New Meats

Peru has been a country of discovery for me. A country of new meats to try. Since I've been here, I've tried guinea pig, ostrich, alpaca, ceviche , and cow heart. Shown here is an ostrich steak at one of the swankier Arequipan dining establishments. The meat was a bit tough to cut but friends say that they've had better. Will have to take this meat on for another round.

Restaurants usually have set menus for the day in Peru. Costs are from 5-10 soles for the set menu and usually comes with a drink, soup starter, a main course, and a small dessert. Though a la carte items are a bit pricer (including drink), it may be worth your while to do that rather than gambling on something you've never tried before (especially if you don't speak the language). Items will range from 1.50 for a hamburger to 10 for something fancy. You'll know if you're in a tourist restaurant by the prices. These will range in the 20-30 soles range. Though still not too expensive for eating good food, most of the time you'll be able to eat for cheaper.

You can find pictures of my wonderful culinary adventures here.

Exchange rate: 3 nuevo soles to 1 USD

Father's Day

There are still strikes in Cusco so the unrest is affecting the tourism of the country. The bus companies will sell tickets to the unsuspecting tourists and they may or may not be able to go to Cusco. Buses come sporadically so one has to be lucky in order to go. This morning, one of the people said there were police at the main street and cars were going both ways on our one way street. I started to get a bit worried. We had to get to the square and a bit worried. We were pleasantly surprised to realize that it was a Father's Day parade. All the schools had a dance group and some even had a band. Plus side, they blocked off this normally busy street so it was the first time crossing it without the fear of death coming to mind.
EDIT: correction, it was a parade for the Sun Festival in which they celebrated the sun on June 24 but do it on the closest Sunday. Something to do with the Incas, still finding more info out.

Colca Canyon

Hiked 19 hours in 3 days at an elevation from 7,000 to 10,000ft. This is one of the harder but more rewarding hikes I've done. This is me on an outlook overseeing some Incan ruins. This is where the warriors stayed.

We left from Arequipa at 3:30AM. I slept on the bus as it got to the cruz de condor. This is the canyon where the huge condors fly around in the morning. We then drove to Cabanaconde, had lunch, and started the first leg of our massive hike. We decended 3200ft in 3 hours which was pretty good. Everything is high altitude so it wore me out pretty fast. We spent an hour resting at the oasis at the bottom and hiked back up 1200ft (seriously exhausting) to the town of Malata. This is where the Cacatchuan people live. They are the modern descendents of the Incas and we stayed at the travel agent's parent's house. We were too tired the first night except to eat and go to sleep.
Second day we travelled 3 hours to the ruins of Tapay. We ate a packed lunch out on the rock perch and hiked back. Once back in Malata, though exhausted, we were shown how to make foods with traditional tools. After, we danced while wearing some traditional Cacatchuan clothing (yes, the men wear skirts..and a "mating" hat) and had dinner.
The next morning we left at 3:30AM to hike down to the oasis and back up to the Cabanaconde. This was one of the hardest hikes I had to do but it was really rewarding.
It was an amazing experience.
Link to pictures.

My first protest

I've never been in a protest before. In Peru the govt. is ignoring the rights of the indigenous people and therefore the people had a nation wide strike with protests and all. There were protest all across the streets of Arequipa. They were walking the opposite way of home so I opted to walk through the crowd. My friend Lidia (the one who took this photo) wanted to take another way home. I wasn't going to let some small part of the protest deter me from walking home. It's amazing how people will leave you alone if you just actually do it.

Mixto

Hamburger patty, egg, cheese, lettuce, tomato, ham, fries, mayo, ketchup, hot sauce all on a sesame seed bun. This is absolute heaven. All for 3 soles ($1). I get this from a curb side grill. It's literally from a hole in the wall joint. One has to squeeze by just to sit in the 4 bar stools to eat. I don't know if this is a common food in Peru but I may frequent this place much more often. Two volunteers ate one of these every single day for two weeks. The workers got to know them so well that they invited the two to go drinking. I suspect I might be next.

Peru Travel Blog

For the next two months, this will be the Peru travel blog.

We are in Lima & staying at our hostel, Pay Purix. We were picked up but the hostel's brother Dennis. An extra service that I opted in for because after flying an entire day and landing late at night, I was not going to deal with trying to find a place. Dennis is a guy in his 30's, likes soccer, and drives a diesel Nissan Arc which shakes very violently when idle.
We get to the hostel and I am totally relieved. There are comfortable hammocks on the the third floor, wild colors everywhere. I grab a beer from the fridge, sit for a minute, and reflect on my location. My travel spark is lit again.

Something for the summer

I hear that some people when they don't do that well on the MCAT the first time take the Kaplan course. That sounds great. From what I hear, the results are fantastic. An increase of 5 points on the MCAT score is the difference between getting in or not. If I had 5 points added to my last score, I'd be ecstatic.

If I were a sane person, I'd take the Kaplan course before I took the test again. I'm not sane. Instead I decided to spend the money on going to Peru to help out at an orpahage and afterschool program for kids. I'm going to push myself to learn Spanish. As for the second MCAT test? I brought some MCAT material and I'm going to study for 2-3 hours a day.

I'm blogging from a hostel in Lima as we speak and I'll be headed to Arequipa tomorrow. Will keep you updated.