So my last day in Cusco was Saturday the 10th. I slept in till 8am, lounged around the hostel drinking coffee and catching up on e-mails. My main focus for the day was to walk around exploring Cusco and buying a gift or two for my mom. I spent most of the day wandering in and out of shops in the San Blass district. I found some lovely shops; one of my favorites was a chocolate shop that made chocolate out of coca leaves. The use of the coca leaves has been part of the Peruvian society since the beginning of [View Full Entry]

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Better late then never! My last day in Peru did not go as planed therefor I am late with the Machu Picchu update, I beg your forgiveness. So Thursday (the 8th) we arrived in to Aqua Caliente in the late afternoon. Freddy, our guide, got everyone squared up at their hotels and showed us were to meet for dinner. I was the only one staying at my hotel out of our group. The hotel sat partway up the hill and had a nice view, however, no hot water and to think the name of the town means hot water, go figure! [View Full Entry]

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We started our trek off really early in the morning on Monday the 5th. We had a very interesting buss ride to a small town called Cruzpata. The buss went off the paved road and put her into low drive to chug it’s way up a switchbacky hill/mountain. In Cruzpata we collected our backpacks and climbed into the back of a truck that took us farther up the hill. There we had a small breakfast before we started the trek. Plans had changed over night for our trek and our group was now nine people, the three originals, me, Evi and [View Full Entry]

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Today I went to the Sacred Valley of the Inca’s with Ed, Dave and Nadia. It was amazing and only a taste of what Manchu Pichu is going to be like. The terraces are massive, not like the small flimsy looking terraces that they currently make and use. The ruins were amazing the way the Inca fit the rock together with out mortar. I climbed to the top of a small peak behind the main citadel it was a nice little 4-low 5th class scramble. The rock is really sticky! I would love to do some real rock and mountain climbing [View Full Entry]

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My last evening in Ayacucho was one of my best…… doesn’t always go that way. A big group of us went for the hike up the hill to the cross. It was a great work out and my ass is felling it now. A few of us went out for a proper Pisco Sour after dinner, I can’t believe it took me three weeks to try a Pisco they are damn good. Saturday morning I got up at the crack and headed to the airport. Off to Cusco. I was kind of wondering if I really wanted to go to Cusco [View Full Entry]

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Today is my last full day in Ayacucho. This morning at the clinic I was put to work taking patient vitals, giving vaccinations and medications, the usual. I really have enjoyed this part of my volunteer work. The people really seem to appreciate that a Gringa is helping them. I get lots of hugs everyday from my patients. Just before noon the girl who had the baby two days ago came in with the new baby for their two day check up. It was nice to see her. She looks like she is recovering well and the baby is healthy. She [View Full Entry]

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Today at the clinic I got to assist with a delivery. Rebecca came with me to Santa Elena today and as soon as we walked in the door the Doctor told us to go to the delivery room. My roll was very small but at least I got to see how they do it with out drugs and I’ll tell ya right now you can count me out! The delivery tables are really old and leave no room for comfort for the mother. I held the girls leg in the stirrup and held her head up for her during her contractions. [View Full Entry]

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Hola! Well it is All Saints Weekend down here. There has been festivities abound. Tomorrow is the actual holiday, so there will be no business conducted and just fiesta. We are going to go to the Wari ruins tomorrow morning. It should be interesting. The Wari was a civilization that predated the Inca and was at one time the largest city in the world, larger then Rome. Yesterday we spent a good portion of the day relaxing and then went into town. In the main plaza they had different schools competing to make these giant merles in the street. They were [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday, Saturday the 27th, Rebecca and I went to help Lynn with the river clean up project. Lynn has been educating the children in the schools on the importance of clean water. She has give countless newspaper and T.V. interviews to help create public awareness on the importance of clean water. The river clean up was the worse experience I have had in Peru. I worked a 15´by 5´ swath of the river and collected ten bags of garbage in just over two hours. The rivers and any other open spaces are used as landfills. It is very disturbing that the [View Full Entry]

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It must be the “Altitude”. I’ve come up with a small list of things that we all keep blaming on the altitude. 1. Excessive eating 2. Afternoon nap 3. Excessive snaking 4. Late afternoon nap 5. Only having the energy to read a good book 6. Shopping 7. Excessive Shopping 8. What did you just say? 9. Head ach 10. Tripping over nothing and then blaming the Peruvian side walks. 11. Weight gain 12. Everyone has taken up knitting 13. Drinking Vino on the roof in the evenings 14. I can’t remember what I was saying 15. HAFE (High Altitude Flatulence [View Full Entry]

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