Lodging

We woke up this morning and Maria (The mother of the house) made us a fantastic egg sandwich and a fruit smoothie for breakfast. We sipped a few cups of coca tea and then we were off to the famous Huancayo market.

It was about a mile walk to the market and when we finally got to it we were amazed at just how many vendors there were. The market stretches for a few miles along a long street. There are four rows of booths running down the street. I can not even begin to imagine how many vendors were selling their crafts. There were hundreds and hundreds of them.

As we walked through the market we were amazed at the quality of the craftsmanship and the great prices. A handmade, alpaca wool coat only cost about 12 US dollars. We walked through the market for hours until our arms were full of shopping bags. We did not even see all of the market but we just had to get back home before our arms fell off. We may have to throw away most of our possessions so that we can fit everything in our bags.

Altitude Sickness
So, we are staying in a city high up in the Andes mountains. It is so high in altitude that many of the volunteers have suffered from altitude sickness. The illness happens when you ascend quickly to a high altitude. The symptoms include nausea, a throbbing headache, dizziness, incoherence, shortness of breath and a bunch of other uncomfortable feelings. One way to deal with the altitude is to drink coca tea ... tea made from coca leaves. The tea is legal in Peru, since it is not processed to make it cocaine. Here at the house all of the volunteers sip the tea all day long. You can also chew the coca leaves. We will be doing this on our hikes.

The only other way to deal with the sickness is to sleep. Many of the volunteers spend their first day in bed. One girl slept for 17 hours straight. Michelle fell ill for the first 2 days and spent much of her time laying in bed sipping tea. This morning she felt much better. Both of us are feeling the effects of the altitude and probably will for our entire trip. Rich has the sensation of ice cold needles all over his legs!

Peruvian Dancing
Last night all of the volunteers went out for a dinner of brick oven pizza and Peruvian wine. Michelle stayed home so she could recuperate from the altitude sickness. There were 2 bands playing traditional Peruvian music and the atmosphere of the place was amazing. Four traditional dancers came out and danced for all of us and then they grabbed Rich¨s hand and dragged him onto the dance floor. He then danced for 3 hours straight! At one point he was on the stage. It was so much fun.

The Orphanage
This morning Michelle felt better and we decided to visit a school. We spent 1 hour with the cutest little kids. One thing we are noticing here is that the students take excellent notes. They also like to show us all of their hard work so we spend a lot of time sitting with them reviewing all of their notes. Today they learned the numbers 1 through 20. It is so much fun to work one on one with them. We clap hands with them as we count off the numbers. As the students left, they gave us big hugs and kisses in the cheek.

After lunch we walked for about 1.5 miles to the orphanage to visit all of the kids there. The orphanage ha a huigh wall all around it and a guard stands at the front gate. He let us in and within about 30 seconds we had 2 tiny little girls hugging our legs. The kids at the orphanage are adorable. Most of the kids are there because they were abandoned and found living on the streets. Some of the kids have also been abused. It was really heart breaking. They were so happy to have us there that a few of them paraded us around and gave us a grand tour of the grounds. They also have a pet lamma that we got to pet. We spent 1 hour playing soccer and hanging out with the kids.

The whole experience was so powerful. It really opened our eyes to how much we have, waste, and take for granted. These kids have nothing but the clothes on their backs. They have suffered so much and have absolutely no family. Who knows what their future will be. It will be hard to sleep tonight knowing that all of those kids will be sleeping in the orphanage without a mother or father to tuck them in.

Upcoming Events
Tomorrow we are going to the weekly Huancayo market to do some shopping. The market happens every sunday and is the biggest in all of Peru. They say that 50,000 people travel to the market each week. Huancayo is known as the home of the best artists in Peru. In fact, the family that runs the orphanage we are volunteering for are master artists. We are living in their house and they have all of their artwork here. They weave traditional blankets, make hats, gloves etc. They actually shear sheeps and dye the wool to make their blankets. They also paint incredible paintings. Tino, the father is known as one of the best artists in all of Peru. His work has won awards all over the world and he is trying to get it exhibited at the MOMA in NYC. We are so lucky to be living with such talented people.

Next week, we are going to be hiking to a very high mountain with a glacier. We will also be volunteering some more at the orphanage and at some area schools.

We left Costa Rica early on Wednesday morning. We woke up at 5:30 am and had a huge plate of rice and beans with eggs, and of course cafe for breakfast. We said our goodbyes to the family and drove 45 km to the airport. Our flight left at 9:20 am and it was a smooth 4 hour ride to Lima.

As you land in Lima, you fly over the coastal waters and you get a great view of the huge city. When we got to the airport in Lima, we were met by our car driver and then we experienced lima traffic for the first time. Our driver was great but taxi drivers in Lima are notoriously crazy. They like to drive with one hand on the horn as they blindly roll into intersections.

Our driver took us to our hostal, hostal mama ponchinta. The hostal was absolutely beautiful. The architecture was phenomenol, with arched doorways, intriquite tile work, and an open air courtyard. Our room also included a hot shower! We were in paradise. After freshening up, we took a taxi to a nearby mall to purchase our bus tickets for Huancayo. Lima has some very cosmopolitan areas and the mall we went to included many of the same stores that we have in the US. We actually experienced culture shock, having come from tropical Costa Rica to such a big city.

We bought our bus tickets at a booth in the mall and then we had a sandwich and juice. We also had a great cafe con leche. In Peru, the currency is called the Nuevos Soles. 1 US dollar equals about 3.3 Nuevos Soles. We were happy to find out that our cafe was only .8 nuevos soles ... or about 25 cents.

After a long day of travelling, we were happy to just stay in our hostal for the night and watch a movie on the television.

Thursday morning, we woke up early again and took a taxi to the bus station for our 7 hour trip to Huancayo. The buses in Peru are very nice. They are doubledeckers and they serve you hot lunch, refreshments and also play movies. During our trip we watched 3 movies. The trip itself is very difficult. First, it is 7 hours long. Second, the majority of the trip is spent climbing high into the Andes mountains. We reached altitudes of 15,000 feet and Rich felt a little ill from the altitude and windy roads. The views were so dramatic and we saw many lammas and peruvians in traditional clothing along the way.

We finally reached Huancayo at about 2 pm. Tino, the director of the orphanage met us at the bus terminal and gave us huge hugs. We were driven to the house that we would be staying in and saw the city of Huancayo on the way. Huancayo is a large city with about 350,000 residents. The houses are made of brick and although many streets are paved, there are quite a few that are not paved.

We are staying in Tinos house with about 12 other volunteers, Tino´s wife, his sister, his 2 little daughters and his adorable mother. Tino´s mother has already given Rich about 50 hugs and kisses on the cheek. While we are staying here, we are given 3 amazing meals each day and we have many new friends to hang out with. Tino is also an amazing artist. He weaves traditional Peruvian blankets and does beautiful oil paintings.

This morning, we gave our box of donations to Tino and he thanked us many times for all of the great gifts. At 10 am this morning we visted a school and were lucky to visit a kindergaten class and a first grade class full of smiling faces. The children here are so cute you just want to squeeze them! As we entered the classrooms, many of the kids gave us hugs and we shook their tiny hands. Michelle taught the kids how to do the hokey pokey and we sang songs with them. It was a great first day of volunteering. Later today we will be visiting an orphanage to hand out the clothes that we brought. There is so much more to describe about our Peruvian experience so far. It is truly an amazing place.

The drive from Mal Pais back to San Ramon can be summed up in a few words: 4 wheel drive, pouring rain, 8 hours. We began the trip in the muddy dirt roads near the coast. Our SUV got covered with orange mud and we bounced around so much that we felt like the dukes of hazzard hitting bump after bump. We finally reached some pavement and our nerves settled.

The views on the Nicoya Peninsula are breathtaking. On one side you have steep, cloud covered mountains and on the other side you have the most beautiful beaches. The people who live in this part of the country have truly found paradise. They have fantastic views, all the tropical fruits they could ever want, and endless beaches to swim in.

We reached a brand new bridge that the Taiwanese government built as a gift for the people of Costa Rica. The bridge and surrounding roads were all paved to perfection and our drive through the mangroves was straight and relaxing. After we crossed the bridge, the rain began to fall more rapidly. It quickly felt like we were driving in a car wash. We still had 3 hours of driving to go!

Finally we made it back to San Ramon ... just after the sun had set. We parked the car outside our Tico family´s house and happily went inside for some warm cafe. We stayed up late and told the family about our adventures. Eventually we went to sleep. If you have never slept in a home in Costa Rica, let me explain the design of the rooms. Many Costa Rican homes have tin roofs. This helps to amplify any sound made inside the house. Also, none of the rooms have ceilings! Not even the bathroom. No matter where you are in the house, you hear the tiniest whisper from any room. So, as we lay in bed we all took turns telling jokes and laughing at each other. Don Filimon is hilarious and he had us all laughing uncontrollably. The great thing is that this happens every night when we sleep at the house. The beautiful thing about this Tico family is that they always go to sleep with a smile.

Today we played soccer with the kids. And tonight we are going to watch the Costa Rica vs. US soccer match. This is our last night in Costa Rica ...