Easter Vacation: Chicalyo, Tumbes, Machala, Cuenca, Latacunga, Quilotoa, Cotopaxi, Tena and Back

To start the Easter weekend took a day to reboot and relax in Chiclayo. Chiclayo is a coastal town of Peru that is an overnight bus away from where I live. In the big city there is a Starbucks, super market, and fast food. So naturally you can understand why I decided a stopover was necessary. Also, while pigging out I also went shopping. I love plaid and so does the current fashion of Peru. In one of the bigger stores that I would equate to a Dillards I found a cute little button down plaid capped sleeved shirt that was on sale from S/. 99.99 to S/. 59.99 and I thought I had found the jack pot (still not affordable but better) so I bought it. Obviously I didn't really pay attention to how much she said because after vacation found the receipt and I paid full price!!!!!! ARGH ARGH ARGH. Anyways because I didn't figure that out until after having a new shirt put a little more spring in my step. Left Chiclayo in another overnight bus to go to Tumbes. My friend and travel buddy Sonnet lives 10 minutes form the city of Tumbes. Man oh man am I glad I don't live there because I would seriously be sweatin buckets every single day. She joked that the weather wasn't so bad and I had a permanent sweat mustache. I mean yuck!
So we spent the day at the beach! Now I'm not normally a beach person but there is a place called Green Eggs and Ham at the Mancora Beach that is FANTASTIC I mean waffles....bacon...hash browns. Seriously thought I'd died and gone to food heaven. (A good start and one that continued throughout the trip). Not only did we have good food but good company as well because we meet up with Alison and Christy, two of my other favorite volunteers! So we spent the day together eating and playing in the sand. I even went so far as to go in the water....I know I know crazy! We collected some very pretty shells and rocks to remember how lovely the beach was.

As you can see we are already off to a great start and not even half-way through vacation. The next morning Sonnet and I woke up and made breakfast: Scrambled eggs, BACON, potato chucks with veggies, COFFEE, bread, fruit and juice. Can anyone say a good ol breakfast?

That day we didn't do much but relax but Sonnet also made a really excellent stir fry thing with peanut butter and it was delicious. We meet up with Alison and Christy again to eat and explore Tumbes City.
The next morning we got up early to leave Peru for Ecuador! 

So very very exciting to cross that border and get my stamp. YEAH YEAH I HAVE NOW BEEN TO TWO COUNTRIES!!!!!! Although please note how my bag is essentially the size of Sonnet hahahaha. During the trip it was always so funny to people our size difference.
Getting on the bus to Machala was fun but not terribly exciting except for the border crossing. We got to Machala and had lunch in a spiffy place and walked around until our next bus to Cuenca. However because I had given up sweets for Lent (not Catholic but like the practice) so I had to pull out something that had been teasing me in my room for over a week:

                                     I mean can you beat Cadbury Chocolate? I don't think so!

It was very weird to be using the American dollar during our time in Ecuador because when I first got to country everything was well it is X amount in soles but what is that in dollars. This time around it was it is X amount of dollars how many soles is that. After converting it was also like dang!!!!!! that is expensive. I mean they want a whole dollar for a candy bar but in Peru I can get it for a sol which is like 30 cents!! haha oh how the mentality has changed (I can only imagine how I'm gonna feel being back in the States where everything is more than a dollar).
To continue we arrived in Cuenca. Wow! That city is beautiful. I felt like I had stepped back into time with cobbled streets and quaint little stores but with technology and excellent food. Cuenca because it is one of the bigger cities of Ecuador and a favored retirement spot has a wide variety of food and drink. The first night I had coffee and a caesar salad that actually tasted fresh! The next day we went to a couple of museums and churches:

 The New Cathedral.                                                              The front door....

                                           The top of the church! Beautiful right.

Also we went to breakfast:

                                                (look it is my new shirt..................heehee)
The bread in this place was so flakey and wonderful. I ate not one piece but 3. Can you say oink oink
After breakfast we hit up some other museums the best one was about the history of medicine

 you know some old school dentistry 

 An iron lung

 some good old typhoid fever

Breast feed is the best way to go....now that is still a sign you will see here in Peru.
Next we hit up the weavers:

                                                         (Don't I look very Ecuadorian!)
Cuenca was so very beautiful and we spent a lot of time just wandering from place to place. We found a good place for eating and drinking to pass the time until our night bus:

It was wonderful that we both wanted to read and relax during our trip. Because we were on the same level we could sit in the candle light and read as if we were in a Jane Austen book! I mean can you think of anything better! Also, we had Mexican food for dinner and it was the closest thing I've had to the real thing here. We also bought some really good ground coffee. Another wonderful thing about livin down here in the South is all the coffee farms so you know it is rich, fresh, and locally grown! 
So we left beautiful Cuenca behind and took another overnight bus to Latacunga. Latacunga has a really good super market with lots of American food so we found a slice of heaven hahaha. The city itself we didn't really explore because we had to go out of the city to get to the VOLCANOS!!!!!!
Volcano number 1: Quilotoa

I mean how amazing does that look. We actually are going down into a volcano. Yes it hasn't been active in a long while but still it once spewed lava. There is an option to walk the ridge but we didn't have enough time but we did go all the way to the water.

And back up to the top again. It was also freezing there because the wind was so strong. I bought a lovely scarf and some painted bowls from the ladies of the community:

Scary masks...I know! but isn't she so cute right below.

So that was volcano number one and unfortunately I'm out of time so to be continued volcano number 2 and the rest of a kick butt vacation!!!!

Go Walk About

So since we rang in the New Year I’ve been telling my host family that I am going to go see my friend Ellie in Conchan that is on the other side of my little mountain. Also that I would be walking there. I mean there are these little old ladies who walk it all the time. I mean they are tough old birds, who could probably walk circles around me! But I figure if someone my grandma’s age can do it so can I. So finally my host sister Leni and I looked at the calendar and figured out when we could go.

We picked Feb 12^th and said as long as it doesn’t rain we will go. It didn’t rain for two days before the set date so there was no backing out! Haha. Also, another girl from the community Laura showed up the night before to go with us. However one big problem neither of them knew the way and we didn’t even know if anyone was making the trip that next morning. The girls started calling all the Tia’s they knew who sometimes made the journey. Around 10:30pm they found someone. BUT the Tia wanted to leave at 5:00AM!!! I mean no way that is way to early still for me!

So they called her back and she compromised and said 5:30AM haha.

I wake up at the appointed hour 5:00AM because I’m packed and ready all I gotta do is get in my clothes and go. I find the girls in the kitchen cooking away. I mean there is no way we could go on this trip without RICE, I mean what was I thinkin. They also made tortillas (that basically are like funnel cake without the sugar) for breakfast….so nutritional! Anyways following in true Peruvian fashion we didn’t leave our house until 5:30AM. Thankfully the Tia waited for us but barely. We got to her house around 6 ish AM.She straight up told us if we hadn’t got there in the next 10 minutes she was gonna leave us. Man would I have been upset if I had woke up before the sun and walked the 30 minutes of uphill walking over rocks and dogs sneaking around barking/ charging at us in the dark for nothing!

 (This is the view from almost at her house…my house is way down there in that crevice)

Because we were late we immediately started the trek at a semi run because we had to get across a couple of fields before starting uphill for the rest of the journey. The Tia was a very sweet woman who thankfully took breaks (3 in total) haha! In the next 2 hours of uphill walking.

 We finally made it to the passageway at the top and thankfully began the descent.

Looking from the top at Conchan it didn’t look like we had walked that far up but man oh man I don’t think that town is equal distance from the top.

It took us an hour to get down and spent a lovely couple of hours with Ellie waiting for a car to take us the 30 minutes to Tacabamba.

 In Tacabamba we meet up with Diamond for a few minutes then began our second hike of the day to the Tacabamba waterfall.

Now this time we didn’t have a guide and our directions were dismal at best. After walking for 2 and ½ or more hours and still not arriving I had given up because most said it was a 2 hour hike. The girls were determined and we pushed on and found an old lady to ask. Thankfully we were only like 15 minutes away. We made it to the look out.

All I can say is you could tell it had been awhile since someone had been here and the girls wanted to go down farther to look at the waterfall. At this point my feet hurt quite a bit because blisters were forming in some strange places like my pinkie toe and the pad on my foot making every step one I didn’t want to take and we still had to walk back. So I waited up top and they went down below.

When we finally started back I don’t know how but we did it in like an hour and a half. Why I put that doubtfully is because the return journey was more uphill than going there. Any who…we made it to Tacabamba again

and found the town playing Carnival (which had happened most places the weekend before)!!! So at first we tried to avoid them but as we got closer to the bus stop there was no avoiding the water being thrown! I got at least 2 full buckets on my backside! Yeah for getting ready to sit for almost 2 hours, although refreshing about so much walkin in the sun!!

We wait in the combi awhile and finally get underway! At this point I’m beat but guess what we aren’t done walkin yet!!!! Oh no we still have to get off the combi and walk another hour to our house! Thank the Lord it was downhill but downhill has its own hurts. Also, getting off my feet for 2 ish hours let me know just how big those blisters were when we had to start walkin again!!!!!!

Finally finally as we started the day in darkness by the time we got home the last rays of sunshine were going down.

 I’m exhausted but can’t immediately go to sleep.

BUT I  do only to be woken up at 1:30AM because SHE IS GIVING BIRTH!!!! WAKE UP OR YOU ARE GOING TO MISS IT!!!! Who? Why the cow of course. She would choose this of all days to give birth! I mean we have had her near the house for the last week because she is due anytime. So I get up and go out the front door because of course she is gonna do it right in front of my window! Haha. We wait and finally see the feet starting to come out but nothin much else. So what does my host mom do…why grab the feet of course and start pulling. Not gently either but with all her strength. So the calf starts coming a little farther but she is hot, sweaty and losing strength so not one but 3 of my host siblings start helping. Now this is when I really wish my camera had flash because that is one of the funniest moments I have witnessed here in Peru.

Anyways meet our newest family member…..Martin!! (Mar-teen)

So this little guy less than a week later is almost as strong as me! I know how embarrassing but I do think his strength had a lot of help due to my high heels!

Marinera Festival

Now this is a bit overdue seeing as how this was in January we went on vacation to Trujillo! Now Trujillo is a special city for me! Not only was it the first real place outside of Lima that I visited the first time around (in study abroad), it was also were I got a hunky boyfriend, Sebastian! Haha. So of course it has some very fond memories me for. Now why we went hahahahaha…is the Marinera Festival. Marinera is a traditional Peruvian dance. Very beautiful to watch because the costumes are so elaborate BUT

We got there and spent the first day in Huanchaco the beach town about 10 minutes away. Although I don’t particularly like the beach it was fun to site in the sun and not worry about anything but skin cancer! Anyways we used day one as a recover and relax day because most of us arrived on overnight buses. For myself it was an economical bus that hardly reclined but was CHEAP! We had some good salad’s for lunch! Never in the States would I pay so much for mainly lettuce but when lettuce isn’t all that easy to find everyday….Gaston bring me the bill! That night at the hotel we meet a group of Peruvians who were just hanging out so we joined our two parties! Now that was a fun night…although was left out of some activities still had a great time staying up until almost 4 AM!!!!! Haven’t done that in a very very long time! Obviously we spent the next morning recovering. That day we went to Chile’s Restaurant and man did I think I had died and gone to food heaven with Chicken Tacos. Not only were they the special of the day so only S/15.00 they were oh so good! Other than friends and family I seriously think tasty food is the thing I miss the most from the States!!!! Because I can’t remember everything about where I go and who I meet but I can remember all the good food I’ve had. Then in the afternoon we went to the Festival. They said they were sold out of the tickets we wanted so we bought the higher up seats and then waited and waited to see the seats we wanted fill up and throughout the whole night not even half were used! I mean oh well we saved some money and it wasn’t like we were truly in the noise bleed section!

 The King and Queen from last year

 At the BEACH!!! haha

Me with a cool couple!