Eat like a Peruvian

Some people walk like an Egyptian. Some people curse like a sailor. Some people do everything like a Roman (when they're in Rome). And some people dance like no one is watching. But let's be serious. We know what everyone really wants to do. They want to

Eat like a Peruvian!

Peruvians love food, and they are really darn good at making it. Nothing gives you an appetite like climbing around in the Andes mountains all day... so over the years the Peruvian people have come up with some seriously yummy noms (now there's a sentence that's untranslatable to Spanish) that I was able to test during my two months there.

So, next time you're feeling hungry (and have a couple key ingredients available), just follow this step-by-step guide for a delicious Peruvian meal!*

Step 1: Pour Yourself a Drink

Salud!

Pisco Sour - The national alcoholic beverage of Peru. 3 parts Pisco (grape brandy), 1.5 parts lime juice, 2 parts simple syrup, and the white of an egg. Shake thoroughly and add a few drops of bitters.

For the record, the legal drinking age in Peru is 18. So I was allowed to have this.

Mate de Coca - Tea made with the leaves of the coca plant, which is great for curing altitude sickness. This probably has something to do with the fact that coca leaves are the raw material of cocaine. But you have to add lots of horrible chemicals to make that... in leaf-and-hot-water form, they're perfectly safe and just taste like regular old tea.

Maíz Morada (purple corn)

Chicha Morada - Made from purple corn, this refreshing drink was first developed by the Incas and is still extremely common. It's sort of a cross between grape juice and iced tea.

Step 2: Grab a pre-dinner snack

See the baby?

Chapla with avocado

Chapla and Pan de Wawa - A cross between an English Muffin and Arabic pita bread (brought over by Spanish colonists), Ayacuchan chapla is literally the best bread in the world. Close runner up is the sweet bread Wawa, which means "baby" in Quechua. I always ate the baby's head first.

Causa Limeña

Causa Limeña - A personal favorite, this popular appetizer is essentially a cake made of mashed potato. Add layers of mayonnaise, vegetables, avocado, and boiled egg, then more mashed potato with pepper and some crumbled egg on top. YUM.

Alien Fruit

Chirrimoya - Or, as I like to call it, Alien Fruit. Picture a 2D artichoke with a creamy inside like custard, big black seeds, and a flavor... like nothing I can describe. There are a lot of strange fruit in Peru.


Step 3: Take a trip to Petco

Cuy - One of Peru's most famous and popular dishes. Cuy translates to... guinea pig. Yes. I'm sorry. Guinea pig were originally domesticated thousands of years ago in Peru as food, despite their cuddliness. Guinea pig can be eaten breaded and baked, fried, or in soup. It is chewy, not particularly flavorful, and has a lot of tiny bones. Have to say, this wasn't my favorite meal.

Peruvians also eat alpaca (tastes like steak, but better), frog juice, and, in the city of Huari, they make cat stew. Really.

Step 4: In case you don't want to eat Fluffy

First of all - every single dish is served with potatoes or rice. Or potatoes AND rice. So just embrace the starch.

Lomo saltado - A stir-fry made of beef, onions, tomatoes, peppers, and spices. Served with french fries and rice.

Ají de Gallina - A creamy, spicy chicken stew served with rice. Don't buy this (or anything, really) from a street vendor in Ayacucho, because even though it looks really good you may get sick. I tell you this from experience.

Chicharrón and Puca Picante - Chicharrones are grilled chunks of spiced pork, sold on every street corner in towns like Huamanga. Traditionally served with puca picante, potatoes in spicy peanut sauce, and rice.

Ceviche - Another famous dish, which is shocking since there aren't usually potatoes or rice involved. The Peruvian equivalent of sushi, it is raw fish "cooked" in a mixture of lime juice, spices, and onions known as Leche de tigre, or "milk of the tiger".

Step 4: Order out

Just in case you're not full yet...

Chifa - Chinese-Peruvian fusion, mixing traditional recipes with Peruvian spices. To me, it honestly just tasted like regular Chinese food. But that is not a bad thing at all!


Step 5: Indulge your sweet tooth

Suspiro de Limeña - Literally "Limeña (from Lima) Woman's Sigh", this is a light caramel pudding with meringue on top.

Picarones - Peruvian donuts made from sweet potato flour. Deep fried and covered with cane sugar syrup, they are not very good for you. At all. But they are delicious.

Helado de Ajonjolí - Sesame ice cream. This refreshing treat is made by traditional women in the main plaza of Ayacucho, and is pretty fun to watch.

Or you can just go to Manolo, our favorite dessert shop in Lima. You can see why it's a favorite.

¡BUEN PROVECHO! 
Enjoy!


In case you'd actually like to try any of these things, here are some US restaurants that I can recommend!

Massachusetts: Machu Picchu in Somerville
They often have live music, it's a lot of fun!
Rhode Island: Los Andes in Providence
Literally the best Lomo Saltado that I've ever had, even after Peru.
Illinois: My apartment in Evanston. Let me cook for you! (I can also send you recipes for most of these dishes)

And as a bonus, dessert recepes from my wonderful baker family in Ayacucho!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KEwBh6psIqRySwR-7b-DkYRGdSXNx67WxTsfLNFDN0k/edit

A Small Trip to a Large Mountain (among other places)

Just when you thought I'd fallen off the face of the blogging world... I'm baaaack!

It's been almost two weeks now since I finished my time in Peru, and I'm just starting to emerge from the 2 months' worth of unanswered emails, appointments, and sleep-catching-up that have kept me busy at home. But just because I'm not in the Southern Hemisphere doesn't mean my blog can die... because I have yet to write about

this place.

Well, I've spoiled the surprise now, haven't I? Now you have no incentive to read this blog post. But, on the off-chance that this has piqued your interest and you'd like to see more pretty pictures, I will continue cuenta-ing my cuento until the end of the journey.

When I last wrote, it was my second night in the city of Cusco. Even though the city isn't that far from Ayacucho, we had to take a plane to Lima and spent a day there before heading out to Cusco. It was such a nice feeling to arrive in Lima and know my way around... as grey and gloomy as the city may be at times, walking down those streets felt like being home. We spent the day recovering from our early morning flight, and at night, visited the Parque de las Aguas, which is better described with pictures rather than words.

Pretty, no? It was a lot of fun, and though my camera may be a little worse for wear as a result of this soggy adventure, I'm really glad we went.

The next morning, we flew to Cusco (early again... you're only allowed to fly over the Andes at certain times, because of air pockets) and we started our totally non-academic week of sightseeing! The city of Cusco, or Cuzco, or Qosqo, as it is variably (and arbitrarily) spelled, has several defining characteristics:
1) It is located at 11,200 feet, which is more than twice the height of Denver CO.
2) It used to be the capitol of the Inca empire, and many buildings still have their original Incan walls. The design of these structures is earthquake-resistant, despite the fact that they use no mortar - the stones are simply carved with extreme precision.
3) The Cusqueñan flag is also borrowed from the Incas, who deified the rainbow. Therefore Cusco will forever be in my mind "the city where it's always Gay Pride Day".

4) According to the Official 2012 M. Lowey Census, there are more tourists in Cusco than Peruvians. Of course, that's not actually true, but WOW - I was astounded at the number of foreigners, especially after spending 3 weeks in isolated Ayacucho. 

Being suddenly dropped into this international city, where everyone addressed me in English and the nearest restaurant was Rosy O'Grady's Irish Pub, gave me a bit of a culture shock. As we visited different sites, I found myself struggling to make the transition from student/resident to pure "tourist". As a city, Cusco has a similar quality to one I remember from my high school trip to Barcelona - compared to smaller, less metropolitan areas, it felt a little false and empty, with even its most beautiful sites tarnished by commercialism and the tourism industry. I certainly don't blame the people of Cusco for capitalizing on their city's history, but seeing all of the frivolities set up for tourists made the poverty in the surrounding hills that much more disturbing.

Despite my mixed feelings on the city itself, I did enjoy our excursions to the various ruins and villages surrounding the town.
My personal favorite was Moray, a Incan site where agriculturists experimented with growing plants of different climates. The way the terraces structured, it is significantly warmer at the bottom than the top, and each level uses different soil to better promote the growth of each plant. I tell you, man, those Incas were smart.

After 2 days in Cusco we drove several hours to Aguas Calientes, the small town where Machu Picchu is located. We quickly checked into our beautiful hotel and, after days of anticipation, took an incredibly interesting (read: terrifying) 20 minute bus ride up to

this place.

See, I did it again. Got over-excited and ruined the surprise. Well, anyway - after this harrowing bus experience, we arrived at Machu Picchu, Sacred City of the Incas. And oh my goodness, turning the corner and seeing that city is everything it's cracked up to be and more. It is immense, it is silent, and it is so, so beautiful. I think I'll do an official Cuento later about everything I learned, but here are some key points:

• Machu Picchu (pronounced "mah-chew PEEK-chew" for the record... that's why there are 2 c's) was built around 1400 a.d. for the emperor Pachacuti. There were approximately 400 members of Incan elite living there, and there are over 700 terraces for farming. The current population consists of 3 adorable llamas.
• The word Inca itself translates to "teacher" or "civilizer". These people believed themselves to be a blessed race ordained to share their wisdom with other indigenous groups. Hence, the Inca Empire, or Tawantinsuyo, which stretched from Ecuador all the way through Chile.



Our guide Valentín teaching us the basics of Incan Architecture




Machu Picchu is actually the name of the mountain in front of the city, and means "Old Mountain". The big mountain in my pictures is the ying to Machu Picchu's yang - it's Huayna Picchu, "New Mountain". The city itself was named Haton Qollana Yachawasi, which roughly translated means "Place of Great Knowledge". Pretty, but a bit of a mouthful, right? We'll stick with Machu Picchu.

After spending Wednesday afternoon exploring the site (and befriending the staff of our hotel), we went back on Thursday to get a different view of the Incan city - this time, from the top of Huayna Picchu! The group, along with our wonderful guide Valentín, did a two-hour "hike" up the mountain... really more like two hours on the highest setting of Stairmaster. But when we got to the top, we were rewarded with the sight of hundreds of butterflies (yes, butterflies) at the top of the mountain, as well as another one of the breathtaking views with which the Andes have completely stolen my heart. Even if you're surrounded by other people, these mountains create a sense of peaceful solitude, of being dwarfed by the enormous masses that surround you, yet also feeling the solidness of your own presence in this beautiful, infinite space of mountain and sky. It's really quite a remarkable place.

At the top of Huayna Picchu. Machu Picchu is that little brown part 

The end of our hike meant the end of our time at Machu Picchu, and an hour later our somewhat sweaty group boarded the train and headed back to Cusco. The next morning we flew to Lima, where we had one more night before going home. My friends Kerry and Annie and I went back to the Puente de Suspiros, the Bridge of Sighs, where we got to see the sun set over the Pacific Ocean (a rare sight during the cloudy Limeño winter!) and got our photos taken by a modeling agency who were shooting promo materials and asked us to pose with their models (no joke).

My last Limeño sunset

Then, at 10:47pm on Saturday the 18th, I boarded my plane to Newark, New Jersey, and 12 hours later was back in my house, eating a good old American sandwich with my parents. It's definitely good to be home, and to have time to reflect on all of the amazing things that have happened over the past two months. Now that I've finally gotten back to my blog, there will be two more entries - the Food Blog (which I've been gearing up for since I first arrived in Lima) and the Picture Blog, so that I can share some of my favorite moments from the trip.

Muchas gracias for reading this long entry... that is, if you didn't just look at the picture of Machu Picchu and go back to surfing Pintrest. Which is fine too, of course. Anyway, hope everyone's having a magnificent end-of-summer, hasta pronto!

Cuento # 2: Living in a Time of Terror

I am sitting snuggled up in my hotel room in the very beautiful, sometimes very cold city of Cusco. We arrived here yesterday morning at 7am (you don't even want to know what time we woke up) and after napping/acclimitizing to 3,400 meters, spent the past 2 days touring the city as well as a couple of Incan temples. Tomorrow, we'll be visiting that oh-so-famous World Heritage site, Machu Picchu!

But before I start babbling on about Cusco, I want to write about what I learned in my Political Science class in Ayacucho, as well as some stories that my host family was kind enough to share with me.

Between 1980 and the late 90s, there was an armed internal conflict in Peru now known as the years of terrorismo. During this conflict, the radical Maoist group Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, and the Peruvian Armed Forces fought a brutal war that resulted in an estimated 69 thousand deaths and disappearances. Most of the conflict's victims were not members of these two groups, however - 3 out of every 4 victims were campesinos, farmers, whose first language was Quechua. The horrifying mistreatment of civilians, both in the country and eventually even major cities like Lima, by terrorists and military alike, made Peru one of the greatest violators of human rights during this time period. The majority of the violence took place in the nation's poor, remote mountain and jungle regions, where the government's negligence lead to a feeling of abandonment and resentment which Sendero Luminoso used to build up a strong support group for their "People's Revolution". Their headquarters was located in Peru's poorest region of all: Ayacucho.

During the 1970s, the Universidad Nacional de San Cristóbal de Huamanga in Ayacucho was considered one of the intellectual hotspots of the nation. Professors came from all over the world to teach and do research, and students were flooding in from the campo outside of the city so they could escape the cycle of poverty that had trapped their families in the past. One of the professors at UNSCH was a man named Abimael Guzmán, who like many other professors belonged to the Partido Comunista Peruano and had been greatly influenced by his trips to Maoist China. Guzmán began to gain a following at the university, and soon Sendero Luminoso was born, with UNSCH acting as a training ground in Guzmán's revolutionary, violence-based doctrine. Ironically, despite the group's focus on the "masses", Sendero worked under the same hierarchical, racism-based system as the government against which they preached.

In 1980, Sendero launched its first attack on a rural community in Ayacucho, and within two years, the Peruvian government had declared a state of emergency in multiple departments of the country and sent the military to resolve the conflict. However, with almost no information about Guzmán's organization (or, as he was now known by his followers, Presidente Gonzalo) nor any orders for intelligence missions, the Armed Forces began a campaign just as terrible as that of the terrorists they were fighting. As the conflict spread throughout Peru, citizens lived in constant fear of both sides - at any moment, they could be accused of being a senderista or for sympathizing with the armed forces and punished by the opposing force. The "punishments" doled out for these actions were often incredibly gratuitous and vicious, leaving thousands of civilians dead or disappeared, with countless more scarred by the atrocities that they were forced to witness.

For my final essay, I wrote about "La Guerra Cotidiana", or daily life during this wartime. I was lucky enough that my entire host family allowed me to interview them about their experiences during the 80s and 90s - everyone was affected by the terrorism, no matter their social situation or where they were living. My "papá", Jorge Pazo Palomino, talked to me for almost 2 hours about his experience as a 22 year-old working in a bank in la selva, or jungle, on the Eastern side of the country where Sendero's activities were mixed with drug production. He very kindly allowed me to share some of his stories (translated/adapted/shortened for this blog):

"In 1980 I moved to the jungle town of San Francisco, and had two years in Paradise, taking boats up the Apurimac river, playing soccer with my friends from the bank, and going to parties with our neighbors at the police station. Then one day, a friend and I were walking up the hill to work when we saw a commotion on the bridge which crossed the river to the department of Cusco. I recognized a policeman from the station, a 44 year-old, who was talking to a group of youths. All of a sudden, I heard a shot, and the policeman staggered a few steps before falling to the ground. We ran to the station to tell the police, but by then it was too late - the senderistas who had shot him ran across the bridge to Cusco, where the police had no jurisdiction. That was the first death of many in San Francisco, and it was that day, after my two years in Paradise, that they turned off the light, and my life became darkness.

Travelling was the most dangerous part of that time... you never knew when you would be stopped, either by the Armed Forces or by Senderistas. I was detained 4 times, kicked by guards and held in prison overnight. One day, we were travelling in our company car, and were stopped by young boys, senderistas of no more than 10 or 12 years of age. They had guns, and in their hands were bombs, made of dynamite stuck into old Coca Cola cans. They asked us for our papers, and when they saw the car registration card, which read "Ministry of Vehicles", they began shouting at us, saying we were spies for the government. I tried to explain that every car had this registration card, but they were already filling our trunk with bombs. Just at that moment, an ambulance drove by, with the words "Ministry of Health" painted on the side. With this as proof, we were able to convince the boys that our car didn't belong to the government. They ran off into the woods, and we had to quickly take the bombs out of our car and drive away. About 10 minutes later, I heard an explosion, and I knew that they had blown up another car on the road. Every trip was another story like this."

Jorge had so much to share - his detention in prison, just for having the same name as someone on the army's "black list", the time every citizen of his town was forced to parade before a tribunal while a captured senderista identified fellow terrorists, and the deaths of several of his friends from the bank, who were shot by soldiers not over terrorism, but over jealousy about a woman. It was incredible to hear him talk about the things he witnessed and experienced, especially knowing him to be such a tranquil, sweet, and stable person now.
After 10 years of this horror, the citizens of Peru elected a new president - Alberto Fujimori, of Japanese heritage. One of the first candidates to run without the backing of a political party, Fujimori promised to erradicate "Presidente Gonzalo's" followers from the country. During his subsequent two terms as president, he did just that, as well as raising the Peruvian economy from its desparate situation, bettering education programs, and gaining the adoration of many previously estranged departments. However, Fujimori's methods for obtaining these goals were far from the "democracy" he had promised. The 10 years of fujimorismo were characterized by authoritarianism, severe anti-terrorist laws which allowed for virtually anyone to be detained and tortured, and a violent under-the-radar contrasubversive program headed by Fujimori's right hand, the infamous Vladimiro Montesinos.

Despite the illegal methods by which Fujimori operated - for which he is now in prison after years of being on INTERPOL's most wanted list - his anti-terrorism campaign was ultimately successful, seeing the capture of Guzmán in October 1992 (just to show you how warped Fujimori's mind was, check out this picture of Guzmán, who was forced to wear a costume of a Hollywood movie criminal for dramatic effect) and from there, the ultimate fall of Sendero Luminoso. Once Fujimori's human rights violations were revealed and he fled the country in 2000, a transitional government was put into place, including a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, who interviewed thousands of victims of the conflict so that their story might be told, and justice served to those responsible.

Although 12 years have passed since Peru's time of terror ended, the country is still trying to pick up the pieces, and the inequalities which fueled Sendero's movement still exist today. Although it is the only South American nation which has had consistant economic growth over the past decade, 80% of this wealth belongs to only 10% of the nation, while the percentage of extreme poverty in rural areas is still enormous. The perception of the mountains as an "obstacle to progress" still remains prevalent, a mentality fueled in part by racism against the indiginous and poor mestizo people who live there. This inequality spurs hundreds of protests annually, and in fact, Sendero has recently begun to regain strength in the form of a political party, MOVADEF, which is once again championing the causes of the dissatisfied poor.

One of the things that I find most disturbing about the internal armed conflict in Peru (I prefer this term to "terrorism", because the Armed Forces were responsible for nearly as many deaths as Sendero itself) is the fact that, before this trip, I knew literally nothing about it. We in the United States are taught so little about Latin American history, and yet here we have an example of a conflict which lasted 20 years, and was responsible for the death/disappearence of about 70 thousand people. If anything's worth teaching, I think that is. Unfortunately, even in Peru itself the topic is seldom discussed. When I interviewed my "host sister", a 16 year-old named Romina, she explained to me that she has been taught almost nothing about the 80s and 90s in her years of schooling. "It's uncomfortable and sad", she told me, "We don't ask questions because the adults don't want to talk about it". I think this is part of the reason that MOVADEF is gaining so many student followers - stories about the radical terrorism of Sendero Luminoso are rarely shared here, so students have no background knowledge when learning about the political party that has sprung from it. Memory is short in this country - and yet, there are still some who refuse to let their stories go unheard. When we visited the museum of ANFASEP, an organization dedicated to the support of families of the conflict's victims, there was a huge sign on the wall which said simply: Para que no se repita, or "So that it doesn't repeat itself". I think that this is the most important goal for Peru over the next few years - for people, like the women of ANFASEP and my host father and anyone else who is able, to tell their stories so that the country, and the world, doesn't let history repeat itself again.

If this history interests you, I suggest you check out the documentary The Fall of Fujimori (which I believe is on Netflix Instant). It's certainly not pretty, but does an excellent job showing the complexity of the conflict, its two sides, and the man who helped bring it to an end.

Ok, it's late and I have some Machu Picchu-ing to do tomorrow. Buenas noches a todos! I'll try to get some pictures up with my next post - only a week until I'm home and have a computer available again!

Five Things You Didn't Know About Ayacucho, Peru

Ok, so maybe there are more than 5 things you don't know about Ayacucho. Or maybe you know 50,000 things about Ayacucho and these facts will be old news to you -but they're new to me, and I'm excited to share them!

A quick daily-life update before we get started - I am healthy again after my 2 day stomach infection as well as a nasty cold that managed to knock me and a few of my friends flat for a couple days. Ironically, this beautiful town seems set on systematically destroying the health of everyone on this program. There has not been a single day when someone hasn't gone to the clinic or been stuck home in bed. Still, we haven't let it get us down, and have continued with our work and excursions as best we can! As I've mentioned, I am positively enamored of these mountains, and our trips to the towns of Quinua and Huanta have just confirmed that even more! I can't believe this is my last day here; there's so much I still want to explore and learn, and so little time. I just have to come back on my own next summer!

Quinua...

I haven't had a chance to write here for a while, because I'm still recovering from all the final papers and tests I had this week. On Tuesday I wrote an 8 page research paper as the culmination of my 3 week course (hmm...), but luckily my topic was interesting enough to keep me awake and invested into the wee hours of the morning. I'll talk more about the essay topic in my next entry... it's perfect material for Meg Shares an Actual Cuento #2! Or at least, it will be. Once I get some sleep to make up for what I missed on Tuesday night.

So, anyway. Here are 5 things you may or may not have already known about Ayacucho, Peru!

1) There are Two Ayacuchos
The country of Peru is divided into "departments" that are basically like our states. Ayacucho is one of these departments (said to look like a dog), and contains 11 provinces, each of which has a capital city. Ayacucho the department also has a capital city, which is named... Ayacucho. Only everyone calls it Huamanga. Confusing. The reason for this double-name is as follows: On the 9th of December, 1824, Peruvian troops defeated their Spanish colonizers on the Pampa (aka Big Flat Place) of Ayacucho. This was a Very Big Deal, because at that time, the Viceroyalty of Peru actually consisted of pretty much the entire South American continent. So when the little baby Peruvian army defeated the big scary Spaniards, everyone was so excited that they decided to rename the colonial town of Huamanga (based on two Quechua words meaning "dried llama meat vendor") after the famous battle. However, the people living there decided that they like dried llama meat, so to this very day, the town's citizens call themselves huamanguinas instead of ayacuchanos.

2) God lives in the hills
Huamanga is known as the City of Churches... there are 33 within this small city, practically one on every street corner. But the religious beliefs in Ayacucho aren't as orthodox as one might expect. In Peru, particularly within the Andes region, a phenomenon known as Syncretismo permeates the population's belief system, blending Christian traditions with ancient Andean rituals that have been part of the culture for centuries. Sometimes, syncretismo takes a rather amusing form, such as this painting which is similar to one in a church near my house (they're eating cuy, the traditional Peruvian guinea pig dish). Last Saturday, we hiked up Watuscalla, the most sacred hill (read: mountain) in this part of the Andes. For hundreds of years, farmers have climbed to the cross at the top of the hill to pray and bring offerings to the God of the hill, so that he will bless them with a good harvest. Our guide helped us perform a small ritual, which involved bringing the God some of his favorite things: coca leaves, alcohol, cigarettes, and chocolate. I'm not sure how the Hill God's Christian roommate feels about these offerings, but we were certainly amused! As part of the ritual, we all had to chew the dried coca leaves while thinking a prayer or good wish for our family... they taste like tea.

3) The university is older than your country
Ayacucho is home to La Universidad Nacional de San Cristobal de Huamanga, which is the second oldest university in South America. Founded by the Spaniards in a year that I don't currently remember, but which I will find on the interwebz soon, and has been serving students ever since, with one significant break in the 1980s to 1990s. During those decades, UNSCH ( as it is lovingly/difficult-to-pronounce-ingly called) was shut down by the Peruvian government, as it had been turned into a recruitment and indoctrination center for the maoist terrorist group, Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path. The movement's leader, Abimael Guzmán, was a professor at the university, and in the late 70's began spreading his revolutionary doctrine to the other teachers and students, eventually leading them to begin a 20 year armed conflict that many Peruvians are still recovering from today. My next post will focus on this time period, and the interviews I've done with my homestay family.

4) The mountains are high
As you may recall from my last post, Huamanga is located at around 9,058 feet above sea level. This causes all sorts of strange things to happen. For example:
- When you first arrive, it takes a few days to acclimitize. There's less oxygen in the air here, so your lungs and heart have to work harder. For me, the only effects have been feeling more tired than usual after walking around all day. Solution: drink Mate de Coca, tea made with coca leavee. It's a lifesaver.
- Water boils at a lower temperature here. I think that's weird.
- Digestion is also slower in the mountains. For dinner, all I have is a piece of chapla, the incredibly delicious and addicting pita-like bread that's common here, with jam or a little avocado, and I'm full for the night.
- CONSTANT. NOSEBLEEDS.

5) The street children have somewhere safe to go
I wanted to make sure I got something in about Casa Hogar Los Cachorros, the shelter where I've been working these 3 weeks. This Dutch foundation is unique in that it offers classes and activities for children living on the street, as well as in the programming it provides for the children who choose to come sleep or live in their house. I love that concept, because making positive connections with the children that early helps them realize that there are options other than the life full of danger and drugs that many of them live. Working at the house has definitely been one of the hardest things I've ever done- some of the boys are very volitile and moody and everything we do has to be very flexible, because if they're in a bad mood it simply won't happen. As such, I've watched a lot of tv with them - and have now seen more TNT movies in Spanish than in English - sat quietly as they (mostly) did their homework, and learned to play marbles, taps and "fútbol de saltarín" (trampoline soccer), in addition teaching them the theatre games I prepared. However, it's become clear to me that the important thing here isn't what you do at Los Cachorros - it's just about being there, showing the boys that someone is invested in and happy to be with them. Most of them come from families who either can't afford to take care of them or don't provide them with a safe home, so Los Cachorros is an extremely important source of love and support, as well as a roof and warm bed. Nonetheless, it's difficult for them to adjust to normal life after all the liberty they have in the street, and during my time here I've had to see 3 children escape, including one who'd been at the house for over 2 and a half years. There's unfortunately not much the professors and I can do about this, other than ask around to figure out where they are and hope that they'll come back. Yesterday Noé, an 11 year old who arrived the same day I did and who I got very close with, returned after running away last week. I'm giving him a Northwestern baseball cap today as a goodbye present, and making him and the other boys pinky-promise me (yes, that's a thing in Peru too) that they'll stay safe so I can find them when I come back to Ayacucho. My friend Kerry and I bought them a new soccer ball as well, so that should keep them busy for a while :) 

 There you are - you are officially 5 times more knowledgable about Ayacucho! Check back within the next day or two - before I go to Cusco on Sunday (woohoo!!) I'm going to get up my Cuento #2, which will update you on what I've learned in my political science class here. Now I'm off to spend my last day in this wonderful city - chao!

Independence, Illness, and Inexplicable Llamas

Let me be the first to wish you a belated Feliz 28 de Julio, Happy Peruvian Independence Day! On this date in 1821, the Peruvians defeated their Spanish colonizers in the battle of Ayacucho, which took place only a few miles from where I am currently sitting.

The Plaza de Armas in Huamanga, Ayacucho

Ironically, I spent this Independence Day confined to my bed, as the inevitable has finally occurred: I'm sick. It's 100% my own fault, since I've eaten quite a few dodgy things over the past few days - some traditional sesame ice cream that my professor bought from a street vendor, unpeeled grapes, and perhaps most stupidly, a dish that contained shrimp. Remind me to never eat seafood when I'm 2,746 miles above sea level and 5 hours away from the coast.

Anyway, I'm taking antibiotics, and am feeling much better already. The good news is, since I'm wasn't up for leaving the house/celebrating Independence Day, I finally had time to sit down and write this blog entry!

Last Saturday my group and I took a 5:30am flight out of Lima to Ayacucho, a region in the Andes mountains. As much as I was not enthused about driving to the airport at 3am, I have to admit that watching the sun rise over the mountains was a sight that I will never forget. A picture can't really do it justice but it's worth a shot:

Around 7am, we landed in Ayacucho airport, where we were met by our professors, Ponciano, Lourdes, and Mariano. They whisked us straight to our homestays so we could get some sleep (you may recall from my last entry that we were out salsa dancing until 1am, then got up at 2:30 to go to the airport). My friend Annie and I are living with a wonderful family who own a bakery called La Miel (The Honey) in the Plaza de Armas, where we have class. My friends and I have visited religiously almost every day   =)

I have fallen completely in love with Huamanga, the capital city where we're staying. The sky is clear and blue, and we're surrounded on all sides by mountains. When compared to grey, cosmopolitan Lima, Huamanga is much more what you'd imagine a quaint South American city to look like. The buildings are colorful if a little dusty, the streets are full of motos, the adorable 3-wheeled taxis that will take you anywhere for 40 cents, and stray dogs wait at the crosswalk along with all the other pedestrians. Perhaps one of the coolest parts is seeing all the huamanguinas, the old women with traditional braids, hats, and outfits who sell food out of the enormous bundles they carry on their backs.

A "huamanguina" selling food (and children?)

During a typical day, I have a Political Science class from 10am-1pm, where we're learning about Shining Path, the terrorist organization that operated out of Ayacucho in the 80's and 90's. I'm going to write more about that in another post; it's obviously very affecting to learn about these events in a the city where they happened.

After class and a delicious lunch prepared by my "mom" Charo, I head to my Agency Affiliation. All of us are working with different organizations around Ayacucho, and I've been placed at Casa Hogar Los Cachorros ("The Puppies" Shelter). This is a shelter for children and adolescents who live on the street, particularly those who are recovering from drug addiction. Right now there are 7 boys living there, between the ages of 9 and 17, and for three hours every day I help them with homework, chat with them, and teach theatre games. It's been pretty funny to play Park Bench and Yee-Haw in Spanish - they like them just as much as my American campers do! They've taught me some of their favorite games as well… my shins are covered in bruises from a particularly intense game of fútbol de saltarín, a one-on-one soccer game that uses a trampoline as a field (I was creamed, 50 to 25). 

It's a really interesting to work with kids who come from such difficult backgrounds. Most of the kids still have families, but, for some reason or another, chose to leave or were forced out. Their moods are very variable, and I'm still learning how to act with each individual boy so that they'll be receptive. Some days are tough, but others they just act like normal children, joking around and playing. They call me "Sera", which I eventually figured out was not them mistaking me for someone named Sarah, but rather a shortening of profesora.

Just because this post was lacking in llamas. Also, side note, I ate alpaca the other day. It tastes like... meat.

Well, I've babbled on for an awfully long time now… I should probably take a nap so I can get better asap. Chao for now!

Lima Alphabet Book

Hello everyone!


So it turns out that my computer is broken - when I took it to an Apple Specialist store, they said there was something wrong with the hardware and that it would take 20 days to fix. Since I was leaving Lima soon, I decided it would be easier to wait until I'm back in the States to get it fixed, and at the urging of my communication-deprived parents, I've bought a tiny tablet that has internet. The guy in the store was very helpful despite my disastrous lack of Spanish technology vocabulary, and by the end of the purchase he had proposed to me several times, saying that I clearly needed a Peruvian husband to help me organize my life.


So here I am, with my tablet, writing this blog. I'm actually already in Ayacucho, the mountain city where I'll be spending the next 3 weeks of my trip, and I have lots and lots to say about that, but first I want to go back and share some of the interesting things I learned/experienced in Lima. Because I couldn't post more entries while I was there, this entry is going to take a different format from my last few (and will be really long, sorry! There's so much that I've been wanting to share but couldn't without a computer).


So, without further ado, Megasita Lowey Publications Proudly Presents:


THE LIMA ALPHABET BOOK


A is for Archaeology - As I had mentioned in my last post, a few weeks ago we visited an archaeological site called Pachacamac, which was the sacred site for 4 separate civilizations (the Lima, the Wari, the Ychma, and the Inca). It was amazing to see the temples, some of which still had paint on them from the Inca period around the 1400s. One of the Belgian girls I live with, Tatiana, works at Pachacamac as an archaeologist, and the other day her team found a burial site of over 70 bodies, some of which were preserved so well that you could still see the tattoos they had on their skin!


B is for Barranco - Lima is enormous, and is divided into many districts, or municipalidades. Barranco is the name of the district where I lived, and was about an hour taxi ride from la Católica, in the District of San Miguel.


C is for Churros - Almost every single day since arriving in Lima, our group has gone to a churrería (churro shop) called Monolo to get dessert. The workers there recognize us now. It's embarrassing.


D is for Danza de Tijeras - One night, our professors took us to a dinner show so we could see some traditional Peruvian dances. The coolest one was called the Danza de Tijeras, or Scissor Dance. The dancers literally have a pair of scissors (with the two parts separated), which they clack in time with the music while they do all sorts of tricks. It was incredible... one guy stood on his head, and the other guy did the worm!


E is for English - I would estimate that about 40% of the stores and restaurants in Lima have English names, like "Pardo's Chicken" and "Scrub and Scrub Lavandería". It seems like a strange custom, but my professor Eduardo explained to us that in Peru, anglo names denote a certain amount of success and "cool-ness". That's the case even with people - Eduardo has an English last name, Hopkins, and apparently people have talked to him about how lucky he is and how many many opportunities that must bring him.


F is for Food - Ceviche (raw fish that's "cooked" with the acid of lime juice), Anticuchos (cow heart), Chifa (Peruvian-Chinese fusion food), Picarones (Peruvian donuts made with corn meal and sweet potato), Choclo (giant corn kernels), and rice and potatoes with every meal. Peruvian cuisine is a huge source of national pride. In fact, our professor told us that the Peruvian obsession with food is turning into a method of escaping poverty... lots of people in the poor sections of Lima set up food stalls by construction sites and newly-developed apartments and cook for the workers/residents. These businesses are very lucrative and apparently a decent portion of the street vendors save up to attend culinary school and open restaurants.


G is for Grey Sky - Here's one thing that they don't tell you about winter in Lima: the sky is literally always grey. Between May and September (or so), cold currents come up the coast from the Antarctic, while warm currents come down from the Equator. The collision of these currents produces a phenomenon called "El Niño", which you probably learned about in 6th grade Social Studies class. It causes a lot of tropical storms and such, but it's effect is calmer in Lima... because the city is in a desert valley, a cloud-cover forms extremely low over the city. If you drive 3 kilometers out of Lima and into the hills, it's gone!


H is for Huaca - A huaca is any sort of sacred site from the early days of Lima. One of the coolest things about this city is that you can turn a corner and run straight into an ancient temple, preserved by the city as a huaca but surrounded by modern buildings. Our tour guide, Carlos, who is also an archaeologist, works in a huaca right next to our university.


I is for I've been trying to come up with something for "I", but I kept skipping over this letter and now I can't think of anything that I haven't already covered


J is for Jaja - That's how Spanish speakers spell "haha".


K is for Kola - As I've mentioned before, Inca Kola, the fluorescent yellow bubble-gum drink, is Peru's most popular soda. Other options include Chicha, a drink made of purple corn, and of course Pisco Sours, the national alcoholic beverage. Our Peruvian friend Ivan taught us how to make this drink (the legal drinking age here is 18): one part Pisco (a grape brandy) mixed with cane sugar, lime juice, and an egg-white, which gets all frothy and rises to the top.


L is for Literature - We've read some really interesting and beautiful things in class over the past few weeks. In case you're interested in searching for some short stories, I recommend Una mujer no hace un verano by Guillermo Niño de Guzmán, and Con Jimmy, en Paracas by Alfredo Bryce Echenique.


M is for Microbus - When my group wasn't in a hurry, we would take the Microbus instead of a taxi. These look pretty much like American busses, but there have twice the number of people squished inside! It's definitely an experience to ride them, especially since driving any sort of vehicle in Lima is mildly terrifying... they don't have traffic laws here, just suggestions.


N is for Naufragios - A couple of the girls and I went to see a show called Naufragios, or Shipwrecks, at a tiny storefront theatre in Barranco called Teatro Racional. We went in, and there were chairs facing in all directions in the middle of the room. Throughout the show, you could change your seat to see the women who performed in 3 different corners. Between this set-up and the experimental, physical nature of the show, the style was very "Chicago theatre", so I felt right at home!


O is for Ocean - One afternoon, my friends and I walked down the cliffs of Barranco (Barranco means cliff, actually, so it's appropriate) to the Pacific Ocean. The beach is all rocks, and when the waves subside you can hear the water draining from the rocks - it's one of the coolest sounds I've ever heard!


P is for Parque Kennedy - This was one of our favorite meeting/hang-out places. A beautiful and rather touristy area in the district of Miraflores, the park is full of restaurants, artesian shops, and hundreds and hundreds of stray cats. Apparently someone abandoned a couple there at one point, and they just multiplied like rabbits. Or cats, I guess.


Q is for Quechua - Our tour guide Carlos (I know I've mentioned him a lot. All the girls in our group are in love with him) is from Cuzco, which has a much higher Quechua-speaking population than Lima. He taught us a couple of words, and one of the most interesting is waxchakay, which means both "poverty" and "orphan". Family was, and still is, an extremely important part of Peruvian culture. When you get married, your spouse's family becomes a part of your family, and apparently even today families will get together to build a house for the newlyweds. The more family you have, the faster the work gets done, and the "richer" you are for having so many helping hands.


R is for Ruidoso - This means "noisy", like a street in Lima. I have never heard so many car alarms in my life.


S is for Salsa Dancing - On our last night in Lima, we went to a Salsa club, where our American friend Kerry (who goes to UVM) and our Peruvian friend Ivan gave us a lesson in salsa dancing! It was super fun, even if we weren't very good, and very interesting to see the contrast between this club and the discotecas we had gone to previously. The Salsa club had a live band, and the culture was much more dance oriented (as opposed to pick-up-girls oriented). We stayed there until 1am, then got on the bus to the airport 2 hours later! I can sleep when I'm dead... or at least when I'm somewhere less exciting.


T is for Toilet Paper -  Don't put it in the toilet, ever. The plumbing in Peru can NOT handle it.


U is for Universitario vs. Alianza - Our last Saturday, we went with our awesome Peruvian friend Ivan to a fútbol (soccer) game in the Estadio National. It was between Peru's 2 most famous teams, and the atmosphere was wild! Here's an idea of what it looked like.


V is for Venados - Those venados (deer) at the University literally have no fear. You can go right up to them and feed them a flower. I can't get over it.


W is for Whistling - As the encounter with my fiancee, Tablet Store Guy, exemplifies, the culture between men and women here is veeery different from the US, especially if you're a young foreign woman. My friends and I have received a great deal of attention, especially when we go out to discotecas with our Peruvian friends. Being blond in a discoteca is kind of like being a single flake of goldfish food in a sea of piranhas. Well-meaning latino piranhas who can shake their hips better than anyone I know.


X is for Xylophone - I'm sure someone, somewhere in Peru, has a xylophone.


Y is for Ychma -  One of Peru's ancient civilizations. The Ychma were around at the same time as the Inca, and eventually joined their empire. As rulers go, the Inca were actually not a bad bunch - whenever they discovered a new area that they wanted to conquer, they would send a messenger to the people and say "Hey. Either you can join our empire, keep all of your own gods and culture, and get protection in exchange for a couple of llamas every year, or we can send our warriors in to beat the crap out of you, and then you can join our empire". The Ychma thought that the whole llama thing was a pretty good deal, so into the Incan empire they went, and remained there until Francisco Pizarro's conquistador buddies came and attacked Pachacamac in the 1530s.


Z is for Zanahoria - "Carrot" in Spanish. One of our host mom's cooks gave us all a cooking lesson one night. We made SUCH yummy food, and now I have some recipes to bring home and make for all y'all!




Tada! That's Lima from A-Z. Congratulations for making it all the way to the end!


I can't wait to write about Ayacucho; it is SO BEAUTIFUL here in the Andes! But now I have to go do readings for the first day of class tomorrow... chao amigos!

Mala Suerte

Buenas noches!


I hope you managed to survive this Friday the 13th unscathed. I've been having a bit of mala suerte (bad luck) myself: my computer has stopped working, and I have a sinus infection that left my without a voice for the past 3 days. However, after performing many ancient Incan rituals to rid myself of the Evil Eye (jk just taking some cold medicine), my voice has returned, and I have high hopes that my computer will be fixed without too much trouble. Tomorrow my "brother" Rafael is taking me to an Apple-approved computer seller (the nearest Apple store is in Mexico) and my lovely roommate Heather is letting me use her computer for a while to check my emails and write this blog.


The only thing that wasn't backed up on my computer are my photos from this trip, so I hope hope hope I can get them back... I'm really bummed that I don't have them. But everything else is safe, and at least I'm in Lima, where there are Apple-trained employees in computer stores - it would really stink to have my computer break down in the mountain town of Ayacucho, where we're headed in 6 days.


So my blog is going to go on a bit of a hiatus until I can get this figured out. In case you're desperately unhappy about this (as I'm sure you are), here's a list of my grand Lima Blog plans, which I will execute once I have a computer again:


- Pachacamac, the huaca (ancient sacred site) that we visited last Sunday
- Parque Kennedy, the fun park in Miraflores where our group usually hangs out. It is FULL of stray cats
- A fútbol game between Universitario and Anianza, Peru's two best soccer teams (spoiler alert: I rooted for la U and they won 2-1. Gooooooooool!!!!!)
- El museo de oro (the Peruvian Gold Museum) and a museum of Peruvian History
- Peruvian Food and Fun


As one last teaser, here's one of the many pictures that random magazines took of us at the fútbol game


Well, my poor roommate probably wants her computer back, so I'm off! Have a great week and buena suerte!