El Fin :(

SO I have been horrible at keeping up with this, but since my last post:
- I ate guinea pig (cuy) in a town called Tipon, it tasted a bit like duck meat and was surprisingly delicious!
- We finished the SODIS project and had an amazing goodbye from the teachers and students at Huacar Pay (even though it was a bit hectic trying to explain, in Spanish, to a group of fifteen 4-15 year olds that it isn't good to drink the dirty lake water while washing your hands, hence the purpose of our Water Purification project...). We gave them a bunch of little things from Canada and they asked us questions about our country and could not fathom that the temperature gets below freezing, let alone to minus 30 (or lower) in some places!
- We attempted to start greenhouse construction at another school called Q'ollana, however the plough man, who was supposed to come last week, wouldn't show up until Friday (the day we leave) and so we couldn't even start it. I think I mentioned that things take a while to happen here...
- I ate alpaca, twice... yumm
- I travelled to the city of Puno on Lake Titicaca (the highest navigable fresh water lake in the world!) last weekend, where we visited floating reed islands and stayed overnight on an island where there was no electricity or running water!! Our host family also didn't speak any Spanish let alone English, as they had lived on the island for a long time and only needed Quechua to get by. Amazing experience. We also hiked up a mountain and were at 4100m above sea level. Before that, we got to play some football at 3900 m and I was the only girl playing against a bunch of intense French guys.. just a little intimidating.
- We went to a huge market in Pisac today and while trying to barter for items (which I am SO terrible at) it was so windy that a pole holding up the market stand flew down and struck me in the head. I proceeded to ask the sales lady "tienes descuenta?" (can I get a discount?).. needless to say that didn't work in my favour..
- The family here had a bunch of family friends randomly come over last night and tonight, and what I thought was just a hang out session in the garage turned out to be all of them (20+ people) dancing in the street in sync, Peruvian style to Peruvian music. Turns out they just do this on random nights every week after work/school. You should see how amazing they are at dancing, us Canadians have nothing on them.
When I get back to Canada I will post pictures on here that I have been trying and trying to do while I've been here. This has been an experience of a lifetime and I would recommend to anyone going traveling to come to this beautiful country. I would've liked to have accomplished more with the volunteering aspect but it is so hard to get something going when you're in one place for only 3 weeks. I have had a taste for travel and volunteering and don't think that this will be my last time doing either. If anyone ever wants to ask about traveling to Peru I would LOVE to talk about it!
Buenas noches,
Lauren

WOW!

That is really the only word that can explain this past week. I'm trying to post a bunch of overdue pictures but it isn't working very well so stay tuned!
The past seven days were full of volunteering and fun of course! At the school (Huacarpay) we finished building an apparatus for the SODIS project and are launching it tomorrow. We are really hoping this works out but the water tank they have (in the picture) only contains so much water each day and usually runs out from watering the plants in the greenhouse at about 11 AM. We are going to look into the problem with this tank and ask Volunteer Abroad to further investigate this if we can't figure it out before we leave. We work at this school from about 9-1 and then come home (hence why I've been able to do so many other things). We are working there for a couple more days. I'm finding it hard for us to make a huge impact in the three short weeks that we are here, as two other girls that have been here for 3 months have had some issues with this as well since things in Peru don't always happen in the speediest of fashions. However we are finding a lot of things that future groups can work on at the school. Here is a picture of the cutest little girl, she only speaks Quechuan, and her mother helps out with cooking at the school. Such beautiful children here!
Thursday, Evan, Caitlin and I met up with my two friends Sarah and Kaitlyn that go to X with me (from Calgary and Bar Harbour, Maine, respectively) and went to a soccer game. It was Cusco's Cienciano vs. a team from Uruguay for the Copa Sudamericana. The stadium was wild, the hooligans set off fireworks and flares a lot and if you stood up to go to the bathroom or take a picture you got reamed out by the most hardcore fans I have ever seen! Cienciano won 2-0 so it was great to see some goals.
On Friday we took a tour through the Sacred Valley on our way to Machu Picchu. We had a private car for $12 US each and the driver was pretty much like a tour guide, he was so proud of his country and gave us great background information on the agricultural ruins of Maras, the Salinerias (salt ponds) and about Urumbamba.
We stayed the night in a place called Ollantaytambo where we had to catch the train at 5:30 AM to get to Aguas Calientes (the town at the base of Machu Picchu, 2070 m above sea level). On Saturday we went on a hike up a mountain called Puticusi (2500) which overlooks Machu Picchu. It was full of such steep slopes that in some places we had to climb up 25 m ladders made of wood. This believe it or not was the most difficult hike of the weekend!
The next morning we got up at 3 AM and began the trek up to Machu Picchu (2400 m). It was so erie hiking up 2000 stairs in the dark, but it was so worth it as the first 200 people get to go on another hike up Wayna Picchu (2700 m, which also overlooks the ruins of Machu Picchu). It is difficult to explain how amazing the site was, and there is so much history you could read books upon books about it and still wouldn't know everything. We barely ate anything all day and decided to run down the mountain instead of taking a $7 US bus (you know the funds are running out when...) in time to get to an amazing buffet where we stuffed ourselves.
We made it back to Cusco this morning by taxi for 13 soles each (5 bucks for a 1.5 hour ride, sweet!) and drove SO fast through the barren mountains that reminded me a lot of around Osoyoos and the Anarchist Summit in parts.
So I'm really looking forward to my last two weeks here, seems like I've been here longer though!
Lauren

Cusco etc!

SO we went to Ica and Huacachina this weekend, which was about a 5 hour busride from Lima. We stayed at a hostel in the oasis of Huacachina which was surrounded by HUGE desert dunes. On Saturday we went sandboarding (like snowboarding but on sand!) and it was soo fun. We took this sweet dune buggy up to the middle of nowhere in the desert and preceded to go down the mountains. Considering I had never snowboarded before but have skiied, I thought I´d be okay. Guess not... biggggest bails. We met up with two English girls so that was sweet! The weather was amaazing which was a nice change from Lima where it was cloudy and misty most of the time. Our teacher for sandboarding was from Huacachina, Edwin, and he was saying how bad he wanted to come snowboard in the Vancouver Olympics heh heh. He took a bunch of us to an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink dinner which inevitably turned into a night at the bar in the town of Ica. This was a bad idea as we were taking what we were told was "a very sketchy flight" to see the Nasca Lines. I tried sleeping in the airport terminal before said flight and all of a sudden the health staff came and brought me into their sick room because they had thought I had already taken the flight and was sick. Good thing I knew how to say "yo bibo mucho a la noche" in broken Spanish so they got the picture that I was hungover. No wonder when they measured my blood pressure I was fine..
SO now to the purpose of this whole trip (I know it sounds like all play and no work) which is volunteering in Cusco! We flew here yesterday and our host family is unbelievable. Marita and Angelo are retired and have have three children in their mid 20s early 30s (Juan Carlos, Marcella and Angela). Everyone lives here but Marcella and they also have two dogs, one old one named Pooski and a puppy Old English Sheepdog named Lucas (like my old dog Penny! :) ) So believe it or not there are are 5 of us volunteers here and they have 2 people who help cook and clean. They are a well to do family for Peru, definitely. They don´t speak a word of English but it is so fun trying to figure out what everyone is saying hah. The man Angelo loves to make fun of my Spanish and he likes to talk about el football. Marita makes us the most amazing food and SO much of it. Peruvians traditionally have a large lunch (kind of like our dinner) and a smaller dinner. But it seems like she is catering to us Canadians because both meals are HUGE. Cusco is 3,300 m above sea level and you can definitely feel the lack of oxygen as soon as you get off the plane. I almost fainted and get super tired after walking up a flight of stairs.
So the organization that we are working with is called HAMPY (which means helping in the native Peruvian language of Quechua). Our coordinator is from Maine, and today she took us to this totally sustainable elementary school called Huacarpay, which is set in the middle of some beautiful mountains above a lake, about 40 minutes outside of Cusco. The children that go there are from the ages 5-12 and are from a small community close to the school. These children have parents that either can´t afford to send them to private school or just don´t have parents at all. There were about 35 students and as soon as we got there, they came to us looking so cute in their uniforms and one by one gave us each a hug! They are so beautiful and try to talk to you in Spanish or Quechua in which case neither really works for me. Today they had a man visiting to teach them about video cameras and filming and I had to do an interview with two girls en Español. It was short to say the least hah. Anyways a year ago, some German Environmentalists came to build a greenhouse at the school and since then they have found ways to recycle absolutely everything. They do regular classes in the morning, and for a couple of hours in the afternoon they tend to the gardens and the greenhouse. Each student has their own garden plot and they grow whatever they want in it, and a couple times a month they take their crops and either bring them home to eat or sell them in the local market. It is an amazing system they have here, and the two profesoras make the world of a difference. They run the whole school and are so enthusiastic about their way of learning. I didn´t have the chance to take any pictures but I will forsure tomorrow. This school doesn´t have any clean drinking water, so we are going to teach them about this program called SODIS, which is when you take a certain kind of plastic bottle (PE 1) and fill it with the contaminated water. You set the bottles on top of an aluminum roof and then let them heat up for 6 hours. This makes for better tasting water than just boiling it, and can be saved for up to a week without being opened and will remain uncontaminated. ANYWAYS it is going to be a challenge doing a presentation to los niños en español but I will let you know how it goes! We are going to be working on this project this week and next week we are planning something new.
Evan, Caitlin and I are heading to Machu Picchu on Friday and doing the Sacred Valley Trail on the way there. We are supposed to be meeting up with two of my friends from St. FX (Sarah and Kaitlyn) but they are currently MIA on their boat trip in the Amazon. They should be in Cusco by tomorrow though...
K so I will upload some more pictures soon!
Lauren
PS good luck to my MCAT friends, it will all be over soon enough..

¿Winter in August?

As you can see I love taking pictures of animals....

Sooo while you guys are enjoying forest fires and highs of thirty, it is about 15 degrees here and overcast every day¡ But that´s okay, we are leaving for the desert around Ica today where it will be much warmer during the day.
So on Wednesday night we went to a light show which was in a park with 10 beautiful fountains with lights in them. The opening ceremonies had the lights changing to the rhythms of such classic Peruvian hits as¨I want it that way¨ by the Backstreet Boys, ¨Waterloo¨by ABBA, ¨We will rock you¨ by Queen and the Jurassic Park theme song. So funny! Also in the supermarket (PlazaVea) across the street from our homestay here they play David Bowie and the Beatles.

We went surfing yesterday! I wasn´t sure I wanted to go because I´m not the best swimmer but the owner of the company, Javier, talked me into it in typical Peruvian fashion. He came out on the water with us and was pushing me (he kept calling me the Irish girl) the whole time so it worked out GREAT ha!

Last night we went to a Peruvian buffet (full of delicious rice, potatoes, ceviche and moree) where they were dancing traditional dances from all around the country. The costumes were amazing (mom you would´ve loved all of the dresses). Then we went for some drinks with our tour guide Romy and had to say bye to her :( It was so sad since we won´t see her again but I promised her I would come back to Peru. She is the sweetest little lady that has SO much knowledge about the history of Peru it is crazy.
Here is a picture of Romy and I and these wild cats that live in the park and the church in Miraflores.
OH and there was an earthquake last night, well more like a tremor. I thought that the pisco soúrs were making me go crazy but it did happen! It just shook our beds a little, pretty sweet! So we are off to see the Nazca lines and go sandboarding at the beautiful oasis of Huacachina tonight.
Chao,
Lauren

Plaza de Armas en Lima

Buenas noches mi amigos!
This will be a short one but I just wanted to upload some pictures for you to see! This is an animal I plan to ride up Machu Picchu on.... an alpaca. Or a llama, or a vicuña, can´t really tell the difference but hopefully I´ll be able to soon enough!
Saw an amazing cathedral in central Lima yesterday (didn´t understand all of the religious stuff, or the spanish so not much was understood for that matter.....) but I took lots of pictures. We also went to a convent with catacombs (25000 people were buried under the convent
We went to an AMAZING mercando negro (black market) today. I had never been to one before so let me say I spent quite a bit of money but not a lot for our standards, obviously! I will have my roommates know that we have enough seasons of the beesssst TV series to last us for a while now... (okay Syd I bought you some too. And you Kyle.)We also saw these weirdos. they looked like the whitest Peruvians to ever play soccer...
So we are heading to a light show in downtown Lima tonight with Romy, our amazing tour guide who is like a cool mom to us, followed by some glorious drinks I´m sure. There´s so much omre to talk about but I have to eat dinner so I´ll write tomorrow! Mom and Dad sorry I didn´t call tonight I´ll talk to you tomorrow afternoon hopefully
!Nos vemos,

Lauren (they pronounce it like la-oo-ren here HAH)

Izquierdo!

Hi!
So yesterday Romy, Evan, Caitlin and I went to some ancient pyramids (en español: Huaca Pucllana) that existed before the Inca period at around 400 AD. Then we visted Barranco, pictured at left, a part of Lima known for its discothecas that we have yet to discover. We haven't seen the poor parts of Lima yet, but we're going to the central part of the city tomorrow which is guaranteed to be eye opening.
We had our first Spanish lesson today and let me say that speaking French is not helping me here. I keep thinking in French and then answering in French which, contrary to popular belief, is usually not even CLOSE to being correct. Even if you add an "a" on the end instead of an "e" that you have in French, you look like kind of an idiot because the Spanish teacher doesn't know French at all. We were assigned two hours of practicing before class tomorrow, which I am now scrambling to do at 10 PM... and so the procrastination commences.
It is still so funny to see people on the streets look at us with bewilderment as we are the "gringos" which literally means "blonde people". Okay I promise I won't write on here as often cause let's face it, like anyone REALLY cares but my mom and dad...hehe I will hopefully have some pictures of the beautiful Peruvian people, children and animals in the next week!
Take care everyone!
Lauren

Hola!

Buenos Noches!
Spent a lovely day touring Miraflores thanks to our friend Romy, a woman born and raised in Peru. Miraflores is the part of Lima that I will be living in for the next week. I am with two other Canadians, one from Kitimat, the other from Welcome, Ont. Today we saw a beautiful beach with tons of surfing, went to an outdoor mall and finished the day off with some Pisco Sours at a restaurant with a view of the ocean and many parasailers flying overhead. I didn´t think the city would be as advanced as it is at all! We ate this delicious root vegetable called Yuca which was like a sweet mashed potatoe YUM, and of course some beans and rice. The car of choice seems to be the Volkswagon Beetle or Jetta, and the driving here is crazy. We will be having Spanish lessons from 9-2 every day starting on Monday. We are now off to the PlazaVea (peruvian equivalent to Walmart) to buy some more Inca Kola (tastes like Pineapple Crush for all you Newfoundland connaisseurs) and some Pilsen cerveza.. nom nom
Adios,
Lauren
PS REEB. while enjoying a drink or two, my friend Evan that I´m with (originally from Kitimat) said ¨Yes By¨ to something I said. I did a double take and said ¨what did you just sayÇǨ.. turns out he had spent 14 months in Lab City doing a co-op term.... can´t get away from them newfies
PPS Lex/Syd, going to head for a hamburgesa con quesa tonight at the 24 hr McD´s. Reminds me of a certain trip...