once in this way, and never again

I am psyched! In 1 week I will be heading to South America with Ryan Knowles, Karen Cyb, and Malia Wycoff for 9 days. We are flying to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil first, then moving onto Montevideo, Uruguay for a short stay, then ending our trip in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The idea to travel there started because Ryan's cousin is currently studying abroad in Buenos Aires. He loves to take advantage of people he knows living in crazy locations and uses it as an excuse to travel (and it's a great excuse)! Our Buenos Aires trip quickly turned into a "more than one country" trip to try and see as much as possible.

I cannot wait to write about what we do and the incredible things we will inevitably see along the way.

This post is archived under Argentina, Brazil, South America, Uruguay

Or rather, the times I got sick. I told you never to eat egg salad sandwiches in Peru and I meant it. There was a small local restaurant called Otre Cosa near our house that had awesome cushions to sit on and an attached store with postcards and random Peruvian trinkets. A group of us went there one afternoon close to the end of our trip and I ordered egg salad because that is (was now) my favorite kind of sandwich. It came out looking all delicious on its grainy wheat bread and tasted just as it looked.

Fast forward to the following day when that sandwich decided to wreak havoc on my body. Long story short, I did not go into Ciudad de Dios for a few days. Instead I laid in my bed at the house while Robby brought me tea and crackers every few hours. We would have conversed more but seeing as how he only spoke Spanish and I only spoke English, communication was limited and probably ridiculous sounding when attempted. I did manage to get out of bed one of those days to go down the street and get chicken soup that Robby said would make me feel better. There were parts of chicken in that soup that I don't ever care to know where they came from. After a few days I went back to Ciudad to finish up my plaza mural and the town sign, but the very next day I was sick again. I stayed in bed and drank Cipro and some powder mixed with water that tastes like the ocean (DISGUSTING!).

I practically missed the entire last week of work in Ciudad, which was a bummer. All of my journal entires for those days sound something like this: "I hate being sick. I can't eat anything but I'm really hungry.... I can't sleep because it hurts too much."

Man, I was really whiny.

This post is archived under Egg Salad, Otre Cosa, Sick

July 4th finally came, and even though Peruvians weren't celebrating it, we certainly were! We got off of work, so instead of laying around the house all day we went to Chan Chan, capital of the Chimu empire. It was incredible! Walking around listening to a guide tell us about this culture was worth seeing/hearing. Some awesome pictures from our tour...











That night we had a cookout at Nourish International's Hospedaje. Professor Billman grilled hamburgers and we had guacamole, fresh vegetables, and french fries (I ate a TON of french fries while in Peru). It was all delicious, and afterwards we all went down to the beach and lit fireworks. They were mildly successful... as successful as on can imagine Peruvian fireworks are. The archaeology students had a bonfire going so we joined them in making smores and hanging out. We played a huge game of capture the flag... and if you've never played capture the flag on a wide, open beach, it's hard! It comes down to who is the fastest because there isn't anything you can hide behind. Not to mention running on sand slows you down quite a bit. Still, we had a good time and a fun day of honoring our country's independence.

 **Thinking back, I feel like we should have at least sang the national anthem or something...

This post is archived under Fourth of July, Huanchaco, Peru

View from our hotel

The first full day we were in Cajamarca, Magdalena, Justine, Ellie, and I didn't waste any time.. we went straight to the hot springs. It wasn't too expensive, and we were given a room with what was basically a huge bath. So we pretty much just took a bath together in our swim suits for 30 minutes in water that is apparently really great for your skin. After that experience, we went shopping around the town. Cajamarca is fairly large with many little shops to explore and alleys with craft stalls set up. I managed to pick up gifts for friends and family that day.

Hot springs!

Our room (we had to use large, heavy blankets because the temperature dropped at night.. unlike in Huanchaco where it was warm all day/night)

Or bus ride back after 3 days in Cajamarca was brutal because sickness decided to set in. Good thing we went on the trip when we did.

This post is archived under Cajamarca, Peru

This post is archived under Ciudad de Dios, Peru, Work

During our time there, Rosa was the best cook. She made a DELICIOUS chocolate cake, and also some kick ass guacamole. Here is the recipe I wrote down in my journal (in case I ever felt like trying to make it at home... which has yet to happen).

This post is archived under Cooking, Guacamole, Peru

One day in June we didn't go into Ciudad de Dios. Instead we went to where the springbox would be located up from the town that would filter the water. To construct the springbox we had to haul sand and gravel from the dropoff point to the box, which were not next to each other. We formed a chain and passed the buckets down it until it reached the box. I was exhausted doing this work because the buckets were quite heavy and awkward to carry. Compared to the digging and laying pipe this work was more difficult to me.

This post is archived under Peru, Work