Machu Picchu OR F*ck that cave

I took this!

A picture is worth 1000 words so here is our AMAZING trip to Machu Picchu...(we know most of you just look at the pictures anyway :-P)

We had to wake up at 2:30 am to get the first bus up to the park so we could get a stamp to climb Waynapicchu, (that lovely vertical peak in the back of the postcard pic above)

Bright eyed and bushytailed in the morning

We spent the first couple hours exploring by ourselves and playing with the llamas who live there (highlight of Katy's trip). We also took a lot of pictures which in hindsight was a really good call because we later got excessively sweaty....

nbd chillin with llamas

We then met our lovely english-speaking guide Eddy, who told us all about the Incas who built the city and their fascinating culture--read wikipedia if you want to hear all about it...Here he is repeating the name of the Inca God which is kind of excessively long...(sorry I forgot to rotate it before uploading...)

At 10:00 am it was our turn to Hike Waynapicchu

which has lots of crazy stairs

and makes Machu Picchu look like a postage stamp

but makes us look like badasses...

favorite picture of the trip...

We then decided to hike down to the Moon Cave which in hindsight was a terrible call as we almost keeled over coming back up...it was also kind of disappointingly lame...

lots and lots of steps

This is the "after" picture...

If you would like to see the best of our 200 Machu Picchu pictures click here!!
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Volunteering parte dos (because the main reason we're here deserves more than one post)

What we do during the week. A more in depth look into volunteering and our weeks in Huancayo...

As you can see from all our amazing adventures we are having a very productive trip but we have been learning a lot as well--working hard during the week and playing harder on the weekends. First, a look at the medical experience of our stay. During week one, Katy and Nate tagged along with two first year medical students from Creighton to a clinic called Juan Parra del Riego. There, they became close to the nurses and learned the proper technique for giving vaccinations. They learned the differences between subcutaneous, intramuscular, or interdermal vaccines (and got to use big words like subcutaneous in the process). The fun part was learning advanced techniques to try and minimize pain for the patient, because stabbing children is only fun when they don't cry. They got close with the enfermeras and helped them with their english homework and pickup lines.

The following week we shadowed an Obstetric Doctor at a clinic in a more impoverished area of Huancayo in what later became known as the “Cuban” doctor’s place. (Because there are no specialties in Peru, many Peruvian doctor's go to Cuba to study a specific type of medicine) There, we took blood pressures, vitals, listened for heart abnormalities and observed how to administer an IV (which in Peru involves a serious lack of gloves and a lot of spurting blood…maybe it wasn’t a terrific example). The doctors were eager to teach, but unfortunately that often involved a lot of rapid Spanish that even Katy had trouble interpreting, so we learned a lot through the use of pantomime and pointing. Our last week we went to another medical center called Azapampa where we observed and helped give physicals to infants.

We also continued the vaccination program throughout the district of Azapampa. We visited schools as well as made house calls to vaccinate for influenza, SPR, measles, and HPV. So, we were obviously excited for more stabbing children to keep ‘em healthy. After stabbing kids and not stabbing ourselves (except for Nate, who stabbed himself TWICE) we would play futbol, spin tops, give autographs (yep, we are basically celebrities), and impress the nurses with some sweet salsa moves ;-). (and ability to fit in tiny chairs)

Jacqui spent her mornings at the kindergarten and baby care center in Huari, quickly discovering that Peruvian 5 year olds were just as obstinate as their American counterparts.

The center holds between three and nine 1-2 year olds and 15 3-5 year olds. Usually there are 2 teachers and I have no idea how they survived before there were volunteers. But come to think of it, the inability to understand spanish in 3-year-olds made Jacqui pretty much useless except for being able to say "sit down." She tried her best to color inside the lines and peel oranges upon request. Her most effective work was as a human bungee jump and filling in when there weren't enough girls in a lesson on patterns. 

notice how approximately 0 children are looking at the camera

We had been pretty consistently going to the Worker Kid's Home in the afternoon. Despite some of the tiny terrorists spending time there, we developed quite a bond and feel as though we have been able to make a difference.

They have been learning basic English such as colors, animals, days of the week, months, and simple phrases like “How old are you?”We obviously contributed significantly to their lives by teaching them duck, duck, goose (as opposed to their previous favorite game 'how many children does it take to collapse the swingset')

We've also made some progress getting them to shower, teaching them english, math, and practicing our own Spanish. We've see them on the street either hard at work or at school to give them vaccinations and it really is baffling how strong they are. They are some of the most amazing kids we've met here. As we left Huancayo we feel a great deal of  pride, and the biggest feeling of all a difference was made in Huancayo.

checkout those badass volunteers

They love potatoes here OR Nate eats his way through Peru OR Food in Peru

The Best: Three-way tie!!
Chicken and french fries: Deliciously greasy, deliciously cheap- what could be better?? And there is at least one on every street. When you think of Peruvian food, you probably don’t think of french fries, but they are seriously everywhere down here. Mostly because Peruvian’s love them some potatoes. And when you combine them with delicious chicken, salad, ice cream, and a drink for 6 soles, then you have the best day of Katy’s life.

Your adorable and so delicious

Trucha (trout): We ate some incredible trout on this trip. We went to a hatchery on the valley tour where we had amazing trout that was caught fresh and then fried with garlic. It was seriously fantastic. Cusco also had delicious fried trout at small sketchy restaurant, and some really greasy bad fried trout at a nice restaurant. So we have learned to eat at the sketchy restaurants, they are usually better, and always cheaper.

Steaks at the Taxi Driver Fundraiser: Our inner carnivores really came out on this trip, because just like us, Peru doesn’t believe in vegetarians. We pretty much ate meat constantly (and rice and potatoes), and it was amazing (except for the lizard meat Nate ate from a street vendor…that didn’t go so well). Anyway, in Huancayo we helped at a fundraiser, and there we discovered a booth selling massive steaks. And because Peruvians don’t believe in napkins or silverware, we ate it caveman style, which made it even better.

The Worst:
Yellow potato casserole with citrus/vinegar vegetable filling. And it was cold. On purpose. And basically….it was indescribably bad. We have worked very hard to be open to new food experiences during our time here, but this was just too much. Blechh. So we went to Pizza Hut.

The Interesting
Cuy: Otherwise known as those cute lil guinea pigs that many American children keep as pets. Well kids, they are also a Peruvian delicacy. We tried Cuy Colorado, which is one of the most popular ways to prepare cuy. It’s basically cuy with a kind of sweet, nutty barbecue sauce. And it was….interesting. The flavor was decent, but as you might expect, they aren’t the meatiest little guys, so it was just kind of difficult to eat. But, now we can say we tried cuy!

Papas a la Huancaina: This is the most popular dish in Huancayo! As I said before, Peruvian’s love their potatoes. Especially potatoes covered in salsa de Huancaina, a sauce made from eggs, cheese, pepper, and a whole bunch of other stuff. And again, interesting. This is what we made for the fundraiser, which involved peeling hundreds and hundreds of potatoes with our fingers….so maybe that’s why we don’t like this dish very much.

During our time in Peru we have also tried lots of authentic Peruvian meals home-cooked by our host family (some good, some not so good- see yellow potato casserole), Panchamanca (delicious meat slow cooked underground for hours),

Peruvian Chinese food (good),

Peruvian Italian food (baaaad),

salchipapas (bright pink hot dogs and french fries), and way more Pizza Hut and ice cream than we ever would eat in the States. Whew, I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry now. Chicken and chips for 6 soles? Yes please.

Torre Torre

Our last weekend in Peru, I can't believe how much time has flown. Luckily I'm with some people who REALLY like to hike, so what did we do? We went for a hike! But this time by ourselves which means Jacqui can "take a lot of pictures" (read: stop walking and find oxygen). and hiking may actually be growing on her just in time for Machu Picchu!

In all honesty, there is a really cool rock formation just a couple of miles from where we're staying. It's like the red rocks of Peru and because Peruvians don't believe in those pesky environmental laws, you can climb all over them! We hiked for almost five hours, weaving our way through a labyrinth of delicate sandstone towers and dry riverbeds.

To get to Torre Torre from Huancayo, we walked to the edge of the city (goodbye paved roads!). There is an interesting shift in the outskirts of town. Housing materials change from concrete and glass to mud brick and corrugated metal.  In 30 short minutes, the chaos of the city gives way to quiet country living. (end Jacqui's waxing poetic)


We made it all the way to the top

We also discovered that Father's Day is a week early here, so we celebrated Peruvian Father's Day by e-mailing our padres some sweet pics from the hike.

 

We also have a sweet album online with lots more pics!

Picassa Web Album 

Huaytapallana Glacier...say that 3 times fast

There are actually quite a few similarities between the Peruvian highlands and Colorado. Sometimes we forget we've even left, and then we see a 3 year old sandwiched between her parents on a one person motorcycle and we remember we're not in Kansas anymore...and maybe Britney Spears should move here. (I digress)
The glacier hike was probably the one event that made Katy and Nate feel back at home (the words Jacqui and hiking don't go together regardless of the continent). For those of you that have hiked above Colorado’s timberline, it’s pretty similar in Peru...which means Jacqui almost died and our badass "we can handle altitude, we're from Colorado" attitude was severely tested.

Before...

As one of a series of “small hikes” in Peru (read: the most ridiculous three hours for just the ascent alone), we crawled to the top of Huaytapallana.  We went from 10,732 ft in Huancayo to around 18,232 ft in one day (thanks wikipedia). We started out at 7:30am peruvian time (8:45 in the US).  The "road" was not sleeper friendly and had a lot of issues with people flying into other peoples laps. They don't believe in pullouts for one lane roads in Peru, we wouldn't want to do anything silly like create enough space for vehicles to pass one another. This turned our drive into a lovely game of chicken-- whoever wants to get to the top or bottom the fastest wins!

This was the view out the window of the Van...

the other side was a cliff

After about an hour and half, we made it as far as we could in the van. We put our lunch order in and began our climb to the saddle of Huaytapallana. After about 2 hrs Katy and Nate reached the top of the saddle of the mountain. They turned around to take a million pictures with Jacqui and realized she was mostly asphyxiated halfway up the mountain. Nate in a totally not obnoxious way ran back down the mountain three times to tell her what a good job she was doing. At some point she wasted a lot of very precious oxygen to yell at him to stay at the top of the freaking mountain and stop taking pictures.

When she finally did make it, we rested in a "zona de medatacion." There is a local tradition when you reach the top of the mountain of drinking cane alcohol and lighting up a cigarette to help your lung capacity.

After...

 

While we didn't partake of that particular ritual, Jacqui called it a day and Katy and Nate enjoyed the nice flat climb to the glacier. The entire hike we were surrounded by teal blue glacier ponds, stunning views of mountain ranges, sheep, cattle, and big boulder fields.

Eventually we reached the glacier and decided to go sledding without sleds. Nate's fantastic little league technique made sledding down a glacier a little less painful.

Eventually we made it down for lunch/dinner. The lamb, chicken and vegetable soup was delicious and the ambience at the restuarant was just spectacular with a quaint little dead lamb on the table next to us. Also possibly the worst bathroom of the trip...we won't include a picture Eventually we made it down the mountain alive and slept like babies...exhausted slightly drunk babies...