Hiking Cerro Santa Apolonia

After taking the relaxing bath at Baños del Inca, we had lunch, rested, and then "hiked" Cerro Santa Apolonia. We made it about two blocks outside of our house when my host grandma got tired. Thus, we decided to take a cab to the top of the hill and walk down. The hill was really cool. You could see all of Cajamarca, Cajamarca. It had a beautiful lookout point and as we hiked down I got to experience a REAL rain. My first REAL rain since I've gotten to Perú! I've felt some sprinkles but not a true downpour until this one!  We also got to see the filming of a Huayno music video, eat some Mayma, and do some touristy shopping. It was a nice afternoon with my host family. However, we did miss seeing the Incan chair.  Thus, I'm really excited to return to this cerro and hike it with Mike! 

The "vista" or view

My host sister and I

My beautiful host grandma

The kiddos

The kiddos posing on this bridge on the hike down

Not sure what the purpose of this statue was but he has an accidental pirate leg!

The filming on the Huayno music video

This beautiful mural in the church on the Cerro. The backdrop for Mary is a typical Cajamarca scene. I have never seen anything like this before in a church!

The yummy Mamey we ate on the way down

The view down from the church

The view of the Cerro.

Baños del Inca, Cajamarca Perú!

So this past weekend I went to Cajamarca Perú with my host family. While the trip fell within my first three months in site, I was granted special permission to go on this trip with my host family because it is considered part of my immersion. I'm very grateful to have been granted this permission and it was a wonderful trip! On the first day, we went to this place called the Baños de Inca. This roughly translates to the Incan Bathes so I assumed that we were going to some natural hot springs! I later found out that there were natural hot springs which bathed the Inca King Atahualpa. Upon seeing the springs, I was slightly scared...(view photos below) but then I realized we would not actually be using these hot springs but individualized mini hot tubs! It was a wonderfully relaxing experience.

Walking into the Baños

The Baños look beautiful, right?!

A close up view of the hot springs...

The "algae" growing in the hot springs and the reason I got scared

More algae!

The reality of what we were doing there

My host siblings and I

My host grandma, host siblings and I

My host sister? and host grandma. My host family took like 20 pictures touching things that explicitly state "Do not Touch."

My host family kept joking that this was Hector's uncle... I didn't get the joke

Billeteras (Wallets) out of cartons

During training we learned how to make wallets out of tetra paks. While searching a DIY website, I found an even cooler design than the one we learned. So I decided to test the design out on my host siblings. They LOVED making the wallets with me and have been showing them off all week. I look forward to making these during classes this upcoming year. All in all, a nice hangout with my host siblings and an awesome reusing project!

The original product

The finished product, and the cut tetrapak

Yas using the template to trace where to make her cuts

Hector using a butterknife to make the creases

Hector bragging about how much money he has

Yas complaining how she has no money

Setting a Guinness World Record!

On January 19, 2013, I helped set a world record by dancing the traditional Peruvian dance, Marinera, with 653 other couples. We practiced for more than 3 hours before setting the world record. My partner was a friend of my regional coordinator, a 42 year old Peruvian man named Walter. The skirts we wore were not traditional Peruvian skirts but a fun Peace Corps hippie spin on the Marinera skirt :). After a short speech from a Guinness World record judge, we set the record and got to enjoy a short fireworks display. It was a pretty cool/unique experience and I am now a world record holder!

A big chunk of the gang!

The whole gang+ the stage. The chalk lines are where we start the dance

My dance partner and I

Annika and her dance partner!

The countdown to begin the world record setting!

The Peace Corps girls who participated!

The fireworks after the record was set!!!!

Teaching!

So recently I began teaching! I now teach English classes to a class of 9 kids ages 7-11 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Mondays I teach 6th grade, on Wednesdays I teach 4th grade and on Fridays I teach 5th grade. It is definitely getting a little hectic especially with the 4th graders, but I am loving it so far and looking forward to giving many more lectures throughout the next two years!

The ceremony before classes started! Ran an hour and a half late...so my class was cancelled!

Hands down best student in my crazzzy 4th graders class

Having the kids make the passports themselves was a huge mistake

Coloring by numbers with Jesús

and Sophia

and Ayrton! I asked them their favorite animals on the first day of class. Ayrton told me "Bieber." I responded, Bieber is a singer, do you mean Beaver? The kids loved my incredibly dorky joke.

Hanging out with my host siblings!

One of the best parts about the host family living situation is constantly having people to hangout with. While the people I live with are just my two host siblings, and my host grandma we constantly have people filtering in and out of the house. Currently, my host grandma's daughter who lives in Argentina is staying with us as well! Here are just a few of the activities I have done with my host siblings.

The kiddos playing the Battleship I bought for Hector for Christmas

Yasmin mixing up the batter for our cookies. Our cookies were a "fracaso" a disaster! But a delicious disaster

Try making cookies with no measuring supplies, weird butter, non traditional flour, and no chocolate chips! Then bake them in an oven with no numbers on the dial and with no cookie sheet.They are Peace Corps Cookies!

Hector buttering the cookie sheet with our weird butter....

The kids making cookie dollops...

The awkwardly flat but delicious Sublime cookies

Hanging out at the beach, burying Hector in the sand!

Yasmin's Graduation

During my first month in site, I had the pleasure of attending my host sister's graduation from primaria! It was a really cool look into Peruvian graduation traditions. All of the girls wear dresses of the same colors, the  boys wear matching ties, they go through a flowered arch with their parents and receive gifts from the school! It was a wonderful event and I'm so grateful my host family included me in this event. Here you can see a traditional hora loca. Everyone gets hotdog style balloons to wave about as they dance alongside the party DJs. While this was technically my second Hora Loca, it my first with a guy on stilts! The kids also got party bags with Hora Loca costumes!

My host grandma, and host siblings

Yasmin's personal cake!

The boys in their Hora Loca gear

The girls in their Hora Loca gear