New Venturers and a Weekend Trip!

Hola! It's been a while! The past two weeks in Trujillo have been absolutely jam-packed with volunteering, meeting new people, trips, and more! The February VWI volunteers arrived early this month, and we have already formed some amazing friendships. We intentionally skipped last week's blog post so that we were able to fully soak everything in and to get to know the new volunteers as much as we could!

Since our apartment has an extra bedroom, we were able to host Alyssa, a fellow Kansas City native, for two days before her apartment was available. We also experienced a city-wide blackout on Emily's first night here in Trujillo that left everyone without electricity for about 12 hours. The night of the blackout we took advantage of a Mexican restaurant that was running on a backup generator, then went back to Alyssa and Emily's apartment to have a nighttime ice cream party illuminated by a headlamp.

A view of the city-wide blackout from our rooftop

It's definitely been a crazy few weeks. Some notable things that we have enjoyed:

• Trying a lot of new food spots
• Playing volleyball (it's awesome living by people who love volleyball as much as we do!)
• The Russian Ballet

The Russian Ballet performing in Trujillo

• Taco Thursday
• A yoga class taught by Josie
• Aldo Diego Ice Cream Shop - seriously the best ice cream we've ever had!

Aldo Diego - our favorite ice cream shop!

• Happy hours :)
• Multiple trips to Huanchaco (the beach town close to Trujillo)
• Our first surfing lesson - we had a blast! Everyone was able to stand up and catch some good waves! 

Venturers ready to surf in Huanchaco!

Weekend Trip to Huaraz

This past weekend was our second weekend trip of the VWI program. We got to go to Huaraz, a city in the Andes mountains with an elevation of 10,000 feet. Huaraz is about a 7-8 hour bus ride away, and our group took an overnight bus that left Trujillo at 9:30pm on Friday and arrived in Huaraz at 5:00am the next morning. We have had some pretty interesting bus rides during our travels in South America, but this one was by far the best we have taken! We were provided pillows, blankets, extremely comfortable seats, the bus was air conditioned (PTL) and we even got some snacks and juice! Buses in South America are definitely hit or miss, and this one was a hit (can't say the same for the bus ride back... which was literally the opposite of all the perks that are mentioned above... oh well!).

A view of Huaraz from the roof of our hostel

Since we arrived in Huaraz early in the morning, we checked into our hostel and grabbed a few more hours of sleep before heading to the Monterrey hot springs. Since we had missed the first hot springs excursion, we were thankful that we were able to partake in this one. The larger pool was warm compared to the temperature outside, and the smaller pool was what you would expect a hot spring to feel like. The water is pumped from the mountains and is a brown because of all the iron in it. Everyone had a great time chatting in the pools and we felt nice and relaxed afterwards!

The Monterrey hot springs in Huaraz

After we were dropped off at our hostel, our group ate lunch at a nearby restaurant and then went to the city's main square, which is apparently where dreams come true... 

Loving the alpacas at the Plaza de Armas in Huaraz

After needing a few hours to recover from the excitement, we all headed to a cool bar where we played pool and jenga, feasted on some american-type food and had some locally brewed beer that had quite a bit of carbonation, but was really good! We called it an early night and tried to get a good nights rest before the main part of the trip the next day: Laguna 69. 

We woke up at 4:30 am and took a 3-hour bus ride high up into the Andes where we began the most beautiful hike that we have ever been on! The hike to Laguna 69 starts at an elevation of 12,000 feet, which is why we loaded up on altitude sickness pills and coca tea and prayed that the previous day would at least help a little with acclimating ourselves to the altitude. 

Huascarán - the highest mountain in Peru!

The entire hike is about 6 kilometers and our guide explained our hike perfectly by breaking it up into 3 sections, so we will use that to describe the hike: 

The first third of the hike is fairly flat, not too difficult, and takes about an hour to complete. The landscape is absolutely breathtaking, and was Daniel's favorite (which is saying a lot considering what lies at the end of the hike!). The first hour was filled with wide-open grass fields surrounded by mountains, and a large stream that ran through the field. There were tons of cows and bulls grazing which made for some awesome pictures and it was incredibly peaceful to listen to the sounds of the stream while making our way to the next part of the hike.

The first part of the hike to Laguna 69

The second part of the hike was also about an hour and this is when it started getting a lot tougher: a gradual incline up into the mountains that really made you start to feel the altitude. This is probably a good time to mention that we got EXTREMELY lucky with the weather! We had heard from some people that had done the hike the previous day that they got absolutely soaked during the entirety of the hike, and some hikers even had their passports and other belongings damaged due to the amount of rain.

The trail is starting to get steeper...

Thankful for amazing views and a flat part of the trail!

The last third of the hike was by far the toughest part - a switchback trail up the mountain with an incredibly tough incline. This was one of the most difficult physical feats that either of us had ever done as we were constantly needing to stop to try to get some air into our lungs, slow down our heart rate, and rest our shaky legs. This continued on for about an hour before we finally reached top and were rewarded with a stunning turquoise lake and a backdrop of snowy mountains. It honestly didn't even seem real!

Almost there!

The beautiful Laguna 69

We did it!

We were able to spend about an hour or so near the lake admiring our surroundings, eating lots of snacks (tortillas and peanut butter for the win!) and taking pictures. And then, it was time to begin our 2.5 hour journey back to the bus. Going down is sometimes just as difficult as climbing up, as you're constantly trying not to slip on rocks and your legs already feel like jello from the trek up the mountain. Everyone made it back to the bus (most of us had pounding headaches from the altitude) and we arrived back at our hostel around 8:00pm, only to head out 30 minutes later for the bus station. We arrived back in Trujillo around 4:00am and to say that we were exhausted would be an understatement. It was all worth it, though, and was definitely a highlight of our adventures in Peru thus far.

This will be our last post from Trujillo, as we leave in less than FIVE days to go to Cusco! We plan on writing one last blog post once we're home to recap our last few days of volunteering and week of travels. Any prayers for safety and health are very much appreciated! As excited as we are to be at home, we don't want our time here to come to an end! This has definitely been the experience of a lifetime :) Hasta luego!

Updates Galore!

First, we want to start out by saying THANK YOU to anyone who left us a comment on any of our previous posts! We didn't realize that we had to approve them in order for them to be posted and we were pleasantly surprised that we even had any! (We changed it so that the comments will no longer need approval.) Thank you so much for taking the time to write us a little something - we really enjoy reading them :)

We have lots of catching up to do with our weekend trips! The second weekend that we were here we went on a day trip to Simbal, a town about an hour away from Trujillo. Here we hiked with a local tour guide through a sugar cane field, climbed up a mountain to a spectacular view, and then did some more hiking through the Andes mountains!

The town of Simbal, Peru

What a view!

Everyone brought their swimsuits and was excited to swim in the lagoon that we were told about where locals hang out and sometimes even pumas are spotted! We hiked for what seemed like forever over a rocky terrain in the afternoon heat. When we finally arrived at our destination, there was no lagoon (not even a small pond, or puddle for that matter) to be found. We all had a good laugh and ate lunch in the mountains before heading back.

Hiking to the "lagoon"

Lunch in the Andes Mountains

Last weekend our group took a trip to Huamachuco to see some ruins and visit the hot springs. We got pretty lucky and had a huge bus (almost) all to ourselves! It was about a 5-hour drive through the mountains and honestly one of our favorite parts of the trip! It was so cool be able to see all the different communities, farmlands, rivers and some pretty amazing views of the mountains.

Incredible views on our 5-hour bus ride to Huamachuco

Overlooking Huamachuco

Our first stop in Huamachuo was the Marcahuamachuco archaeological site (dubbed by some Peruvians as the "Machu Picchu of the North"). The Marcahuamachuco ruins are located atop the Andes mountains at an altitude of over 10,000 feet! It was crazy to be standing where a whole civilization lived on top of this mountain thousands of years ago. After the ruins, our group headed back into the city and explored the local market. Everyone was pretty wiped from the altitude, so we all were grateful for an early bedtime after dinner. Unfortunately, we both got really sick that night and were unable to go to the hot springs the next morning. We stayed in our hostel until 1:00pm and somehow survived the 5-hour bus ride back to Trujillo. It took us both about a week to feel 100% better, and now we are so thankful to be in good health (and eat whatever we want)!

Venture with Impact group photo!

Some of the ruins at Marcahuamachuco

As promised, here is an update on both of our volunteer experiences so far:

Kayla
I am now volunteering with Espaanglisch 3 mornings a week! I get to be with the same co-teacher every day (before I was paired with two different ones) so I am really getting to connect with her and the kiddos. I really like it and am so thankful that it worked out this way! This week we are teaching them vocab for the interior and exterior of houses (window, roof, bedroom, kitchen, etc.) and they are each making their own house out of paper in art class. We also started reading "Curious George" to them - I read in English and my co-teacher, Marie, reads in Spanish - and they really seemed to like that! We even had some students stay in the classroom during their break to read books in English! It made me so proud and honestly almost brought me to tears.

Reading "Curious George" during their break in-between classes

I started volunteering with Vive Peru last week and have helped with two English workshops so far. On Friday, we had 6 kids ranging from ages 10-16 and we played some games and let them color while we did some pre-testing to see how much English they know. The workshop ended early so I got to watch the end of Daniel's soccer camp which was one of the most entertaining things I've ever seen (see his recap below)! Yesterday the workshop had almost 25 kids, ranging from ages 5-8! It got a little crazy at times but overall it was really, really fun! The kids got so excited to learn colors and animals :)

Vive Peru students excited to learn English!

Daniel
Since our last post about volunteering, Ali and I have made a lot of progress with our project to get clean water the community of Jesus Maria! We were able to semi-teach ourselves how to survey with the donated equipment by practicing outside in front of the apartment. After a bunch of trial and error, we were ready for the real deal and made our way out to the Moche valley. The first day we tried to walk the whole length of the new waterline with a GPS, but we couldn't make it through all the crazy thick sugar cane (it's like 15 feet tall and cuts you when you walk through the fields!). I guess when I say "we" I mean Ali and I, because the Peruvians were more than willing to get cut-up and swim in the canals.

Walking along the waterline with a GPS

The new waterline will be about 3 kilometers of pipe from the new clean capture point to where we are tying into their existing waterline. The first 2 kilometers of the proposed waterline has crazy terrain and tall sugar cane and is almost impossible to survey, but the good news is the new waterline will follow an existing line that serves another community close to Jesus Maria. So the goal is to obtain the plans from the existing community so we can skip surveying the first two kilometers (fingers crossed).

Surveying the land

The last kilometer of proposed waterline is in a more open area, and we were able to successfully survey about a half of the final kilometer last week! We hope to finish the last half very soon, and then we will begin making some plans for the community to take to the municipalities. This is still a work in progress, and any prayers would be greatly appreciated!

 The last kilometer that we will be surveying

This past week I also started volunteering with Vive Peru, where I will be working with two other volunteers to run a soccer camp for fifteen 6-9 year olds. I put together a schedule for the hour-long camp (thanks Matt for the soccer drills!) and had everything ready to run a well-structured camp... or so I thought. I was literally laughing for the entire hour as the kids ran around like whirling dervishes and we were able to complete one drill before resorting to a huge scrimmage with everyone involved. Although it didn't go exactly as planned, it was incredibly entertaining and an overall success. We will see if we can actually complete two drills this week :)

"Soccer Camp"

How is it February already?! We can't believe that we will be back home exactly one month from today, and we have a feeling that the rest of our time here will fly by. Two of the January Venture with Impact participants left and the February group members are starting to arrive! We have 3 more weeks in Trujillo and then we (a total of 6 of us) are headed to Machu Picchu!