Recent Pictures

At the top of El Misti (5825m). After starting the summit mission at 2am in the morning we finally made it at 9am (that was after trying to get over the altitude). It was great because our whole group made it up.

Pascal with the previous girl's little sister. (notice the mountains in the background...I will miss those mountains)

One of the little girls at the school in Arequipa, Peru. Instead of volunteering at the orphanage, they placed me at the school.

On the top of Waynapicchu looking down at Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu... definitely impressive (Waynapicchu is the mountain just directly behind Machu Picchu)

Arequipa

I have to apologize for not posting lately. I will give you a recap of the last two weeks.

Beth made it in safely. It was great to have her in South America. We spent a few days in Lima and then spent a few days in Cuzco/Aguas Caliente. Lima can be a pretty intimidating place when you first get off the plane. The airport isn't in a great area of town and so you have to be careful with the taxi you choose and you have to be careful of your possessions. I just didn't want her to be nervous of Lima when she got in. Once she got settled, we walked around town the first few days and found ourselves in a couple of casinos. We had a good time playing the slots... unfortunately it is addicting, but when you are playing with .01 soles, you aren't using too much money.

Next adventure was heading off to Cuzco. Once we got to the airport to make our way to Cuzco, we picked up the tickets and had a pretty nice surprise waiting for us. When I was booking our flight to Cuzco, for some reason I purchased first class seats. I could have sworn that they were the cheapest seats I found...I was decently embarrassed, but we had a good time sitting up there. When we got to Cuzco, I definitely was feeling the effects of the altitude. Beth was much more of a trooper when it came to that. Unfortunately, it affected us both pretty heavily during the evening. The next day we took the train to Aguas Calientes, which is a very touristy town rightbefore Machu Picchu. In Aguas Calientes, we decided to climb a mountain that has a great view of Machu Picchu...Mt. Putucusi. My hat goes off to BA- there was about 100-200 meters of ladders that you had to climb to get to the trail. Coming down off of the mountain is a pretty scary/intense experience, it doesn't matter who you are. The next day, we headed off to Machu Picchu, which was great. We had to get to the bus stop at a little past 5 to make sure that we got tickets to Waynapichu. It was well worth the lost sleep to make it up there. I will post pictures soon. Ceara...you are going to fall in love with Machu Picchu.

We then headed back to Lima and after spending two days there, we had to say goodbye to one another. I will admit, saying goodbye knowing that I wouldn't be able to talk to her as much once she was gone was a bit difficult. Going from getting to talk to her at any point of the day to talking to her maybe once a day or once every other day has its difficulty. Once I dropped her off at the airport (technically the taxi cab driver and I) I spent the night in Lima before heading off to Arequipa.

16 hr bus ride, and I made it into Arequipa. This has to be one of my favorite cities that I have visited in South America. It is a great place to just walk around and look at the architecture and landscape. There are three mountains off in the distance...one of which I am hoping to climb this weekend with some of the other volunteers... Thankfully, once I got to the hostel I met a few of the other volunteers that had been there for some time. They got me set up with the office and underway at the school. So I thought I was going to be at the orphanage, but you have to commit for at least a month...and so knowing that I couldn't do that, I went off to the school to teach English. I´ve also joined the construction team that is working on building up a bathroom and wall to give boundaries to the school. School is in the afternoon and construction is in the morning, so it works out perfectly.

The area that the school is in is outside of Arequipa, so you have to take a colectivo to get out there...which proves to be an experience every time I get on one. Imagine packing 15-25 people in this small van... and there you go. The area where the school reminds me a lot of the colonias in Nuevo Laredo. It might be just one step up. But, similar to the experiences of many, the people there are so inviting and willing to give you anything that they have.

One thing I wanted to work on while I am here was to introduce some kind of physician visit for the kids...or at the minimum a vitamin plan. Knowing that the diet of the kids can be extremely variable, I think that it would be amazing to be able to provide vitamins to the kids at least once or twice a week. But, I also am hoping to find a donor from a large pharmaceutical company to ensure that it is a sustainable program... We will see how it goes. I will write more soon.

Off to Lima

I have to apologize for my lack of posts, but this one will hopefully make it for it. So I didn´t have much time to explain the futbòl game...the Boca Jrs game. It was scary, but amazing at the same time. I have never seen a crowd get that rowdy. They sang/jumped up and down/waved flags the whole game. The only time they stopped jumping and singing was halftime. What made the experience even better was the fact that we were in the cheap seats, which was where all of the action happens (in reference to the fans). The only thing that I didn't quite understand is that they get so pumped up and into cheering that half of them don't even get to watch the whole game. Part of the view is blocked by huge flags bearing pictures of players. It was also an experience trying to get tickets off of a scalper...you just never know if the tickets are real (unless you'd used those tickets before).

The next day I went off to explore part of the city, before getting the chance to see this amazing drum show at the Konex Cultural Center in BA. The different styles of drums, bongos and other instruments together made incredible sounds and beats. It was interesting to watch the crowd...I believe it was at an event like this that the "mosh pit" was started. After the show I went off to grab a nice steak at a cheap steakhouse in Buenos Aires...eating was definitely a highlight of that trip. You could grab a steak sandwhich in BA for about 4 dollars...maybe 5 depending on the place.

The last night I spent in Buenos Aires we ended up having a parilla (Argentinian bar-b-que). There ended up being about 8 of us having a good time on the roof of the hostel cooking up a storm. It was a nice way to finish my trip to Buenos Aires. But that night made for an interesting one. So the guy that I had been traveling made some interesting life decisions that night. He would tell me about his girlfriend back in GA and how he great she was, etc. The first night when we went with some people from our hostel to a club, he met an Israeli girl (you are bound to meet people from Israel here, just because once they finish their civil/military service they head off to travel) and he stayed in contact with her. Well, that night she came to the parilla to see him. It seemed like everyone was enjoying themselves and when the food was gone everyone started to head back downstairs to bed. There had been 3 of us sleeping in the 10 bed dormroom, which was nice because everyone could sprawl out. Though the British guy and I tried to mention to Jonathan (the guy from GA) that there better not be any visitors in our dorm room that night...we failed. I was so thankful that the British guy was snoring... it just helped to drown out any noise. Of all the hostels I have stayed at in South America, this has never happened. It was an awkward night. I was also thankful for the fact that I was able to fall asleep very quickly that night. The next day I woke up and packed up and said goodbye to everyone and made my way closer to the bus station.

After a 21 hr bus trip, I made my way back into Santiago. For the last part of the bus trip, I had an interesting conversation with an Australian Chiropractor who tried to tell me that the H1N1 influenza virus was just a hoax and that it didn't actually exist. I had a good laugh with that one. From the bus station I slowly made my way back to the CHASERS apartment. It was one of the girls birthdays so we went out to a fantastic pizza place in Santiago and had a great time. That night I had a little over 2 hrs of sleep (though I went to bed at a little before midnight, the van company who was coming to pick me up called the house phone at 2:15). I didn't understand half of what she was saying, partially because I was in a daze from just waking up and partially because she was speaking so quickly. I had to check the door about every 10 minutes to check to see if they were outside (they eventually picked me up at 3:20). After catching the 6:40 flight to Lima, I made my way to the hostel in Barranco. Yesterday was a lazy day around Lima, just getting caught up on sleep and on making sure that everything was ready for Beth to come in. I'm looking forward to spending time with her. Around 10pm tonight I will head back to the airport to pick her up.

I will try to write more soon. Take care.

Buenos Aires

I was tempted to just spend a few lazy days in Bariloche or Cordoba, but decided at the last minute to head to Buenos Aires (BA). Probably one of the best last minute decisions that I have made thus far on the trip (I say right on par with spending the night in Baños Morales). The ferias here are amazing and the food is unbelievable. There are only two downsides, I´ve slept a total of 4.5 hrs the past two nights. The first night was spent on a bus coming from Mendoza, and for some odd reason I couldn´t sleep. Yesterday evening was a good time. The last three days I´ve been traveling with this guy from Georgia. He was one of the guys I did the wine tour with and we actually were on the same bus to BA. Jonathan and I joined a group from the hostel that went out to a club, the only problem about BA is that the clubs arent really hopping until 2am...So we had a a good time out and everyone made it home safe and sound. My internal alarm clock is on, and has been on since I´ve left Texas. I woke up at 8:45 this morning after getting to bed at 6:15 this morning. After Mass, went to the feria for a while before getting ready for a futbòl game in BA. I have never experienced such a sporting event. I will have to write more soon about it. I hope that I can post a video of the event (I took a few, just to try to capture such an event).

Argentina

A park in Mendoza, Argentina with some friends
After a couple of glasses of wine on the wine/bike tour just outside of Mendoza

View from the wine bar outside of Mendoza

Another view of the wine bar with a few friends

The Wine Museum