Despedida

Despedida
Kartik, Sarah, Dan, Beto, Kiran, Miranda, Leora, Dani, Callae and me at my despedida at Pescados Capitales.


Despedida in Spanish means farewell and is usually associated with a party. Well the last five days have been one big despedida leading up to today - my very last day in Lima, Peru. First, my cleaning lady came over and made some amazing ceviche for Miranda and I on Thursday. I gave her two bags of stuff (clothes, shoes, toiletries, games and pens for her nephew - she love it!)

On Friday, I bought a chocolate cake and had a little party with my co-workers at Cayetano University.

On Saturday, all my gringo friends (and Beto) came to Pescados Capitales for a delicious dinner and my waiter friend, Alex, even gave us a tour of the kitchen and wanted to add me to the VIP wall where they learn about what their regular customers like. (You know you have a good life when one of the fanciest restaurants wants to put you on their VIP wall.)

Congrats Dan on your graduation!
On Sunday, my friend Leora hosted a wonderful despedida brunch where we drank mimosas, cooked pancakes and french toast, and at lots of tropical fruits. Sunday night, my brother and I went to the Arambulo's to introduce him to my Peruvian family and also say one last goodbye. I teared up saying goodbye to Luis, who insists that I will always be his hija (daughter) even if I'm a rubia (blond).

Last night, our "chicken mama" Dr. Silvia Montana, took our Fogarty group to dinner at Jose Antonio's for a delicious traditional Peruvian meal, complete with picarones and Pisco sours.

"How are you feeling?"

"A life rich with emotions is a rich life," so they say, which means I basically just won the Powerball! I wish! I'm all over the place with emotions: sad to leave my friends, my life, my new family in Peru; happy to see my novio (finace) and my family and future in-laws (who are so kindly picking me up in Chicago); anxious about adjusting to the way of life in the US (like being on time and how to greet people - the Peruvian kiss is not very acceptable in the US); stressed about getting my papers submitted and poster made before my upcoming trip to China; excited to go to some of my closest friend's weddings and see friends from home; nervous about actually throwing toilet paper in the toilet; anxious about having to drive a car; assured that my brother will get along fine without me; grateful for all Peruvians (and gringos) who made me feel at home here; overwhelmed by all the unfinished work I have to do; concerned that I might not eat ceviche for another year; but most of all, I'm happy.

Me, Dan, Luis and Miranda on my last night out on the town. Why isn't Luis smiling?

Happy that I had this amazing opportunity, happy that I spent time getting to know some awesome people, happy with the work that I've done, happy with the adventures I've had this year, happy that I finished packing last night and can enjoy my last day, happy to see Seth, happy to give my mom a big hug and tell her I love her, happy to go running with my dad, happy to ride my Fuji Roubaix (my bike) again, happy to eat a cheeseburger, happy for it to be summer, happy that nothing major happened to me, happy to plan our wedding, happy to apply for residency, and just generally happy to be back home.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thank you Beto and the Arambulo's for being my family and taking me in as your daughter. Thank you Romina and Bruno for showing us your city and making us feel at home. Thank you to the gringas (you know who you are) for being such a great support group and showing me how to work hard, eat well and always have a good time. Thank you Pierina for being the best Spanish teacher. Thank you Omar for driving me and all my visitors around Lima. Thank you Jaime, Antonio, Sanja, Julio, Joe, Bob, German, Jennifer, and Cesar for helping me with all my projects. Thank you to my family for keeping me company on skype all the time. Thank you friends and family who came to visit so I could show off my new home and this amazing country. Thank you Miranda for being my best friend in Lima and putting up with me and making your way into all my wonderful memories even though you weren't there all the time. And last, but not least, thank you Seth for being my rock this year and coming down to visit three times when I didn't go home once. Thank you for letting me have this incredible opportunity to move abroad and I promise I'll never leave you behind again. I love you!

Thanks for reading. I am delighted that I have had so many followers on my blog this year. I hope to update it now and again but you should follow my brother Dan's blog.
Until my next adventure, "Ya me despido. Muchas gracias por todo, que te cuides y hasta luego!" (It's time to say goodbye, thank you for everything, take care and I'll see you later). Besos (kisses)!

Love,
Katie

Four blondes take Peru

By Cara
For more photos, please click on Cara's Picasa album:


Life is hectic. We all work long hours and have a million other things going on, but for me, I can always slow it down to go visit an awesome new place. And particularly if it involves hanging out with a couple of my best friends--Katie, Jackie (my roommate from when I lived in London) and Annie, i.e. All-American Annie, my freshman soccer buddy at Macalester College. Jackie, Annie and I went to visit Katie during the last week of April and had an awesome time. I'm positive we were a handful, but I think Katie enjoyed herself just fine and hopefully she's now fully recovered... let me begin.

Lima
Jackie and I arrived on a Saturday night, and true to form, demanded Pisco Sours before we did anything else. Literally, less than 2 hours after landing we had the famous Pervuian drink - in both hands. We spent our first evening hanging out with Katie's friends in what we thought was a typical Peruvian restaurant (turned out to be Mexican, details...).

The next day, after a couple hours of reading bridal magazines in our underwear, we made our way over to the Arambulo residence to have lunch with Katie's "host family"-- Luis, Charo, Beto, and Jorge. Katie knows how lucky she is to have found these people who have essentially taken her in as their American daughter, but let me reiterate. Our afternoon exploring a market, hanging out, and cooking with the Arambulo family was definitely my favorite of the trip! They are truly wonderful people who were excited to invite me and Jackie into their home and get to know us. Jackie spent the remainder of the trip scouring menus looking for "arroz con pollo" because she loved Charo's version so much. Dan (Katie's brother who is about to live with them for a few months) should buy his sister an extra birthday present this year for forging a relationship with these wonderful people! Note to Arambulos: if you're ever in DC, call me up!

Luis and Katie enjoying Pisco SoursJackie and Beto sitting on the patio drinking Pisco sours while Katie and Charo and Jorge slaved away in the kitchen.
Katie, Cara, and Jackie dressed like real Peruvian chefs


After lunch Beto drove us to central Lima where we walked around the Plaza de Armas, by the Rio Rimac, and into a locked enclosure under a bridge to see an antique Spanish cannon (still not sure what this was about but apparently it's worth big bucks).

Jackie, Katie and Beto in El Centro, Lima
Jackie and Cara


We then went to the Lima City Ballet's "rendering" of Swan Lake. Though extremely amusing thanks to one pair of particularly tight, white/see through spandex, but the New York Ballet they were definitely not. Issues included staying on point, dancing in-sync and occasionally dropping ballerinas - it was quite laughable. After ballet we went to do karaoke and discovered that singing in Spanish is actually hard and we really don't know the words to our favorite Juanes song, "A dios le pido."

Dani and Katie singing/yelling karaoke


The next day we took a walk around Miraflores and San Isidro and made Katie try on every white dress we saw (don't worry JoAnn - she didn't find any she loved).


That night we went out to an amazing ceviche dinner with Beto and his friend, Sebastian (who happens to love blond American girls). Wasn't he in heaven.. yes. Pisco sours number 11-19 were consumed here.
Beto, Katie, Cara, Jackie and Sebastain at arguably the best ceviche restaurant in Lima, Pescados Capitales.



Cusco
The next morning Jackie and I took off for Cusco and spent most of the day walking around the old city, taking pictures of creepy mannequins, and buying things for $5 or less. We were concerned when the first question from our hotel was "Would you like to rent a heater for $6 a night for your room?" and looking back on it, we probably should have, though we do love cuddling.





The next day we had to find a way to get to Piscacucho, where our train to Machu Picchu was leaving from, so we hired Juan Carlos the taxi driver (JC!!!!) to drive us around the Sacred Valley for the day. It was a really cool trip. JC stopped at beautiful overlooks along the way, for awhile it was nearly every 60 seconds ("Other photo, si???" "Uhhh okay...")



Then to an animal rescue farm where Jackie fell in love with the ugliest dog known to man - a Peruvian hairless dog.



Then to the ruins at Pisac (highly recommended!!)



and Ollytantambo (not too bad if you like stairs).



We made it to the train station and took the train with all the other gringos to Aguas Calientes, a really lame tourist trap of a city where everyone goes to bed at 8pm. Jackie and I spent an hour or so looking for a bar, restaurant, really anywhere that had people we could talk to, and then resigned ourselves to hanging out with ourselves, and drinking pisco (are you catching on to the theme here?).
Jackie doing what she does best.
Cara doing what she does best (notice how much more of a light weight Cara is...).


Machu Picchu
The next morning I had Jackie out of bed at 5am and ready to go up to Machu Picchu. Everyone we spoke with told us to get there early if we wanted to climb up Waynapicchu, the super steep mountain in the background of every classic Machu photo, as they only allow the first 300 hikers of the day up. We ended up being numbers 30 and 31 and slogged our way to the top of the mountain in record time (think 45 minutes of stair-master with slippery rock stairs), expecting the world's greatest view of Machu Picchu. Instead we saw abyss.
Cara "slightly" pissed about the view.
Jackie LOVING the view!


In fact we saw nothing but abyss for the next 3 hours, but then got really lucky when the clouds finally parted, and we got an amazing view.



For anyone planning a trip to Machu Picchu: ignore the warnings to get up there at 5am. Sleep in, eat brunch, get a pedicure, go up around 11am. Seriously.

Jack and I couldn't wait to get out of Aguas Calientes, and made it back to Cusco that evening. We made up for being lame the night before and found a party full of Dutch people celebrating the Queen's birthday. We were definitely the only Americans in the bar as evidenced by the fact that nobody else was "beating the beat" if you know what I mean. I definitely wish we had a Queen...



Puerto Maldonado
Finally done with Cusco and the altitude we boarded a plane the next morning for the Amazon! The first clue that something was amiss was when we met up with Katie and Annie who were dressed like explorers, while Jackie and I had brought jean skirts, tank tops, flip flops, and eyeliner ("What do you mean you didn't bring pants???" she said.) However, Jackie came to the rescue with two pairs of hot, black yoga spandex, which we paired with sweet rubber boots.

The "Wilderness Explorers," Annie and Katie, and the "Beauty Queens," Cara and Jackie, sporting our new rubber boots.


For a much better play by play of the jungle you should definitely read Katie's description in her blog. I will say that we saw a lot of ants, a really sweet frog, poisonous spiders, we had to get up at 4am one morning, I chewed on a leaf that made my mouth go numb, and the night hike was the most terrifying thing I've done in awhile (there are jaguars in this jungle!!!).




The night before we left was my buddy Annie's 25th birthday (she's getting so big!!), and we managed to celebrate in style with a 350 sole tab ($130) (this is impressive for a Peruvian bar in the middle of the jungle). Annie was a great sport, letting us relive the days when she was a freshman, by helping her make bad decisions all evening long. We got dancing lessons from a few of the guides, and to top the night off, went running into the jungle to continue celebrations (I wasn't nearly as nervous for this night hike!) The night ended up better for some (I had a great time!) than others (poor Johan), but was definitely an experience we'll never forget.







Lima
Back to Lima and we capped off our awesome week with $5 pedicures, more shopping, more friends, and lots more pisco (why hasn't anyone introduced me to this before?).





All in all, Peru is an amazing country and I would encourage everyone to visit at some point. Though we felt like we saw a lot in our short time, there are so many other places to visit-- Puno, Arequipa, beaches, Katie could probably name like 10 more-- and I'd definitely come back. Machu Picchu is incredible, the Sacred Valley was gorgeous, and the jungle was definitely an experience; however, by far my favorite part of the trip was seeing Katie and living her life for a few days-- seeing her apartment, walking around her neighborhood, and meeting her friends. She has carved out a pretty great existence for herself in Lima and that's impressive for just living there nine months.

So I'll finish with this: Katie, thank you thank you thank you for such an AMAZING week! It was wonderful to be able to see your life in Peru, and understand what you've been up to for the last year. I know you are sad to leave and it's going to be hard, but we are so excited to have you back!

Viva las gringas!



Cara's full picasa album:

Vamos a la selva!!!

So they say third time's the charm... and my third visit to the Amazon rainforest was quite an unforgettable experience. My awesome teammates from Macalester College, Cara and Annie, and former flatmate in London, Jackie, came to visit me for a few weeks. While they were going to Machu Picchu, I was busy getting my heart attack chart review study done (yes, I do actually do a lot of work here) and then we met up in Puerto Maldonado for the weekend.

Oxbow Lake
The heavy rains the days before we arrived made the road to Infierno inpassable and so we had to climb down the mud banks to the boat to get to the Posadas Amazonas Lodge. Jackie and Cara had a very different image of the jungle than Annie and I (and clearly didn't read my packing list that included pants, head lamps and bug spray). We were the "Wilderness Explorers" in our REI gear and binoculars and they were the "Fashion Specialists" in tank tops, mini skirts and flip flops. Luckily, Jackie packed two pair of hot yoga pants that they wore with their sexy rubber boots. "Mind the gap." :)

Me, Annie, Cara and Jackie hiking in la selva

Friday we arrived at our luxurious lodge with our rooms that are open to the jungle. We climbed the tower and watched parrots and hawks from above the canopy. Fortunately, none of us are afraid of heights.
Jackie and Cara at the top of the tower

After dinner we took my flashlights and went on a night hike. Big insects and jumping poisonous spiders were some of the highlights and turning off the lights and standing among the darkness and listening to the sounds of the forest was an experience I'll never forget. Luckily for Cara, we did not see any snakes.

We woke up very early on Saturday and watched sunrise over the Tambopata River and hiked to an Oxbow Lake - an old part of the river - that currently is home to a family of river otters - an endangered species with fewer than 200 left in Peru. We went piranha fishing, birdwatching, and took lots of photos of a black caiman. Later we hiked to a macaw clay lick and sat in silence for an hour and saw nothing. On the way back to the lodge there were lots of dusky spider monkeys and saddle-backed tamarins. Next to the lodge was a big anteater climbing a tree. I love the jungle!








Taking a nap on the hammocks


Giant anteater


Cara and Jackie on the Tambopata


Trouble with a capital T
It was Annie's 25th birthday in the jungle and we racked up a 350 soles bill in one night (and put another 15 large beers on another group's bill and played dumb the next day). Whoops! What a crazy night! I'll leave the details to them as I did the typical "about to be married and go to be early" thing.

The next morning...


I love Peru! How many places in the world can you live and fly slightly over an hour for about $120 and be either land where there are gorgeous white-sand beaches in the North, snow-capped mountains in the Andes, deep canyons with condors in Arequipa, or the selva (rainforst)? Not many!

I'm getting ready to leave. I started packing my two large suitcases. Today, I'm going to have lunch at my empleada's (cleaning lady) house in the out-skirts of Lima and bring her and her nephew lots of "gifts"(stuff I don't want to take back to the US). My friend Annie and I went last weekend and had a great time playing pick-up soccer with the street kids - I bet they never thought two "sisters" and a little girl could take on 8 boys and win. Go girls!




Annie, Cara and Jackie - thanks for coming to visit! I love you girls!




It's going to be very sad to leave as I really love it here and I found that between soccer and learning Spanish, I can really connect with people and "fit in." Peruanos are the nicest people you'll meet and if you haven't been her before and you ever get the opportunity, I would not miss it for anything. Thanks for reading.