Inca Trail

As we speak I'm uploading video of our time last week to hike the Inca Trail! I went to Cusco and met the girls one day before we headed out to get used to the altitude. It was not a bad adjustment- I didn't push myself. We shopped around and hit the good restaurants. We ate with Andrew, one of his last few meals in Cusco before he headed back to the states. Got some fun gl-ittens ( cross between gloves and mittens) After we were debriefed about the trip. A lot more showers available and places to buy drinks than we thought. We woke up early to eat breakfast at our Hotel Amaru- a good hotel with pretty wood carved everywhere. We drove 2 hours to Kilometer 82 where we'd start. We met 2 young lawyers from NY, Josh and Seth, that would be in our group. WE passes where Becca went bungee jumping head first the day before- CRAZY girl! We bought our poncho and stick at the tourist trap and found Reeces Pieces- yummy! We unloaded out stuff and realized we had the most stuff...oops! We met the Venezuelan guy also in our group, Juan. Unfortunately our friend Chris didn't make it! Hope he's ok! Then we took a pic by the token sign that you don't really walk through to start! We were pumped, Becca and I had already decided that we should adopt the Appalachian Trail custom to make trail names. Becca picked Ligre-for me a spanish version of a Napoleon Dynamite reference! I thought of a bunch for her but none really stuck. We did well and then tried chicha made by the locals without alcohol before out lunch stop. We also got christened on the trail with bug blood on our cheeks from bugs off the prickly pear cactus. Lunch was impressive in a tent with everything down to handwashing system. We had the first of our digestive teas after each meal and we had time to digest and take in the view!
We kept trucking and arrived at our camp just before it was getting dark to take our birdbaths and a nap before dinner. It was a great dinner with dessert- it was Josh's birthday and the porters had baked a cake- we're still not sure hoe- it was great! Then a Pisco sour and an attempt at a dance session while our guide and a few porteros sang. We slept well once we shifted diagonal so I could fit in the tent. I got a slow start on day 2 gettingeverything situated. We paid the porters to carry our stuff because the second day is advertised as the hardest. I was definitely glad even though they don't do it in the most honest way. There is a law against how much the porters can carry and so we gave our bags to the guide after we passed through the weigh-in station. Had to fill my pockets of my various jackets and pants . We made it slowly up to Dead Woman's Pass- not named for anything that happened, but a rock formation. Then dowhill- I had some time to reflect with God in the sun- so nice! Got to the camp and I had time to have a frigid shower before lunch. I was ready to go on but that was it for the day so we hung out and ate- tea time then dinner 3 hours later- pizza and lomo saltado- crazy combo and flaming banana dessert! I got woken up in the middle of the night for a bathroom trip- that was the coldest night!
I was scared about day 3 to have the backpack back. I toted it all for a bit until the cook, Chu chu came and asked if he could help so he took the seeping bag and a book I brought- (I told you I had too much) and made it the rest of the day very managably. Thanks to him. A little uphill but mostly down hill- nice til after lunch. A very extensive set of ruins gave us time to rest. Lunch seemed quick that day but enough time to dry clothes that had been sweaty since day one. We headed out for what seemed like the eternal afternoon. We finished up with Josh and Seth and played the city, state, country game to get us through and talked about life...interesting perspective! We were suffering by the time we got to camp and it happened to be the camp arthest from the bathrooms! My favorite dressed porters led me to the bathroom but didn't speak any spanish- only Quechua so we had a funny interaction. More team time and dinner shortly after- I was really sore! We filled out the comment cards in that moment unfortunately- our lowest point! Then we went to bed after thanking the porters. We were woken up in the dark to make it to the sun gate for sunrise. It was a very do able hike and great for a little sunday worship- amazing sights! God is so good! We arrived but the clouds just moved the littlest bit to see the wonder of the world! Pretty exciting to be headed there from that point I had seen pointed out in June. There was a large group of Argentinian men making a lot fo noise that day and some Europeans celebrating by lighting a smoke then and there, each celebrates his own way! Fun to arrive so early and see it from way above. Then we walked down to entrance after dropping our bags off. I got a pic with the Hiram Bingham plaque- my new hero-missionary family. Our guide was a little far out but gave a little help on why they call it castellano instead of espanol and how hiram found the place. I wanted to run away from him but luckily we had other time to play and hike around. It seemed more valuable coming from the Trail instead of the train! And we got to go up MAchu Picchu, just enough time. My feet were about done but I made it up and back and met a guy from Asheville in a crawl space amazingly enough! Machu Pucchu looks tiny from the top of Wayna Picchu!
Machu Picchu was my playground this time. We headed down the hill shortly after- cute little 'Chasqui' 8 year old who yelled us down the hill. We ate a great buffet lunch in Aguas Calientes and bought ourselves souvenirs. Spent quiet time near the river and then headed to the train station. Wow what an experience! I thank God for getting us through. IT was a lifetime experience for sure! So glad I did it and highly reccommend it to all the other hikers I know!

Sad story... well the second part

So many of you have heard about the earthquake whose epicenter was 95 miles south of us. I took my intern in June there so see some of the pretty parts of Peru so she wouldn't be jaded by Lima. We did the trip very quickly well, we slept for about 2 hours won night woke up really early to take a bus to Pisco, watch an hour of Spanglish in the bus terminal and then take a taxi to Pisco ( where the earthquake hit, not where Pisco sour's are from) and then another taxi to Paracas, the poor man's Galapagos, they call it! We made it in time to leave at 9 on the boats to the Islas Bellestas! The boat ride was so nice- such peace and the motion ( and my lack of sleep) allowed me to fall asleep on the way to the islands- even though ti was beautiful there- sun and all! We got to see lots of wildlife and learn about guano, burn droppings, that they export apparently! In the afternoon we went to the Reserve- a desert reserve! We didn't see the flamingos nfortunately but the best part of that was The Cathedral, a beautiful rock formation on the coast of the reserve. We stopped to take pictures and a little video- it was SOOOO windy- that's what Paracas means! So we finished with a not so great lunch but came back happy!

So the sad part of the story is that I heard that the cathedral in all it's glory partly fell into the see. I'd say pray for the people that depend on things like tourism and how they'll be affected. I hear the Nazca Lines are open again. ( My roommates kept up b/c she was supposed to be there the day after the earthquake right there!) What we read the night it happened at prayer meeting as repurcussions came, and where I found comfort this summer as I've had a bit of a hard heart... Psalm 62:5,6 Find rest O my soul in God alone; my hope comes from him, He alone is my rock and my salvation, he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

Art Camp

Now that's I've finished my update after 4 months... I learned my lesson not to do that again! And I can tell you about all the things that didn't get "crunched" in my update. We had a really fun art camp in Salamanca this year and I have fun pics. The kids got to do rythm, drawing, painting and theater. Such a treat for these kids b/c the private schools hardly even have fine arts classes. The team that came from Nashville was a lot of fun. I hung out with the youngest group the most and in theater- they acted out the creation story. the middle group did parables of Jesus and the oldest group did an abbreviated version of the Lion, witch and the wardrobe. The program at the end of the week was pretty amazing. We'll see if I can upload some video! We ate well that week, Martha cooked for all 90 of us. Nathan Reidell totally reminds me of my brother, such a sweet guy! I got some really fun shots or cute lieel Josue, he was the MVArtist even though he isn´t old enough to be in the camp just yet!

WOAH!

I know it's been a super long time. I could make up a billion excuses, I've had to for my teammates- my most faithful "readers" I've been reading friends' blogs and now am ready to take the plunge. I have a list of things I wanna write about since april so we'll see how many topics I can cover.