nasca and Ica

After the fiascos early on in traveling, things are finally going smoother and I have begun to enjoy myself more. We arrived in Ica on Thursday and went early the next morning to the Huacachina, the oasis a few miles outside of town. It is a beautiful lake surrounded by palm trees in the middle of rolling sandunes that stretch from Ica all the way to the coast. From the top of the sand dunes the view is just great becuase the desert seems to go on forever in one direction but in the other direction are the Andes mountains. We spent three full days there enjoying the sun, the sand dunes (including sandboarding) and making and selling jewelery. Today we traveled to Nasca where the famous Nasca Lines are. Tomorrow we are going to do actual tourism here so I will let you know what I learn about the nasca lines and nasca culture. Supposedly pretty cool.

misadventures on the road

We have now been on the road for about a week and half and to be honest, nothing has gone as expected...To start off, we traveled through the mountains to see the beautiful landscape of the Haunacavelica and Junin regions. That was totally worth it and beautiful, especially the city of Huancavelica itself. However, one of the main points of the trip was to arrive in Hauncavelica and take a train, the train Macho, to Huancayo. Supposed to be gorgeous. Turns out the train hasn´t been running for three months...

We got to Lima on Thursday and had a nice lunch with a friend of mine there and visited a the Museo de la Nacion, specifically to see the exhibit on the Shining Path and civil war that took place in Peru in the 1980s and early 90s. For me, and more so for Edu who is from Ayacucho, it was really powerful because the shining path originated in Ayacucho and much of the violence occured there.

That was a great day but then I got sick and our trip got a little more delayed again. We ended up not leaving Lima until yesterday (Tuesday) morning. Our destination was Paracas, a beach area a few hours south of lima with access to the Ballestas Islands, which are supposedely a galapagos islands "light." Near Paracas is the city of Ica with access to sand dunes and popular oasis called Huacachina. We got on the bus hearing rumors that there were potential road closures between Lima and Paracas but we´d probably get there by the night. Nope. About an hour before our destination the bus came to a complete stop and we were stranded in the town of Chinca. Still thinking we´d be able to get through soon, we got off the bus, got a hotel and decided to take advantage of seeing a new place.

Turns out, getting out of Chincha wasn´t so easy. There is a massive strike by cotten growers in the area who have shut down the Pan American highway between Chincha and the city of Pisco. There are trucks and buses that have now been stranded for two days straight.

We however, thought we´d be clever and take a taxi to Ica since they claimed the side roads were fine. Nope again. The taxi ride through the cotten fields turned out to be a crazy adventure. There were roadblocks every 100 meters, the majority of them manned by children, charging a "toll" to get through. Now, from what I understand the cotten workers are striking because they would like the government to raise the price at which they purchase a kilo of cotten. Fair enough. But what I saw today, was mostly thugish teenagers taking advantage of the situation and essentially robbing any vehicle for a few soles that wanted to get through. When we got to the main highway, the main blockade had gotten further then we thought and we still weren´t able to get through. The highway is filled with giant boulders, tires and small fires so we actually had to walk awhile until we finally got passed it and got a bus to Ica.

Tonight we are safe in Ica but I must say this was one of the craziest experiences I have had yet living in Peru, or anywhere really. The good news is that we have made it past the strikes and are free to finally start seeing the stuff we want, i hope. Tomorrow to the oasis, huacachina but I think we might have to skip paracas for now.

Keep you posted!!
Lindsay

Last Days in Ayacucho

I think the timing of my last post may have confused some of you. The vacation I blogged about was actually in the last weeks of February and early March....but I was slow to write about it. I have now in fact been back since in Ayacucho since March 7 but am getting ready to leave this weekend...for good!

The last two months have flown by but have been overall pretty good (but busy). Work at FINCA in particular in the last two months was quite demanding. The children's program, AFLATOUN, started up again the second week of March and I was pretty busy organizing everything, writing lesson plans and of course teaching the little ones. Honestly, saying goodbye to the kids this week was one of the hardest goodbyes I've had to do here in Ayacucho! I also dedicated a lot of my time to working on a video for FINCA, a tribute to women at FINCA and in Ayacucho that will premier for the socias on Mother's Day. FINCA employees wrote the script and I did the filming, editing, etc...I will post a link to the video as soon as I get it uploaded!

Today was my last day at FINCA which I am mostly happy about but is definitely a big deal for me. Working there was an experience I will never ever forget and from which I have learned so much. Today the employees surprised me with a mini going-away party that was very sweet. They gave me gifts and made little speeches for me. I felt very honored by the gesture and even more so to have had the opportunity to work alongside such strong women during the past 7 months.

Changing subjects, one very exciting thing that has happened in Ayacucho recently was Semana Santa...the holy week leading up to Easter. Semana Santa is taken very seriously in Ayacucho and is actually considered, after Spain, to be the most important holy week in all of Latin America. Tourists come from all over the world to see the elaborate processions and reenactments of the events leading up to Christ's resurrection. Though I did not witness it, there is even a day in which a man dressed as Jesus is violently whipped and tied to a cross....interesting. Events for Semana Santa usually begin Thursday (10 days before Easter) but I didn't really start participating and checking out the scene until a little later in the week. What I did see though, was really beautiful. Each afternoon/evening locals fill the plaza to create elaborate "alfombras," or carpets, made out of painted saw dust, flower petals and/or paint (typical to latin america). Then, elaborate processions that commemorate the story of Christ pass over the alfombras each night. Perhaps the most unique procession that I witnessed, was on Good Friday. A lit up "coffin" of christ" and a large Mary Magdelen dressed in black and mourning was carried through the streets. Most of the lights in the center of town were turned off and people only carry candles. Very catholic women in Ayacucho actually dress in all black and weep as they walk through the streets. Other exciting Semana Santa events included a running of the bulls (also like in Spain) and a party on Saturday night with nearly 3 hours of fireworks!

Pictures of Semana Santa to come soon!


Well as I mentioned, today is my last day in Ayacucho. Tomorrow I leave for a five week trip around Peru!! I am going with one of my Peruvian friends and expect to have an amazing adventure. I will update you all on my whereabouts! Muchos besos!!

Lindsay

Travels to the North: Part 2

After Pimentel and Chiclayo, we headed to Peru's best beach: Mancora. Mancora has warm waters and great night life. We couldn't stay long but it was well worth the stop. After an amazing 24 hours on the beach, we finally crossed the border to the north into Ecuador. Though we only were in Ecuador a total of 5 days, I saw enough to know it is a place I want to return to one day. The border region between Peru and Ecuador is nothing special, it is even rather ugly, but only a few hours or so driving through the country it because a beautiful green landscape full of banana plantations and lush mountain views. Our destination was Cuecna and the drive from the coast to this mountain city (and back) was in itself worth the trip!

Cuenca is awesome. It is a colonial city in the Andes, nearly the same altitude (8,300ft.) as Ayacucho (9,000ft). However, it couldn't be more different in terms of landscape, architecture and level of development. What really struck me about Cuenca (especially in comparison to my current Andean home) was the level of cleanliness and order to the city. The colonial styles streets and buildings are just gorgeous and the streets are super clean and not full of dust. Cuenca is much bigger and much more developed. I have been told there is a lot of foreign money invested in Cuenca both from foreigners (mostly Americans) settling and retiring in Cuecna as well as remittance money from Ecuadorians living abroad. While in Cuenca, we visited a Lewis and Clark friend, Jaqueline, who told us that an estimated 1 in 10 Ecuadorians live outside Ecuador, mostly in the United States and Spain. On our first day there we actually took a strip to a beautiful small town outside of the city called Chordeleg and were struck by the enormous houses that can be seen lining the countryside. Jaqueline says many of the houses were built remittance money and that many aren't even finished inside or lived in! They are simply symbols of status the dream of one day inhabiting a large, american style home. The views in Cuenca also are breathtaking. The mountains are much greener than in Ayacucho and there are 7 rivers that go through the city! The girls and I basically spent our time in Cuenca exploring the gorgeous city, eating tasty food and visiting a few museums.

One of Cuenca's main attractions are the numerous Panama Hat museums and shops. These straw hats originated in this region and to this day are a prime export. In spanish they are called Paja Toquilla hats because of the straw they are made from but in english we know them as panama hats because they were very popular in the 1920s during the building of the Panama Canal. Hats range in price from $20 to $1000 depending on how finely woven they are. Functionally, these hats are to protect people from the sun, but they have also been a global fashion accessory throughout the last century.

On our last day in Cuenca, Cotty, Cami and took an excursion to Caja National Park about an hour outside of the city. We took a beautiful hike around several alpine lakes at approximately 13,000ft!

Unfortunately, after Cuenca, we had a long journey back to Ayacucho. We broke it up by spending two more nights and one full day in Mancora (more heavenly sun and sand) but still had to spend a total of 36 hours busing back, not including 3 hours at the border. The poor Chileans had another 25 hours on top of all that to get back south!

Overall, it was a wonderful wonderful vacation and I am thrilled we were able to make it happen!!

Cuenca

The girls and I in the Cajas National Park, Ecuador

Cuenca

In Chordegleg, outside of Cuenca

Showing off our new hats in Mancora

Presidential Politics

For those of you who like politics, I have fun blog I think you should read about the upcoming presidential election in Peru. It was written by my friend and co-volunteer at FINCA, Geeta. It is a great summary of what is going on here and I enjoyed helping her do research for this post!

http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2011/03/31/in-peru-the-race-for-president-heats-up/

Geeta is a fellow with Kiva, the organization through which you can lend money to FINCA socias online (wink wink)! www.kiva.org

Travels to the north: Part 1

As many of you know, Sara has left Ayacucho on last weekend. She is traveling around Peru until her flight home on April 11! I'm sure friends and family are thrilled. I will be working at FINCA until April 29 and then will also do some traveling before finally heading home on June 8! My last few months at FINCA have been (and will continue to be) dedicated to teaching AFLATOUN and finishing a video project I have been doing for FINCA.

Going backwards a bit, I suppose one month after the fact is as good of a time as any to finally tell you all about our trip up north and to Ecuador! Unfortunately, Sara got sick right before traveling and so I started the trip without her. Our friend Else and I headed to Lima on Feb. 16. As I mentioned in the last post,the weather was really crazy during that time and we weren't able to get out of Ayacucho by bus! We ended up purchasing a more expensive than desired flight to Lima for 5:30am. Due to rain/fog/clounds, we didn't even take off until 3pm. Oy. However, we finally got to Lima that afternoon and I had a very very happy reunion with my wonderful Chilean friends, Cotty and Cami!!!! We spent a day and night in Lima doing some of the typical tourist stuff (many of which I hadn't done yet) - visiting the catacombs of the San Francisco Church, Magic Water Park (a park of unique water fountains that are lit up at night) and wandering around downtown. Then, on Friday night we took our first of many overnight buses, to the city of Trujillo. Trujillo is nice, not super special, but our real destination was the AWESOME: the beach town of Haunchaco. Huancacho is about a 20 minute cab ride from Trujillo and is a beautiful beach/surf town where tourists from all over the world come to learn to surf. While the chilenas and I were content sunning on the beach, Else got adventurous and went out for what was her second surf lesson ever there. She did great!! Only two hours after arriving to Haunchaco we decided to extend our time there to three days and we all had wonderfully relaxing time sunning on the beach, walking around the cute town, and eating ceviche (duh). We also spent one day visiting ruins outside of town. The ruins are of a pre-incan civilazation called the Moche people that lived in that region from about year 100 - 1000. We saw the Hauca del Sol (Pyrimad of the Sun) that is full of colorful paintings carved into stone.

Huanchaco ended up being the first of three beaches we visited in Peru. Our next destination was the Chiclayo, a 20 minute ride from the beach called Pimentel. Sara met us in Chiclayo along with our friend Carlos from Ayacucho. Carlos grew up in Chiclayo and was able to show us the best restaurants and markets in the city. We also got in a few more good beach days in Pimentel though the scene there was not nearly as exciting as that of Hauncacho or our final beach destination, Máncora. Chiclayo, only three hours north of Trujillo, is also ancient Moche territory so we took the opportunity to go a local museum to learn more. The Moche culture is known for extravagant burials and excellent metalworking. Tombs of ancient royalty have been discovered in the past 20 years or so, filled with gold, copper, sliver and turquoise pieces. The archeological museum is home to much of this beautiful jewelry and other artifacts.

For more information on Moche, I found a pretty good BBC article. You can read more at wikipedia....

Trujillo main plaza

Painted/Carved walls at the Haunca del Sol (Moche ruins outside of Trujillo)

Lindsay, Cotty, Cami at the Huaca del Sol

Fabulous Huanchaco

The crew reunited in Chiclayo: Else, Sara, Carlos, Cami and Cotty

Also if you haven't already seen the rest of my pictures from the trip, here they are: http://picasaweb.google.com/lsaperstone/

Rain Rain Rain

As if coming back to from an amazing beach vacation to a busy work schedule wasn't hard enough, this past week in Ayacucho was certainly frustrating as water was cut off from the city for almost a week straight. Apparently heavy rains last week caused a landslide that broke a part of the main pipe that brings water to the city. While it was being repaired, Ayacucho received water sporadically from another sources, but for a few days some parts of town(such as the apartment) were completely dry. It was very frustrating but surely one of the realities of living here. I think the water is back on for good now but am not willing to celebrate yet. We still have a few buckets of water stored just in case...

For those of you that don't know, "summer" in Ayacucho is actually the rainy season, and though it doesn't rain daily, when it rains it really rains. I'm talking about strong strong down pours that often leave the streets so flooded, it is impossible to cross them without soaking your leg up to your ankle. Some of my friends and co-workers describe this year as the worst rainy season Ayacucho has seen in 20 years. Many seem to also agree that climate change is the culprit. What I do know for sure is that the rains have been particularly damaging this season and last. Last December, a flash flood and landslide occured in the city itself and caused a fatal multi-car pile up in the center of town. Because of this, the city is now finally building a huge drainage system to deal with rainwater. They have actually been working on it since we arrived and though aren't done, have made quite a bit of progress in the past six months. This season, besides the water pipe breaking, many homes have been damaged outside the city and several roads in the area have washed out. In fact 7km of the main highway between Ayacucho and Lima was washed out last month. We ended up purchasing plane tickets at the last minute to Lima for our trip instead of taking the bus.

The good news is that the worst of the rainy season should be coming to an end. Typically February is the worst and should be over by the the time April comes.

Travel post coming soon but for now, check out my pictures here!

Lindsay

Images of Carnaval in Ayacucho

Carnaval!

Well once again it has been too long since my last post but fortunately we have lots of interesting stuff to share that should take up a least a few posts in near the future. Sara and I did recently take a 3 week vacation to the beaches of northern Peru and up to Cuenca Ecuador. It was amazing and there will be more posts to come on that, but for now, I want to share a bit about the festivities of Carnival that recently took place March 5-8.

Carnival in Ayacucho (and I suppose in other parts of Latin America) actually started a month early, the first week of February when the children begin playing with water balloons...Traditional carnival games are water fights - specifically young boys douse each other, women and foreigners with water when they walk down the street. I'm not kidding. For about a month straight, though it was always worse on the weekends, we were walking targets to be soaked. We were hit with countless water balloons and buckets of water in the month of February. While it was admittedly pretty annoying, I felt lucky when I learned that in some places the tradition is to throw paint, foam, and even urine at passerby's!

When most of you think of Carnival, you probably think of Mardi Gras or the festivities in Brazil (at least that is what I would have thought before). I imagined bright colored costumes and masks, dancing in the street, and non-stop parties. While there certainly elements of that, Carnaval in Ayacucho is far more traditional that any Carnival celebration I have ever seen pictures of. For four days straight there were parties and dancing in the street, yet instead of the elaborate floats, masks, and cross dressing I have seen pictures of in other parts of the world, people dress in various versions of traditional Huamangina (Ayacuchan) clothing and dance and sing regional Carnaval songs. In fact, almost every group of traditionally (and beautifully) dressed men and women do almost the same dance. I learned however, that the major difference are the variations in lyrics that often are hilarious, political and quite crude. Sara and I got back from vacation on Sunday night we so actually only experienced two full days of Carnaval but certainly got a good taste of the festivities. On Monday, FINCA employees joined the dancing in the street and I while I wasn't able to dance with the group, I followed alongside taking pictures and filming to really take in the scene.

View Carnival dancing from main plaza.

Ayacuchana?

FINCA staff

FINCA socia having a great time...In her hand is baby powder - tradition is to put it all over your face and throw it around while dancing.

More pictures and video to come tomorrow!!!!

getting out and about

It has been a good few weeks for me with lots of interesting stuff at work and a few beautiful hikes. Two weeks ago Sara and I went with two friends to see Wari, the ruins of a pre-Incan civilization that populated what is now the Ayacucho region. Aside from seeing artifacts, walls, and tunnels that date back over 1000 years, it was a wonderful escape from the city and a nice chance to enjoy the Andes scenery of this area. After hiking around the ruins we went to the town of Quinua for the

second time sinced we have lived in Ayacucho. Quinua is about 10 minutes up the highway from Wari and popular weekend destination for Ayacuchans. We walked around the scenic area near the obelisk, which was once the last battlefield in Latin America against the Spanish. We also visited a number of artesian markets as Quinua is known for its' handcrafts.

Last weekend I went back to the area, but this time for a more intense hike and more exclusive look at ancient Wari territory. A friend of mine took a few others and myself on a hike from a town called Pacaycasa up to the Wari ruins. We hiked through highland farms, climbed over a huge quartz mine and walked through currently unprotected Wari land. In fact, while walking along it is impossible not to find artifacts such as clay pieces of pottery, obsidian stones that were once part of arrowheads and tiny turquoise stones that were used in Wari jewlery. We saw some incredibly views of the mountains and once again, I was thrilled to be outside the city taking in the beautiful area in which I live. We also went to Quinua afterwards but this time to ride horses and hike to the famous waterfalls of Quinua, We ended up completely immersing ourselves under the freezing cold water of the waterfall. It was perhaps one of the best days I have

had yet in Peru.

Here are my pictures from that adventure!

Sara and Else didn’t come on this hike but instead had an amazing adventure of their own this past week. They traveled with FINCA out to the rural areas to take pictures and interview socias. Only one or two of us can go on such trips at a time and I recently started a new session of teaching English so it made more sense for them to go this time. I hope to go soon though because it sounds really amazing.

Much love from Peru! I miss you all!

Feliz Año 2011

I am a bit embarressed to realize that so much time has passed since our last post that we have celebrated Thanksgiving, my birthday (Lindsay), Christmas, and New Years. We also finished AFALTOUN for the school year (since it is summer vacation down here) and also now have two new volunteers working with us at FINCA. Else, from Holland, has been here for the past three weeks and has become a great friend of ours. Truman is from the US and just arrived this weekend.

In general, the holidays were nice though it was definitely strange and a little sad to be away from our families. We spent Christmas eve at our house with friends. We bought a roasted chicken and made some side dishes. At midnight, we went up to the roof of our apartment to see the spectacle of fireworks that occur all around Ayacucho. I would probably have been kind of scared to be down on the street but seeing them from above was pretty cool. We spend Christmas day at our friend Diana's grandpa's house with her and her family. They served us tasty friedfish, soup, and potatoes and then we spent the afternoon just chatting with herfamily and playing with Diana's 4-year old Theryus who is just a character. The pictures seen here from Christmas are Sara, Else and I with Diana and her grandpa and then one with Theryus. The Christmas tree is, well, Ayacucho's best attempt at a public christmas tree...

With AFLATOUN ending and new volunteers in the office, work has certainly changed for us in the past few weeks. While I continue to do KIVA interviews when I have time, we also have started a few new projects. For one, we are helping FINCA put together their memoria annual, which is essentially their yearly magazine/report. Our job is to take and collect pictures, write up text for a few of the pages, and collect testionies and quotes from socias and staff members. Perhaps the most exciting part for me is that we will get to travel a bit this month to the rural zones to collect pictures and stories. Viviana also asked us to start the next cycle of AFLATOUN which will begin sometime in March and teach until we leave Ayacucho. This means we have a lot of preparation to do such as lesson planning and putting together a more complete volunteer packet for future AFLATOUN teachers. Finally, I am started a few video projects which I will give more details on later, but I will say that I am loving it because it means I am now filiming bank meetings and interviewing socias on almost a daily basis.

If you go to my picasa picture page I have recently uploaded several new photo albums. My personal favorite are the pictures from the "enuentro de bancos rurales," which was an event for rural banks to come to FINCA for a banquet and to perform traditional dances and songs. They also had a contest showcasing their products (hand crafts, yogurts, agricultural products etc...) It was really beautiful and I learned a lot. Below is also a few videos of performances from that event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y5PxHPDyzk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGYOFI1mFQU

Since one of my new years resolutions is to write more, you should be hearing from me soon!

Feliz Año Nuevo!