Peruvian Driving

Just a little warning if you ever visit Puno.
Instead of stop signs or stoplights drivers honk when approaching a four way intersection. I´m not sure how they decide who has the right of way if multiple cars approach from different directions. I guess who ever honks first gets to go through first? Also, just ignore those one way signs, if you need to turn right but there is a one way sign pointing left, just turn left then back up the street to where you need to get to.

¡PERÚ!

I have not updated in a while, but I am currently in Peru!! So I will start from the beginning.

JUNE 28TH
I took a red eye from Miami and arrived in Lima at 615 in the morning. I was greeted by a driver who took me by the beach, which is very different than the beaches of Florida, it was a nice change of scenery. Luckily I was able to check into the hotel early and take a nap before my friends arrived. Kat, whom I hadn´t seen in over a year, and her boyfriend Greg got in around 1230, they had taken a bus from Puno City and were on the last leg of their three month stay in South America. It was great catching up with an old friend in an unexpected place. We were taken out to lunch by Silvia, who my sister is working with in Lima, afterwards she took us to the markets of Lima. Later that evening we went to Barranco and ended up at a bar where there was a Peruvian band playing Led Zepplin covers, of all the places we could choose to go.
JUNE 29TH
My sister arrived at midnight and then we had to catch a ride to the airport at 430 to fly to Juliaca. We got into Puno around 1000, the asst. driver of our bus from Juliaca took us to a Hostel, which I assume was run by a family member, when we told her we didn´t have a reservation. She said there was hot water which we were naive and didn´t try out before we paid. We only stayed there one night.
JUNE 30TH
None of the places have indoor heat. Which is ok, they have space heaters and layers upon layers of blankets. I of course had to buy a hat and gloves right away. Luckily the second night we had hot water.
JULY 1ST
We booked a tour to the Uros Islands, Amantaní and Taquile through Always Travel. So first we went to the Uros Islands, which is a group of floating reed islands. I will have to post pictures when I get back home.
Then we went onto Amantaní where we stayed with a family. Just a mother and father, their two children had moved away to Lima, which is becomming more common among these small islands. We had quinoa soup and vegetables for lunch and soup and pasta for dinner. We hiked as a group to one of the mounts of the island called Pachamama(mother earth), the other one is Pachatata(father earth) for the sunset. Later after dinner we had a fiesta, everyone dressed up in the traditional wear and some of the local men played instruments. Walking to and from the fiesta, I had never seen so many stars! The island is beautiful and I reccommend this tour to anyone and everyone!
JULY 2ND
We said good-bye to our host families in the morning after a breakfast of crepes and of course coca and muña tea (which was served with every meal) and continued on to the island of Taquile where they are famous for their handicrafts. The island use to be a prison like Alcatraz, except it was a political prison, not thiefs, so our tour guide says. We hiked up and across the island and then down 500 stairs back to the boat for a three hour journey (depending on who and when you asked) to Puno. We went out to dinner in Puno and tried alpaca, it was tasty, Audrey thought it tasted a little like pork, I thought it tasted like the fig sauce it was in. ¡¡Tomorrow we are off to Cusco!!

Its beginning

Mosquitoes are out in full force. I think my house is some sort of breeding ground for them. They are everywhere all day long, not just in the evening. I have already killed five this morning. I think I have to go out and get a net to put over my bed. There is a mosquito control center down the street and all I have to say is they are not doing a very good job.

Machu Picchu

My dream of going to Machu Picchu has finally manifest! I have had a yearning to go for 5 years but could never find anyone to go with me. Now I've bought my plane ticket and requested the days off, it's really happening. WooHoo!

Peter Sarstedt "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)

This guy(howie235) from youtube put together this video because he had a hard time understanding the lyrics. I think he did a very wonderful illustration to a beautiful song.

the New American Dream

check it out:
http://www.newdream.org/
They will teach you how to Live Consciously and Buy Wisely in order to Make A Difference.
We need more organizations like this out there!

The 11th Hour

Everyone should watch this movie. I think we need to re-organize the White House and put every speaker from this film in a place of power if we want a sustainable life.
Please visit:
http://11thhouraction.com/

Innocent Voices

I watched this movie (Innocent Voices) based on Oscar Torres' life in El Salvador. It is about the civil war in El Salvador in the early 1980's and a young boy about to turn 12 which is the draft age. 12 years old is the draft age. TWELVE. The war is between the peasants who have an uprising and form a guerrilla army and the El Salvador government. The most dissapointing part is that our U.S. military fueled the war and trained these 12 year olds how to fight. How could this have happened? I was a baby when this was going on so I am not sure how U.S. citizens were re-acting but this is outrageous. How could we as a nation willingly support a governement that is training children how to fight? Who approved this? Those boys should have been playing football or worrying about who has a crush on who, they should have been in school learning math and science not how to shoot a machine gun. What happened there is just unacceptable and I understand we can not control other countries(even though our govn't tries) but we most definately should not be training little boys how to fight or supporting wars that are drafting boys under the age of 18 (I don't even think the draft is ok).
This movie was very eye-opening and very sad but I highly reccommend it. People need to be aware of what is going on outside their little bubble of a world.

Beads

If this was the 1600's I could own New York. Considering that Manhattan was bought for $24 worth of beads in 1626 and I currently own an un-disclosable amount of beads, I would be wealthy by 1600 standards. If only our currency was based on beads.......life would be much simpler.

Sierra Leone's Refugee Allstars

I saw this band at Langerado. They were displaced from their homes in Sierra Leone during the war and formed this band in a refugee camp. Their story is amazing and their performance was full of energy and good vibes. You should check out the whole documentry if you can.

Milk Comercial

Milk "Mother Natures way to say I love you". Who knew, this whole time I thought Milk was the dairy industrys way of trying to scam us.