Lightning Bugs, Dogs, Turkeys, Snakes, and GIANT SPIDERS!

This past weekend, Mike and I took our first real vacation in some time. I say real vacation because most of the time our traveling is work-related. On our trip, we went up to the medio sierra (medium mountains) of Lambayeque where we stayed with a member of Mike's extended host family (Lucia.) Lucia is a wonderful lady. She was born in Peru, lived in Spain for 20 years, and now lives in a small town called Laquipampa. Laquipampa is beautiful but I'm not going to lie, the trip to Laquipampa is horrible. In a large van which is supposed to seat 15, they crammed 23 people in. The van took over an hour to leave because they kept cramming more people in. At one point the driver drove us to the gas station and we all thought we were going to leave but he returned to the terminal. The van was muggy,  dust constantly blew in through the windows, people talked loudly, and the seats rattled the entire 2 hour trip. On top of this, less than half way through the trip, a child vomited on the lady sitting next to him. While the trip up was horrible, it was completely worth it once we got there. Lucia's house was spectacular. She has built herself an incredibly nice house surrounded by mountains and a gorgeous river. She has a beautiful garden where she grows her own fruits and vegetables, and she has three amazing dogs who you can tell are very well cared for. The people in her town make fun of her for treating her dogs so well. I told her that Mike and I get crazy looks all the time from people when we pet dogs. I included a few photos of one of the dogs Cheska (we called her Cheesecake) and on the photo I am explaining Cheesecake's story. At night, the lightning bugs filled the riverbank like sparkling diamonds. The stars were pretty spectacular too. While the trip was not technically work-related, Mike and I did end up doing a little bit of work. The town would really like an Environmental Volunteer so we talked with the local park guards about possible projects that we could present to our coordinator. But aside from this, we relaxed. I cannot remember the last time I got to truly relax. We also went on a hike to some petroglyphs and two aqueducts. The hike was great even though there were no paths and we had to beat our way through thick grass. A lady and her son helped us find our way to the petroglyphs and she scared away a snake for us! At one point, some turkey babies started following us on our hike. Also on the hike back... I made the mistake of noticing the giant spiders all around us. The spiders in Laquipampa are the size of lightbulbs!!! They are terrifying. BE WARNED that I included a photo at the end of this blog post of one of the "small" spiders! I literally had nightmares about the spiders. Also this is a lot of photos for one blogpost...sorry!

This is Cheesecake. She is half Peruvian hairless and they think half german shepherd. She was considered ugly and thrown out on the street when Lucia adopted her. The poor girl was super sick with diarrhea but Lucia nursed her back to health. She is now very happy in Laquipampa. She is the first dog in Peru to lick me in the face!

Cheesecake really liked Mike

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Preparing for our breakfaste omelet, fresh from the garden!

Mike working as well

Relaxing

Checking out projects in the site with Napoleon (park guard)

Little did I know there were giant spiders....all around me

Super nice lady who scared off a snake and helped us get to the petroglyphs

Petroglyphs

We hiked through SO much grass and I had SOOOOOO many burs

Some turkeys followed us on our hike

Aqueduct

The river

The mountains

Hiking back...more aware (notice my arms.) Also Lucia's house is across the way

Beautiful sunrise

Waiting for our bus (was an hour late) and my duck friend joined me at the stop.

THIS is a SMALL spider. Lucia allows them to live near the house until a certain size. THIS IS SMALL!!!!!!!!