seriously. there were so many at kuelap that it got its own blog post.
perusing peru…
…through the eyes of a peace corps volunteer.
Author Archives: erinlc
kuelap.
warning: there are a ridiculous amount of pictures in this post…it was just too hard to not share all of these…also, i live in the flat, brown desert, so the green mountainside just captivated me.
for our first day in chacha, we took a tour to kuelap, which is an ancient incan fortress about 2 hours outside of chachapoyas.
view from the car ride.
behind me are some more ruins where people had created homes inside of the mountain.
more scenery.
the fortress from below, before we started our hike. historians have concluded that if the incans had made kuelap their center capital, then the spaniards would not have been able to conquer them and history would have been forever changed…
entering the park…
zack, robert and i right outside of the ruins.
more of the incredible view.
one of the three entrances into the three-level fortress.
you can see where it’s raining.
hiking up the entrance to the first level. i am convinced that the incans had to have incredible legs….
the crew with some of the ruins and the incredible view.
robert’s dream pose.
pretending to lose my balance and fall…or that is exactly what is happening…that is up to you to decide….
a tiny cottage LITERALLY in the middle of nowhere.
this picture seems pretty accurate.
i was there.
the incans buried themselves in the walls there. not creepy or anything…
the three lines mean: god of the heavens, god of the earth, god of the underworld.
one of the kitchens…the line of the rocks on the right are thought to be where they stored their cuys (guinea pigs).
eye of the puma.
sepent and eye of the crocodile.
it was said that more than 3,000 people lived in this fortress. also, loved that there were llamas EVERYWHERE.
a mochika face.
some pato (duck).
the crew with the the bottle-shaped “great temple.”
the exit…nbd…
robert making the hike down.
the most breath-taking exit i have ever encountered.
the hike back.
chachapoyas.
during thanksgiving, i was able to FINALLY take my first vacation since being in peru. it was nice to have a few days to finally be a tourist and see a new part of the country after being here for 5 ½ months. also, it was a great distraction from missing time with my family in the states.
the plaza in chacha.
for my first vacation, i went to chachapoyas, which is located in the department of las amazonas. i took a 35 soles bus ride there on a 10 hour overnight bus. when i got on, the bus attendant handed out plastic bags, i didn’t understand what this was for until the middle of the night. i awoke to people rustling their bags so they had some where to put their waste as they were car sick since the road to there is 80% curving around and going up-and-down mountains. needless to say i turned the music up on my ipod.
a view of the town center.
once i arrived, i found a hostel on the town square to stay at and my friends and i took off on our first tour. if you are ever to visit peru, i highly recommend chachapoyas. i plan to return as i could have spent 5 more days there without having repeated a thing. the town itself is pristine and surrounded by beautiful green mountainsides. it also has consistently made some of the top up-and-coming travel destinations in the world.
i was sad i only had 2 short days there, and reluctantly boarded my 24-hour bus ride to lima for eist. at least i had the very front seat of my bus…which made for an incredible view.
propaganda.
loved these posters at the local colegio. one advising the boys that faux-hawks are not okay, and the other telling the kids about the marching on saturday for the anniversary.
a new profession.
getting ready.
after doing a charla the other week, the professor at the school saw my camera and asked me to return to take photos of the 5th graders (equivalent to seniors in high school) for the upcoming promoción (equivalent to graduation). of course i obliged. it was a lot a of fun, and i have taken it as my given place in my community now….community photographer…haha.
one of the classes.
for some reason, peruvians never smile in their pictures. so i took this one after they all started giggling uncontrollably when i asked them to smile…
bffs.
samia wearing the chiste glasses i got from kat and andrea.
samia learned how to write our nicknames.
el aniversario.
it’s not a celebration without fireworks.
tucume held it’s anniversary a couple of weeks ago. not to be confused with the anniversary of famed scientist federico villarreal…like i was when we had a celebration back in august. anyways, there were all sorts of events going on throughout the week including a robotics competition, chess competition, career fair, massive marriage ceremony, and, of course, a serrenata that included fireworks. saturday also included the traditional marches, in which i got to join in on my first march. i guess that makes me a real tucamana now?
the massive marriage ceremony. this is quite popular in peru, as it allows the opportunity for people to get married that would not have been able to afford to otherwise.
we had one of the finalists from the second season of “yo soy” perform.
bryhen, jennifer and samia accompanied me to the serranata.
fanny packs with those outfits make complete sense. these guys also made me go out to the middle and dance with them and the mayor…not embarrassing. everyone spent the next few days talking about my dancing….
pompom.
the november personal progress theme was knowledge, so i had the young women make pompoms for the scriptures and books. i bought yarn in all the favorite colors of the girls and we had a delight making pompoms!
hard at work!
finished products!
unrelated note: we had zone conference, where all the branches in the zone attended in lambayeque. i loved that our tiny, little branch could fit in one combi. ha.
puppy wuppy.
my family acquired a baby pig. samia has since decided to start calling him puppy wuppy…which she got from my favorite childhood stuffed animal…it’s not traumatic or anything…
getting around town.
i have been putting the bicycle peace corps sent me to good use as i have started to expand my work to the caserios as well.
this road does lead to somewhere…eventually…
just a quick 45 minute bike ride later and you arrive at one of the secondarias in the caserios.
just another bike ride out in the campo.
perusing peru... 