machu Picchu.

What's good with Spring Break 09?

As you all know, last week was my spring break and so I headed up to Peru for 10 days. It was epic. There is really no way to explain with words or pictures my experience, but I am certainly going to try. Just to make things easier on myself, I am going to break it down into sections based on where I was and what I did.

The experience began on Thursday, October 22, 2009 when I flew to Lima from Santiago, with a randomly large group of people from the USAC program, but while we all flew there together, we did not stay together. The actual flight wasn’t that long, but there was a two hour time change, which never fails to throw me off. We got into Lima about 12 at night, but my little group of 6 took a connecting flight to Cuzco, that didn’t actually connect until 5 in the morning. What does this mean? We slept in the airport. I know you are jealous, so I won’t brag by going into details. What I can tell you though, is that way too many lunchin characters hang out in the airport.

We got to Cuzco on Friday morning, and after being bombarded by taxi drivers we chose a good looking fellow and got dropped off somewhere. Basically, we wanted to go to one specific hostel recommended by Lonely Planet, but it was obvi full. So we walked around, found ourselves in a plaza with all sorts of Peruvians coming up to ask us if we needed a place to stay. My friends decided on a place, and as sketchy and third world as it was, I agreed. Let’s say I had to bite my tongue on this one. But in the end, it didn’t up being as bad as I feared.

After taking a monster recovery nap, we walked around the tourist-y Cuzco and figured out our plans for the rest of the weekend. After a coffee shop break, and din din, we came across a street festival of sorts. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell you what exactly the celebration was for, but it certainly entailed the stereotypical South American idea of crazy costumes, dancing and music.


working the streets of Cuzco :) minus Lena, who is probably taking this picture


Cuzco at night


obviously people dressed up like birds.


creepy man, there was a bunch them who did this coordinated dance. it was like a nightmare on acid.

spring break :)

ladies and gentleman: i am off to peru tomorrow until halloween. it should be a phenominal experience. ill write about my adventures when i get back! besos <3

my life is hardcore.

Last Thursday, a group of 4 other girls and I left for Pucon via a night bus. Pucon is a city about 9 hours south of Santiago and is made up of several volcanoes. The original plan was to go climb a volcano, but because it was rainy for a good part of the weekend, conditions were not safe. No worries, though, because we found plenty of other crazy activities to get ourselves into. We arrived at around 9AM, and walked around for a little bit looking for a hostel. Once we found ourselves situated, we did a little bit of research for the activities that didn't start super early (a.k.a 7 in the morning), and discoverd a rafting company. But why go rafting, when you can go hydrospeeding? What is hydrospeeding, you ask? Well, first of all, we were told it is a sport illegal in the States, awesome. I wonder why? Because hydrospeeding consists of riding out class 3/4 rapids on a little boat that is more of a boogie board that anything else. Let's talk about one of the most intense experiences of my life: The rapids will flip you over and literally you have to flip yourself back around or else you risk drowning. Wonderful, of course you have full gear on (helmet, wet suit, life jacket...the works). However, the waves were a little too rough at one point and the board wacked me in the face, leaving me with a bloody nose and a busted lip...



those are the little boats we each rested our lives upon :)


the girls!


this was where the rapids started, but they do not give us nearly enough credit!


(sexy, i know)

my friend lena got a nice black eye as her battle wound


this last picture brings me to day 2 of my Pucon experiance. while it was too rainy to go on some of the adventures we had originally planned on, we got a chance to drink wine and relax in some of the hot springs.









chile played columbia in preliminaries for the world cup, and won!! so we HAD to go out and celebrate like everyone else and their mother. it was a crazy night, but not crazy enough to miss out on canyoneering en dia 3. this is another outdoor activity that is similar to hiking on steroids. its more than just hiking, with full gear, you hike, slide down natural rock slides, jump into rivers...


i think we look pretty hardcore haha


sliding down a natural rock slide




my friend brit


chillin on a waterfall



we extended our stay one day longer to rent bikes and tour the town and the surrounding areas. we packed a picnic and the mood was set. ohh, how romantic.