Hey Kids!

Just thought it is time to drop everyone a line and give you a little heads up! Life here in Arequipa has been quite normal. The neat thing is this brain of mine gets a break as the Spanish Institute is having it annual two week vacation! Sooo...you know what that means...I get a vacation too! More like a mental break...but you know what I am finding...I am finding that my I can't speak a lick of Spanish these last three days! Guess my mind needs school!

Peruvian Holiday!
July 28th is Peru's Independence Day! Everywhere there are signs saying "Feliz Fiestas Patrias!" I will stick a picture of my neighborhood here in Arequipa of all the Peru flags flying in the stiff wind we have here!



The last two days I have tagged along with Pedro and Cecila (the family I am living with and also the director of the Spanish Institute) as the family and I have traveled to some "waterfalls" about an hour away and yesterday we even made it to the beach to play volleyball! Mind you it is winter here...and the beach was like 60 degrees and the water even colder...BUT it was a lot of fun!!!

I am flying to Lima tomorrow (7/31) to take care of three to four days of paper work as I complete my resident visa and am able to get my carnet...finally!! School starts back up again on August 11th and I will be making my way to Pucallpa sometime in the beginning of September!

Pics from recent trip to the Colca Cayon

Two alpacas along the way at 12,000 feet!

Our group at an ice pit stop at 15,500 feet!

Children who came and did a traditional dance for us.

Our group at the beginning of the Colca Canyon!

Me at the Colca Canyon in southern Peru!

Two Trips and lots of Spanish…

Hey all…Well in the last ten days I have been from Arequipa south to Tacna, Peru to cross the border and go to Arica, Chile in order to get my resident visa for Peru. I went with another SAM family and the going was great – the being in Arica, Chile was great…but the return trip had a little hiccup! We were in a nice vehicle and well it broke ALMOST in the middle of nowhere. We managed to limp back 10 miles south (lucky for us it was all down hill). Anyhow…found a mechanic who had to weld a nut onto a broken bolt (which was ¼ still inside the engine) in order to get it out. Needless to say it set us back about 5 hours. Thanks be to the Lord for his provision and timing of the mishap!

Then, it was back to normal…studying Spanish. It seems I am learning a lot in the short month I have been here. I am excited to see what I learn the next two months – but also…the more I learn the more I realize how much I don’t know! So, please keep praying for my understanding of new words and have the opportunity to use them daily in speaking.

We (ten of us) took a short weekend trip on July 11 and 12th to the Colca Cayon. It is the deepest canyon in the world (twice the depth of the Grand Cayon). It was a five hour trip there from Arequipa. We went from 8,000 feet to a summit of 16,000 feet, then quickly descended to about 12,000 feet. We were able to hike around (huff huff huff…sigh) and see some pre-Inca ruins and some hot springs. Then we traveled another hour and a half up through the canyon to the spot of the Andien condors. The condors usually fly in the morning, but because of the way our trip was set up we only could go there in the afternoon. We got to see some condors. Then we had a four hour trip back to Arequipa…ascending quickly to 16,000 feet and descending all the way to 8,000 feet in Arequipa.

My Average Day

Hello from Arequipa, Peru where the altitude and dry weather takes some getting used to...like for example...as I type this it is 9% humidity. I have spent one of the three months here in the ABC Espanol language institute and look to spend two more before returning to Pucallpa.

I usually get up around 7am and watch the news or Cartoon Network (in Spanish of course!) - both are really good for Spanish. I then head out the door at 8am and get on a combi, which is a small bus. The ride across town costs .70 soles which is about 23 cents. The combi is not really sized to fit Americans or at least Americans my size - most the time I am standing and chivalry is huge here especially to old women. The ride takes about 20 min or so.

I have a conversation class from 8:30-10:00 and a grammar class from 10:20-12:00. I then take the combi back to my neighborhood on the other side of town. I got a small gym membership and try to workout at least 4-5 times a week. Homework fills the afternoons and evenings - on top of living with Peruvians who correct you all the time - it really is a good thing.

I am making some progress and hope to be well advanced in my spanish by the time I leave in September. Arequipa is beautiful, though it is always cold here as soon as the sun goes down - and no one has heat. I have gotten "the chills" here a lot and found myself thinking of Jimmy Buffet's line "I wanna go where its warm!!!"

The next week I have to go to Arica, Chile to get my Peruvian resident visa. I know I know...its nuts...but once you apply for the visa and it clears...you have to exit the country to pick it up - luckily I am about a 7 hours drive from Chile.

I will try to post some pics this week of a combi and our institute.