Pisco

We have now been in Pisco for over two weeks and things have had there ups and downs. Pisco is a very poor yet fullfilling place. We moved into to the Pisco Sin Frontares (PSF) house on the roof in our tent. We had to deal with some serious wind getting the tent up at almost 6pm, but we managed and nothing blew away. We began work the following day digging a trench in El Melino a very poor community of Pisco, where there homes are made of tarps and asteria (bamboo woven together). They do not have running water or toilets in there homes , they have a few community water spickets that are only on for a few hours during the day. The trench we dug was for a water supply to the community bathrooms 2 toilets and 2 showers for everyone to use. It was a great day getting dirty and really experiencing manual labor. However it was heartbreaking to hear that the pipe that was layed was sealed together by heating up the two ends with a lighter and then holding them together. I am not a plummer and I have very little skill, but I do know that was a bad idea and not a long fix. Of course they burried there lighter fused pipe and I esure you it will burst in the near future. This is just one example of how I have seen PSF or maybe even Peru in general operate.
Nothing is a perment fix it is all half assed and temporary. Another huge problem in the pisco area, there is no landfill. There is no central location for everyones waste to go and therefore there is trash EVERY WHERE!! I get really frusterated because we do beach clean ups and then watch the little kids eat there popcicle and drop the wraper on the ground. Until there is a central dump how do we expect to change the mentality of these individuals? Is it a luxuray to not live in trash? I think I have decided it is. This was only our first two days here.
We have been taking spanish lessons, forgeting to take enough pictures, eating good food and becoming really tired of rice. We are going to stay in Pisco for at least another week because Easter is a huge deal in Latin America and everywhere will be packed and charge twice as much money, because everyone who can travels and has the whole week off.
I was really sick for almost a week and feeling better now I am taking antiboitcs and eating bland food. It is lovingly called Pisco belly something like food poisoning but worse!!
Our pizza is almost here. Hope all is well in the states! Sending my love from South of the equator!!!

First few days in Lima

We arrived here in Lima after midnight, because our plane was delayed before take off. It took 7 and half hours to get here and for some reason we did not get out of our seats to use the restroom. On the flight we were fed cheese raviols with meat sauce and then four hours later a turkey and lettace sandwich. Where Jason and I traded turkey for lettace. He ate double turkey and carrot sando and I had double lettace and carrots, it turned out to be not so bad. After landing we were picked up by a guy who works for the hostel and taken to Pirwa the hostel where we are staying at. The people here are nice and only speak a bit of broken english. So our spanish has already improved.
We slept in a dorm style room one the first night, because of some confusion, then the next day moved to a private room with two twin beds, where mine smell like pee!! (Mom, you could NEVER stay in a hostel because there is other peoples hair everywhere) So, I made jason share :) We went out the first day in Miraflores the district of Lima we are staying in. We walked around the park and ate some pizza, which tastes nothing like pizza in the states. The bread here is different, it is sweeter, but good and Jason thinks it smells like eggs. We have not eaten a ton, just a bananna for breakfast and a late lunch, we are slowly working our way into the new food.
Today we went to el centro, the Plaza de Armas, it was pretty, everything was yellow. There were tons of police with shields ready for battle at any second. Jason suspected some guy was watching us so we moved around a few times. When we were on the church steps we bought a map and partook in our first real hageling!

For lunch we ate some chicken with rice and fries and a salad. I gave Jason my chicken and we were both too
afraid to eat the salad because of everything we read (ie bugs from people not washing their hands). The bus ride to get from Miraflores to el centro was one sole (s1). And it was quite an experience!! The bus is more of a vw van than a bus, with seats meant for people 5 feet six inches or less. Our knees where fully pressed into the seat in front of us and Jason had one leg in the esile. The people drive here like they are 15 mins late, which is ironic for a laid back culture. Everyone honks there horn at everyone else for absloutly everything!! The city smells like smog and fuel everywhere mixed with some plesant parts that smell of rottten fish. The city is just not for us. We will stay here till Thursday then take a bus from here to Pisco which should be about s14 and take 4 and a half hours.
I want everyone to thank there spacebar for working, because at this computer you have to drop bows for a space after every word. haha
Sending all my love from Lima

2 days before I leave

Today I dropped my friends off at SFO, was able to hang out with Jessica one more time before I leave. I went to the bank to look into travelers checks and dealing with my money. It is so expensive to withdrawal money in a foreign currency, CRAZY! Picked up Jason in Santa Cruz and getting ready to pack up all my stuff. I am getting really excited!

Four Days to Go

I am still in Brentwood hanging out with my friends from Boston, getting ready to go wine tasting in Napa; four days before I leave. Yesterday, we went out and bought all the last minute stuff I needed and I only one cup away from being fully prepared!!