Today I woke up at 6:00am to do my long run (10 mi) before we left for the Llama trek, starting at 13,000 ft and going up to 15,000 ft with Llamas. Of course we got a flat tire on the way, but that wasn't all that bad. We also stopped by a guinea pig farm (yes...this little buggers are for food in Peru...not for pets), which was interesting as it was basically just a room filled with guinea pigs. The trek was amazing...the ground had the most amazing texture every as it was covered with lichens and awesome mosses that you could jump up and down on. Pancho (our guide) fed us lots of candy on the way up, including these delicious chocolate covered marshmallow things, which I plan on bringing back for everyone to try! We also had a delicious lunch! Everyone but 3 people took the horses to the top... and yes, I was one of the cool people who walked the whole way. :-) The view was amazing! Unfortunately the llamas didn't really like people, so I didn't get to pet them until the end when they were corralled up. But in doing so I accomplished my #1 goal of the trip- to pet a llama (actually that wasn't my #1 goal, but it was up there). A fun day, but I was definitely tired and in bed, asleep by 9:00!

Silly Llamas...they got all dressed up for the tourists/gringos!--->

Saturday!

A bunch of the volunteers headed out to see the soccer game in Ayacucho...Inti Gas (Ayacucho) vs. some other team...aka the dark side. When we got there much to our dismay, we weren't allowed to bring our water bottles into the game (apparently some people like to use them as weapons against the players/officials) so we had to check them into an area. Our liquid refreshments were them returned to us in plastic sacks with straws...how those couldn't be used as weapons too bewilders me. Anyways, we were pretty amused by the whole situation. The game got better when the Inti Gas team came out to the field and their mascot was a giant gas tank...and yes someone was wearing a gas tank costume! haha! The game was dominated by Inti Gas, but unfortunately they failed to score...so the game ended in a tie 0-0.

The rest of my day was spent on random errands trying to find medical tubing to do arm exercises for swimming and trying to find a pool. The pool everyone told me was the best was about 95 degrees...yuck! And the outdoor pool was closed thanks to the soccer game...sigh, I guess Peruvians have different priorities. haha!

Friday...the new volunteers and I (finally) had our second day of work. Mine was alright, I was feeling mildly helpful until the clinic got really slow. Then one of the nurses started asking me all these political questions, which are hard enough to answer in english...nonetheless in Spanish. I was trying really hard and succeeding for the most part until I got to the question: Was the US under Bush a dictatorship or democracy? Well of course the US has always been a democracy, but how on earth was I to explain that the current state of the US was due to YEARS of bad choices/legislation...and to blame it on just one president would be stupid. Granted that last straw (Bush) that broke the Camel's back was rather big, but other factors led to this situation. Anyways, lucky for me the nurse got called out of the room and I escaped without having to answer his weird, loaded question. (For those of you not into Peruvian politics, the Shining Path (think extreme leftist movement) is no longer violent, but it is definitely active in Ayacucho...which makes politics a very, very touchy subject here)

After my placement, the newbies and I all went to see the Wari Ruins and the site where South America won its independence from Spain, as well as some town that pretty much only sold pottery. The Wari ruins were pretty sweet...a bunch of us got down into the crawl space that was a mass grave quite a few centuries ago. We were feeling rather Indiana Jones like until the crawl space ended about 20 meters sooner than we thought. But it was still cool nonetheless. (History Side Note: The Waris existed before the Incas and were a highly evolved society with pottery, large cities, aqueducts and human sacrifices) The ruins were fun...definitely impressive,but the ride there was a little scary...haha!

Since we didn't have work today, a couple of us headed out around 9:00 to hike up the cross on top of a mountain nearby. The hike was a lot of fun. I talked to the guide about cars and America, and tried to explain that my brand of car is no longer made because GM shut down Oldsmobile. Then I told him how hard it is to not use a car in the use...although Coach Lutz is pretty good about this. There was a church built into a cave on the way up and the way back down me and the Army guys bought candles to lite and prayed...I asked for happiness, fulfillment and faith (in myself, others, and God...no particular order). Then we hiked back down and had a delicious lunch at the house. Later me and some of the girls walked into town and saw the national congress on the potato. I have never seen so many potato varities in my life...that fun lasted about 10 minutes, then we got ice cream, which you can get here for about 66 cents!!!!!! I went to a spin class, then chilled out for the rest of the evening...I'm more than ready to start (again) my placement tomorrow!

New pictures posted on the website...not labeled yet (I'm too tired...and yes its only 9:00) Link below:

http://s182.photobucket.com/albums/x29/deearthur_photos/Peru/Lima%20and%20Ayacucho%20week%201/

Today when I woke up to go run with a couple of the army/ROTC guys, Travis (the major in charge of them) said it'd probably be best if we don't go. Apparently he woke up at 3:45 to a bunch of people yelling and starting a fire in the street...so I went back to bed. After breakfast, we were informed that we won't be going to our placements today due to the strike. I went for a run later, because the director told me it was safe. A bunch of people were in the streets, but very few cars. I saw a few tires lit on fire and there were a ton of big rocks in the street, but everyone was in a good mood. A bunch of people were out in the street playing soccer etc, apparently even the big protest downtown was never out of control...everyone told me that people looked happy. Weird. Tomorrow we are on a strike again. The strike today was because of local grievances against the government...tomorrow's strike is a nation-wide strike against the mess that's happening in the rainforest in the northern part of the country. I think I'll finish the book "eat, pray, love" with all the free time I'll have.

I left this morning bright and early (3:30 AM...yuck!) for the airport and on to Ayacucho. The same lady who checked in our bags also took our tickets at the gate AND was our flight attendant. Crazy! One of the flight attendants was really nice...she was trying to learn English and talked to us for a bit. Her dream is to work for a big airline in America, which is a pretty big dream, so I thought that was really cool. Last night the power went out in all of Lime, which was a bit scary...apparently the last time that happened was when the Shining Path movement was going on (10 years ago), so there were all sorts of suspicions as to what was going on, especially since their a very volatile situation right now in the jungle between the Peruvian government and the indians. But I can't find anything about it in the news, so it was probably just a power outage.