The Salineras de Maras have been around since pre-Incan times. Fed by a natural, underwater spring in the neighboring mountain, the ponds catch the water as it makes its way down into the valley, and the locals wait for the ponds to dry. After, they harvest both natural table salt and fancy pink salt that can be used in cooking delicious items, or if you are really creative, you can carve figures out of the salt…
hundreds of salt ponds lined the narrow valley.
salt lining the sides of a pond. there were so many fascinating salt formations to be seen.
to begin our day at machu picchu, we decided to hike huayna picchu. it is the tall, looming mountain above machu picchu. they only allow 400 hikers a day, and the ascent is only 1,000 feet. what they fail to mention is by “ascent” they mean “near vertical climb” and one uses a metal cable install only 7 years ago, to help you reach the top. and guess what! it was TOTALLY worth it! it was quite the accomplishment, and though i had altitude sickness problems, i still loved it. i highly recommend it.
beginning our hike…and the last picture until we just about reached the top…i was too busy trying to not fall off the side of the mountain…
there were more ruins found at the top, where the high priest and many of the virigins lived.
we made it! it was only raining a tiny bit….ha…
to reach the true summit, we had to crawl through a tiny cave. quite the adventure!
the clouds parted a bit, so you could see the road that the busses take to take visitors to machu picchu.
the clouds parted for a brief second, and i snapped a picture of the view of machu picchu from above.
mp looking over the ledge.
this was a super safe stairwell…especially when it was wet from all the rain.
making my way back down the mountain.
another quick cloud parting.
WE DID IT! and you know, it was difficult, but sosososososo worth it!
we awoke extra early to take a taxi at 6 am to our train station. where we took a 1 1/2 hour train ride to the town of machu picchu.
wide awake and enjoying our early morning commute!
the town of machu picchu. from here we took a 15 minute bus ride up the mountain to the base of machu picchu.
the great-grandfather of my old boss put machu picchu on the map.
it is rainy season in cusco right now, so throughout the entire morning it was raining…but still beautiful!
a view with the clouds.
in the morning we climbed huayna picchu (the tall mountain in the back)…while it was pouring rain… after our hike, i devoured the entire buffet at the lodge, and the sun kindly came out in the afternoon and proved just how incredible machu picchu really is.
this guy has the best view.
the watch tower.
the three-window temple.
the sundial.
i met up with some friends in the town square.
overall, the amount of planning and coordination that went into this portion of the trip was more than worth it. it truly was incredible. you would think with as much as we always hear people say how incredible of a place it is, it would be overrated and leave much to be wanting, but that certainly was not the case. i highly recommend taking the time to take a visit to machu picchu. it will be the most expensive thing you do in peru, but you will never regret it. it is quite mesmerizing.
christmas night, we took an overnight bus to lima, and then caught a flight out to cusco. our first few days in cusco, we stayed in the sacred valley, which turned out to be a great decision, not only because it’s gorgeous but because it’s located at 9,000 ft above sea level, rather than the 11,000 ft in cusco city. we stayed in a town called yucay, in an old monastery turned into convent. it was gorgeous. and a delightful, relaxing stay to get our adventures started.
our taxi stopped at this incredible view on our way to yucay.
some kiddos hanging out under their mom’s merchandise table.
these last two weeks i have been playing host to the most anticipated visitor of 2012. it was more than worth the 6.5 month wait (but, who was keeping track?). during the two weeks i was able to share my life in site, experience one of the wonders of the world and just enjoy time with my best friend. though, to be honest, i was having too much fun to take a lot photos, though i am pretty sure mp disagrees on that point. ha. anyways, enjoy the following posts as they document our short two weeks of adventures!
trying his first chica morada. little did he know just how delicious they are…
i had so many little surprises throughout the first week. many of which included my favorite treats from texas…including these homemade s’mores from tillman’s roadhouse!!!!!
mp roasting a mallow.
one of the days, we packed a picnic and hiked our way to the penguins. though we had been lathering ourselves in sunscreen, we still had pretty funny sunburns from this excursion. but the ocean was a dream and the penguins were lively!
while in chiclayo, we celebrated christmas with the other peru 19er’s with a secret santa exchange! it was a blast and we all had so much fun with it!
my goodness the christmas season is in full swing! only nine…NINE…quick (oh, i hope they are quick) days until mp gets here! and while there was reportedly some snow in texas on monday, the heat is getting turned up here in tucume…literally…it is extremely hot here, as in i am writing this and sweating…a lot…it’s not pretty…SOOOOO with that, we have begun to decorate my house for christmas! hurrah!
we got a christmas tree this year! first one!
teaching samia how to make snowflakes!
her response when she first opened a snowflake? “woooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!”
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.
well really the other happened earlier this week. i have been slaving away on this community diagnostic, and i feel like i have returned to finals week in college so many years ago as i try to work through this ridiculous document (which is really helpful and i am glad that the peace corps requires us to do one…so for all you future pcvs out there…i did not give it a bad rep…okay? OKAY?). ANYWAYS, twice this week i have had magical fruit surprise me at my door:
so i had literally just gotten out of the shower, but who would not be this excited about being greeted with a HUGE chunk of watermelon?!?!?!
and then…fast forward to today…as in 5 minutes ago…
MANGOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
needless to say, i needed to take a writing break to share the literal FRUITS of labor…or someone else’s labor in town…but the reward of my labor…and to think that earlier today i was thinking what a travesty that i have been so busy that i have almost gone a full week without mangoes…#tucumeproblems…
and this is just to show progress of my mango face…
you guys. i know. i know. it’s been a while. i’m sorry. i wish i could say it was all because i was busy, which is probably about ¾ true, however it is also finding the time and patience to upload photos.
overall life is good. and busy. but good. i have been spending most of my free time working on my community diagnostic, which will ultimately be a very lengthy document about my community, which i will have written in spanish. needless to say, it takes up most of my energy and time. especially processing and analyzing all of my surveys. translation: a lot of tedious paperwork.
but here are some pictures and anecdotes about what filled my time when i wasn’t working on my diagnostic:
despedida!
i attended peru 16’s despedida (a goodbye party for peru 16…to put into context i am peru 19). it was a lot of fun. we all learned the gangnam style dance and went around chiclayo and performed the dance.
practicing for our big debut.
dancing in the parque principal in the center of town in font of a crowd of people.
we went all around town and ended up getting a huge crowd and following. after, we went to ICPNA (the english school that is partnered with the us embassy) and there was a break dancing group that performed for us. after, we all got pizza, hung out at the hostel and then went out to a club and just danced the night away and into the morning. i have never been a going out person, but i have since found it to be quite a release of mounted up energy from being in site all the time.
hanging out at the hostel.
artesanos de tucume.
my friend, cinthia, asked me to help her take pictures of her and the other artisan’s products at the museum in lambayeque. their products are quite impressive and all made by hand and out of organic material. the materials are dyed using local, natural, organic resources and the women turn the organic cotton into the thread that is used to make the products. they are an incredible group of women who take their craft very seriously and i am so excited to be working with them and to learn more about all that they hope to achieve while i am here and help them realize their potential. i also helped them set up a facebook page, check it out here!!!!! (also, don’t forget to like it!) i am also grateful for the friendship of cinthia.
just an example of their style/color palette of their products.
an example of the silver working as well. also all made by hand.
getting around town.
i finally got it. i have my own cruiser…a mountain bike that is. and to that end i am grateful. it has cut my travel time to the museum in half, and it is nice to get out and about and see more of the rural parts of tucume. i had my site visit today with my supervisors and people repeatedly made commentary about me and my bike…i guess they now know that i make good use of it…
my family got a kick out of me, my bike, my helmet and my camelback. samia seriously took an entire photo shoot of me on my bike.
speaking of samia and bicycles…in true bff form, as soon as i started speeding around town on my bike, samia decided that she wanted to start using her bike as well. i carried her bike all the way across town and to the outskirts to the grifo to use their air machine to fill her bike’s tires. then i carried it all the way home. we then spent the afternoon at the park, where i taught her to ride the bike. there is still training wheels, as i am teaching her how to pedal (she likes to pedal forward once and then pedal backwards a lot).
watch out tucume!
bike mongers.
halloweeenie.
fact, my second favorite holiday is halloween. luckily, my friend, casey, had a halloween parade and party planned with the youth leadership group in his site, patapo. i dressed as cat, and made ears out of my hair and drew a nose and whiskers on my face. little did i realize that this would ultimately result in me drawing cat nose and whiskers on 30+ teenage girls’ faces as well. needless to say, i am professional cat whisker drawer….don’t worry, i will be adding that to my resume.
all of the volunteers with the mayor of patapo.
stephen and i on the back of mototaxi. riding through town shouting happy halloween to everyone.
michelle and i at the halloween party. i was so exhausted that i am pretty sure i was passed out shortly after this photo was taken.
all of the volunteers at the party!
the day after.
the day following halloween was dio de los muertos for peru, which meant a federal holiday here. this meant that most of our families ventured to the cemeteries to pay homage to their lost loved ones. this also meant that none of us had anything really going on in our sites. so we decided to go up to changoyape and visit stephen and tina.
changoyape is right on the border of cajamarca and kind of where the sierra region begins. stephen gave us the grand tour and it was just breathtakingly beautiful there.
the volunteers visiting changoyape.
while we were getting the grand tour, i found an odd spiky looking fruit growing. so i did what any normal person would do, which was to break it open. i still couldn’t decide if it was edible or not, so i did the next most sensible thing: i walked over to the old man pulling guava from his tree and asked him if i could eat the fruit in my hands. while he was explaining that i should not eat the new found fruit, i realized that he was pulling guava for his pet monkey. let me repeat that for you: his pet MONKEY. needless to say i won the award for best find of the day.
dreams coming true!
oh you know. best friends just hanging out and being natural, you know.
before we left, the old man was super kind and took a long reed pole and pulled down some guava for us to take on the road with us.
starting to enjoy the fruits of our labor
for those of you who have never actually seen real guava. it looks like a giant pea pod, and you stick the giant seeds in your mouth, but you only eat the white part. then you spit the seeds, which are a little bigger than the size of a quarter.
tippy taps.
i am still going on caserio visits with vaso de leche, but now i am trying to work with the ladies on making tippy taps for their homes. water is not readily accessible and with tippy taps it will help them save and have accessible clean water to wash their hands. these are made by using household items that they already have lying around. a HUGE challenge with this is getting the ladies to bring their plastic bottles. but the good news is that plenty of cute kids still come!
mujeres jovenes.
i just love my mujeres jovenes. thursday nights we have our activity nights. every month has a value theme and the first week of every month we work on a personal progress experience within that value, and the other weeks we do fun activities. i only have 3 young women, but i hope that it slowly expands. right now the three that i do have are so incredible and have such amazing testimonies.
for the month of november, we are concentrating on knowledge. for last week’s activity, i brought a bag full of ingredients for a dessert. i turned it into an object lesson for the importance of directions and following those directions and seeking out knowledge and direction as well. then we made homemade whipped cream with strawberries. it was their first time to try whipped cream. it was an obvious success.
enjoying the fruits of their labor (budunching!)…
loving it!
as soon as their mom’s heard i was teaching them a dessert to make, they were quick to join as well. it’s true, food really is the way to the heart here.
honorable mentions.
not mentioned above but of note, is that i have been working on getting my world map realized for the past 6 weeks. it has been an exhausting going to the muni daily to follow-up in order to get things done. last monday ended with a frustrated erin in the park crying (a normal peace corps response…honest), and an equally frustrating one that i am currently addressing.
i have been working on the iñikuk pageant that is going on tonight. this has included multiple meetings and rehearsals for the girls.
i had my site visit today, and overall it was just fine. i just need to keep on trucking on with my diagnostic. guhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
i have started to work with the museum, and i am working on an environment club for this summer.
i am busy in the colegio doing charlas. i have done a number on self-esteem, including a fun activity with balloons. apparently it was a hit with the kids, as i was asked to come back to do the sex ed charlas. (read the sex ed charla to learn more on the outcome of this).
i voted. and then watched election night with all of the volunteers. it was a lot of fun and involved a lot chips and guacamole.
i think this more or less brings us up to date. hopefully i can keep up with this. whew. glad we made it through that one.
i have been in site for a month, and i have been able to make plenty of friends, and some unwelcomed acquaintances (still avoiding those never-ceasing phone calls), but i have been lucky to find a partner is crime. meet samia:
samia. my 4-year-old host niece. this is after i got her to calm down about traumatically meeting mickey and pooh.
as she is learning her colors and numbers in spanish, i am working at teaching her all the english words. i also play other ridiculous games with her, and we know all of our likes and dislikes.
amigas.
everyday, she comes home from school and runs into my room to say hello. then 30 minutes later she returns to ask if i will eat lunch with her. and everyday i respond with an excited, “of course i will eat lunch with you!!!” she also just acquired a miniature tea cup and saucer just like mine. my host mom told me that when she saw it at the store, she just kept saying “like, erin! like, erin!” needless to say, we are pretty fond of each other.
samia at lunch the other day.
speaking of lunch, i had the most incredible lunch the other day:
notice the absence of rice??? and look at all those COLORS!!!!!!
The Salineras de Maras have been around since pre-Incan times. Fed by a natural, underwater spring in the neighboring mountain, the ponds catch the water as it makes its way down into the valley, and the locals wait for the ponds to dry. After, they harvest both natural table salt and fancy pink salt that can be used in cooking delicious items, or if you are really creative, you can carve figures out of the salt…
perusing peru... 