I have had the most amazing several months since my return from Peru. I have become apart of the Common Ground Community organization and have been working with kids tutoring math and science.

These are some of the most intelligent people I have ever had the pleasure of working with.

I usually spend a little over an hour Monday through Thursday at the white house (E.68th street between Southern and I-49) helping kids between the ages of 10 to 17 in math, science, and any other subject they want to work on with me!



I work with a group of VERY dedicated individuals who have been running this non-profit for years. They inspire me in my efforts to make a difference in the lives of great people.

On Wednesdays we host a soup kitchen across the street at Grace Community Church--of course ALL are welcome!

We are preparing for the annual neighborhood Christmas party this week on Wednesday night.

If there are any readers of this blog who wish to get involved please let me know! You will find it very rewarding.

I fixed the broken link to the family shots.

I also realized that I haven't posted the pictures from the trek to the glacier. I gonna start working on that.

All of the pictures from the last part of my trip are now up! It was no easy task!

The links may be found in the 'Pictures' category. The new links start with 'The Whole Family'.

Enjoy!

I am now back in Shreveport LA and looking for a job.

I want to be back in Peru!

I have to figure out what kind have content to put on this blog from now on.

The last few pictures from my trip will be up tomorrow.

It has been one long week. I am currently stuck in Lima International airport for another 11.5 hours (already been here for about 6) and have plenty of time to update the blog.

So I took an overnight bus to Arequipa last Saturday night at about 800pm. The trip took almost 10hours getting me into Arequipa at about 530ish in the morning. I paid about 10 bucks for the bus and got exactly what I paid for--a shitty bus ride! We stopped at many small towns even though I specifically asked for a direct route (in Spanish!). I didn't sleep at all and spent the first couple of hours before day break freezing my ass off in the Plaza de Armas in Arequipa. The temperature in Arequipa was right above freezing that morning.

Once the town started to come alive, I found a nice cafe off the main plaza and got about 5 cups of coffee over about 2 hours. The plan was to wait until the trekking agencies opened and to check to see the when the next available Colca Canyon trek departed. I walked to several agencies and they were all booked for that day. Apparently, all of the two day trips leave at 730am and must be reserved at least a day in advance.
I modified my plan to allow for this newly learned information. I took a taxi back to the bus station to buy a return ticket to Cusco for Tuesday night (this was a must in order to make my return flight back to the US). At the bus station I booked a hostel for the night and got a free ride (courtesy of the hostel!) into town. Once there I went to Colonial Travel and reserved a place on the Colca trek that left the next morning.

I spent the day sleeping mostly.

Aaron had recommended to me that I should see the old monastery in Arequipa (he spent a week in Arequipa before arriving at Nick's). I decided to spend the 30 soles and visit the place.

The monastery consisted of about 300 different mini-houses in a huge compound. The place was quite amazing. All of the walls were painted different colors and the whole place was designed like a maze. It was a good way to burn a few hours.

The next morning I met up with the Colonia Travel group at 730am and we headed in a minivan to Colca. The trip to the canyon took 4.5 hours and we climbed to about 17000 feet! The temperature in the shade was about or below freezing (with windchill). The canyon is located in the Peruvian desert outside of Arequipa. This region is littered with old and young ice capped volcanoes. It is very arid reminding me a lot of southwestern Texas.

Once we entered the massive national park we descended into the Colca valley to a town called Chivay. From Chivay (that is where I spent the night) we drove to a trail that lead to the Pre-Incan burial sites. It took about 4 hours round trip.

These pre-Incans climbed up cliff faces or repelled down them carrying massive stones to construct grave sites. The dead were literally buried on the side of a mountain! The bones of the dead were perfectly intact due to the dry cold climate and the pictures came out great.

After visiting the dead, we made our way over to the Chivay hot springs. There we spent about an hour chilling out in the springs surrounded by the steep walls of the Colca valley.

That night we had dinner at this tourist trap with live music. To our surprise dancers rushed in after we had finished eating grabbed me first and then the rest to join in on the dancing. It was a repeat of the festivities on the Island of Amantani. I think when the night was over I had broken three glasses by running into tables!

530 the next morning we were woken up and rushed to the Colca canyon itself. This is the deepest canyon in the world (a fact that Peru is desperately trying to spread around the world) and has been completely terraced by the pre-Incan peoples and the Incans themselves. It was quite amazing-- a valley which rivaled that of the Grand Canyon being completely terraced by humans.

The main objective of that morning was to see the flight of the Condors. These animals have a 3m wingspan and stand 1.5m tall. They can fly up to 21000ft and have a maximum flight speed of about 70km/hr. Our guide lead us down a trail on the edge of the canyon to see if we could spot the giant birds. This trail was not the main tourist lookout point--it was an insider secret. Halfway down the trail a single full gown condor flew by us and landed on a rock not more than 15yards beyond the edge of the canyon. Our guide admitted that in all of her 10 years as a quite she had never been that close to a wild condor. Judging by the amount of pictures she took and the 45min we spent sitting there staring at him, she was not lying.

We finished the trail and then started the 5 hour trip back to Arequipa stopping at a couple of old colonial churches along the way (I could not have cared less about these Spanish churches!).

Once back I caught another 10 hour bus back to Cusco and then another minibus back to Urubamba. I packed up my stuff and left that night at about 800pm to Cusco again to start my return journey.

I probably have had about 15 hours of sleep total since Saturday. I am running on fumes.

Andean Railways Corps has officially sued the minister of transportation for entry into the passenger train market!

Nick and Maria's pictures and statements are all over the newspapers here--the whole train project is now in the public eye. Apparently public sentiment is in favor of the Asheshovs.

The law suit has been officially in the papers for three days now and the story keeps getting bigger.

Everyone here is really excited about it and are very confident about a victory.

Aaron and I have been talking about this hike since the first week we were here in Urubamba. Now that it has finally come down to Aaron's last weekend, we were definitely going to do it.

Nick had also been telling us to do this hike for a long time.

Our plan was to meet Kevin (new friend) at about 900am on the main street in Urubamba and take a taxi about 3km up the street and walk from there. The Main street runs north to south and turns into a dirt road outside of the city limits. It runs a good distance into the valley before turning into a narrow horse trail, and it eventually disappears altogether.

The valley terminates abruptly at the foot of the glaciers (as so we found out). There is a beautiful river running through the valley which feeds the water supply in Urubamba.

There are very concerning observations being made about these glaciers.

Nick has told us (as we had already guessed) that the glaciers have been slowly eroding away over the last 45 years he has spent in Peru. I have always beleived in the phenomenon of Global Warming, but actually seeing the pictures of a glacier 30 some years ago and comparing them to what I see everyday here in Urubamba strikes me in a whole different way. AND on top of that, I know for a FACT that a whole series of towns here (including Urubamba) in the sacred valley DEPEND TOTALLY on the rivers formed by the glacial rivers (natural melting and refreezing in the rainy season) for their water supply. What happens when these towns (and most of Andean South America) loose this water supply due to global climate change? A change which wealthier nations who are stable enough to combat the effects are bringing about?

Enough ranting.

We got off to a late start and starting hiking up the valley at about 945am or so. The road ran for about 5km and the horse paths ran for another 4 or 5km. After that we had to make our own trails! The river gorge was covered with small trees and heavily overgrown with cactus and plants with vicious spikes! We continued to cut our way through the gorge and hiked all the way along the river (up and up and up and up) to a point where we could not longer complete a round trip with daylight.

It was about 4 hours into the valley before we reached the cliff faces on which sat the massive glaciers. The pictures should be really good.

I wanted to try a different return path which ran along the edge of the river gorge. This path was very interesting. We got some great views of the river gorge and sacred valley. For most of the edge, we were fortunate enough to have found a cattle path to follow.

This path eventually ended and we had to again cut our own path! At one point we were sliding on our asses down the side of an overgrown mountain face! Quite steep!

We eventually hiked out of the valley and back into Urubamba. That night we had a couple of beers with one of the volunteer groups (Pro Peru) and then called it a night.

I will get the pictures up soon!

When we told Maria and Nick about our trip, they told us about a massive waterfall in the valley (that we didn't see). At one point as we were hiking up the valley we were presenting a choice between two smaller valleys to hike through. We chose the one with a better view of the glaciers...perhaps the waterfall was up the other valley or perhaps it has disapeared due to the decrease in the size of the glaciers....I am not sure.

Last Friday, Aaron and I met some friends for a couple of beers and check out more of the night life in Cusco.

The night was great. We went to the same Irish pub that we've been to many times (Paddy's) and to some of the same bars as last time (and a couple of new ones). It was a great night.

The next day we had planned to get up at a reasonable time and take a bus to Llamay and hike to Huchy Cusco which are some great Incan ruins about a 3 hour hike outside of Llamay. Llamay is located to the east of Urubamba and really easy to get to from either Cusco or Urubamba.

However, our plans changed. We slept in.

By the time we got to the bus station to catch a combi to Llamay, it was already too late in the day to attempt such a trek. The line for the bus station stretched to two blocks, and upon seeing this we decided instead to hang in Cusco for the afternoon and attempt the hike on Monday.

We made our way back to the main square and from there just wandered around aimlessly.

We managed to stumble upon a second smaller square adjacent to the main Plaza de Armas and saw a huge relief effort going on for the recent earthquake victims. The local government was out in full force collecting water, rice, pasta, and anything else people wanted to give. Aaron and I ran into a teacher from Canada and asked if there was anything we could do to help. Of course there was plenty for us to do!

We started out by going to a local market and purchasing several large crates of bottled water. We were some of the first foreign volunteers to show up and when we returned the mayor of Cusco was out organizing and working hard with the relief effort. She came over to us as we were placing the water down in the main pile, introduced herself to us, and thanked us for donating our money and time to the effort!

After we had signed our names to a volunteer list, we were told that the best thing we could do to help was to let the massive groups of tourists around the city know about the effort and tell them how they can help.

I was wearing a white t-shirt and had one of the ladies write in big letters 'Earthquake relief, Please help!'. We were also give several signs in German, French, and English to hold up. Aaron and I walked around the main squares are told people about what was going on.

I am happy to say that we were able to get quite a few people interested. We sweetened the deal by telling them they would have the chance to meet the mayor of Cusco if they helped out!

We worked with the effort for about 3-4 hours. After saying goodbye to the mayor and other volunteers, Aaron and I went with the Canadian teacher and two other ladies to a pub for a quick pint before heading back to Urubamba.

After offering our new friends advice on how to see Machu Picchu we headed to the bus station.

This was really a rewarding experience. It would have been nice if we could have made the trip to the affected areas and been able to help out there.

Finally all of the pictures from the past week are up! Enjoy.

Yesterday we traveled to Calca to see their celebration for the Virgin Mary. I think that every small town in the sacred valley (at least) as one day of the year on which they celebrate the patron saint of their main church. So far all I have seen are the celebrations in Yucay, Pisac, and recently Calca and they all have been celebrating the Virgin Mary.

The celebration in Calca was especially good (best one I have seen) because of the hilarious dancing that goes on.

We must have seen about 10 different groups dance on the streets. They would parade in like a Mardi Gras krewe and start to dance in the main square.

The pictures will do a good job of describing the scene.