Tourist in Cajamarca

Maestras católicas, Maristas, Buen Socorro, and Redemptoristas...a reverse nun run is what I did over the weekend...kinda ;) Young religious sisters  from the area of Piura get together annually for a little vacation. This year, 5 were able to come and they planned a weekend trip to the touristy town of Cajamarca. I was given the option to stay in Lima or to join the sisters of their trip. I felt like I was a little outnumbered, but I had a really nice time. Rather than visiting each of their convents and learning about their lives, we all met here and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them all! 

The convent where we stayed. 

San Francisco church right in the center of town:

Some dancers we encountered along our tour. I really like the music from this region. 

Halfway up the mount, looking Dian on the city. 

A little over 400 of the steps to get to that little chapel...but the view was worth it!

Of course a snack break at the top is always a good idea for the tired tourists. 

After 400 steps, here's the view of that same chapel from the other side. 

Of course, the tourist pose! I did get a little sunburned ;)

I admit it..Kansas girl fascinated by the fish shop. And the fellows were nice enough to pose for me! Boy did it stink in there!

In our downtime, I loved watching the hummingbirds at this tree in our hostel/convent. You have to look closely to see him-they move fast! 

We bathed at the Incan baths. Natural thermal springs. I should mention that we didnt have water at our hostel, so this stop was one of my favorites! We woke up at 4:30 and arrived by 5am do we didnt have to wait in line. Popular site. 

Fresh bread on a Sunday morning. 8 for 1 sol. So yummy!! 

Or a fresh chick also available...

Or cuy (Guinea pig). Dead or......

Alive. You choose! 

The sisters on our hike at the granja porcon. 

While the sisters took naps, I went on a guided your all by myself. I met a lot of neat people and was reminded how much I love traveling solo. 

This bridge was over what the called the rio grande. (Not sure if that's the real name). The villagers rake advantage of the clean water as you can see the clean laundry laying out to dry on the riverbank. 

This was fascinating to me. A necropolis. Evidence of over 300 graves here that trace back to 1000 years BC! It was called the ventanillas  (from the word ventana-little windows) Human remains are found in those little windows.  

Near the end of the tour, our guide serving up some chicha. A typical drink down here made from boiled corn and probably a lot of sugar. 

Now I'm back in Chulucanas. Pictures from here to come later. Having difficulties syncing my pics from iPhone to iPad hopefully just due to slow connection here. Me and technology don't get along well! This post is Fromm iPhone. Que rollo. 

Bus to Chulucanas

Nov. 19, 2014, 7:00pm

16 hours on a bus, at least that's what they tell me I have to look forward to! I'll arrive in Chulucanas Thursday morning. Friday morning I will go with Sr. Viviana and Sr. Josepha to Cajamarca. I've heard it's kind of a touristy place but honestly have no idea what to expect. We'll just be there a few days and then we'll go back to Chulucanas where we'll wait for Sr. Saane's return from the Philipines before heading to my final destination of Huarmaca. Many of you have asked where I'll be, or for an address. With all this travelling, now you understand why it's hard to give you one just quite yet!

I've never been on a bus like this. Double decker with a roof. I paid 90 soles (~30 dollars) to ride on the first floor. They called my fancy seat a semi-cama (semi-bed). It looks like those business class seats you pass on the airplane as you walk back to your tiny economy class seat. It reclines back nicely and they even gave me a mini pillow and blanket. It's really a pretty fancy looking bus! 

We departed the bus station at 3:00pm and it took us about 2 hours to get out of Lima due to of a lot of traffic (typical always here it seems) and the fact that Lima is huge! I'm really enjoying the scenery though. Scenery....Grey skies, looks like it's going to rain. People, so many people, even on the outskirts of town. People walk in between cars trying to sell snacks or bottles of soda to drivers. Other venders sit curbside cooking up yuquitas, churros, anticuchos, and so many other things. The people here are poor and they sit streetside selling just about anything a person could need. 

As we reached the outskirts of Lima, the landscape got a bit more mountanous. By this point, the bus was moving so I wasn't able to take a good picture. But I was fascinated by the homes these Peruvians live in. What I would typically look at and consider and abandoned shack is considered home to many here. Looking out my window I see the mountainside covered in tiny little homes painted in bright colors. Most roofs seemed to just be a piece of metal laid atop the house. Some were leaning to one side like they were ready to crumble. I honestly thought we'd reached the abandoned part of town until I noticed many of the homes had laundry hanging out to dry. An eye opener for me..how easy it is to take for granted all I had back home. 

Eventually we made it to more rural land. Mountains that seem to be made of sand alone, and the ocean just below us. I noticed a lot of little boxes (like 1' x 2' boxes) that had flowers in them. I could only assume these were little memorials for drivers that drove off the road. Scary. We've driven through a lot of little towns since. Not so many businesses, but a lot of those tiny little colorful homes. A different life they lead out here. They've told me the people in the north are poor in a different way than those of Lima. I think I've gotten just a tiny view of that on this bus trip. 

We just finished up dinner: Rice and chicken and mysterious fruity looking sauce. For dessert, a tiny little glass of coke. It came in a cup about the size of a dixie cup you use in your bathroom! Probably a good thing though....I was told the bus doesn't stop unless you have to go #2 and seeing that I forgot my toilet paper (not provided on bus!), I prefer to not fill my bladder until we're closer to our destination. My poor kidneys!

The big double decker bus...and me with my colorful Tom's. Thanks, Mom!

The mountanous desert view on the way out of Lima...Lots of colorful houses in the distance.

The mountain of rice and slice of chicken with the mystery purple sauce...I'll be lucky if I escape without a Michelin ;) 

Here's a little gem from my trip to the zoo with Sr. Rosie yesterday. Her face was really one of fascination..her very first selfie ;)

Miraflores and Historic Downtown Lima

November 17, 2014

Sunday was suppposed to be a retreat day, but due to some miscommunications, it was cancelled. Around noon, Sr. Rosie's niece showed up and invited me to lunch with them. I was planning on a sweat pants kind of day with not much going on and felt like a shower, a pinch of makeup and a comb would have been nice. But, I threw on some jeans, a sloppy ponytail and headed out for a fancy lunch. Que verguenza. For this reason, there are no photos of me in this post. But I wore my jeans, a black tshirt, a hoodie and my chaco sandals...gringo i was. 

Sr. Rosie's niece, Carmen, lives in the beautiful district of Miraflores. Maybe a 20 minute drive from our neighborhood in San Miguel. Sr. Rosie and I sat on her 5th floor balcony sipping our Inca-kolas(typical soda drink here they refer to as the the "national flavor"), watching the surfers, parasailers, and tourists walking while Carmen prepared lunch for us. I promise I offered to help, but they told me to sit and just enjoy myself. It's killing me!

It was a simple lunch. Sr. Rosie is from Lima and in the last few years, all her siblings have passed away. She makes a point to keep in touch with her family and it was so nice of them to invite me to along...just Carmen, her two sons Sebastien and Eduardo, Sr. Rosie, and their bulldog Jamon. 

Here's the view from the apartment while there were still partly blue skies:

El Morro Solar from the apartment. 

El Parque del Amor (Park of Love)  A huge statue of two lovers right in the middle. 

Lots of green grass and flowers and dogs...a nice day. Notice the grey skies again. Don't see blue skies for long here :( 

Poor quality photo plus grey skies make for a interesting photo. But the highway Verde Express (I think) is down below and the little strip of land is a famous restaurant. I think they call this area the valley of Lima. 

Oh, I'm embarassed by these photos! But this is looking to the north from parque del amor. There is the foro (lighthouse) in the distance. So pretty in person! 

After our walk along the seaside (malecon aqui), Sr. Rosie, Carmen, Carmen's son Sebastien and myself went for a ride to the city center. They didn't think it was right that I spent a week in Lima without seeing it. I agree! Sebastien speaks English very well and he was easily able to tell me about all the historical stuff downtown. 

Street venders: 

So many people selling food, toys, balloons, etc... You'd think there was a festival or something. Apparently just a typical day in downtown Lima. 

Here is the famous Plaza San Martin. It's one of the largest and most impressive squares in Lima. The square is named after José de San Martin, who was a hero of South American independence, and there is an huge monument with a bronze statue of San Martin in the centre of the square.

The square is surrounded by impressive buildings like the Gran Hotel Bolívar, the Teatro Colón, and several other. There are a few restaurants and bars around Plaza San Martin, but we visited the bar ‘Bolivarcito’ (‘La Catedral del Pisco Sour’). Carmen said this is the famous place to try the famous Pisco Sour. 

Inside Hotel Bolivar:

Where we sat to try our pisco sour!

Here it is! Pisco sour and for dessert: Algarrobina. I'd translate it as Pisco eggnog. OMG delish! It's made with Pisco (the alcohol), carob syrup (algarrobina), sugar, evaporated milk, egg whites, cinammon, and a blender. I doubt the sisters will be able to teach me how to make this one. But forget about ice cream...I've found my new favorite dessert!

And most importantly, in Peru, carob is known for it’s high nutritional value...so it's kind of a healthy drink, right? 

The Cathedral...maybe someday I'll get ambitious and lighten up these pics ;) It was crazy to me how many people were downtown. The pictures can't capture it all. My favorite sighting had to be the people of the jungle. They were dressed in bright orange clothes, had funny looking hats...maybe going for the tiger look? I didn't catch a picture, but apparently every once in a while you'll catch a glimpse of the jungle people in the city. Made me think of the movie "Jungle 2 Jungle" with Tim Allen ;) 

Plaza San Martin at night: 

That's all for now! Off to buy my bus ticket hasta Chulucanas! 

Hasta la proxima :) 

Gringo days...

Friday is considered "pick-up" day here at the house. Each day, the sisters take turns cooking up lunch and on Friday, everyone is one their own. Sr. Saane is spending about a week down here in Lima, (she's currently assigned up in Huarmaca) and was ever so gracious to let me follow her around yesterday. 

We went to a restaurant about a 10 minute walk down the street for what she calls "chifa". I don't really know why they don't just call it "comida de chino". From what I can tell, it is typical chinese food. Anyway, we got a huge bowl of egg noodle soup, a platter of our chifa and a mountain of rice. It seems everything here is super cheap. All that food for like $3! You know when you order a chipotle burrito and you think "I really shouldn't finish this, but I totally could"? Well, that's how I felt yesterday with sister. I totally didn't need or really want to finish the entire plate, but I also didn't want to appear picky on my 2nd day here! I left and didn't feel like I needed to eat anything the rest of the day. But Sister really wanted an ice cream. After giving Nikki a hard time in Colorado last week for always wanting ice cream, I had to laugh Sister was dead set on finding it! We found a little McDonald's ice cream kiosk and Sister Saane was so excited to have her ice cream cone. I had some too...tasted just like American McD's :) 

We made up for our huge-mongous lunch by walking a lot the rest of the day. We went to the Saga Falabella, which is just a big mall here. They had a lot of American shops. It was almost like stepping outside of Lima for the time we were there. Next we walked to the famous Indian Market. All kinds of Peruvian made stuff. I bought a little purse but nothing else. I figure if I come back through Lima on my way back to the states, I'll swing by this place. Lots of neat souvenir type stuff at really cheap prices. I just don't want to fill my suitcase up yet. Still got lots of time here!

Bingo with Sr. Saane. We were intrigued by these people sitting outside the casino. 1 sol per game to play Bingo! We didnt win, but we had so much fun playing! 

We made it back home and I was ready for my late siesta. Which, surprisingly, is not as common here as in Spain! I was exhausted. I passed out on my bed and left my door open because I knew Sr. Rosie wanted to show me around the Parque de la Reserva once it was dark out. I didn't think I'd sleep that heavy but I woke up to a puddle of drool. (maybe not a "puddle"...but a fair amount!) Sr. Rosie, Sr. Saane and I started our evening by another stop at the chifa restaurant. I'm telling you, these ladies have big appetites! This time we all ordered a quarter of a roasted chicken and a mountain of fries. I could not finish it. I think we had the same waiter that served us at lunch and I felt like he was laughing when he saw us walk in for a second time! 

Onward...We finished our night off at the Parque de la Reserva. We caught the wrong bus and what could have been a 10 minute ride lasted a good 30 minutes. Anyway, the buses here drive kinda crazily (i know i've mentioned that before) and apparently while on the bus quite a big earthquake shook Lima. We were oblivious. I'm not asking for one, but I missed Kansas's quake by a day and didn't even feel the one in Lima. The Park was really neat. I think it's one of largest, if not the largest, fountain park like it in the world. 13 different fountains: some you could play in or under if you wanted to get wet, some just had pretty lights, another one was a huge show that lasted 20 minutes with typical Peruvian dancers in lights. It was a really neat surprise I didn't know existed in the middle of Lima!

Saturday is cleaning day around here. We cleaned all morning and after lunch, I kept my tradition of a siesta. The sky here in Lima is grey a lot. Google it. It's really kind of depressing. Today, for the first time, I saw blue skies! I couldn't resist taking my siesta out in the sun. And, although it's only been a few months since I was oceanside without sunscreen, my skin is white as can be again. I burned. I didn't time my siesta, but I also dont think I slept that long. I'm gonna say the sun here in Peru is pretty strong!

I cleaned this patio... (back of the house-My window is far left, second from the top)

And poor Sr. Rosie napped on it later...(i think we kept her out too late last night!)

This evening Sr. Saane and I went to a little get together at the San Jose Marist Missionary chapel. It was the 139th anniversary of the death of Fr. Jean Claude Colin, the founder of the Marist fathers. We are praying for his canonization. It was a really nice evening with some really nice people. It was my first time to get to talk with the locals here and I enjoyed it so much! I also must say I really like the accent they have here in Lima. The whole evening was in Spanish and I understood almost everything! Only 3 days here and I haven't lost my Spanish from home yet! 

Tomorrow is retreat day. Apparently it's a day of silence and prayer in the house. 

Wednesday I'll catch the 10 hour bus trip North for a conference with a few other sisters I haven't met yet!

Whew! That was an extra long one! I am usually a journal keeper but while I'm here I just want to have pictures with the memories too! Thanks for reading!