big city: LIMA

We stayed in Lima for two nights after Huanachina. We didn't get to explore the city to much. however, we were about to get to the beach couple times and walk around the neighborhood we were staying at in mirasflores ( a safer neighbor outside the center of Lima). On Friday night we celebrated Wilders birthday . Maija and I splurged on a yummy chocolate cake for him! On Saturday we hung out at the beach all day and by got on the bus but to Trujillo (a coastal town in the north about 8 hours away from Lima). From Trujillo We got a quick taxi to Haunchaco, which is a small surf town where we will be staying for the rest of our time in Peru ( April 8th I fly out of Lima to Guatemala). I was also SO delighted to find out that my body had been attacked my sand fleas while I was in the dunes in Huanachina and am growing itchier everyday!!

Huanachina

when  Maija and I got bak to Cusco she found out that she only had $ 100 left in here bank account. As a consiquence she was not able to to take the the  2 weeks of spanish classes she was anticipapateing to attend  cusco. Instead she got the money back from the school and  we decided that we were going to go meet the boys, (wilder and tom) in a small town call huanachina near the city of Ica in the north west of Cusco. It was a 15 hour bus ride over night to Ica through nuasiating twists and turns between the mountains. When we finally got to Huanachina we checked into the first hostal we could find. there was a pool, hot showers, and many travelers about the same age as us but there was a little bit of a wierd vibe going on... when we hooked up with the boys later on in the day they told us that there travel book had said that our hostel was known for  their scamy staff and young women often get hit on and taken advantage of so we check out asap and moved into a calm rustic hostal around the corner with wilder and tom. in the evening we hiked up the sand dunes and atempted to sand board but we ended up sitting on the board and riding it back down into town. The next day we went back to Ica hopped on the first the first bus to lima...

One Week End

Last weekend I decided to go and visit wilder and tom in the small towm of Ollantetambo, where they had been living for the past week. After school on Friday I collected all the information I needed to get to the bus station, how long it would take, how much it would cost from my teacher and my host family. I packed my bags and all i needed to do was call the boys and tell them that i was comming...
I got to the bus station and at soon as I stepped through the gateway, a man from the station ran up to me and said Ollantetambo?? Ollantetambo?? i said yes, and asked him when the bus was going to leave he said (in spanish) RIGHT NOW! And he hearded me onto the bus. It was a beatiful 2 hour ride through the country but I had never had time to call the boys and tell them I was comming so I was just hoping that they were still there and that I could find them!
As soon as I go off the bus I went to buy a phone card and went to the nearest public phone. Just as I was about to dail I saw both of them walking though the center of town! perfect timing!!
They said I was lucky to have seen them because they had just got back from an all day hike. They also told me they had plans to leave for machu piccu the next day early in the monring. So my plans quickly turned into going to machu piccu the next morning.

We stayed in their hostel over night and cooked for the first time since I´ve been here. We made a delicious stir fry for all of us for about 7 dollars!

In the morning we got on a bus to St. maria the bus ride took about 5 hours including an hour wait at a little pull away off the road where something with our engine broke.. nobody really knew what happened..luckily there was food.
When we go to St. Maria we hopped directly into a taxi headed for st.Theresa were we planned on drivng to this hydro electrical plant and walk along the train track all the way to Aguas Callientes( the town right beling machu piccu). Another man on our bus to St. Maria was doing the same thing so he came with us in our taxi. His name was... well none of us could understand his name but we called him jaime emongst ourselves, he was from brazil and was doing something with a video camera in machu piccu, again we did really understand allot of what he said, he had a inersting brazilian accent.

The taxi ride was another 2 and a half hours through the mountains and when we go to the hydro electrical plant there was a bunch of places to eat all along the beging on the rail road tracks.


The walk was one of the most amazing thing for me about our trip, it was pretty much jungle terrain and the river on one side of us, beautiful trees, waterfalls, flowers and birds! At about an hour into our walk it began to rain, and then down pour! We found a little shack thing where we were going to stay until the rain stopped but it didn´t stop and some one had pooped right near where we were standing so we didn´t stay there to long. None of us had brought rain jackets and we all we completely soaked! We used the huge leaves from the banana trees to cover our head and back packs but nothing seem to stop us for becoming one with the rain...
Another 2 hours walking in the rain and we finally go to Aguas Callinetes. At around 5 or 6 p.m. making our whole day a 10 hour excursion. my feet just began to be a little sore just as we stepped onto the pavement of our final destination.
We found a hostel to stay at for the night but when I went to take a shower, there was no hot water! When I was done with my freezing cold shower I had no towel! I ended up using my sheet from my bed to dry my self off with and when I was done drying off, I had nothing dry to put on!!SUCH A DISASTER! Since wilder was the ¨Dryest¨ one of us he went out for some food and beverageS and we stayed in our hotel playing cards and eating take out all night. In the morning although he hung up our clothes to dry, they had not dryed. We put on out still soaking wet clothers and head miserablly for the bus station. We got on the bus for machu piccu without any breakfast, luckily I had a peice of soggy bread from the morning before to much on...

We went up, up, UP the winding road to machu piccu and when we finally arrived there was definetally a site to be seen. It was about 9 in the morning and there was allot of people there but still just enough so that I could take pictures with out tons of people in the shot!The first thing we did was hike up to mount. Wayanpiccu because we knew that they only let 400 people up a day. The hike was the hardest hike EVER ! probabaly the biggest most steep mountain I have ever climbed int my life! with 30 percent less oxegen than I´m used to I had to stop and breathe ever three minutes. But, of course the top was ever so worth it!
Machu piccu was beautiful and incredible to have visited but my favorite part of the trip still remains to be the walk on the railroad tracks. And surprisingly, the horriible hike up wayanpiccu!
We took the bus back to Aguas calientes and payed a little more money for the train back to Ollantetembo. we were so tried from the hike that morning and from all the walking the day before. the train took 2 hours. after one more night at the hostel in Ollantetambo it was back to cusco and back to school!

Escuela

This week I started Spanish lessons at AMIGOS Spanish School in cusco. It´s almost everything I hoped for except that there are not other student my age...
I enrolled in a group session but the one other student (in my ¨group¨) never showed up, so it´s just me.

My teacher is great though, her name is Claudia and she is very laid back and funny. like me.
I´m learning allot with her becasue one on one is super intense but all in all i´m getting what I came for.

One cool thing about the school is that it is a non- profit organization, and all the money that I pay, and other student who pay for spanish lessons, goes to help teach peruvian kids from the projects in cusco to learn English. Mid class we break and the spanish students and the eniglish students intermingle with eachother and help eachother practice the language we are learning... half the time speaking english to eachother and half speaking spanish.

Since Ít was just me learning spanish today, ALL the kids were surrounding me. Most of them didn´t know english very well yet so it was mostly an all spanish conversation but some older kids were getting there.

It´s a little bit tough not having other student at the school because it´s hard to meet people except for in the bars and out dancing. We shall see....

The City

The Country

last week I explored the city. This weekend I got to explore the country! On sunday wilder, tom and I went horse back riding in the mountains! We stopped at differnet historical locations such as, el templo de la luna (temple of the moon) and saxe wumon (sounds allot like sexy women but it is a HUGE inca made stone wall)and walked around the country side... probably the most beautiful place I have ever seen...

cusco continued..

Today I got to explore the city a little bit... It is so beatiful but there are allot more turists than I expected! I met up with wilder, who has been here with his friend tom for about a month. He and his friends and I took a small hike up the side of one of the mountains surounding cusco. There was an amzing view and beatiful flowers, plants, and trees!

For the most part cusco is everything I expected it to be, except for that it is allot colder and my attire usually consists of long sleeves, a hat, a scarf, and pants... which is also nice sometimes.

Cusco

I made it finally to Cusco! I did not sleep the whole time I was in the airport which was approx 11 hours..7p.m. to 6a.m. so when I finally got here I really couldn´t believe my eyes! all I could think was ¨it´s just like the pictures!¨. As soon as i got off the plane there was a live traditional Peruvian band rockin out with theír little flutes and the little amplifier... yet again my bag and I found each other and that was a huge relief! when I steped out side the small airport I saw a little old man holding a sigh that said JESSA FITZPATRICK! the mans name was Daniel and he told me to call him dany, he was my home stay dad! He gave me a big hug and kiss and went to get the car. when we pulled up outside the house he turned to me and said¨Jessa, this is your home¨.

Inside I met Ali, my home stay mom and Margarita, their house keeper. she had matte de coaca ready for us to drink at the dinning room table and we sat and shared about our families and they showed me pictures of their children and grandchildren! After tea I went up to my room and took a little nap, and when I came down they had made a wonderful lunch for me! soup and a dish with rice and potatoes and chillies, onions, just very delicious stuff!
Franklin, their son joined us for lunch and he was very helpful correcting me with my congregation. I was saying ¨yo sabo muchas palabras¨ which means I know many words... he told me only childen say ¨sabo¨ and it was correct to say ÿo se¨...pretty funny lunch in gereral...

Later that day dani took my to AMIGOS (the spanish school that I will be attending starting on monday) I met the directors of the school and a few teachers, everyone was super nice and one of the directors, Jesus, suggested that we all go out on the town together friday night! we exachanged numbers.

when we were leaving the school I asked Dani if it were ok if I just wondered my way home, he looked a little concerned, but he made sure I had the address to the house, gave me a kiss and sent me in the right direction.

This is just the first day of many and i can´t wait to see what will happen next!

My bag was there..

Yes, indeed my bag was there to meet me at the airport in Lima! i was very happy to see it.

Another breazy plane ride! in fact i made ANOTHER new friend, his name was ruben. He was comming back home to is homeland, peru, he had been doing an exchange program in NYC for the past 3 months, he was studying law. He said that he loved New York and thats where he met his girlfriend, he said he loves her.

on the plane they were showing the movie Wall- E we both were laughing hysterically , although this was actually my second time seeing the movie. great movie. very funny. after we got off he gave me is number and said to call him if and when i come back to lima and he could show me all the good places to visit. he said when he went to New York at first he didn't know anybody and he met this guy and the guy gave him a place to live and helped him get to know the city. one day this guy says to him, okay you need to pay me. Ruben  says "how much?" the guy says back to him," you just need to help somebody, like i helped you, the next time you can" so he told me he was going to help me if i needed anything. It felt good to know that there ARE genuinely nice people in this world and that even though i'm all by myself, i have lots of people and some higher force guiding me and protecting me...

So now, i'm in a cafe at the airport... first thing i did was get a ice cream sunday and a cafe americano! I have to sleep in the airport tonight so i'm going to try and get as much homework done as i can and then try to pass out somewhere relatively chill... Nighty night.

The Begining

Alright! So I'm off , it didn't really hit me until I got into the San Salvador airport in El salvador. I met a really nice guy on the plane who was sitting next to me, named Marvin. Marvin  told me that he is revisiting El Salvador for the first time in 9 years! he is going to visit his childhood friends and his horses that are still alive! we kind of got each other pumped up about what was to come!  He told me that he was 23 and taking online classes, like me, to become a stock broker, unlike me... we exchanged emails but I wonder if i'll ever see him again. 

I have a feeling that there will be allot of similar encounters a head of me. (minus the stock broker)

so to back up a little, I left montpelier by train on the Vermonter into NYC on Tuesday morning. I thought it was going to be a just a quick 9 hours ride but it turned into an 11 hour ride because the train broke down in Conneticutand on a bridge to boot! We had to wait for another locomotive to come and push us over the bridge and then they had to jump start us or whatever they do with trains! that being said, my trip has been nothing but smooth sailing so far! i made it through the city by myself on my way to my friend colleens work place where i had never been before... i almost got a train to new jersey (seriously)... but the doors closed right in front of me as i was about to hop on!..pretty awesome... at 5:30 I woke up and walked to the nearest main street in east harlem and hailed the first cab that came along.

my can driver was very nice, he was from Pakistan and his son was at Harvard university! "i think we can all agree that harvard university is the best university in the world" so he said.

After our surprisingly short drive to JFK and the heafty some of $58.00 i handed over. he told me he was very happy to see me because i am very innocient and friendly and i said i was happy to see him as well because he was a very friendly man! money well spent.... well kind of... could have been a little cheaper. jeeeezzz.(new york sucks)

So now I'm on the plane in El salvador waiting to take off to Lima,Peru! I hope my bag is there to meet me!