Monday, July 28th, is el Día de Independencia in Peru which basically means that the world stops and no one works for four whole days (kinda like 4th of July in the States). Some friends and I decided to spend our 4 days of liberation in a small beach town called Huanchaco (about a 10 hour bus ride north of Lima). The first two days we spent just hanging out at the beach (which is one of my favorite things to do at the fault of my mother ). The first day we really wanted to go swimming in the ocean [View Full Entry]

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I apologize in advance for the lengthiness and influx of pictures in this entry, but I've done a lot since last time. These pictures are from my last week in Cusco and my first week in Lima. I spent my last week of Cusco trying to make the most of every moment and seeing everything I could see and doing everything that I could do. I went on a tour via horseback which was really fun (although my butt was sore for two days after). I didn't realize you used so many muscles when horseback riding. The horses took us to [View Full Entry]

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I spent the past weekend taking advantage of how close I am to so many Incan ruins and playing the tourist role. My roommate, Alex, and I traveled around Cusco and the Sacred Valley. Saturday we went to the market here in Cusco which was quite an experience. The market is enormous and there are hundreds of people from the 'campesino' (the sorrounding rural areas--farmers and such) selling fruits, vegetables, maize, beans, and fresh meat, amongst other things. We definitely turned a lot of heads as we were probably the only non-Peruvians there! On Saturday afternoon we took the City Tour [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Cusco a few days ago, and so far have been having a great time! I am here for two weeks to learn Spanish. Another American student, Alex, and I are staying with a host family here, the Fernandez Baca family. They are an older couple, Monica and Jorge, with three grown children, and the nicest people. They have been very welcoming and very willing to accustom us to the culture. They speak no english, so living with them will definitely help me to improve my spanish (which is desperately needed). It is also nice having another American students [View Full Entry]

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