Josh and I have booked two trips for this long weekend. We leave tonight for Puno and Lake Titicaca, a lake Peru shares with Bolivia at its southern border. It's apparently the world's highest navigable lake and the second largest in South America; it's supposed to be beautiful! We have an overnight bus ride to Puno, and then we'll spend Thursday and Friday exploring the lake and its islands, staying over Thursday night with a host family. We'll get back to Cusco early Saturday morning, rest up, and then we're off to the Sacred Valley on Sunday! We're so excited to get in some adventure time!
As I mentioned before, tomorrow marks the beginning of Peru's Fiestas Patrias - their Independence Day celebrations! Unfortunately for me, the schools take a few weeks of vacation beginning with this holiday, so I won't be able to continue teaching English in schools while I'm here. Now, I have to choose a new placement! Teaching was such a good fit for me, so I'm not really sure where I want to go next. My options are in jungle conservation (though I believe that would require me to move out of Cusco to be closer to the project), childcare in orphanages (bathing and playing with the kids), and construction (Josh's job). Carlos, one of the project coordinators at Maximo Nivel, is collecting various placement options for me to choose from, so we'll see what I end up doing for the next two weeks!
Josh is still loving construction, but most of his crew leaves after this weekend. There will be new volunteers starting next week, so I'm sure their numbers will grow, but I think just four of them from this past group are staying. I tried to get Josh to write a post from his perspective, but he declined (I'll keep working on him). He did get some pictures from the pre-school site today, so enjoy those! I've also included some more of my students at La Virgen de Fatima. Time to get ready for Puno - more to come after we explore some!
2 comments:
I hope you two have a great time in Puno and Lake Titicaca and then in the Sacred Valley on Sunday. We all appreciate the updates and the pics! Since when did Josh get so shy? Tell him to post away...love hearing about your time in Peru... Love you both!
Adriana, I don't know if you've read the book I gave you yet, but I got my own copy and have already read it. I learned that August 1 is Pachamama (Earth Mother) Day, a major holiday in Cusco, so you'll be right in the middle of it! Also, at Machu Picchu they only let in a certain number of people per day, so if you're going plan ahead. I always thought that MP was the old Inca capital, but it turns out Cusco was built first. MP and many other surrounding ruins that the average tourist never hears about were built later, along with additions to Cusco. Fascinating stuff. Sorry to hear about the end of the teaching job. Hope they find a good fit for you. Love, Aunt Betty
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