ALLLLLL Aboard

This weekend I took the HIGHEST train in the Americas. That's correct, we (Mari, Morgane, Katie and I) were 15,681 feet in the air at one point. Probably 15,683 if you count that we stood on a bench to take our commemorative picture. 

At the highest point!

The train left at 7:00 in the morning, so we woke up extremely early (Mari was the grumpy one this morning!) and arrived at the train station, which is also a historical library. They didn't say "allll aboard" in english OR spanish, to my great disappointment.

The train was a little less like Hogwarts Express than I expected, as in there weren't separate compartments, but there was a table that we sat around. So, you win some you lose some. 

They served us breakfast and lunch on the train, and our train attendant (what do you call them??) had stick on jewels and blue eyeshadow, so I instantly liked her, as I am pretty sure a pre-teen Kati rocked that style, only with silver eyeshadow.

One of the best parts of the train was watching people scramble from side to side to get a billion scenery pictures, when people are generally bored of scrapbooks after the first 5 identical photos (I'm talking to you, old woman who made us change seats!). We, in turn, scrambled around getting pictures of us sticking our heads out the window.

One of my scenery shots, I admit, it was beautiful.

But really, the best part of the train was "la hora loca", or "crazy hour". This included a women with a microphone announcing a dance contest, some limbo, balloon hats, and music. I didn't participate in the dance contest, as I was too busy waving to all the little kids on the side as the train passed, which I enjoyed a lot.

We safely arrived in Huancayo, and found a cheap and semi-clean "hotel". "Hotel" is in quotation marks to distinguish between a U.S. version of a hotel and the Peruvian version. Peruvian version meant rock hard beds and pillows, a communal bathroom that didn't include toilet paper or seats and extra charge for having a T.V. But it had a deadbolt on the door, so I was o.k. with it.

The next morning, we went to a Cafe which supposedly had really good coffee. I'd like to explain something about coffee here. Peru is famous for having excellent coffee. But not inside the country. They export almost all their coffee. So most people here drink instant coffee. The other thing that happens if you order regular coffee is that they give you a cup full of hot water, and then you have to pour a concentrated espresso type coffee into that. It is also weird to ask for milk, but not weird to pour a TON of sugar in. 

So I was pretty excited to get some really good coffee. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the hot water-espresso type kind. Not so great. 

(Side note: My host-dad makes his own coffee all the time, which I secretly tasted, and it's AMAZING. I am going to figure out how to get my hands on that)

Although the coffee was disappointing, this turned out to be my favorite location in Huancayo. That is due to the bathroom. It was the cleanest, best bathroom I have been in here. 

These are the things it had: toilet paper, toilet seat, soap, hand dryer, AND the toilet had chemical water in it to smell good. That is the FIRST time here.

All of the above listed things are what public toilets usually lack. Sometimes they charge you 50 cents to use a facility that may or may not have soap or seats. Usually they do hand you plastic wrapped toilet paper for that price though..  Anyways, my standards usually are if when I enter there is a seat, some tp, and it's free I am at a pretty classy place. So this place blew my expectations. We returned there before the bus ride.

Our day in Huancayo we spent outside of Huancayo touring little towns around it. We first saw a little market, where I was forced to publicly embarrass myself to win a free keychain shaped like a flip-flop. Then we went to a jewelry market, where a guy had a scary mask on. Third was a boat trip, where they trapped us in the middle and tried to sell us keychains (he didn't know I had already gotten one). 

Then we had trout for lunch, at a places that looked like a troll/gnome tree house village. And we got to fake fish! After eating trout, we went to a trout farm and got to see them as babies and feel guilty about lunch.

Finally, we went to a Franciscan monk convent/church thing. Where we weren't allowed to take pictures and they locked doors behind us as the tour went on. The church was very creepy, with lots of paintings of monks being killed my natives as they tried to bring them to god and teach them things. As if the monks were the martyrs in this situation. They had sticks! You had guns! Just saying.

Also, these monks were "scientists" which means they killed a bunch of animals, stuffed them, and they have now been in this church for over 100 years arranged as if they are in the jungle. Stuffed monkeys should not happen. 

That concluded the tour. The best part of the tour was making friends with a 7 year-old girl named Ashely, who liked to play "eliminación" with us for long periods of time, and made fun of our spanish to our faces. She was a sweetie. 

Mari and Ashley

The next day, we went to this famous market which was HUGE, but included a lot of things like shoes, pots, and other household items I wasn't really trying to buy. I bought a carved seed thing because I felt guilty after the lady explained a ton of things to me about it and also some earrings. Then we returned to my favorite bathroom and got ice cream.

I rode first-class bus on the way home. We didn't watch Taken! But some rocks blocked the road for a couple of hours. 

We arrived safely back, and I am now one week of classes away from finals. AHHH! Two presentations, two papers, and two tests away from vacation!

To all my outside Peru readers, I LOVE AND MISS YOU SO MUCH. To my inside Peru readers, you probably live in my house. So see you at dinner.

BESOS

These are the Things I Have Done

Well. My last few weekends have been filled with ADVENTURE. And SPORTS. The stuff in between has been mostly classes, which are quite the same. I try to concentrate for the first hour and then end up making to-do lists for the second half. I don't know why Peru insists on 2 and 3 hour classes. My spanish listening attention span is not that long.

Anyways, back to the the adventure sports. There is a lot so I will list them in chronological order for you.

SURFING

Last Saturday I had my first experience surfing! It was super fun and super hard. Right from the beginning when I put on my wet suit backwards and had to take it off and put it on again. Those things are hard to maneuver in and out of! Then, Katie and I had our lesson which consisted of us constantly swimming to our instructor, him pushing us in to a wave, and a struggle to stand before crashing into the water. I managed to get up a little bit, but always at the end. It is a lot more fun than it sounds. And after we rewarded ourselves with french fries.

ROLLERBLADING

On Sunday, Lima closes one of their busy streets and opens it up to rollerbladers and bikers. So we rented some roller blades and formed a super cool gang. I wore my capsack, wrist guards, and knee pads. No one told me how cool I looked until later. Later, we rewarded ourselves with frozen yogurt.

Always lookin' sharp

ROCK CLIMBING

Erin and I have completed our last in gym lesson. That means are next one will be on REAL rock. We are not prepared. Our last lesson consisted of us learning "the bicycle" and continuously failing to master it while 3 boys stood around watching us, later easily demonstrating what we should be doing. That was a nice confidence boost.

TAXI RIDES

You may not think this is an adventure sport, but taxi's can be quite dangerous here. Not only is driving crazy, I've heard they have a reputation for robbing people. So every time I get in a taxi, my heartbeat increases and I have a momentary panic attack. Luckily, this weekend we had very nice old men who told us traffic jokes and showed us pictures of grandchildren.

EARTHQUAKE

I felt my first really big earthquake! I thought it was maybe a truck passing by, but that was not true. Also, it lasted too long for that. We were on the third floor of our hotel when everything started shaking. I tried to remember safety rules but couldn't. So mostly we stood around and waited. But it was a great free adventure!

CANOPY

Mari, Erin, Nico and I went to Lunahuana this weekend. After the relatively short bus ride, we arrived and decided to do a zip line. I was a little scared, as you can clearly see in my eyes in all of the pictures. But it was very fun, and besides a bunch of bug bites I wasn't injured!

I chose this because you can't see how scared I was

RAFTING

The next day we decided to go rafting, called canotaje here. We woke up at 5, and commenced our 3 hour long ride. We all got soaked, stuck on rocks a few times, and were on the verge of falling out. For security, all you do is stick one foot in a hole. That is supposed to prevent you from falling. I don't think it is the best system. For breakfast, our guide brought us 7up, cookies, and chocolate so we were really prepared for hard work. 

After the breakfast of champions, ready for more.

Rafting was the peak of my adventure sport weekends. Non-sport things I did (because I am a wild card) include:

-Touring two vineyards, where we learned how to tell a fine Pisco (it's all in the tornado), and that Peruvian wine is incredibly sweet no matter what.

-Going to an art museum, where only two rooms were open.

-Eating ceviche with fresh-water shrimp, and some soup thing that is supposedly traditional at a nice restaurant

-Meeting and having lunch with Katie's sweet and wonderful parents

-Touring a Monastery and its catacombs, which I didn't handle very well. They ARRANGED the skulls and femurs. in a 10 meter deep pit! And there were HUMAN skulls stuck into cracks. I am not o.k. with that.

-Creating a morning news show with Mari: Real Talk in the Morning with Kati and Mari (#andthatsreal!)

- Also, a related event where we discovered we are a lot like Troy and Abed from Community

The Coolest Kids, touring a vineyard.

Those are all the important events, November is going to include one more trip (a train to Huancayo!) and a llllooootttt of homework. All of my classes put all their work in this last month. So expect less from me.

Sending huge hug vibes and lots of LOVE LOVE LOVE to my family and friends, who I miss quite terribly.