Peru Trip Winter 2013

Hola familias y amigos!!
We have enjoyed our day today!!
We had a special lunch of spaghetti at the hogar (after having rice for breakfast)!
We left around 2:30pm and arrived at Cusco!
After finding a hostel we went out and shopped at the markets!
For dinner we were invited out by a lady named Dee and her husband Steven from New Zealand that we met through Edwin yesterday! Meeting at a super fancy pizza place, we were surprised by Edwin joining us, along with about 15 girls that are studying at the university in Cusco on a full ride scholarship. Also we got to meet Edwin's wife! We had a wonderful dinner with everyone and they thanked us again for all the hard work we have done. Edwin reminded us that their arms are always open to us here.

ps. Genna was also excited that she got to visit Paddys Pub another time before we left.

Through all the excitement of going home and for everything that awaits us, the departure is getting more difficult. We have definitely enjoyed our time here and we are realizing the things we will miss about being on this trip!

We are expecting to shed some tears of joy though once we hear that we have arrived in America.

See you soon!
Los Gringos

Hola!
Today we painted the front of the hogar, the railing and the gate, and another classroom. The sisters are so thankful for all we are doing for them! One of the sisters said we don't have to worry about painting the railing since they didn't have the paint to provide and we told her that it wasnt a problem and we already bought the paint for them.
We have been eating a lot of white rice! So much that we asked for some sauce during dinner and we received tomato paste. Needless to say that was our topping for our rice. We also had Jello for lunch and popcorn for dinner!! That was exciting! And we try not to complain because our meals are free here.
The rest of the trip will go by super fast from here. We are all extremely excited to be home but we also have been realizing steadily that soon we will be going separate ways and not waking up next to each other any more. That is going to be tough but no doubt we will get through it once we hear we are in America.

See you soon!
Los Gringos

Hola familias and friends,
Today we did nothing but paint! We painted the entrance of the hogar, the sitting room, touched up the outside walls that were chipping and rested in between.
We are all excited for America! The food, relaxing, Genna's mom, friends, and drinking from our faucets!!
Things are winding down but we plan on living up the last couple days in Peru.

See you soon!!
Los Gringos

Hola familias y amigos,
This morning we got up and had breakfast with the girls of the hogar. They made their favorite treat for us to try, rice with milk (kind of like a pudding). Then we had the interesting experience of attending a Catholic church service in Spanish! We had little idea of what was going on but we are glad to say we attended!
After returning we got to work painting rooms as a whole group which went so much faster! Then we painted stools. We did that for the whole day today! There are more painting assignments for tomorrow too!
For dinner we went out. We were trying to find something new so we went into a chicken place that we thought looked decent. First course, soup. Cameron, Clare and Coretta all got the surprise of a chicken foot while Tyler had a chicken heart and Genna had the chicken liver for some lovely flavor. They really use everything here! Next came the salads consisting of cabbage, beets, tomatoes, and cucumbers. We don't usually eat the salad anyways but as if we weren't questioning our meal already the cricket smooshed into Tyler's cucumber had each one of us getting ready to leave! We didn't even touch the main plate of chicken except for a shy taste of the fries.
We decided to go back to the restaurant we ate at last night that was wonderful! Great choice on our part because our food was even better than the night before! I guess now we have a great story to tell and funny pictures to share!

We are experiencing it all in Peru!

Salud!
Los Gringos

Hola familias y amigos,
This morning we got up and had breakfast with the girls of the hogar. They made their favorite treat for us to try, rice with milk (kind of like a pudding). Then we had the interesting experience of attending a Catholic church service in Spanish! We had little idea of what was going on but we are glad to say we attended!
After returning we got to work painting rooms as a whole group which went so much faster! Then we painted stools. We did that for the whole day today! There are more painting assignments for tomorrow too!
For dinner we went out. We were trying to find something new so we went into a chicken place that we thought looked decent. First course, soup. Cameron, Clare and Coretta all got the surprise of a chicken foot while Tyler had a chicken heart and Genna had the chicken liver for some lovely flavor. They really use everything here! Next came the salads consisting of cabbage, beets, tomatoes, and cucumbers. We don't usually eat the salad anyways but as if we weren't questioning our meal already the cricket smooshed into Tyler's cucumber had each one of us getting ready to leave! We didn't even touch the main plate of chicken except for a shy taste of the fries.
We decided to go back to the restaurant we ate at last night that was wonderful! Great choice on our part because our food was even better than the night before! I guess now we have a great story to tell and funny pictures to share!

We are experiencing it all in Peru!

Salud!
Los Gringos

Hola family and friends,
Today was a crazy tiring day of travel! We went to Cusco and Cameron received his third rabies shot! We experienced an over-crowded bus to get to our destination of Anta. The hogar only has 4 girls here right now but it is nice because we are able to get to know each one of them better! The youngest is 11 and the oldest is 18. We got to play some ball with them outside for a bit and they taught us their style of dodge ball. We treated them by going out to dinner tonight and they recommended a yummy Chinese restaurant that gave us the biggest pile of food!

We were invited to attend a Spanish Catholic mass with them tomorrow. Then we will most likely spend the rest of the day painting (cuz I guess we are professionals).

Looking forward to a fun week with the girls!

Mucho amor!
Los Gringos

Hola familias y amigos,
Today we had one of the most eye opening experiences, touring an underprivledged hospital. The hospital in Lamay only has two doctors that serve around 100 patients each day. They are not able to treat anything but minor illness and injuries because of the lack of resources. With anything major they have to transport the patients to the main hospital in Cusco. Lamay has over 40 surrounding communities and others up in the mountains. The Lamay hospital has a dentist, few nurses, and a lab person besides their two doctors. They don't have equipped rooms to have the patients stay there. Although, they do have about 7 rooms for pregnant women that are due very soon. They can stay there if they live far away until they need to be transported to the other main hospital to give birth. The rooms are nothing that an expecting mother deserves though with the rags for blankets, worn out bed, poorly ventilated stove and a literal hole in the ground in a stall for a bathroom. Somehow the citizens deal with the lack of resources. We all walked out of there (after getting contact info for future groups to help out) thankful that we have the privledges we do in America but also more aware of the little things we take for granted. We have so many things at home that people here in Peru do "the old fashion way". Farming by hand or with animals, honking because there are no stop signs, eating only bread for meals because that is the cheapest/most convenient item, and many other things.

Afterwards we went to the market in Pisac that was recommended to us by Edwin. It was more of the common booths lining the streets with similar scarves, sweaters, and knick knacks.

Once back at the hotel we rested, played some games, then went to dinner at Nustras for the fourth time since we have been here!

Mucho Amor
Los Gringos

Hello family and friends!
Everyone is so nice here! Yesterday, after our filling breakfast (first filling breakfast on this trip) from the hotel, we went to the orphanage for the first time while Cameron and Derek went to Cusco to get his second rabies shot. We received a tour of the seven houses of the 71 kids that live there. Ages range from 3 - 17 yrs. We went around with the head of the orphanage writing down what was needed in each house from a paint job to shower curtains. We were told that paint was needed the most for new paint jobs in some of the kids rooms. After our tour we went back to the hotel to reorganize donations to give to Munaychay while waiting for the guys. When all together we went into town and bought paint! We had lunch at Nuestras which was recommended to us by Edwin. We enjoy the food from that restaurant very much! We went back to the orphanage to drop off the paint then we played on the playground with some kids!
Back to the hotel around 5pm we went around the yard and picked fresh fruit off the trees! That was exciting because the fruit tasted so wonderful and none of us have really experienced that opportunity before!

Now today we, again after a filling breakfast, left for Munaychay this time with all group members. We painted rooms for the very appreciative kids all day! They provided lunch for us which was really nice! We even had some of the kids help us paint for a bit! Before we left, we went into their theater room and some of the kids presented songs, dances, and music to give thanks to us! Then the head of Munaychay gave us hand made chalices and little plates by the children as a thanks for our volunteering. We were quite touched! We felt we could have done so much more for them so we felt a bit bad (we didn't finish painting all the bedrooms) but we saw how much they appreciated what we had done. We had a great time there and we are super excited for future groups to help out and make a difference there too!

Mucho Amor
Los Gringos

Sup everyone reading this,
We just realized that we can read comments so that was a cool thing, we love seeing your comments! It's nice to know that people are keeping up with our amazing adventure! Btw love you too mom (Genna). Today we left Machu Picchu city (Aguas Calientes) via train and headed to Ollantaytambo. That may seem like an easy trip, but with this group we like to challenge ourselves. We are beginning to think that Claire doesn't want to be apart of the group anymore do to the fact that she truely enjoys losing her train ticket. This morning upon waking up she told us that she had left her ticket in her bag which was already in Ollantaytambo. Lucky for all of us they were able to print off a new ticket using her passport.

Ollantaytambo was a nice small city! We only stayed there for a few hours exploring because we took Edwin's (our contact in urubamba) offer of staying in his hotel starting tonight! We met Keri who is bwbs contact for the Sacred Valley Health project. We donated some dental supplies there because she expressed that they could definitely use it to teach the rural mountain communities about hygiene. Also donated soap and shampoo. Keri gave us many helpful tips about getting deals as a group and a contact for Cameron to get his second rabies shot!

Then we took a taxi to Urubamba and met Edwin! He is super nice and SUPER helpful! Urubamba is a well kept medium size quiet town! We arrived at La Quinta Eco hotel which belongs to Edwin and were blown away by the extravagance! Fruit trees everywhere (that we can even eat off of!), a pool, beautiful dining hall, luscious grass, and a couple friendly dogs for company! We will be here for four nights for quite a generous deal! We are excited for our full days of volunteering ahead here and exploring this city!

Con Amor
Los Gringos

Hola friends and family!
Today we got up early and left at 6am to climb Machu Picchu!!!!!! We decided to save money and not be lazy by hiking up a mountain to get to Machu Picchu! There were already a few hundred people there already. Getting to the entrance gate around 8:30 at the top of the hike was the first of many great accomplishments today!!! After we got in we experienced the breath taking moment of seeing that world known picture of Machu Picchu (and got pics of our own). Our ticket that we got included hiking Machu Picchu mountian which was at the altitude of 3082! The other option, Wayna Picchu mountain, was booked with the max of 400 people but turns out the one we climbed was higher anyways! Machu Picchu mountain was only open from 7am - 11am so we decided to conquer that first and explore the ruins later. Cameron, Derek, and Genna preferred a faster hiking pace while the others took their time for pictures. We all haven't been that high before! We even walked through the clouds! It got colder with the height too which felt nice! Staircases got steeper and paths got narrower. The first half of the hiking group accomplished their goal of making it to the top of the mountain in less than an hour (59min) while the other group accomplished their goal of actually making it to the top (2hrs)! At the top we met a girl from the U who's a junior going for nursing! What are the chances of that!? After the careful trek down we toured the Incan ruins!!! The experience was priceless and it was mindblowing to walk on the steps and see the rooms that belonged to a civilization millions of years ago! The day provided wonderful weather until about 2pm when it started to downpour. That is when we decided to leave.
We made a safe hike back down all the way until suddenly Coretta's foot fell through a hole where the wooden boards were unstable. Thankfully she is okay and workers were close by to help get her unstuck! She even didn't lose her shoe!
Less than half an hour after getting back to the hostel Cameron found out from the train station that we had 15min to get our suitcases there for tomorrows ride. The ticket lady didnt think we would make it (we didn't either) but we pulled together and got there in the knick of time!
Afterwards we winded down, rested, then went out to try Peru's pizza.
We had many accomplishments today! Today was a GREAT day!!!

Con Amor
Los Gringos