We Miss You, Mad Dog

{{Tanto tiempo juntos y ahora te tienes que ir}}

This past weekend I had to say goodbye to two more of my friends here, Maddie and Pasta. Maddie came down to Peru with me in the beginning of September and we did everything together from the very beginning. First time in Cusco, Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, early explorations of Urubamba, Halloween, Pitusiry hike, meeting the "plaza men", Ollantaytambo, Pisac, all our time around Urubamba. She and I got to be very close and Peru just doesn't feel the same now that she's gone. Who else is going to make fun of me with her big smile, bright curly blonde hair, and sarcastic, bring-me-back-to-earth comments? It's just strange knowing that now when I walk to ProPeru I can't poke my head in her window in the green house just down Torrechayoc to see what she's up to and if she wants to go get potato wedges (the answer is always yes!).

Pasta was a Peruvian friend from Lima who lived with two of our other good friends. Hilarious and fun to be around, he quickly became someone I would always look to hang out with when we were all together. He, too, teased me 24/7, renamed me Wheeeeee, and added another dimension of amazing people to my stay in Urubamba. "Pasta pásamelo pasta pasta pásamelo pásamelo pasta". He's hopefully coming to live and work in Barcelona next spring, so I'm hoping I'll be able to see him and we can explore Barcelona together!

Having to say these goodbyes this weekend reminded me of just how soon I am leaving. Now it's only two days until the great departure date and I can't believe how time has passed. I have to think about things like packing and obeying weight restrictions and paying exit taxes and how hard it's going to be to do those final goodbyes. It'll be easy to reunite with my ProPeru friends and the staff, who have all made my time here absolutely spectacular, but so much more effort and much less likely with my German and Peruvian friends, who were a special extra touch in my life and made it even more international. There are so many more things I wish I could do here--go to my friend Nube's birthday party, explore the Sacred Valley even more, install more stoves--but I guess it's true that all good things have to end. But I do have amazing memories (and lots of pictures!) to sustain me until the next time I see everyone and Peru. But I'm not gone yet...still got another day and a half to take full advantage of my city, Urubamba!

A Peruvian Turkey Day

Last night, for the first time ever, I celebrated Thanksgiving away from my house and my family. Instead, all of the ProPeru volunteers and staff got together to bring the best of our home to Peru and celebrate how much we have to be thankful for by getting to live here. It was strange not watching the Macy's Day Parade, or cooking pies and turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing and every other wonderful dish with my mom and dad and grandma in our kitchen (finally with double ovens so we don't have to fight over who uses it first), curling up with our new Black Lab puppy by a fire, watching a cold and grey Portland fall day pass by outside, prepparing my list of Christmas-gifts-to-buy for Black Friday. I missed all the all-day-long lovely kitchen aromas, gathering leaves and flowers to decorate the table, the lazy and yet busy feeling of the day, the peaceo f being with my family.

But we certainly made this a Thanksgiving to remember and give thanks about. There was every kind of Thanksgiving food imaginable that could be made with Peruvian ingredients (potatoes and camote were the stars, featuring in almost every dish). Everything from traditionals like mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie and stuffing to broccoli casserole, sweet potato casserole with pecans on top, and choclo. We all loaded our platters into the ProPeru office, joined together several tables, and sat down for a happy, loud, thankful feast. Even though I still greatly missed being at home, I couldn't have asked for a better Peruvian version of the holiday.

I am so thankful that I have been lucky enough to meet these amazing people and spend my time with them in Peru. My experience in Peru would have been completely different if I didn't have the spectacular ProPeru volunteers and staff that I've both worked and played with, as well as the amazing Peruvian and German friends I have made. These are people I want to continue to remain friends with, and I am so lucky that they have become an influence in my life. Thank you everyone for an amazing Peruvian Thanksgiving!

Now We're Down a Musketeer :(

{{Mira que te siento lejos; yo te busco y no te encuentro ahora}}

This weekend we had to say our final goodbyes to one of my best friends here, Claire. Claire arrived just a few short weeks after I did in September and it's hard to picture these next few weeks without her. Claire was always around; one of the first people I would call to get together, to get coffee or food at the Muse, to plan one of our adventures. We went to Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, and various other sites near Urubamba together. She was a core part of our group and it's just not right that Clara isn't here! No more girl-who-can-fit-through-the-window-bars and churro man costume, musketeers, crazy, fun, amazingly sweet Claire here with us. That puts us at just 15 days until Maddie leaves, and only 20 more for me here. How is Peru coming to an end so soon?? Too soon, as a matter of fact!

Puh-roo misses you Claire and we all can't wait to see you back in the States at our epic ProPeru reunion! ;)

Remember, Remember the NINTH of November

{{las palabras como patria o porvenir, bandera, nación, frontera, raza, o destino}}

The 9th of November is Día de Urubamba, so this weekend abounded with festivities to celebrate the 170th anniversary of this town. All last week leading up to the 9th of November the Plaza was scrubbed completely clean, all the Plaza buildings were painted white with a red stripe 1/3 of the way up, and a festival air abounded. Basically, Friday night until Monday night was one giant party throughout the district. Villagers came from all the nearby towns in the valley--Yucay, Huycho, Hyallabamba, Chichubamba, just to name a few--to participate in the Miss Urubamba competition on Saturday. This constsis of competitions in best indigenious dancing, best cooking, best sewing of costumes, and in general, best overall representation of the culture of the Urubamba valley.

Then all day Sunday was the Gastronomical and Handicrafts fair in the Plaza. There was all sorts of food--from cuy (guinea pig) to homemade honey from way up the mountains to lomo saltado to special varieties of potatoes with ají and mayonase to chicha--along with beautiful alpaca woven sweaters and hats and scarves and blankets or carved and painted gourds. All native woman proud of what they had made by hand stood by their displays, encouraging you to try their marmalade, feel their sweater, stop for a huge, frothing glass of chicha.

But around 3 on Sunday, the mood in the Plaza changed in preparation for the giant party that was to be there that night. Bands were coming in from Cusco to sing every type of Peruvian music--wayno (folkloric music), cumbia, rock, salsa--so they started putting up the stage decorated with giant Pilsen Callao signs and blasting music from such groups as Grupo Cinco (5) and Hermanos Yaipen (cumbia songs I now know all the words too...). And then out came the Pilsen. Cases upon cases of a dozen 40s were stacked all over the Plaza and the Peruvians began to drink. When Peruvians party, they PARTY!

I went to the festivities later that evening with some of my best ProPeru friends, several of our German volunteer friends, and a few of our Peruvian friends. The road in front of the stage (which was placed, ironically enough, on the stairs in front of the church) was packed like a mosh pit with Peruvians dancing to their favorite wayno and cumbia songs. I can't count the number of times Peruvians tried to offer us beer or asked us to dance because we were gringos, but we had made ourselves strict rules to not separate because we would immediately get lost in the press of people. So we all danced together on the stairs by the stage with a perfect view of the party below. I loved being there as a part of the festivities and showing my pride as an Urubamba citizen. I'm definitely coming home with an Urubamba flag!

And it didn't stop with Sunday, since Monday was the actual Día de Urubamba. From about 9 until 3 Monday, every school in Urubamba and the surrounding districts marched in their school uniforms in front of the main dignitaries of Urubamba and a congressman (still not positive why he was there...). The little kids were the cutest because they couldn't follow the rhythm of the military-style marching and just swung their legs and arms sort of randomly to their own internal beat. All the children wore the most serious looks on their faces as they marched, which dissolved into smiles and hugs as they reached the end of the parade and were scooped into hugs by their parents.

That evening the festivities continued with party part two in a park across from the bus terminal. We also went to that, which not only had more live wayno and cumbia music for dancing (including a very famous singer from Cusco who arrived late, after I left, because she had problems with her car from Cusco to Urubamba), but also carnaval rides and foosball tables. Kids were running around the traveling carnaval, playing, insanely happy, while their parents and siblings danced and just let loose.

But it was back to work as normal for everyone on Tuesday, though I am sure there were quite a few blurry eyes!

Here Comes the....Rain! Woo?!

{{Raindrops on roses}}

The rainy season is officially beginning here in Peru. Now, along with lugging your fleece with you everywhere so your family doesn't worry that you'll get sick because you didn't "abrígate", you also have to make sure to lug your rain jacket. You never know when the wind might bring in the heavy, dark clouds that seem to permanently hang over the mountains and dump heavy buckets of rain over Urubamba. The rain pours for a while--10 minutes maybe, an hour at the maximum--thundering against the metal rooftops, creating rivers and lakes in the streets, drowning the plants, as heaven opens up above us. And then it stops and the clouds clear and suddenly it's sunny and hot again. Or sometimes it stops but the clouds remain all afternoon, a grey covering over the sky (reminds me of home! That's what it's starting to look like there, no?. You leave your house and have to wade through the mud wallows that now populat the streets, looking as the homeless dogs that wander Urubamba shake themselves of excess water that they couldn't hide from and continue their wanderings for food and who even knows what. The mornings are all quite hot, however, the sun beating down with extra force, as if to try and make its last stand against the clouds and rain that are about to come. It smells fresh now, the earth happily drinking up the water that it receives. My family has been worried that it hasn't been raining as much as it normally does this time of year because many of the crops aren't growing as tall as they should be. Let's hope that it keeps coming in force.

The scorpions are also, unfortunately, coming out with the rain. I hadn't even known that there were scorpions here in Urubamba until Michaela found one on her bedcovers one day while napping. My family informed me that the scorpions signify that the wet season is coming soon, which I find funny because I always have associated scorpions with hot, dry places where the coming of rain is like a gift from god. I search my shoes and my bed every day, but so far no scorpion sightings in my house. Let's keep our fingers crossed; hopefully I haven't cursed myself by saying that!

It's off to Spanish class now. See y'all later!

Goodbyes Don't Last Forever...But They Still Suck

{{El destino que nos une y que nos separará}}

This weekend I had to say goodbye to two of my best friends here in Peru, Michaela and Liz, which was quite hard and sad. It's amazing how even though we have only been together for six weeks, we have gotten to be so incredibly close and now know each other so well. And those six weeks sure flew by way too fast for me! We've worked together, we've explored the streets of Urubamba together, we've joked together, we've created fun memories together, we've traveled Peru together, and we've grown together. They were two absolutely amazing people that I was lucky to meet here in Urubamba and cannot wait to see again. I wish they could share the rest of the experience here. Stoves will definitely not be the same without Liz there to make fun of my technique or us to work completely seamlessly together. And who else will I laugh like crazy, open and close the pizzeria, and dodge bricheros with but Michaela? I know things are never meant to stay the same, but sometimes I just wish they could stay as they were when everything seems perfect.

Saying goodbye to Liz and Michaela, however, and looking at how fast the weeks have flown made me realize how little time I have left and how soon I will have to part from all the people I love here. I have been insanely lucky and have gotten to know quite a few Peruvians and also some volunteers from a German organization. It's fun to see them all around town in Urubamba; it makes me feel like I am really at home here. And we try and plan some fun combination of ProPeru volunteers-Urubambinos-Germans for every weekend. But this, unfortunately, means that I'll have even more goodbyes to say when the time comes...and I only have as much time left as I have been here so far. Being on this side of half-way makes it look much closer than I would have imagined!

But I'm going to cherish all the memories I've made here with my fantastic friends and know that we'll get to make many more in the future outside of Peru and work on not worrying about future goodbyes yet. For now, it is only goodbye Liz and Michaela, thank you for being such amazing people, I love you dearly, and Peru misses you like crazy.

A Visit to the Old Hill

{{}}

This weekend I went to Machu Picchu with Claire, Maddie, and Michaela, which was probably one of the most awe-inspiring trips of my life. We didn't get to spend the night up there, but we had lots of amazing time to explore, reflect, wander, comment, and ponder.

We took an early early early train from Ollantaytambo (about 45 minutes from Urubamba) to Machu Picchu. It was a cute blue train with yellow letters, old-style, and took us slowly through the winding country and up towards Machu Picchu. Gradually the land outside began to get greener and greener and the hills surrounding us higher and higher as we approached this sacred Inca place. Claire and I were sitting together in a sea of French tourists who were all completely delighted with everything and took pictures of all they saw. Their tour guide was full of energy and kept walking up and down the aisle, pointing out things in an excited voice and telling them more about the surrounding countryside (or at least that's what I guess, since I don't speak French). At one point he came by playing Celene Dion for them on a mp3 player and stopped at our seats to chat with us. He was excited to find out that we spoke Spanish and soon we were talking in Spanish and English about our work and Peru while he occasionally translated the important points to the French tourists sitting facing us. Nice little language 3-way there!!

When we arrived at Aguas Calientes, the last stop for the train, we had to take a bus up a curvy, steep, and narrow mountain road to Machu Picchu itself. I kept my eyes very resolutely focused ahead as we climbed, since often as not we seemed to be driving right on the edge, and there was barely room for a bus coming down to pass us. But fortunately, these bus drivers did not drive like most Peruvian drivers, so we were safe!

Finally we were up at the top and in we went (after stamping our passports with Machu Picchu stamps, of course), all excitedly commenting to each other that the day had finally come and we were actually at the most impressive Inca site. Then it was through the gates and we found ourselves on the edge of Machu Picchu, with all of its different facets open to our exploration. Machu Picchu is huge, much grander than you may imagine, with ample open and green space (for llama grazing, which we did see!), residencies (including a special residential wing for the King and Queen), temples (The Temple of the Condor, where they did animal sacrifices, and the Temple of the Sun), an astronomy tower, agricultural terraces, a guard/observation house, water fountains, and irrigation channels. The fact that this entire architectural marvel was built in only 50 years completely astounds me and leads me to believe that we are still far behind the Incas in many respects.

The four of us climbed and explored everywhere, sometimes following lines of tour groups (and listening in about the significance of certain spots), other times following the signs that said "Alternate" and descending along paths and next to granite stones that no one else seemed to frequent. In the morning there were lots of tour groups and it was quite busy, but in the afternoon it calmed down some, and we were able to sit high on one of the agricultural terraces and marvel about the wonder laid out below us. We had probably the most perfect weather we could ask for: sun, but not burning sun (like we had Sunday and Monday here in Urubamba), followed by a little breeze and high clouds in the afternoon. The surrounding hills were lush and green, wreathed by caps of fog and clouds, and I could completely understand why this was such a sacred spot to the Incas.

Eventually, we descended from this mystical land back into the tourist trap of Aguas Calientes, then boarded our train back to Ollantaytambo. all of us slept the entire journey home, then, when we arrived back in town, quickly washed the caked-on dirt off our faces and arms, changed clothes, gave a quick run-down to our families here, and then ran out for a fun group Saturday night "on the town". From Inca ruins to a modern bar, from hiking to dancing, a day in Peru can have it all!