Back in Limaaaa

So I am finally back from our Rotary trip to Northern Peru and Ecuador!  It was a good time with lots of heat and beaches.

We traveled to the following cities (and maybe others that I don't remember): Trujillo, Chiclayo, Tumbes, Guayaquil (Ecuador), Las Salinas (Ecuador), and Piura .

Enjoying the pool in our first hotel

We saw lots of ruins/archeological sites.  These tours were terrible with the heat and sun.

There were like tombs and from what I understood, when someone of royalty died (naturally) they killed his favorite servants and wives (and occasionally pets/animals) and placed them around him in the tomb so that he would have people to serve him in the next life.

Some artifacts in a museum

City plaza in Tumbes

Don't remember if this was in Ecuador or Peru...pretty place we took a boat ride, there were tons of birds.

On an island there was like...a crocodile reserve/farm/I don't really know hahaha

In Guayaquil, Ecuador

In this park/plaza in Guayaquil, there were tons of iguanas like this one.

A street in Guayaquil

I really liked Guayaquil; it was cleaner and better looking than Lima.  But I'm still happy to be in Lima.

And there was a spot in Guayaquil where they had some Galapagos tortoises (turtles) not exactly sure about the correct name haha

Came across dollar coins and 50 Cent coins.

In Ecuador they use American dollars (a fact that I knew deep down but for some reason it didn't get through my head that my peruvian soles would be useless there--I had little money to spend in Ecuador haha).  But with a few exceptions: the dollar coins in my picture above, I also got a 50 cent piece (really large) and some of the coins said Republica de Ecuador on them.  In Ecuador prices were cheaper than in the United States, but more expensive than in Peru.  Go Peru!!

Here was a nice beach we visited in Ecuador

At this beach, a bunch of people got cuts from like, we don't really know what they were, little sharp fish? haha there were also jellyfish and some people stepped on urchins and stuff like that. 

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Some of the students going on a banana boat

boat with the ecuadorian flag

Our last hotel was in a great location right by the beach!

The sky one evening at a previous hotel

Emilie and I at one of the many beach stops

Jump shots on the beach

And we visited an ostrich/emu farm at one point

Dead jellyfish on the beach.  Apparently sometimes they can still sting you after they're dead (thats what someone told me)

And I don't know what this was but it looked cool hahaha

At one particularly cloudy, boring day on the beach, some students had the idea to draw a large circle in the sand and have sumo wrestling matches. Hahahahaha so many people gathered around to watch, tons of Peruvians even!

So yeah, that was our trip!  My favorite parts: 

• I really liked visiting Guayaquil, it was a very nice city.  I guess I can't really fairly compare it to Lima because Lima is a capital city with a much larger population, but Guayaquil did seem nicer and cleaner.
• In our last hotel we were essentially ON the beach, so the two nights we stayed there we had bonfires and it was pretty nice.

We had a bit of bad luck on this trip.  Bad things that happened:

•  At one point we visited an ostrich/emu farm.  While we were inside the gates of this farm (which was just kind of out in the country, very little traffic on the road that passed by it) the tour bus was left outside, most of our belongings left inside it (because we had always been told we could leave our things on the bus, unless we were changing buses).  Anyways, when we got back, we were just about to pull out when we came to the realization that 3 backpacks were missing.  Everyone panicked and began checking their things, everyone was thinking 'The bus was broken into!' but wait a second, if the bus had been broken into, why would they have only taken 3 bags?  Also, the bus driver was in the front of the bus (sleeping, but still present haha)...so it hadn't been broken into...What seems to have happened is this:  Unfortunately, the students in the back row of seats (which were higher up than the rest of the seats, and were nearly level with the windows) had left a side window open.  Someone looking for some stuff to steal probably came by, and not only saw the open window but saw three backpacks sitting in plain sight on the seat, just within reachable distance.  And so that is how those three students lost their cell phones, all their money, and for two of them, their passports.
• One student received a phone call one morning with news that her mother, who had been fighting with cancer for over a year, had passed away.  She will return to her home country today.
• One day on the beach, some play-fighting (aka a large boy attempting to push/throw a girl into the water) resulted in a broken foot.
• Lots of people got sick.  I was stomach sick for just a day.  Many people got diarrhea or were throwing up at some point during the trip.

I think that's all the major bad stuff haha.

So we got back to Lima at night on the 28th.  Last night I had dinner with my friend Andre and we went to Papa Johns, where our friend Eduardo works.  It was so great, this picture makes me laugh so hard.

And this morning I woke up and went to take my clothes out of the washer to hang them up to dry to find that a red t-shirt has left various red and pink splotches and stains on several articles of my clothing, including one of my nicer and better fitting pairs of jeans.  What a bummer :(

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Thursday, if I'm remembering correctly, I went over to Chachi's house in the morning, then we picked up Emilie and all three of us (plus Chachi's mom) went to the house of someone that Chachi's mom knows and ate hamburgers and swam in the pool there.

these dopes

Friday was Valentine's Day.  Here, it is not only a day that celebrate love/couples, it also celebrates friendships.  There were tons of people out that day with heart shaped balloons, boxes of chocolates, and flowers.  I myself enjoyed a heart shaped pizza!  It was very good and I enjoyed it 4 times (that day, that night for dinner, the next morning for breakfast, and that night for dinner).  The best pizza here, in my opinion, is Papa Johns because it comes with a garlic dipping sauce which is delicious (and greasy). 

That morning I washed my laundry for my upcoming trip and packed most of my suitcase.

It was really good!

I also went down to Costa Verde that evening with my camera and caught the sunset.

Saturday...I'll try to remember....not sure what I did in the morning...Oh yeah, I went with my host mom, host sister, and host brother to a district called Barranco and we explored around there a bit and had lunch (pollo a la brasa, one of my favorites).  The we returned home, rested for about an hour, then I decided I wanted to go to Real Plaza (like a mall) so I took a bus about 40 minutes and shopped around a little bit.  I got one more tank top to bring on my trip, and also bought some drawing supplies (a sketchpad, a few pencils, charcoals) and that night I enjoyed drawing for a few hours.  I am drawing this photo (which I took):

It's turning out decent I think.  I haven't sketched in a long time.  Drawing people realistically is so hard haha.  I'll post a picture when I've finished.

Then this morning I drew some more, and currently I am having lunch (left over pollo a la brasa) and then later I might see my friend Andre, I'm not sure yet.

Tomorrow I leave for my rotary trip to the north of Peru and Ecuador.  My flight leaves at 12:55 PM.  It should be a fun time, hopefully I won't come back terribly burned :/ 

Lots of love,
Ginger

Recent Happenings

Day before yesterday...hmmm I don't quite remember, for the first part of the day I probably just watched movies on my laptop.  Then I had plans to have dinner with my friend Andre, so he came to my house and we walked to Burger King and ate and talked for a while.

Yesterday I don't really remember what I did.  I think I stayed home all day...I believe I had attempted to make plans and those plans fell through and I was annoyed and bored.  So I probably spent an obscene amount of time on Netflix....and finally decided that I had to do something so I got up and walked to the bank to use the ATM, then returned home.  Normally I wouldn't care about just relaxing at home and watching movies and stuff--having a 'lazy day'--but here I kind of consider it a wasted day because I have so little time left here and spending that precious time in the house with my laptop makes me angry.  So I always try to go out with friends and do things.  However that night I did quite enjoy watching Spirit on Netflix, that Disney movie with the horses.  That is such a good, under appreciated Disney movie!  Great music, great story haha.

Anyways, today I went to a friend's house and I brought the movie The Hunger Games; Catching Fire which I had recently purchased.  Quick explanation:

Movies here are sold one way and one way only.  Pirated.  You literally cannot find an unpirated version anywhere for purchase.  Whether it be in a shop, on the street, or occasionally spread out on a blanket on a bridge crossing the highway, the only DVDs available for purchase are pirated.  And you wouldn't believe how cheap they are.  In the US you would pay around $10 dollars for a DVD right? Maybe more...and definitely more for a new release, more around $20.  The movie that I bought here, The Hunger Games Catching Fire (a new release) and in blu-ray, cost me 3 soles.  That equals $1.06. 

ISN'T THAT INSANE?!

So the subtitles were kind of questionable but apart from that it was completely fine!  I had attempted to see that movie in theaters on like 3 different occasions and every single time my plans got screwed up so I never got to see it.  So when the opportunity came up to buy the DVD at a measly $1.06, I took advantage of it. 

Anyways, we actually only got through part of the movie and then I had to leave in order to arrive on time to my rotary meeting.  So I went to my old school where the meetings are held and attended the meeting then returned home with my host mom.

And so here I am.  Tomorrow I have plans to meet up with Emilie and Chachi, but I don't know what we'll be doing.  We are going to meet up at 4:30 so I'll probably leave the house at like 2:30 to arrive there around 3:45 and buy some headphones quick before I go to meet them (mine recently broke and I don't want to be without headphones/music during my upcoming trip).

Okay I guess that's it.  Byeeee

Zoo Day

 A few days ago was my host sister Camila's birthday.  She turned 12.  We had a small gathering at the house with me, my host mom, host sister, host grandma, host brother, and host uncle.

Yesterday I had a spur of the moment photo shoot with Eduardo:

I really love this photo.  Looking into the mirror on the side of the bar in my host house, and there was a bit of light coming in through the window, and when it landed right in our eyes it looked awesome. 

The beautiful sky was a perfect backdrop

And he took this fabulous shot of me (missing the top of my head):

Today I woke up late, around 12:15 I think, and went downstairs and had breakfast with my host mom and host sister who apparently had also slept in.  We had fried eggs, bread, tea, and fried bananas.  Then my host mom gave us 2 options for the day.  We could go to La Punta (a place in Callao, really not that special) or the zoo.  We chose the zoo.

Camila and I

So those are the recent happenings aha.  Peace outttt!
-Ginger

Nothing Really

Nothing much has happened...let me think...a few days ago I had a shopping day with my friend Emilie from Denmark, and we had lunch together too (Burger King haha).  It was a good day, I got a few tank tops (needed a few more to endure the horrible heat I'll be experiencing in Ecuador) and a few other things.  That day was the first day that I went alone in micro (bus) from my house to the area where I used to live.  Here was the process:

1. Put bag together, remember keys, turn off TV, leave house and shut door.
2. Go through gate, down stairs, cross residencial area courtyard, leave residencial area.
3. Walk 4 blocks to a street called Ejercito.
4. Cross street, wait for 5-10 minutes for the only bus that I know of that will take me back to where I used to live (a blue bus that says Ate Ate on the front).
5. Flag down said bus when spotted.
6. Board bus, stumble into a seat or stand if there are none.
7. Pay 1.20 soles (approx. $0.43)
8. Enjoy the next 45-75 minutes on the bus, depending on traffic
9. Get up and move to front of bus (or back of bus if there's a back exit) and get off at preferred stop (the corner of Javier Prado and Aviacion)
10. That's it.

That was quite a thorough description aha....anyways, I'm glad that now I've figured out how to get back to the area where I used to live, because pretty much all my friends live there and I know the area better.  It's quite a distance, and a pain in the butt because it means I can't really do 'spur of the moment' stuff, if I want to meet up with friends, I have to plan it out plenty in advance and typically it turns into a whole day thing because of the immense travel time. 

Today I got up early (8:30--I'm on summer break, remember) because I thought I'd be going to a friend's house (a girl from school).  So I showered and got my things ready, and was planning on going with Emilie when Emilie informed me she didn't know where the girl lived.  So I messaged the girl asking for her address a few times without response, and by the time she responded it was already near 1 o'clock (I had initially planned on leaving at 11) and I couldn't find anyone who could help me find her house so I gave up.  Oh, well.  I was a little bothered, figured it was a waste of a day, but instead decided to stop being a lazy bum and get up off the couch and I got my things together and walked to the bank (quite a ways-probably about 10 blocks or so, I don't know) and paid for my upcoming trip, all by myself.  I explained to the lady at the counter, gave her the account number, gave her the money, and emailed the voucher to the rotary lady who handles the trips.  Then I walked down the street from the bank and stopped in at a little pharmacy type thing they have here and bought some sunscreen.  Then I bought some cookies and then I walked back to the house.  I'm glad I at least accomplished something today.

Okay that's it I guess.  I'm hoping to go out tomorrow and see my friends.

Here's a cool picture I took this morning while drinking some tea.  I got a new ring because I lost my old one.  I'm happy because it was unbelievably, dirt cheap.  5 soles = $1.77

Okay that's it.  Byeeeee.

February!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I haven't been up to much.

• Visited Parque Olivar (a nice park filled with very old olive trees) with my host mom and host sister.

• Had another day at the pool with some friends from school:

  

  Emilie relaxing

Chachi

Emilie and I