Once again it has been a while since I wrote. I'm sorry! Things have been busy, and I have been lazy.
HUARAZ
Last weekend I went to a mountain town, Huaraz, to do some "trekking" (that's what they call hiking here). What I didn't know was how much of a difference altitude can make in your breathing capabilities. Answer: A LOT. The first day we had trouble walking up stairs. So instead of hiking, we went to a "hot springs". What it looked like was a pool with rusty water. But supposedly it was quite good for our skin.
The next day we decided to take a shorter hike to see giant flowers and glaciers. I don't remember the name of the flowers, but they were quite tall and looked slightly like cacti. The hike was on a nice path in the mountains to see some snow and ice-y lakes. It was beautiful. Once again, we were quite out of breath. We ate lunch there, while our guide explained how fat Americans are and proceeded to demonstrate how a fat American had walked this trail before. He told us we weren't the slowest hikers he's ever had. He followed this up with the fact that many of American's are also vegetarians. So there you go, if you're from the United States you are either fat or a vegetarian. As we were leaving I thought some lady yelled "Avalanche!", but am now thinking that she problem said something else in Spanish.
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| Big Flower Things, and part of Rebecca's Head |
On Sunday, our last day there, we went for the big hike. This was a 5 hour ordeal that included 3 hours of walking straight up a mountain. The beginning was really beautiful and fun, but after I climbed up one mountain and realized there was still another one to go it lost some of the thrill. The last part consisted of taking 5 steps and then stopping for 5 breaths. Then, my inner competitive side kicked in and I trekked so hard. Finally, I reached our destination: Lago 69. I got to see it for a whole 15 minutes before fog and rain settled in and obscured the view. The way back down was easier, but because of the now fairly heavy rain we basically walked through a stream the whole way back. It was quite a relief to reach the van. This description may make it sound like I didn't have the much fun. But I did.
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| There is a really beautiful lake behind us. |
Once I returned from Huaraz, it was midterm week at La Catolica! I had two midterms this week, which I hope I did o.k. on. One on Andean Archaeology and the other on Peruvian History. This is the first time I've really studied since I got here.
This weekend was one of the girl's in my house, Morgane, birthday. So we planned a party in celebration for last night. But, before we could have it EPIDEMIC struck the house. Starting Thursday night, one by one people in my house started getting sick. Of the 9 students I live with, 7 couldn't leave their beds for a day. I was the 7th to fall, just when I thought I might be lucky. Mari didn't get sick. It reminded me of one of those horror movies where you watch everyone in the world slowly succumb to a terribly disease. I had to drink this really icky Anis flavored electrolyte drink. Anis is this weird fruit flavor that smells like black licorice. We think it was one of the foods we had for dinner Thursday night.
Other highlights include:
Continuing rock climbing
Watching old people dance traditional dances and read poems
Parks and Recreation and Modern Family are back!!
Receiving my first piece of mail (although still waiting on my package!)
etc.
