Sententia

Leaving for Santiago in 3 hours! However weird it feels to leave, I also feel like it's time and I'm ready. I miss home a lot and am going to love being back in the Boston area for a month!

A couple photos before I go. First is a view of Cuzco from the village San Blas.


Second is the Plaza de Armas in the center of Cuzco. This is where we spent most of our time walking around, getting amazing $2 sandwiches, and staying in a $13 and $4 hostal.


Finally, the payoff:


When we came back from Cuzco, we flew into Iquique, Chile at about 4AM, took a 40 minutes taxi to the YMCA there, slept, went to the beach, and then at 9PM hopped on a 26 hour bus back to Santiago and then Valparaiso! We got in two days ago at 2AM.

More journaling to come!

Writing from the center of Aguas Calientes, also known as the village of Machu Picchu, where everyone stops for a day or so around their hiking of Machu Picchu. Our journey here has been absolutely spectacular. We're very blessed to be here!

First we took a bus from Valparaiso to Santiago on Tuesday afternoon where our flight left at 7PM. We stopped briefly in Iquique and arrived in Lima a little after midnight. The customs lines were ridiculously long, and there were a lot of stupid forms regarding the swine flu that we had to fill out but we're never really checked by authorities. Once through we got our bags and went to the 'lottery,' as I call it, where you press a button and are randomly given a red or green light, telling you if you have to get your bag scanned or not. Of course (this happened to me in El Salvador, and let's not forget The Apple), I got a red light, but luckily my scan went through with no problems and we were in the clear. We got Peruvian currency (Nuevo Soles), got snacks and went the security to sleep at our gate until 4:30AM when we boarded the next plane to Cuzco. After a breathtaking trip we arrived at 6AM and quickly got a gentleman from a tour company to accompany us to a hostel, which was only $13 with all the ammenities of a hotel! When we arrived the getleman showed us several different routes we could take to Machu Picchu. We had been planning to buy all the bus, train, and entrance tickets by ourself, so we already knew the prices and were able to get exactly what we wanted for only a little more money which saved us the trouble of finding all the places to buy tickets etc.

After resting a bit we went out to explore the city and found great sandwiches for $2!!! Everything is so cheap once you arrive, if I can find cheap flights here I will definitely return many times in my life.

Finally, this morning, we woke up around 6 to get a bus at 7 which took us to a train. Both trips were spectacular, but the bus was a little rough because the road had loads of 180 degree turns as we went down into a valley where the train was. I've been trying to upload photos this whole time to space this hunk of writing out but the internet must be too slow here. Wish I was in Cusco! Faster internet I've had since home!

If only I had seen this before I arrived in Chile maybe the HUGE apple would have reminded me I had one on me...

On Thursday, June 25th, the Colegio Jorge Williams of Valparaiso Chile celebrated it's 14th anniversary. It's the school that we've all been working at down here, and it is sponsored in part by the Y, and also in part by the Chilean government. On a side note, I've been very impressed with the Chilean Government's co-operation with the YMCA (well ACJ in Spanish). They work together on several colegios (primary schools), residencias (foster homes), and family/social intervention and child psychology programs. Their work is effective, but could use at least double the programs it now has.

But back to the anniversary. It was a really cold morning, but the entire school sat in chairs on the patio/soccer area/recess area and watched several presentations of music, a skit, and some short speeches. I only uploaded small versions of the photos to save time, click them for bigger versions.


All of the kids on the patio.


Gabriel and Dilan, two kids in Primer basico, first grade. I assist in their Language and Phys Ed classes.


Many of the other kids in Primer basico. They look adorable, and they are, but I assure you they're often more than difficult enough for me and the young teacher who is often at the end of her rope.


The best recorder players from various music classes played a couple songs with their professor.


The music professor, second from left, played a lot of cultural and indigenous (Mapuche I believe) music with his band.


The kids got to march around with them.

With the halfway mark just gone by this weekend I feel good about what we've done so far. This past weekend I got some sort of stomache flu which thankfully only lasted one day. I have no idea what the cause was, I hadn´t eaten anything the rest of the group hadn't had and they were fine. Now I'm back to full health which is still remarkable because at least one person in the group has had serious congestion or a cough pretty much since we arrived.

We've only got the remainder of this week and the next week to work at the school, then they have their winter break! We didn't know how soon that date was until we got here. I wish we could have come sooner. Luckily however, the time won't be wasted. All 6 of us are similarly strapped for cash, but we've decided to go for glory and head to Peru to see Machu Picchu. One the way back we'll stop in Iquique (northern Chile) to relax at the beaches for a day.

However, getting up there is amazingly difficult. Luckily we met a guy from North Carolina who's been here for almost a year and already went to Machu Picchu. First we take a 5 hour flight from Santiago to Lima, then a 19 hour $56 bus to Cuzco (takes so long because you're going through the Andes). Spend one night there, then take a 4 hour bus, 1 hour van, 2-3 hour walk, spend another night in a hostel in Aguas Calientes, and then finally wake up at 4 AM to walk to the gates of Machu Picchu which open at 6:30 in the morning. This is a slightly cheaper route than the $70 train that is the 'only way' to Machu Picchu from Cuzco.

Apparently the Peruvian Government protects their world wonder very well and uses it to get as much cash as possible. It literally has a gate with turnstyles. Marcus said it's kind of horribly like a ballpark, complete with expensive hot dogs and burgers. The only good thing is theres a 50% student discount for tyhe entrance fee, which is usually $44.

More photos to come, right now I'm just at a internet cafe waiting for the rest of the group to meet me at lunch. The other day there was an 14 year anniversary celebration at the School, so a story and photos are on the way.