Hello All!

Again I am not being very good at posting. I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving and enjoyed some delicious turkey. I had quite an interesting Thanksgiving experience, hanging out with a bunch of ex-pats in a Costa Rican beach bar. I don't think I ever thought about how ex-pats must feel about our country to decide to leave, but I got a quick lesson that night. The older guys talked about politics for quite some time, and boy do they dislike government interfering in their lives in any way. They disliked it so much so that they hate being told to wear seatbelts, think that laws shouldn't say kids need to be in carseats and (direct quote) "If I want to shoot heroine into my forehead, I will. I am an adult dammit" Needless to say it was entertaining conversation for the night.

We spent the rest of the week hanging out at Bianca's aunt and uncles house in a small town by the beach. We left yesterday and are on our way to a beach town on the Caribbean coast now. I will give you more updates and details once I have a chance, just thought I would let you all know I was alive. I can't believe I will be back in the states in a week! This crazy adventure has flown by. Love you all!

Nicaragua

Hello again! I know you are all shocked I am writing again so soon. I am hanging out in a small town in Nicaragua and there is not much to do on a Sunday night so I thought I would write and just let you know how I am doing and all that jazz. After being in Central America for about two weeks, I have to say that I liked South America a lot better. Maybe I haven't given it enough time or experienced enough cities, but the atmosphere up here is just less pleasant. Bianca and I have both found that people are less friendly, there is less to do in the cities and overall their seems to be less of a culture here. In Peru and Bolivia, even in the capital cities, there were people dressed in traditional clothing everywhere we went (including our favorite South American accesory, the top hat for women). Big glittery skirts and sweaters abounded. In Central America there seems to be a lot less tradition. Instead there are a lot of young people who look like they could be going out to clubs in America all day, even on Sunday morning. People don't say hello as they walk past you here, which was a constant in South America. Guys are much creepier here as well. The local way to get someone's attention in both El Salvador and Nicaragua is to make a "chchch" noise. Our friend Sam who is in the Peace Corps does it all the time. He keeps joking that when he goes back to the US and "chch's" a waitress he is going to get slapped. Funny, but probably not far from the truth. We tried to explain to a cab driver that in the US that would be offensive and he asked what we do instead. When we said we just say excuse me, he laughed for a good minute then told us that was a waste of time. Classy, Central America.

We are going to a lake tomorrow to stay in a hostel that over looks the lake and is in an area populated by howler monkeys and other jungle wildlife. We're planning to rent kayaks and innertubes and float around the lake for a while. I am hoping this fun beachy experience will help me develop a love for Central America like I have for South America. After the lake we are heading down to a beach town on the Pacific coast called San Juan del Sur. It is supposed to be beautiful white sand beaches so I am looking forward to that as well. I'll let you know how all those travels go! Hope you are all doing well. It's crazy to think I only have a month left of my trip. The only reason I am not dreading leaving the beautiful beaches down here is knowing I will get to come home to all of you at Christmas, where we can sing carols, have snowball fights and make cookies (I think I am going to bring back the knot-head babies this year) and spend lots of time together. Love you all!

El Salvador!

Hello from the Marriot in El Salvador, the nicest place I have stayed on the entire trip. We came to El Salvador to meet up with Bianca's friend Sam who is serving in the Peace Corps here. We were told we would be staying in his hut in his village, so imagine our surprise when the first place he took us was a Marriot to spend the night. That was a little over a week ago, and we are back here again preparing to leave for Nicaragua tomorrow. But first, a run down of my week in El Salvador.

The area around the Marriot is called Gran Via and looks like it belongs in the US. Bianca and I felt like we were going through culture shock when we first walked through it because it just seems like a regular outdoor shopping mall from home, something so different than anything we had encountered in the past two months. Sam explained to us that in El Salvador there are only two classes, the incredibly rich and those that live in the campo (rural areas where they just work the fields). Sam's village where he is working is located in the north of the country, and the people are lucky to make 6 dollars a day working in the fields. He feels really annoyed by the disparity in the country, and going to his village for the week really brought that home for Bianca and I as well. Before we went to the village we spent an awesome weekend traveling around to a waterfall swimming hole and a delicious food festival. We ate so much, I swear I gained a whole person just that weekend. It was so much fun to hang out with other Peace Corps volunteers for a little and get to hear about all their experiences with their villages. One of the funniest parts of it was asking them if they were fluent in Spanish now. They all responded the same way: "We don't speak Spanish, we speak campo so we speak poverty." Bianca and I weren't really sure what that meant until we arrived in the village. We could not understand anything Sam's host family said, and he explained that they don't use any of the proper grammar or words, they just mumble Spanish and that it took him almost two months to begin to be able to understand them. Even with that language barrier, his family was so warm and welcoming.

I am not going to lie, the week in the village was really boring. Peace Corps volunteers are put into all types of situations and Sam is working in a village that has one need at this point, a well. They even told Sam that they really only need him to get them a well, then he could go. His town is one where many families have relatives in the US who send remittances back to them so they are able to afford a lot more than poorer villages. Sam told us how hard this has been on him, as he doesn't have a lot to do day to day. While we were there, we woke up every morning very early thanks to the many roosters and cows and donkeys all around and their annoying concerts every morning starting at 3 am. For some reason their roosters don't know they are only supposed to crow at sunrise, instead if one crows, then all the roosters in town have to follow for at least five minutes, even if it is 12 or 2 or 3 or 4 in the morning. It was non-stop noise all night, not to mention being freaked out by the sound of the rats scurrying around on tops of the walls of his house and the tarantula infestation. I didn't sleep very well for those few days.

The first morning we were there we woke up at 5 am so we could walk 45 minutes to where the family keeps their cows and milk them. I milked the cow for a couple seconds but I was not very good so the oldest host brother took over and finished. I wasn't too disappointed... cows udders feel rubbery and gross. We finished milking all five cows, then had to wait on the side of the road for a half hour for more people to deliver their milk to our family. They have a collective and join all the milk together to sell it, then split the profits based on how many jars you contribute. We then walked back to the house and hung out with the family for a little while. Sam's host parents have 8 kids, two of which are in the States right now. Five of them are still living at home and are all boys, and all of them were cute and really embarrassed at first to talk to us, but they warmed up over the course of the week. Sam's host mom on the other hand took no time in warming up to us. She cooked us all her best meals and called us her sisters the first night. That poor woman is in desperate need of some female bonding time, and she took all the chances she had while we were there, hugging us and sitting with us constantly. It was really sweet. We spent the rest of the week doing typical campo things, walking around talking to villagers, shelling beans, and sitting around... a lot. We also visited another volunteers site which was up a huge hill that was more like a mountain we had to climb. He lives in a much smaller village that does not get any remittances and the difference was apparent immediately. All the houses were much smaller and made of mud with dirt floors and tin roofs but his village was also much friendlier. In Sam's village, his host family were the only people who were really kind and open, the rest didn't want to have much to do with us. It was interesting to see what money from the US actually does to a place. I think in reality the smaller village was better off and happier with their life because they were less aware of what "they were missing out on" from the US. Overall, it was a great experience to see the village and I definitely was reminded once again how lucky I was to be born in the US to a great family and always have so many opportunities open to me.

After a tearful goodbye with Sam's host mom today, we are back in the capital and staying in the beautiful Marriot before we get up early to take a tourist bus to Nicaragua. Luckily it is a relatively short 10 hour ride, so we will be in Nicaragua by tomorrow afternoon! Miss and love you all, and I will write again soon!

Back in Peru

Hello all! I am currently in the north of Peru in a small beach town called Mancora after some more ridiculously long overnight bus rides. We had to take local buses because all the tourist buses were full and that of course was quite an experience. At the beginning all these people who are not actually going on the bus get on to tell jokes or try to sell things and demand money for their performance. It was less than entertaining.

Before we headed up north, we were really enjoying ourselves in Arequipa and Huacachina. We did a three day canyon trek out of Arequipa. It is the second biggest canyon in the world, and there is an incredible oasis right in the middle of it. We hiked down into the canyon the first day, then to the oasis on the second day. It was lush and beautiful and we got to swim in pools and enjoy warm weather for the first time in a month. We were worried about the third day because we had to hike straight up back out of the canyon. We woke up at 3 am so that we could avoid the heat of the sun. Luckily there was a full moon so we were able to see pretty well, and we made it to the top in 2 hours and 20 minutes when we were told it would take 3 or 4. Feeling pretty proud, we enjoyed breakfast then got on a bus back to town. Sadly, we had to take an overnight bus that night to Huacachina that night.

Huacachina also happens to be an oasis in the middle of a sand desert, surrounded by huge hills. The main attraction of the area is sand boarding. Slightly afraid, Bianca and I plucked up our courage and got in a dune buggy to try it out. The buggy ride itself was ridiculous, and our drive would race over hills so we would fly and then slam back into the sand. It was so much fun, and he kept making us laugh because he would shout "plane" before every bump. The sand boarding itself was scary but fun. We got three practice runs in, and I was able to stand up and make it down without falling. Then the drivers took us to these huge hills and the fear kicked in. I opted not to go on my feet, but to lay on my stomach and slide down. It was so fast and a lot of fun. We finished the day covered in sand. When I took my pants off later that day, huge piles of sand came out of my pockets. We spent a night in the oasis (which was not very pretty because it is the dry season so nothing was very green) and then hopped on another overnight bus to get to Mancora. I will be hear for a few days so hopefully I can post again soon and fill you all in on the rest of Bolivia. Love and miss you all!

Random Update

I am going to take a break from describing Bolivia to tell you about the worst night I have had in South America. I´ll continue with Bolivia details soon, but first...
The Saga of the Worst Night
Last night Bianca and I had to take a bus from La Paz back into Peru to get to a place called Arequipa. Because of its location, we knew that we would have to change buses at the border and then again in a town called Puno. We loaded our bags onto the bus in La Paz and off we went. When we arrived at the border, we watched them put our big backpacks on a rolling cart and were instructed to go into the immigration offices to get stamped out of Bolivia and into Peru. After we got our stamps, we walked over the border and found the bus driver with our luggage cart. He told us our bus would arrive in 30 minutes so we should go to the bathroom and get something to eat. Bianca and I went and got chicken sandwiches and less than 15 minutes later walked the half block back to where the man had been, but he was no where to be found. The man had given us a vague idea of where the bus would be coming so we headed up that way figuring he would be up there. Nope. He was gone and so was all our luggage. We spent the next 10 minutes running around frantically talking to travel agencies trying to find out where our bus was. Finally someone informed us that our bus had left 10 minutes ago. We started to get very upset, and the offfered to call our bus company and have them hold our bags and put them on their bus and hold that bus for us, but that they would only hold the bus for 20 minutes. I was in tears in this point, thank God Bianca was still holding it together. That company (Senor de los Milagros) told us to take a local car to the next town (Puno) to meet the bus, or that a taxi could be quicker. The only problem was we only had 80 soles between us and the taxi driver wanted us to pay 40 each, and we had to pay the bus company for calling to hold our bags (apparently we had to bribe everyone for the slim chance of getting our belongings back). We asked the taxi driver if there was an ATM in Puno and then his price went up to 100 soles per person. Already fed up with the terrible situation we were in, we got into the local bus. That was the worst ride of my entire life. The whole time all I could think of was the contents of my bag and how much I had lost, how we still had two months left and I have no clothes, hiking boots, glasses or contact stuff, medicine, everything. To make matters worse, our only hope of finding the bags was to get to Puno in time to catch the bus and at a check point, the police stopped our car and decided to search through all the bags. At this point Bianca was crying because this stop was going to make it even less likely that we would find them, but I had pulled myself together and could be in charge now. Finally we got back on the road for 30 more stressful minutes and got to Puno. We jumped off the little bus and asked the nearest guy where to find the Milagros office and bus. We had to ask three more times to get the correct directions, but finally we could see the bus station. We were almost running to the station when I saw a bus with the word Milagros across the top pulling out. I swear I have never run so fast in my life, I just took off after the bus and ran two blocks but finally flagged it down and made it pulled over. We talked to the driver and explained that we thought our bags were on the bus and could we please look. He seemed annoyed but the second driver (all buses down here have two for the overnights) said he thought he remembered hearing about that. He came down and opened the hatch and there, thank the good Lord, were our bags. All of them. Still full of all our stuff. I was so relieved I hugged the driver. Bianca and I climbed on board the bus and just sat for 10 minutes unable to believe the miracle that had just happened. It was the luckiest moment of our trip and also taught us a really important lesson: don´t walk away from your bags no matter who tells you its okay. We decided that we need to pay some sort of tribute to the higher powers that be so we are going to volunteer somewhere in Arequipa (this seemed more meaningful than the rain dance that Bianca suggested haha). Anyway, thats the story of the three most stressful hours of my life. On a side note, the company that helped us in the border town was called Senor de los Milagros which means Man of Miracles, and the bus that I chased down like Ussain Bolt was called Miracles. Coincidence? Who´s to say.

Long lost Meghan....

Hello Everyone! Sorry I have been so terrible about posting recently. Bolivia has been amazing and has left very little time to be on the computer but I am prepared to sit here for as long as it takes to update you all about the last few weeks. So sit down, grab a snack and get prepared for a long one.

Two weeks ago, we went on a tour in the Amazon region of Bolivia in an area called Las Pampas. It was supposed to be 3 day adventure complete with boat rides through crocodile infested rivers in the boiling heat but because this is Bolivia, nothing goes according to plan. We were supposed to take a small plane at 6 in the morning, but we arrived at the airport to find that our flight had been cancelled due to smoke. Bolivians burn their fields at the end of winter to prepare them for spring, adn the smoke was so thick the planes could not take off. Our tour was scheduled to start at 8 am so we knew we were in troube when we didn´t board a plane until 9. We loaded onto an 18 seat plane and off we went feeling good, until the pilot told us we had to make an emergency landing because the smoke was too bad again. That landing was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. The plane felt like it was going straight down and all you could see out the front was smoke, then all the sudden we made it through the smoke and could see the ground hurdling towards us until the pilot pulled up at the last second and we skidded across the dirt runway. After that harrowing landing, they led us into a small, practically abandonded military airport base. The pilots had to chase cows out of the building before we could go it, which was hysterical and made us laugh enough to feel less stressed about the landing. After three hours of waiting a bus finally came to drive us the 45 dust filled minutes to the town we were originally meant to land in. We made it to the small town and headed to our tour agency, who told us that because we were so late we would have to leave the next morning. We got that sorted out then headed back to the airline to change our return flights, then checked in to a cute little hotel for the night.
The next morning, we woke up bright and early to head out on our adventure only to find that it was pouring rain and very cold. We had been told that it would be between 35 to 40 degrees celcius the whole time and to bring nothing for cold because we would sweat to death. Sadly, we listened to all the other tourists and ended up being very cold for the next few days. Even though we had to boat through the rain, the views were still amazing and the animals were still out in force. We saw tons of crocodiles, caimans, capybara, birds of all kinds and even some pink dolphins. Because it is the dry season (or so we were told, despite the fact that it poured on us for 2 days) the watyer levels were low and we would have to get out and push the boat sometimes. The first time it happened our guide had just pointed out a huge group of crocodiles in the water, who all sunk under as they saw our boat coming. Then Jamie our guide goes, okay time to get out and push. Bianca was hysterical and told Jamie there was no way she was getting out when we just saw them swim towards us to get us, but we ended up climbing out and pushing anyway then frantically scrambling back into the boat when we hit deeper water.
On the second day we went in search of anacondas and snakes. I found the first one when it crawled over my shoe and made me shriek. Luckily it was just a skinny little guy about two feet long so my fear was unnecessary. After another two hours of walking in the rain we finally found an anaconda resting underneath a bush. We got some really good pictures of it then carried on our way back to our camp. That afternoon we went fishing for piranas. It was so fun, the rain had finally stopped and I actually caught one! We brought them back and had them cooked so we could taste them...it was not very good.
On the third day the weather was finally clearing up and we hopped in our boat excited about the prospect of swimming with dolphins, which was the agenda for the day. We were less excited when our guide pulled into the same exact spot we had been at the day before fishing for pirana and told us this was where we could swim with the dolphins. We laughed but no one really wanted to swim. Bianca did jump in, but it was still cold and the water was dark and murky, so I passed on the swimming. I did get to touch a crocodile though, and that was pretty cool. We then headed back down the river, and eventually back to the town we had to fly out of. Overall, it was a greta weekend and I was glad I got the chance to hang out in the Amazon for a while.

When we got back to La Paz, we hung out in the city for a while and enjoyed walking around and taking in the city. La Paz is huge and beautiful, and once again we made some friends and got stuck in the city for more time than we expected. We did a lot of walking around and eating at delicious restaurants. 1 US dollar gets you 7 Bolivianos so we have been having some amazing food for not that much money. The best night was the night we went to an all inclusive steak dinner that cost 130 bs for a shot of tequila to start the meal, a bottle of wine, salad bar, a plate of nachos, and then the main course was a huge plate of meat, including a steak, alpaca, a burger, blood sausage, chorizo and more, followed by the most delicious chocolate mousse I have ever eaten. All of that for less than 20 US dollars. It was phenomenal.

I am being kicked out of the internet cafe so I am going to have to finish this post later, but I hope this begins to satisfy your curiosity about what I have been up to. Hopefully I can post in the next few days. Hope everything is going well at home, and love you all!

Some Bolivia and the Amazon

Hello all! Sorry it has taken me so long to post again, I was away in the Amazon for the last five days and there was no internet to be found, although they did have satellite TV. So here goes about 10 days worth of information...

Two weekends ago when we first got to Bolivia we went to Copacabana, the town on the edge of Lake Titicaca. We had to take a bus from Cusco to Copacabana and we were told that is was a direct bus, but this is South America so nothing goes as they say it will. We left on our overnight bus and were woken up at 6:30 a.m. by the driver to tell us we had to get off the bus. Looking around we realized we were not in a town, we hadn´t crossed a border and gotten stamped and we deduced we were definitely not in Bolivia. The driver explained that we were going to get in a little van to take us the rest of the way, which was all included in our ticket so not to pay anyone. So Bianca and I load into the front seat of the van as there were already 12 people squished in the back. The new driver turns the key, the car doesn´t start, which elicits angry spanish yelling from our "guide lady." Bianca and I are asked to just climb out for a second so he can fiddle with the ignition, with is apparently under the front seat in these cars. He says its great so we climb back in only to have the car not start again, the yelling does start, and we climb back out with all our bags. Finally after about 5 minutes of tinkering the car starts and we are on our way to Copacabana.

Crossing the Bolivian border was easier than we expected. We did have to walk across the border. The vans don´t cross so we had to get out of the van, walk up a huge hill to get to the immigrations offices to get stamped, then walk up more hills to get to a van on the other side.

Copacabana was a cool little town, and Lake Titicaca was AMAZING. I wasn´t prepared for how huge and crystal blue it would be. I loved every second of being there. After a quiet night in Copacabana, we took a three hour boat ride across the lake to an island called Isla del Sol. We got dropped off on the North side of the island so we could hike to the South side. We heard the hike would take about 5 hours so we were prepared for a full day adventure. The idea is to climb up to the very top of the small mountain and walk along the top of the island to the other side. Somehow we followed a wrong trail and ended up making our own, very unique way across the island, including jaunts into someones pig pen where we were chased by a very angry dog. It was all good fun and we ended up making it to the other end in three hours instead of five. The view from the walk was incredible the whole time, and since we took a strange way we also ended up walking throught the little villages and getting to see the way the people lived on the island. There are no water lines and no cars. All the water is brought to the island in old gas cans and then carried up dirt paths by donkeys. We had another interesting toilet experience too. This one didn´t have a handle for flushing, you just poured water from a bucket next to the toilet in after you had gone and somehow it all disappears. Strange, but it probably saves water since there is so little available on the island.

That night we had a delicious pizza dinner and watched the sun set, then headed back to our hostel to relax. The next morning we got up and ate breakfast at a cute little terrace cafe where one lady was the hostess, waitress and cook. She was also quite talkative and told us how Americans are great travelers and very clean, but Isrealis and Bolivians are not. It was nice to finally here something positive about Americans, because there have been times Bianca and I thought about telling people we are Canadian. After breakfast we headed back on the boat to Copacabana and hung out for the day before hopping on a bus to La Paz.

The bus to La Paz was also supposed to be direct, so once again Bianca and I were surprised when we were woken up and told to get out of the bus. We asked some Bolivian women what was going on and they explained that we had to cross a strait, and we would go on little boats and the bus would go on its own boat. Okay? So we madew our way over to the dock where we were herded onto the tiniest boat and cramped down in the very front. The boat was so low that water was splashing in through a broken window, and Bianca said "Well, I feel like an illegal immigrant" and we laughed the entire way there about the absurdity of Bolivian travel. The infastructure in Bolivia is so much less developed than Peru and it has been interesting to experience what Bolivians put up with in their daily life. The best part about the surprise boat ride was the lady on the other side cooking sausage sandwhiches. We got ourselves some dinner, hopped back on the bus and made it safely to our hostel in La Paz, where we are still hanging out. I will update again soon about the jungle tour we went on this past weekend, but for now this post is long enough.

I am assuming that most of the people reading this blog are my family and close friends, so this next part is for them. It´s gonna be mushy, so if you aren´t part of my fam squad or a close friend, feel free to skip it.

Family (and close friends)! I miss you guys so much! Its a little over a month in so I thought I would give you a little update about how I am feeling and all that. I love every minute of being in South America. The cities we have seen and the people we have met have been incredible and I am so lucky I have this opportunity. I do miss you guys a lot though. My guide over the weekend was named Jamie and it made me think about how I was missing Sunday dinner and birthdays, how I wont get to go pumpkin picking with all of you and just all the little parts of life I am missing out on at home since I am down here. I guess I just felt like I should tell you all how important you are to me and that I love you all so much. (Shout out to my 237 girls... last year was the best year of my life and I miss our little life together. love you all). I am also so excited to be coming home right before Christmas, and I know it means we will get to spend so much time together, and I love that being with John has given me more people to spend time with and appreciate at the holidays. I can´t wait to get a tree and make cookies and do all the things I love with you guys. So don´t worry, I think about you all the time and can´t wait to come home to you, but first I have some more adventures to have and amazing things to see, all of which is only so cool because I get to eventually share it with you. Love you all.

Copacabana!

Hey all! I made it to Bolivia safely after a very interesting couple days trying to get here. There is only one internet cafe in Copacabana and the guy is charging outrageous prices, so I will post a real update once I get to La Paz on Wednesday. For now, we are island hopping around Lake Titicaca (I know you just laughed, Dad). I hope all is well at home, just wanted to let everyone know I was safe!

P.S. For dinner tonight I had trout with a side of "puree of white Popes." Restaurants need to stop using google translator... haha

Still in Cusco...

Hello everyone! I am writing to you from Cusco, where I am still staying. Bianca had to head home on Thursday to be in a wedding, and she will be back on Monday night, but I decided to stay in Cusco since I already knew the city and would be alone for the long weekend. Much to my surprise, I am really enjoying the time by myself. On Thursday afternoon I hung out with a group of people from the hostel, and we went out to a typical English pub for dinner. I was forced to eat a pie in an effort to experience true Britishness and it was delicious. On Friday morning, I went to a cafe to work on my law school personal statement. My experiences in Peru made it very easy to find the inspiration to write, and John thinks it´s really good (which means it must at least be decent because he is quite particular about writing styles). Friday afternoon there was BBQ at my hostel including three types of salads, chicken kabobs and hamburgers and sausages, all you can eat for about 5 US dollars. I ate myself near to bursting and considered it a great day. Yesterday I worked on more law school applications and walked around the city during the day, then went to a delicious Indian buffet for dinner. I ate with a woman who had worked as a journalist in DC before taking a leave to explore South America. We had great conversation and she confirmed how much I want to be in DC for Law School. Today, (Sunday) my British friends were back from Machu Picchu so we spent the morning watching movies and eating french toast. In the afternoon, the female half of the pair and I went shopping. Tuesday is Peter´s birthday (the male half of the pair) so we bought him some awesome gifts including the most ridiculous mask/ski hat I have ever seen. We also found a store that makes amazing chocolate cake for only 25 soles (less than 10 bucks) for a whole cake. It should be a great celebration!

I figured since I haven´t done anything that interesting to report, I would mention some of the funny/ annoying / different cultural things about Peru. First of all, the bathrooms here are ridiculous. None of the toilets have seats which we are told is because it is healthier for your body if you squat while going (yeahhhh, right). They also don´t have toilet paper anywhere, and your lucky if there is running water in the bathroom to wash your hands. The toilets I am going to categorize as annoying. A funny difference is the street vendors, who sell everything from candy and popcorn to meat on a stick. There is a popcorn lady outside our hostel who gives you a whole bag for 1 sol. They also sell toilet paper at the meat stick vendors which I can´t help but laugh at every time. They know how to pair things here. The service at restaurants is different as well. There is never silverware on the table, it comes in a basket when you order food, and you only get what they believe pertains to your meal (like spoons for salad for example...). You also only get 1 napkin, and they literally frown at you when you ask for more and wont bring them. They also are not very attentive. Last night for example, our waiter spent the entire time sitting in a corner picking his nose. I ended up walking into the kitchen myself to get the bread we had ordered (I didn´t want him touching it anyway with his booger hands).

So thats my (less than thrilling) report from Cusco. Bianca gets back tomorrow night and we will stay in Cusco at least through Wednesday for Peter´s birthday. After that we will head down to Lake Titicaca, where we will go to some Peruvian islands, then head over to the Bolivian side. After hearing countless people rave about Bolivia, we decided we will spend about two weeks there and then come back to Peru. I´ll update again when our plans are sure and let you know how the birthday celebration goes! I miss everyone back home and hope all is going well. Love you all!

The trek to Machu Picchu

Hello all! I am back in Cusco after the most amazing 5 days of my life. Machu Picchu was incredible to see, and it was amazing to think how hard the Incas worked to bring all the building stones up the mountain, and also how much they had to climb mountains in their daily life. As amazing as Machu Picchu was, for me, the trek there was the more meaningful experience.

The trek we did was really challenging, and maybe we should have thought about the fact that it said moderate to difficult when we booked it since the most exercise I got before the trip was taking walks around my neighborhood with John. We hiked 6 to 7 hours a day and about 9 miles per day. The first day was without a doubt the hardest as it was 6 hours all straight up the mountain and also above 15,000 ft so breathing was difficult. I have never been so cold as I was that first night. It was -15 degrees celcius and we were sleeping at a small pass between two snow capped mountains. Even with all our clothes on and a hot water bottle in our sleeping bags, neither of us could get warm. Luckily that was the worst night and day, and from there everything went well.

Bianca and I got lucky with our guide, a woman named Norma who grew up in Cusco and is one of the only female guides for the Salkantay Trek. She was really encouraging and funny although she did have some really funny qualities that we started to notice later in the trip. For one thing, she was really bossy. Not in a mean way, just in a way that had Bianca and I cracking up. She would tell us things like "you lay down for an hour then you shower," "you drink this tea" or our personal favorite was "go down to the river, look for 10 minutes then you come back." She also really didn´t like animals, which we realized a little the first and second day, and it became more and more apparent as she told us some ridiculous stories. Two are worth repeating.
1. Norma and her mom house students who are studying abroad, and one year a French girl was living with them and adopted a cat off the street. The cat lived in the house with the girl for two weeks, but Norma´s mom always hated the cat. One day, the French girl went to class, and Norma´s mom found the cat sitting on a chair in the kitchen. So obviously, she picked up the cat by the tail and swung it around over her head and threw it out the window, and it was never seen again.
2. There are a lot of stray dogs in Cusco and Norma and her mom do not like all the barking and noise they make. One particular time, there were so many dogs barking outside their house that they decided to do something about it. So that night, they put out poison and the next day there were a lot less dogs. Direct quote from Norma " I think we got 40 of them!" At first, this story really freaked Bianca and me out, but now we can´t stop laughing every time we think of her telling it.
Aside from her penchant for murdering animals, Norma was an amazing guide. We ran into her in the city yesterday, and she walked around with us and helped us run some errands, showing us better, cheaper places we wouldn´t have found ourselves.

So back to the trek... The second day we walked 5 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. We stopped for lunch in between, and the food we ate was amazing. Our cook was named Ruben, and we had three courses for breakfast lunch and dinner. It was more food than we could eat, and it was better than any of the traditional food we had tried in Cusco. The third day day we only had to walk for 6 and a half hours in the morning, and then we stayed at that site to camp that night. The third night was the least restful sleep we got, because we were in a small town that played music til about 1 am, then woke up at 5 am and played more loud music. It´s one of the cultural differences we have noted, that there is always music blaring in Cusco, from every house, early morning til late at night.

The fourth day we did something very unconventional. We had asked Norma if she knew anything about the ziplining site that was close to where we were camped. She said she would try to find out, and the next morning when we climbed in the bus (we had to drive to the next place to hike) she said "Want to go ziplining?" We were so excited, but I was also a little scared. We got to Cola del Mono, which was just a hut in the middle of the jungle, and there were three boys who looked to be about 15 that were our guides. With our lives in the hands of children, we hiked up the mountain to the first line, and off we went. There were six in total, and they zipped back and forth over a canyon. It was an amazing view and such a rush jumping off the platform and zooming out in the open. The best part was the Norma and Ruben came too! We made Ruben do them all first and told him it was because he was the hombre of the group and had to be the bravest. The last line, they asked Bianca and I if we wanted to do the superman. Bianca immediately wanted to, so they turn your harness around and strap you in so you are facing the ground and a guide is holding your legs behind you. I wasn´t to sure I wanted to do this, but the guide egged me on, so I did. It was exhilirating, and definitely the closest I will ever get to flying.

After our little zipline detour, we got back on the road and hiked the last three hours to Aguas Calientes, the town under Machu Picchu. The town was nothing special, and we went to bed early that night so we could wake up at 4:30 the next morning to get in line for the buses. In Machu Picchu, there is a mountain called Waynu Picchu, from which you have the most amazing view of the ruins, but only 400 people are allowed to climb it per day, and of course everyone wants to, so you have to get up early to get the "special stamp". In the picture of Machu Picchu at the top of my blog, Waynu Picchu is the big mountain in the background. Luckily the early wake up call paid off and we were able to hike the mountain. It was difficult (for the Kunkles, similar to the Beehive in Maine, but even more narrow and straight up) and took about an hour and a half, but the view from the top was incredible. After spending some time up there, we wandered through Machu Picchu for a couple hours. Norma explained to us that Machu Picchu was never finished, and that the only Incas who ever lived there were the ones who were constructing it. It was an incredible amount of work for no one to ever enjoy it.

While Machu Picchu was amazing to see, for me, hiking the 4 days to get there was the more incredible experience. I am so used to instant gratification at home, and this was anything but. By the time I got to Machu Picchu, every part of my body hurt, I had more blisters than I knew was possible and I was exhausted, but so proud of Bianca and myself for doing it. We pushed ourselves and worked really hard, and we loved it so much we are already planning a few more treks in Peru. But not today; today we are going to get massages, then the work can begin again :)

I hope all is well at home. I love you and miss you all!

Cusco!

I am having an amazing time here in Cusco. I love the city, the hostel we are staying in is amazing and we have met some really cool people so far. We walked around the city and ate delicious food with our new friends over the weekend, and on Sunday we all went on a bus tour that took us to four major Inca ruins outside Cusco. They were incredible to see and it was a good chance to climb ruins in my hiking boots and get a feel for how they will work on the trail. Our tour guide was this really funny guy from outside the city who would talk in English and Spanish and his English translations were hysterical and somehow sounded like singing.

Walking through the city of Cusco can be an intense experience sometimes. There are so many people on the streets who bombard you every step trying to sell you stuff or give you a message. The adults are annoying but when its little kids, I just feel so bad for them. Bianca and I were sitting on the steps of the Cathedral on the main square and a little boy came up and demanded that we buy finger puppets from him, and when we said no he told us that we were millionaires with 100 houses so we needed to buy them from him because he didn´t even have one house. This boy was probably only 6 or 7, and while the statement isn´t true, relative to the life he leads it´s fairly accurate. The third world parts of Peru have been really eye opening, and the obvious poverty on the outskirts of all the cities has only made me more dedicated to going into human rights law.

Yesterday we went horseback riding with a guide from the hostel. Just to give you an idea of how cheap things are here, a ride to and from the farm plus a drink plus three hours of riding and a tour of the mountain area cost 20 soles, which is about 7 dollars. So we mount our horses and as we are pulling away from the farm, I ask the guide what my horse is called. ¨Tormenta,¨ he says. Great, I think, I´m riding a horse named Torment through rocky mountains... The horses ended up being a lot of fun, but I was a little nervous going down steep rocky paths listening to the horses hooves slip and scrape. There was also a touchy moment where my horse tried to pass another horse and got kicked. Luckily she barely seemed to notice and just kept on trekking, and we arrived safely back at the farm after getting to experience beautiful views of the city.

Tomorrow we have a briefing with our group for the Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu. It´s an alternate route to the Incan Trail that is one day longer and less popular, so it will be less crowded and is has better views because its the biggest mountain around Machu Picchu. We leave Thursday to start the trek and get back on Monday, so next time you hear from me, I will have hiked to the lost city of the Incas! I´m very excited about the trip and can´t wait to see how it goes.

Hope everything is going well at home, I love and miss you all!

Meghan

From Lima to Cuzco

After an interesting night in Lima, we woke up the next morning to enjoy breakfast at our hostel. There were animals running around everywhere and Bianca decided she wanted to hold a parrot on her shoulder. So she is holding it, I take her picture and then she tries to get it off her but the parrot doesn´t want to budge. After a couple of tries coaxing it off the hotel staff noticed the situation and came over to help us. It took three people and a stick and about 5 minutes to finally get the parrot off her, and then we were able to laugh about it all through breakfast, during which a dog turtle and cat all tried to eat off people´s plates. Needless to say, we were less than sad to leave that place.

On Thursday night we hopped a 18 hour overnight bus to Cusco. It was incrediby long and slightly uncomfortable, but I was able to watch The Tooth Fairy (the Rock is no longer cool), Posiedon, Pirates of the Carribean 1 and 2, What Happens in Vegas and X-Men. It was more movies than I ever needed to see at once but it kept us fairly well entertained.

We will be hanging around Cusco for the next couple days before we head to Machu Picchu on the 9th. I´ll post again if anything exciting happens.

I love you all,

Meghan

I made it to PERU!

Hey all!

I just wanted to let everyone know I made it safely to Peru! I will be heading to Cusco on an 18 hour bus this afternoon, and will arrive there Friday around 2. After I have some more adventures, I´ll put up a more interesting post, I just wanted everyone to know I got here safely.

Love you all,
Meghan

I'm off!

Hi Everyone!

I am once again leaving the country, this time to travel through Peru and then up to El Salvador and Costa Rica. I will try to post at least once a week and keep you all up to date about where I am/what I am doing/whether or not I have been robbed yet (just kidding...sort of). I'll put up a post either Wednesday night or Thursday to let you all know I arrived safely.

Love you all!
Meghan