Solar Panels!

Mike and I have been helping our friend Kathryn with her solar panel project for a few months now and we finally got to install the system two weekends ago. The project is using solar panels that were previously donated to the school by the "1 laptop, 1 child" program. Originally the town did not have electricity so the laptops were charged using these panels. Unfortunately, the laptops are no longer used and so the panels are also not being used. However, solar panels have a life of 25 years! Thus we decided to reuse the panels for a nighttime security lights system that the school needed. Here are some photos of the installation and the crazy adventure Mike and I took in a mototaxi to bring Kathryn her batteries which weighed more than 76 kg. In the process, we had to cross 1 river 3 times. I was definitely worried we would not make it, but we did and everything got installed! I loved this project and I cannot wait to do more clean energy projects! Soon to come: My wind turbine!!!

If only you guys could see the route we had to take

Testing 1 panel

Testing more panels

Stripping wires and getting the charge controller together

No maintenance batteries are a pain. We had to do some crazy wiring on this battery!

End of Day 1, the whole system works!!! (Notice the light?) I am not poking Kathryn's socio in the belly

System is up and complete!/Dreamteam

3/5 panels the other two are on the other side of the roof.

Mike's Family Visit!

Hi guys,

Sorry it has been so long. Things with my host mom have not gotten much better and I'm still quite worried for her health. On top of this, I have literally been running around all over Peru and the pace of my work is not going to slow down anytime soon. In the next three weeks, I will be installing a solar panel system with Mike/our good friend Katherine, building a wind turbine with my community partner, going down to Lima so Mike (and me a little bit) can share our projects with the new volunteers, and then I will be installing my turbine/holding a wind energy workshop for my students. Two weeks after this whole mess of work my family is coming! On that note, I'd love to share some photos from the vacation I recently experienced with Mike's wonderful family. After hearing so many amazing things about Mike's family, I was both nervous and very excited to meet his family. Mike's sister (Amanda) is an incredibly beautiful, talented, creative, intelligent, strong, and passionate woman. I see how she has influenced Mike in so many wonderful ways and it was nice to see where he gets all of his creativity. Mike's mom (Carla) is a loving, gorgeous, driven, big hearted, sincere, and thoughtful woman. I see so much of what first attracted me to Mike in her, like his incredibly large heart. Finally, there is Mike's step-dad (Dave.) Dave is an adventurous, funny, charming, helpful, warmhearted, and spirited man. I realize this sounds repetitive but I again see so much of Dave in Mike, like his adventurous spirit. It was amazing meeting and seeing how these people, crucial to Mike's life, have had such an influence on him. In our travels, we visited Cusco, Machu Picchu, Arequipa, Trujillo, my site, Mike's site, and Mancora. We did things from watching the sunset in Mancora over the ocean, riding Peruvian pasos, hiking Huayna Picchu at Machu Picchu, seeing Peruvian wildlife, eating amazing food everywhere etc. Also we talked. While I had already heard a lot about Mike's family from Mike, it was really interesting rehearing stories from their perspectives, and hearing other great stories about Mike's childhood. Amanda was kind enough to bring some embarrassing pictures from when Mike was a kid (I hope my sisters don't get any ideas...) Anyways, while it was so incredibly wonderful meeting his family, it did make me miss my family and it made me incredibly excited for my own family's visit. Here are a few photos of highlights, enjoy!

Enjoying a lovely breakfast with views in Cusco

Enjoying some ruins

The train ride to Machu Picchu

The amazing Machu. I adore this shot.

The whole gang

Can you guess what we are doing? Google Totoro in the rain

Troopers hiking Huayna Picchu

Posing by the Mountain they conquered

Mike and Amanda go for a bike ride

Enjoying a nice ride on Peruvian Pasos

Peruvian Pasos!

No blogpost would be complete without a cute street dog

Mike and his Mom by the condors

Seeing some Condors

We got some pretty spectacular condor shots

My favorite coffee place in Trujillo

Enjoying a lovely lunch by the beach, yes I'm wearing a bib

Vicuñas!

More beautiful Vicuñas

Super cute mountain bunny

Wild Alpaca? Llama? Obviously I learned nothing in Arequipa...

Mike's parents enjoying a nice beach stroll

This photo turned out super weirdly but I love it. BTW Mike and I just celebrated 1 year together!

Cooking with the Host Family

Hi guys!

Sorry for not updating for so long. Life has been absolutely crazy lately! I'm about to travel with Mike's family so I'm trying to wrap up a bunch of projects and make sure my other projects don't fall apart while I'm gone. This past month has been a pretty hard month in site. My socios have not been the nicest, I had to say goodbye to Sue (my site neighbor/mama bear) and my host mom has been confined to her bed because of issues with her knee. I've been cooking for myself this whole month which has been a blast and reminded me that I never posted about the time Mike and I cooked dinner for my host family. So while this is a slight throwback, enjoy!

Mike bought salsa instead of spaghetti sauce...it turned out okay though

our stove looks so tiny next to Mike

The family enjoying the meal :)

Donkey Camping > Car Camping?

I apologize for doing 2 posts in 1 week. A lot has been happening lately and a lot more is coming up. My site neighbor is leaving, two new volunteers are coming in, I'm helping Mike fix a solar installation in the bosque, I'm trying to organize a wind turbine installation, and I will be constructing my mini-tree nursery next week. Thus, I'm trying to get caught up on everything that has happened recently.

Last week, during Fiestas Patrias (Peruvian Independence Day), Mike and I hiked 56 km in 4 days. We were originally supposed to hike 56 km over 5 days but we were "peru'd" when our guide ditched us in the mountains. We started off our trip "acclimatizing" to 3600m or ~12,000 feet with an "easy" trek known as Laguna Seisenta y Nueve. The agency lied to us and the trek is actually rated at medium to hard. We ended up being very sore for the beginning of our 4 day trek (the Santa Cruz trek.) The hike was beautiful and I do not regret doing it but the first day of Santa Cruz probably would've been a little more enjoyable if I had not been so sore. Santa Cruz was beautiful. The nice thing about Santa Cruz is that you only have to hike with your water. The rest of your gear (clothes, tent, cooking supplies etc.) is carried by donkeys to your campsite. Also, you don't have to cook for yourself because you have an awesome cook. (Our cook cooked us delicious soups, stirfrys, pancakes, and more.) You also travel with a guide, and a donkey driver. Everything was great for the first two days. On the second day of the trek we hiked up to 4750m  or ~15584 feet to go over the mountain pass. It was a hard hike but incredibly beautiful. After our hike, our guide asked us if we wouldn't mind hiking an extra hour the next day so we could finish our trek 1 day early and so the donkey driver could go home. We confirmed it was only an extra hour, and agreed. We were told we would only be hiking about 16km. At 4AM the guide ditched our campsite to go home. We were without a guide for the 3rd and 4th day of our trek. We ended having to hike an extra 4 hours (1 being in the dark while we hiked down a cliff with no guide) and we hiked 27km, NOT 16! The trek in the dark was SO dangerous and we definitely could've been seriously hurt or died.  Fortunately, we did not and we were able to get back half of our money because the other people in our group were also furious with the agency. While this definitely ruined the end of Santa Cruz for me, the overall experience was a beautiful adventure. I apologize for the number of photos but there is just so much to see from those few days.

Before our trek in, we got to enjoy amazing American food in Huaraz! I got to eat french toast!!!!

Hiking to the Laguna

The incredibly beautiful Laguna

Us in front of the Laguna

Mike loves this picture so I thought I'd post it

Leaving the Laguna

Ending the Laguna Hike

Before beginning the Santa Cruz Trek, we drove up to this beautiful look out point.

Some sheep, goats, lambs running past us on the trail

Day 1 was spectacularly beautiful

We did some extra hikes to some lagoons

The heart shaped lagoon!

This flower only grows above 4500m!

Just absolutely stunning

More lagoons

The pass!

Our look down to where we had to hike

Taking a pause

Tequeños! One of my favorite unhealthy foods here. Cannot believe our cook made them for us

He made some crazy food for camping

Our views while  camping were amazing

We had REAL pancakes!!! Normally the pancakes we get are tortilla/crepe/pancakes and not good. These were delicious!

Eating lunch by a lagoon on day 3

Our "cars" for the Santa Cruz hike

Some more beauty

Just truly spectacular

This reminds me of Sound of Music!