Better tidings from Cusco!

Hola amigos! First of all I would like to say thank you so much to all of the people who sent me encouraging words and messages after my last, and rather depressing, blog post; it really helped lift my spirits! Things have improved a ton since last week so also thank you for your good thoughts and prayers, they really did the trick yet again! (special shout out to the men’s prayer group at Calvary Church, my dad always says to wait for Thursday for things to start improving and he hasn’t been wrong yet, so thank you for the continued prayers). On Friday I had my ‘last day’ at my placement which was sad because I really did start to like it there a lot and the teachers were genuinely sad to see me go but I told them that I would hopefully be back in four weeks after my TEFL class. On Saturday I had a lazy morning at home and then went with two of my roommates to a chocolate museum, basically a chocolate shop with a bit of info about how chocolate is made, where we smelled and tasted a lot of different delicious chocolate! Then we went to the mall…Guys you know what they have in the mall? A PAPA JOHNS PIZZA. If you’ll remember, I mentioned two months ago that one of the things I was missing the most was American style pizza and on Saturday I finally got to eat it and it was everything I was hoping for and more. So that was a good day, I seriously felt so content after that pizza. On Sunday I had a great Peruvian experience when I hiked with one of my new friends up to the most famous Cusco ruin of Sacsaywaman. The hike up was short but it was extremely steep and we were both struggling for breath for most of the climb. The ruin was totally worth it though! Sacsaywaman was an Incan fortress and was the site of one of the final (and failed) uprisings of the Incas against the Spaniards. It is huge and beautiful but it is only about 20% of what it used to be, which is amazing considering its current size. The walls are incredible and the rocks are giant and fit together perfectly. It’s crazy to think that societies like the Incas were able to move and shape such enormous boulders without the technology of the modern world. While we were enjoying a well-earned banana on the grassy lawn in between the ruins, we were overrun by a pack of wild alpacas! It was quite the ‘authentic’ Peruvian experience to be sitting in the sun, between Inca ruins with alpacas running by on all sides and it was awesome. After heading back down into town we rewarded our awesome day by drinking some fresh squeezed orange juice and enjoying some delicious alpaca steak at a nice hidden little restaurant. On Monday I had my first TEFL class! We are a group of eleven and I think that everyone in my class is pretty cool and it will be fun to hang out with them for the next four weeks. Today I gave my first ‘mini vocab lesson’ and had to teach the word ‘to search’ to a group of Peruvian English learners. It went pretty well, the students understood the lesson and I received good feedback from my teacher so that gave me some good encouragement for the rest of the class. I think that taking this class was a very good idea and I have been feeling so much better about my time here. I’m at school from 9am until 6pm and I’m seeing people all day long and I get to explore the city and find cool restaurants for an hour during my lunch break. I think this decision was definitely the right one and I am feeling so much happier here in Cusco.

Thank you again for continuing to read about my trials and adventures and for all the wonderful support that you guys give me, I know I say it a lot but it really does mean the world to me and really does help me feel much better when I’m having a tough time.

Love until next time!

LP

Hola from Cuzco, a honest look at the difficulties of traveling so far from home

Hola from Cusco, Peru everyone! Yes I am now in the second leg of my trip in Peru. So far everything here has been pretty mixed. Sometimes I’m feeling good about things but mostly I have had a very hard transition so far. When I got off the plane I couldn’t find my pick up, when I finally did it was because they were about to drive away. I had not slept at all the night before arriving but had to go to an orientation and a walking tour an hour after landing in Cuzco. The orientation is a bit of a blur but I do know that I was impressed by both IVHQ and the local team (Maximo Nivel)’s approach to volunteering and maintaining sustainable programs. My host family is very sweet and I share a room with three other volunteers. The environment is not as welcoming as Ileana’s house in Córdoba but I do like my roommates and think I will enjoy hanging out with them and my host parents couldn’t be nicer. My project this time around is childcare and I have been assigned to an after school program in a town 45 minutes outside of Cuzco. I help the kids with their homework and then we play games or do activities, it’s pretty fun and I love kids but I am missing the physical aspects of my equine therapy job.  Peru itself has proven to be much more underdeveloped than Argentina and so far I can’t say that I’m loving it here. The people aren’t nearly as nice, it’s a lot more unsafe to be by myself and I stand out as a foreigner everywhere I go. Cuzco is especially interesting because it seems like half the population is tourists and the other half are Peruvians trying to take advantage of the tourists. I realize that this is probably an unfair assessment of a beautiful city that I’ve only been in for four days but so far that’s how I feel. I’m really really struggling here to tell the truth. I miss everything about my life in Argentina, my host mom, Negrita, my friends, my job, the ease of the city and the friendliness of the people. I am also more homesick for Colorado than I think I have been on this whole trip and all I want to do is book my flight home. I know that the beginning is hard and that I should stick it out but the last few days it’s been very hard to convince myself to do that. Please please please send good thoughts and a lot of prayers, I can’t get through all of this on my own and really appreciate the support.

Thank you for support so far and hopefully next time I post I will have better news to report.

P.S. I wrote this entry yesterday and have since been feeling a little bit better. Yesterday I decided that I am going to take a four week TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) course through Maximo Nivel. I was planning on taking it at the end of my time here but the dates didn’t line up which means I will actually be starting on Monday! I do enjoy my project so I’m a little sad to leave but I think the course, which will keep me busy eight hours a day five days a week for the next four weeks will really help me adjust better to being here in Cuzco. The TEFL program is internationally accredited and once I have the certification, I can apply to teach English anywhere in the world for the rest of my life. It’s a pretty cool thing to add to my year abroad and like I said I think it will really help with my homesickness to be so busy. Once the four weeks are up, I will start volunteering again, hopefully at my same placement and will do that for five weeks.

I’m still struggling a bit but my family and friends both in the US and Argentina have been very supportive and have been great listeners and advisors. Your prayers and good thoughts really do make a difference so please keep them coming. Thanks for reading!

LP

Nos Vemos, Argentina

Wow, I have been in South America for three months and am a fourth of the way done with my big adventure. How did that happen!? I have already seen so many cool things, had so many new experiences, and met some amazing people, I can’t believe that I still get to travel for nine months! I am feeling a whole bunch of weird emotions with my time in Argentina coming to a close. My heart is convinced that I am headed back to Colorado since my trip is ‘done’ but my brain knows that that’s not the case. I also feel like am leaving home all over again because Córdoba really does feel like my home now. I’m less scared than I was when I left the states, because the difference between Peru and Argentina will be less than Colorado and Argentina and because I have an idea of what to expect but I still get very sad and scared to leave sometimes. My home here is so much more real to me right now than my CO home which feels so far away. I’m excited for a change of scenery and a change of routine but I’m sad to leave my friends here. I know this isn’t a very cohesive paragraph but my thoughts and feelings aren’t very cohesive right now either.  

I would like to write a thank you letter to the country that has been my home for the last three months.

Dear Argentina,

Thank you for welcoming me with open arms when I arrived. Thank you for all of the amazing places you have to offer that I have been able to see, Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, and Patagonia to name a few. Thank you for having mountains that remind me of home and cities that are different from anywhere I’ve been in the US. Thank you for having some of the nicest people I’ve ever experienced. Thank you Argentineans for always being willing to give up your seat on the bus to someone who seems to need it more. Thank you for always honking and waving when you see your friends on the street or in a passing car. Thank you to all of the hotel, hostel, and B&B owners and workers who made me feel like I was a part of the family even if I only stayed for a night. Thank you to all of the taxi drivers who have practiced Spanish with me and praised me for learning Spanish and being brave enough to come here. Thank you to everyone who has helped me with directions or explained something in simpler Spanish when I looked at them with a blank stare. Thank you to everyone who speaks English but practiced Spanish with me anyway because I’m really trying to be fluent. Thank you for letting me into museums with only fifteen minutes until closing and not making me pay. Thank you for the most amazing food! Pasta, empanadas, steak, alfajores, milanesas, matambre, vacio and so much more, I have enjoyed every bite! Thank you to all the street dogs who let me love all over them since I miss my own dogs so much. Thank you to the Starbucks workers who know my name and know that I drink soy milk not regular milk. Thank you to the mountain of bus drivers who have driven me all over this country. Thank you for being the home of my amazing host mom and friend Ileana who I will never be able to thank enough for her generosity, friendship, and amazing cooking. Thank you for having such open hearted people like Illi’s family who welcomed me as part of the family and never made me feel like an outsider. Thank you for bringing me and Venetia together as friends, I think we have formed a lifelong friendship and we have Córdoba to thank. Thank you for producing caring and enthusiastic people like Veronica and Pecos who are doing great work in their community and let people from abroad be a part of it. Most of all, thank you for becoming my home over the last three months and being such an amazing first stop on my crazy yearlong adventure. The bar has been set so high here, I only hope that every other place I visit can fill your shoes.

Muchisimas gracias por todo Argentina!

Thank you everyone for your continued support over the last three months, it really means so much. Prayers and good thoughts for the next leg of my adventure would be greatly appreciated!
See you all on the other side of the equator! I’m off to Cusco!

LP

The end of the Patagonia Diaries or part V

Well here it is, the final installment of the Patagonia Diaries. Last I left you, I was headed to my luxury resort at the end of the world (Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the whole world). I arrived at the resort late at night after my long day of bussing and border control and was greeted with by a bellman who already knew my name and was expecting me with a glass of amazing champagne. I was shown to a room with a huge bed, four different kinds of pillows, and an incredible view of the surrounding mountains. I threw on my complimentary bathrobe and slippers and headed straight for the Jacuzzi where I soaked my day away. I spent the next day relaxing and enjoying hotel amenities like the amazing view of the Beagle Channel and the Chilean mountains across the channel, the extremely comfortable furniture in the ‘indoor garden’ built specifically for looking at the view and relaxing, and the spa which has a sauna, heated pool and Jacuzzi and yet another relaxation and viewing room. This place was so amazing you guys that one night was not enough, I extended my stay for another night and if I could afford it, I would stay there forever! That afternoon I went into town and checked out a museum in and about the ‘prison at the end of the world’, which was very interesting but also pretty creepy. I walked the tourist block looking for good souvenirs but had trouble finding anything original. Finally, ten minutes before the hotel shuttle was coming to get me, I popped into a little shop where I had to ring the doorbell in order to be let in. In that shop I met Susanna, a wonderful older lady who had hand painted or handmade everything in the store! She gave me a native Lenga leaf for good luck and wrote my name down so that when I came back to Ushuaia she would remember me and let me stay in her lakeside bungalow. What a sweet lady! She and her shop were real hidden gems and I’m so glad to have been led there on a whim right before leaving the city center. I headed back to my hotel and enquired about the daily excursions that they provide; normally I would look at outside tour companies for excursions, but unfortunately most tour agencies were closed since its ‘mudseason’ here, the middle season where summer activities have ended and winter ones haven’t yet started. I booked a ‘trail tour’ of Tierra del Fuego for the next day and was very excited! I was hoping and expecting that this would be an adventure hiking tour, but when I went to the lobby the next morning I found that my excursion companions were all adults over 60….older people plus a tour designed for ‘luxury tourists’ ended up being a driving tour through the park highlights with a few twenty minute flat walks. Not exactly my kind of tour but my companions were cool and our guide, Ileana, was very knowledgeable and upbeat. Bonus: she was from Córdoba and so took a liking to me since that’s where I live! The park itself was beautiful! One of the coolest parts is that I was surrounded by mountains on all sides, some were part of Argentina and some were part of Chile. It was an extremely windy day but hey, I went to school in Wyoming where semi-trucks blow over somewhat regularly. It was also beautifully sunny and for the end of the season wasn’t nearly as cold as it could have been so we picnicked next to a beautiful lagoon and quizzed Ileana on which mountains belonged to which country. It was a less adventurous day then I would have chosen but I enjoyed it all the same. After enjoying the Jacuzzi one more time and taking too many pictures of the view from the resort, it was time to say goodbye and head to my more reasonably priced accommodation in the city center, Hosteria America, which was a very comfortable place to stay as well. On Monday I made my way back to the park to check it out some more and do some hiking. I did an 8km hike along the coastline, it was really beautiful! Tierra del Fuego is super unique in that is one of very few places where you can hike through a forest, looking at a huge mountain range, and smell and hear the ocean at all times. Like I’ve said before, fall has to be the most beautiful time of year to come to this part of the world, the colors are amazing! The combined colors of the red, yellow and orange trees, the purple mussel shells and the turquoise sand made for a stunning hike! No one really knows where the name ‘Tierra del Fuego’ came from, I think it must be from the way the trees look in the fall, but that’s just my theory! Now I’m on the plane headed ‘home’ and I couldn’t feel more blessed to have a had such an amazing trip. I had a fabulous time but I’m ready to get back to my routine, if only for two more weeks before I start all over again in Peru. It feels weird to be on a plane headed ‘home’ but to know that the plane isn’t headed to Denver. I miss home every day, yes even though it’s snowing there, but I am loving seeing the amazing places that this world has to offer! My next blog post will be my last from Argentina, if you can believe it which I can’t, and then I will be headed to the mountain city of Cusco, Peru until the end of July!

I hope you have enjoyed reading the Patagonia Diaries! Thank you again for all the amazing support!

LP

 My favorite room in Ushuaia, the indoor garden

Ushuaia is ringed by amazing mountains, some Argentinean, some Chilean

 THE COLORS!

The Patagonia Diaries: part IV

Welcome to Part IV of the Patagonia Diaries, I hope you have enjoyed reading so far! Last I left off I was in the middle of bus turmoil and had arrived in Puerto Natales two days later than I had planned to. The reason for going to Puerto Natales was to go to Torres del Paine National Park, unfortunately due to my late arrival and the fact that I was nearing the end of the season, I was unable to make it to the park and I did not get to see the Torres. This was very disappointing since they are a huge bucket list item for me, but now I am older and wiser and I know how to correctly plan an adventure to Torres del Paine and will just have to come back again in the future, which isn’t such a bad thing! I also wasn’t too disappointed to leave the city of Puerto Natales since it was one of the few places where I haven’t felt very safe as a solo female traveler. However I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt and say that I think this was because the town was basically boarded up for the season. Anyway after a six hour bus ride on Wednesday, I found myself on another bus Thursday morning. This time I was headed to the coastal city of Punta Arenas, Chile, the ‘halfway’ point between Puerto Natales and Ushuaia, my final destination. Punta Arenas is a lovely, bustling port city and I spent my afternoon there walking on the ‘Antarctic’ beach collecting sea glass, checking out a fancy Vegas like hotel complete with a casino, a church with an amazing marble ‘Last Supper’, and a very cool maritime museum that is designed to make you feel like you are in a boat. I felt very safe in the city and realized that Chilean people are super nice! Whenever I passed someone on the street, if I even gave them a half smile they returned a huge grin and an enthusiastic greeting which I loved. When I return to see the Torres del Paine I will also plan another, longer stop in Punta Arenas! I woke up the next morning and guess what I did? I got on ANOTHER bus, this time for a minimum of ten hours to Ushuaia, the end of the world, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Tierra del Fuego is an island with no roads connecting it to the main continent, so at one point we had to get on a giant ferry, with our bus, and cross the Magellan Strait! It was a very cool experience in both senses of the word since I didn’t realize there was an indoor part of the ferry and so stood outside in the wind for the whole 20 minute ride freezing. Another silly mistake in my rapidly growing list of mistakes on this trip. Once we crossed the Strait we had to cross the border, which took forever, and then we had to change buses in order to cross the Andes and finally arrive in Ushuaia twelve hours after leaving Punta Arenas. (sidenote: since spending 42 hours on a bus during my Iguazu trip, any bus ride less than 20 hours is a piece of cake). When I was booking my accommodation for this trip, I decided to book three nights in a reasonably priced hosteria but splurge a bit and spend my first night in a Small Luxury Resort of the World, Los Cauquenes. Well you guys, that was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Be sure to read Part V to hear an indecent amount about this amazing hotel and to hear about my time in Ushuaia. 

Thanks for reading!

LP

Freezing my feet off on the ferry

The Patagonia Diaries: part III

Welcome back to the Patagonia diaries everyone! I left my last blog having just summited Laguna de los Tres and feeling excellent about it! As we were headed down from the Laguna we came upon an Asian man, from Houston Texas, traveling alone and with a twisted ankle… uh oh. At first he just asked us for some ibuprofen, which luckily I had, we gave it to him and went on our way. We didn’t get very far though when we started to feel pretty guilty about leaving him alone back there. After stopping to give him an ace bandage, and then stopping again to give him advice we realized that we needed to do something more to help him. We couldn’t really do much from the trail as there was no cell service and most of the people in the group didn’t want to leave him alone to go get help since we were still about 6km from town. It was decided that Harry and I, the fastest of the group would hurry down the trail and let the park rangers know about the situation and the others would stay with the man, James, and continue hiking down as fast as they were able. Well Harry and I flew down the trail talking about slogans like ‘prepare for the worst and hope for the best’ and ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’ and hoping that our friends would continue walking because there was no guarantee that help would come. Once Harry and I got to town, we went into a local shop and I explained the situation. (it’s a good thing I headed down with Harry because I was able to communicate the entire situation in Spanish, he wouldn’t have been able to do that). The woman in the store took our concern very seriously and called a bunch of people until she got to the gendarmerie who assured her they would send help asap. For the next hour or so Harry and I wandered around town not sure where we should go or what we should do while we waited for the reappearance of our friends. Luckily after about an hour, the rest of our group triumphantly made it into town and told us that James, strapped to a stretcher with seven gendarmerie men, was going to be fine. We celebrated our successful day with burgers and beer in a little restaurant that blasted Queen all night, the perfect end to a crazy and wonderful day.

The next day, Monday, Lauren and I did a short morning hike to a beautiful waterfall before catching a 1pm bus back to El Calafate. I had originally planned on heading to Puerto Natales, Chile on Monday but unfortunately, there were no buses direct from El Chaltén and by the time we arrived back in El Calafate there were no buses until the next morning. Oh well I thought, no big deal, I would just stay the night with my friends and head to PN with the boys the next day. Well that night I made a fatal mistake. Instead of remembering that I was an independent traveler who should be looking out for myself, I decided not to buy my bus ticket until the boys had bought theirs so we could be on the same bus. So the next morning the three of us headed to the bus terminal, they with tickets in hand and me planning on buying mine when I got there I didn’t think anything would go wrong. Well it did. I got to the bus station and both buses to Puerto Natales were completely sold out and there wasn’t another bus until the next morning. The boys were sympathetic, we said our goodbyes and they got on their bus and headed out. It was 8:30am and I was stranded in a cold bus station in El Calafate, now two days behind my schedule and with nowhere to go. To make myself feel better I decided to stay the night in a nice hotel in town. As I walked there from the bus terminal, eight street dogs decided to accompany me which was very fun for me and very funny for the locals who saw me walking down the street with eight dogs who followed my every step. Once at the hotel, I played with my doggie friends for a while and then heartbreakingly had to leave them at the door when I went to check in. Luckily my room was ready and so I spent my day watching Spanish TV and then checking out a nature reserve and bird refuge in town. El Calafate is a beautiful little town, it reminds me of Golden and Laramie, my two ‘hometowns’ mixed together so I wasn’t too unhappy to have to spend another day there. The next day I finally boarded my six hour bus to Puerto Natales. I crossed the border into Chile and landed at my hostel (Lili Patagonico’s) which was super cozy and where I had a huge king bed to myself. The adventures and problems continued from there, but you’ll have to wait for part IV to hear the rest!

Hasta Luego,

LP

 I have been waiting forever to capture a picture of my Patagonia bag in Patagonia

 There were eight dogs in total, but some followed behind and some were right next to me