KellyMarie

After my wonderful weekend in the jungle, I went into this weekend not expecting much. I thought Machu Picchu would not live up to the GIGANTIC amount of hype it gets and couldn´t imagine it living up to all the praise it gets. However, once again I was suprised beyond all of my doubts. Peru continues to unveil these magical secrets it has hidden everywhere. Also I guess it was just the whole atmosphere of the week that made it so amazing. Tuesday night I went ot Ayaviri, which is this little town like two hours from Puno, that has absolutely no tourists... so i stand out ALOT. but i stayed overnight there at this little, creepy hotel. Then the next morning, me and my coworker got up super early to go to Minera Arasi, which ... read more

Sorry it´s been awhile since i´ve updated everyone on whats going on here! Well the strikes have calmed down.. at least for now in Puno.. i can´t help but think tho that we are in the eye of a storm. the Juliaca airport is back up and running, so that at least makes me feel better. Last i heard the Cusco airport was shut down from too much smoke from the protests burnign everything...b ut i think that as well is back up and running. As for the teachers strike.. some schools started back up again... my host brother and sister didnt´go to school but the grandmother says they should be goign back tomorrow... i hope for their sake they do! this teacher protesting for 4 plus weeks is ridiculous. HOwever there is supposed to be ... read more

Where do i start with this week... well like i said before we didn{t travel at all last weekend because of the blockade in bolivia. but the strikes and protests were/are? getting bad so we actually ended up having work off on wednesday and thursday because either our offices were closed or it was too dangerous to go to them. Anyways on the strikes and protests... it{s crazy here. the main strikers are the teachers... but let me explain the ridiculousness. the teachers are striking because the national government is trying to implement a basic minimum standard... like a third of the teachers can{t even solve basic mathematics problems! so if the teachers fail this test three times, it{s considered grounds to fire them. the teachers have been striking for 4 weeks saying this will lead ... read more

hey everyone, i just got back from a long weekend trip to Arequipa. Arequipa is the second biggest city in Peru and i definately thought it was the prettiest place by far that we have seen. 3 other interns and i took a 230 bus on thursday to Arequipa. the drive was about 4 to 5 hours and was absolutely beautiful! it´s impossible to describe what it looked like, and i was only seeing outside of the bus window. but as the sun began to set there was just strips of deep reds lower in the sky, inbetween the two montains. Then later the moon was the brightest i´ve ever seen it... it seriously just illuminted the different mountains we passed. the other interns were kinda sleeping so i had to hit mike, the other intern ... read more

hey everyone!!!! sorry i´ve been slow on updating this! bad news my pictures take FOREVER to load on the slow computers here but i´m working something out so yes, soon there will be pictures. i´ll start with last week.... on friday night me and the 7 other interns all took a late night bus to Cuzco (cuzco is the city where Disney´s Emperor´s new Groove takes place)... we left at like 8 pm and got in around 3 or 4 am.... yea it wasn´t fun... i couldn´t sleep much. well to make it worse the hostel which i had already reserved and paid a deposit for had given away our room, despite us calling, and sayign we were going to be in late! if you are ever in Cuzco.. dont´stay at the golden peru hostel. well ... read more

hola todos mis amigos!!!! The first week in Puno here has been great. I stayed at a hotel withtheother interns the first couple of days while we had some training and orientation meetings. We explored the city some days too... puno is a lot bigger than i thought but i can still walk almost everywhere. There are a fair amount of places to go out at night so we do that sometimes. i finally have pictures to upload too! we traveled to sullastani yesterday which is about 30 minutes from puno. they are incan and pre incan ruins.... we kinda climbed down to the water there and i fell and rippped a big whole in the butt ofmy pants! i have a bunch of bruises from my fall but at least i have a good ... read more

Hey everyone!!!! i have had quite an adventure getting here to Puno. i left chicago at about 12 on saturday morning....flew out at about 7 from chicago to miami. in Miami i met up with another intern, Samantha and the two of us later met up with another intern, Mike. The three of us sat in miami for awhile until our 130 AM flight left for lima. In lima we met up with a 4th intern Dan and the 4 of us sat at the airport for about 8 hours!!!!! then we ghot on a flight to juliaca where we met up with all the other interns. The 8 interns are absolutely wonderful and intelligent people i´m excited to spend the next 9 weeks with them. our coordinators, carly and marcos are wonderful as well. This ... read more