Máncora

This past weekend some of my housemates and I went to Máncora, Peru. We had heard a lot of great reviews for this resort town on the Northwest coast of Peru so last Wednesday night we made plans to spend the long weekend beaching in Máncora. What a weekend!

We started out our trip Thursday afternoon with a "16 hour" bus ride to Máncora. I say "16 hour" bus ride, because when all was said and done we really spent 20 hours on the bus. It wasn't all that bad. In fact, I slept for at least half of it. The rest of the trip, I was entertained either by the lovely landscape of Peru, one of the many scary and/or wildly inappropriate movies playing, or listening to the life stories of my housemates! Before I knew it, we had arrived in Máncora.

 Here are some pictures my friends Amelia and Natalie snapped on the way to Máncora!

Unfortunately, my camera had already died by this point of the trip...

What a way to pass time!

Once in Máncora, we got off the bus and started looking for a hostel to stay at. Luckily, my housemate Kati had done some research and we easily found a hostel with a room the perfect size for our group! I had never stayed at a hostel before and didn't really know what to expect, but I sincerely enjoyed by time at Kokopelli! We shared a room with four sets of bunk beds and each person had a lock box to keep all of their things secure. The staff was incredibly friendly and they kept the hostel in tip top shape. I'd definitely stay at Kokopelli again!

Here's a shot of the pool that I nabbed from their website.

This is the view of the hostel outside of our room.

After settling into our room, we all changed into our swimsuits and headed out to the beach. We proceeded to enjoy our first full day of sun since arriving in Peru. In fact, we enjoyed it a bit too much and all got burnt. Opps! I guess I forgot how close Peru is to the equator... that's pretty easy to do when you're living in a city that is CONSTANTLY covered by clouds. It's a good thing we left Lima actually, because I was beginning to become Vitamin D deficient! 

Some of my housemates and I relaxing on the beach!

Our first day in Máncora was pretty low key, but the second day was action packed! Four out of the eight girls in our group decided to do a tour with Ursula Behr of Iguanas Tours. First off, I'd like to say what a cool chica this lady is! She has an incredibly interesting life story and her thirst for adventure is contagious! Needless to say, we had an absolute blast on her tour!

Here's a picture of Ursula holding a crocodile from the sanctuary we went to. 

(Sorry it's so small, but once again I had to borrow the picture from her website.)

Before going to the crocodile sanctuary, we went to a National Park so far north in Peru that we were almost in Ecuador. Literally, we were a few blocks away from Ecuador! But alas, that wasn't our final destination... Hopefully once classes are over I'll make it to Ecuador!

Our first activity was kayaking in a National Park to admire the well-preserved wildlife and mangrove trees. We encountered numerous iguanas, dozens of birds, and countless crabs! It was quite an adventure, but more than that it was an eye-opener to see the difference between the preserved park and other unpreserved areas where the biodiversity can't thrive as much.

We finished out the day in a little town called Zorritos where we went for a swim in a pool fed by hot springs. That was definitely my favorite part of the day and possibly of the whole trip to Máncora. The pool is only used by locals, but lucky for us Ursula was let in on the secret too! For me it was incredibly satisfying to think of who first discovered this work of nature and what they thought of it and its supposed healing powers. 

Here's a picture of my friends Mari, Natalie, Kati and I in the pool. 

The pool was as warm as a hot tub and the fountain on the left was even hotter!

After a day full on fun, Ursula invited us to help supervise a swimming competition in the ocean the next day. Our "job" was to kayak with the swimmers, provide water, directions, encouragement and whatever else they needed. So basically, all eight of us got a free 5 mile long kayak ride in the ocean! It was a blast and my other favorite activity. After we finished the race, the swimmers and hosts were all very grateful and actually gave us free t-shirts and certificates of participation!

My free t-shirt with the Travesía Máncora-Vichayito logo! I wish I had pictures of the event, but we were all too afraid to bring cameras. Turns out that it was a good choice because the waves were pretty big and we were all drenched by the end of the race!

All in all, Máncora was a success! I had a blast, soaked up some sun, went swimming in a hot spring, kayaking the ocean, and stayed in my first hostel! I cannot wait to return and next time I'll definitely check out the mudbaths!

To go with the Máncora theme I picked two words of the week...

la playa= beach

quemado por el sol= sunburnt 

Hasta Luego,

Katie

Mi Primera Semana en Perú

So I have officially been in Perú for a week now, but it's crazy because it feels like much longer for how much I have done so far! One of the largest things that has recently started is school.

Like I said before I am attending PUCP which stands for Pontificia Universidad Católica de Perú. It is apparently the best school in the country! Classes started this Monday and all of the sudden campus has gotten insanely crowded... During orientation I guess I took for granted how easy it was to stop in the middle of the sidewalk and pull a map out without being run over! But I am becoming more orientated with campus by the minute. A few Peruvian friends that I have meet have been gracious enough to show me the ropes too.

The university paired me up with my "Compañero de PUCP"... essentially a peruvian friend who will help me with anything I need on campus. Here name is María Fernando, but she goes by Mafer. She is really nice and helped me in my class selections. Luckily, we get the first week of school to try classes out because my schedule keeps on changing mostly based on which professors I can understand the best. Most of the classes last at least two hours as well. So not only am I   constantly working to comprehend the lecture, but it feels like the classes never end! It is totally exhausting!

My current schedule looks like I'll have classes on Monday- Thursday. Hopefully by not having class on Friday I will have more time on the weekends to travel! This weekend we are going to go to explore the ancient ruins of Pachacamac, which was a major city inhabited by the Incas when the Spanish arrived in Peru. 

This past week we went to Central Lima to check out the changing of the guards in the Plaza de Armas. It's such a beautiful area, because there are a ton of ornate buildings from the early days of the Spanish colony. And the building range in colors from standard white, to orange to even pink! It is really a beautiful area of the city!

This building is just a store, but it is still painted to perfection!

One of many ornately decorated churches in Lima!

I'm not sure what the yellow building is, but the building on the right is the Palacio de Gobierno. 

I wish I would have taken a picture of the orange university building downtown... It was pretty sweet!

After seeing a few sights and walking around Central Lima we decided to stop at a place called Walley's for lunch. The great thing about Walley's (and may other restaurants in Lima) is that they offer "Menus" which are essentially a meal deal. Our menú included soup, a main dish of chicken and rice, and soda (Inca Kola of course) for only 8.50 soles or about 3 dollars! I was about to dig into my soup when I realized that there was something in there... Under closer inspection I realized there were two chicken feet in my soup! I usually consider myself pretty adventurous when it comes to trying new food, but I was not ready to take on chicken feet quite yet. It took all I had in my to eat the rest of the soup and just try and avoid the chicken feet. Here's a picture I took of a few of my housemates at lunch sipping on Inca Kola.

I forgot to explain before that the toxic looking yellow drink happens to be Inca Kola and EVERYONE drinks it in Perú. I've tried it a few times and it without a doubt tastes like bubblegum. However, the flavor has started to grow on me. I've been trying to eat and drink the typical things that I have encountered in Perú and I have actually surprised myself a bit. For those of you who don't know, I absolutely hate eggs. The texture is just all wrong for me, but I made a resolution to at least try every thing that is served to me. (And eggs happen to be served here quite a lot!) I'm not sure why, but I actually like the hard-boiled eggs here. And get this, the other day I actually enjoyed an egg salad sandwich! I'm not sure what they do to their eggs here, but they're definitely doing something right. I actually asked my house mom about the little eggs we had the in a salad other day. If I understood correctly the eggs were from the birds that live on our roof. I have to do some more investigating, but I think those birds are pigeons... Only in Perú...

Well, I have so much more to tell you all, but I'm really tired! I'll have to save the rest for another day! But quick I'll share a phrase that may come in handy to anyone ordering soup in the future...

las  patas de pollo = chicken feet

Hasta luego,

Katie

He llegado en Perú

Hey everyone!

I have arrived safe and sound in Peru! In fact, it's already been five full days that I've been here and I am loving every second of it!

I am living in a quaint district of Lima, Peru called Magdalena del Mar. As the name implies we are very close to the "mar" or sea. Instead of sand though the beaches here consist of rocks of all shapes and sizes. It is incredibly refreshing to leave the city and walk down to the beach. The air is so fresh and the sea breeze is incredible. I definitely could get used to living near the sea!

The climate is a bit cooler than I expected (rather, what I hoped.) Note to self: packing summer clothes does not make the temperature of your final destination warmer! But hey, if this is winter weather I'm not complaining. It is nothing compared to a winter in Wisconsin! The cold weather has also prompted me to buy my first peruvian sweater! And as my peruvian mom would say "Qué lindo".

My Peruvian family is very nice and accommodating. Pictured below are Enrique, Ceci, and Cecilia Castro who are replacing Dad, Emma, and Mom for the next five months as my parents and sister. Just kidding, but they have been incredibly welcoming. I feel I have a new home away from home.

A huge part of my adjusting so fast is all of the other exchange students whom are living in the Castro house with me. There are a total of nine students living with the Castro family. I feel very welcomed into the house and those who have been here longer have taken it upon themselves to teach the most recent arrivals like myself everything there is to know about Lima. Here's a picture of a few of these wonderful people I've been talking about...

In the picture above, we are headed (in microbus) to the university where we'll be taking classes starting Monday. The campus is a very safe and beautiful area contained surrounded by brick walls.

The campus appears as a green oasis located within a bustling city... random prancing deer included. And that's no joke! Apparently, some time ago a few deer found their way into campus and have stayed and sense then multiplied. To think that in Wisconsin some people put fake deer in their lawns, but in Peru it's the real deal on PUCP campus!

Before I finish my first blog ever I thought I'd share some spanish knowledge with you all, because that is the reason I'm here in Peru after all! So here's the first spanish word of the week (or as often as I can blog!)

 el ciervo/ el venado = deer 

Until the next post,

Katie☺