Viva El Peru!

Peru was so much fun! I'm pretty sure I ate twice as much there than I did in Chile and I ate a lot in Chile! In Peru, we spent two days in Cusco and I only got to spend one day in Lima. So most of the sights I got to see were in Cusco. We originally stopped in Cusco to get to the infamous Machu Picchu. Unfortunately, the Peruvian government has restricted access into Machu Picchu to 400 visitors a day. The wait list for both days we were there was 800+. I guess that's what we get for going during the busy season. I'm not going to lie, a little piece of my soul was crushed when we found out that we couldn't go. Machu Picchu was what I was looking forward to the most! Well, I have a good excuse to come back!
We had a problem with some of the people in our group getting altitude sickness since Cusco is located at an elevation of 11,000 feet. Me, Billy, and Robbie were fine. The hotel we stayed at had oxygen masks and tanks to help deal with tourists altitude sickness. So while people were being sick, we went to see the sights!
Our first stop was to see the Templo de Santa Domingo. Santa Domingo is a convent that was built over an Incan temple dedicated to their Sun God. So Santa Domingo has a combination of both Spaniard and Incan architecture.

The front of Santa Domingo

The back of Santa Domingo. You can see the terraces which were leftover from the original temple.

Our next stop was Sacsayhuaman. Sacsayhuaman is thought to be the temple to the Incan god of lightening and is said to be in the shape of a puma. It was cool! It was used as a fortress when the Spaniards attacked Cusco. It would be easily defensible with the three walled terraces.

The three terraces. Each wall is about 2.5 of me!

A view of Cusco from Sacsayhuaman.

Actually, one of the coolest things we got to see in Cusco was just up the hill from Sacsayhuaman. It was the Cristo Blanco, which is a large statue of Christ like in Rio de Janeiro. It was huge! Our best view of the city was by the statue and it allowed us to see the Viva El Peru that was on the mountainside across from us.

You can see the Christ statue from the top of Sacsayhuaman.

Cristo Blanco.

The view from up by the Christ Statue.

We were able to zoom in on the Viva El Peru from the Christ statue.

We ate so well in Peru. All of the team leaders stayed in a separate hotel from the others in our group. We stayed in this awesome B&B/hostel that is ran by the nicest lady. She always had food ready for us to eat and she packed us lunches both days we were there! She was so nice! She even was kind enough to write some of her recipes down for me before I left. She spoke English very well so she had already translated them for me! When I go back to Cusco, I'm going to stay at her B&B again. She feed us the best Peruvian food I've ever eaten! Not to mention, she always had a cold Inca Kola for me when I saw her since she conducted all business from the kitchen.

Guiso de Pollo y Papa or Chicken Potato Stew.

Tallarines Verdes Con bistec apanado.

Uchucuta which is the Andean version of hot sauce. The white chunks are fresh cheese! I ate this with everything, it was so good!

We had a lot more different things but I didn't take pictures. My favorite food in Peru had to be the Lomo Saltado and the Uchucuta. And I'm pretty sure that I drank a ton of Inca Kola. I always had one in my hand or in my bag. I guess I have Cody Fowers to thank for that addiction. I also tried the frozen limonada (it's a limeade not a lemonade) when Billy decided it was time to try a famous Pisco Sour. He was not a happy camper the next morning. Apparently, Pisco Sour hangovers are worse than regular hangovers. Who knew?
We also got to see part of the Sacred Valley of the Incas while we were there. I have to say that the Andes Mountains kind of put the Rockies to shame.

Some terraces in the Sacred Valley.

A view up the Sacred Valley.

I was really sad to leave Cusco. I had a ton of fun there even though we didn't get to go to Machu Picchu. Lima was really uneventful for me since all I did was install a water purification system. But I did get to see the Lima temple. I caused Billy to stop the same way I had him stop in Santiago. He wasn't happy with me. Oh well! I got to see the Lima temple!

The Lima Temple.

Peru was super fun and I'm hoping that I get to go back soon! Until next time, Peru. Until next time.

Santiago, Where I Lost My Heart To Papas Rellenas.

Our home base in Chile was Santiago. We were there for three days and we stayed at the Holiday Inn by the airport. We drove to the installation sites/orphanages since it was safer to stay in Santiago. We pretty much got off the airplane, dropped our suitcases off at the hotel, and went to work. Half of the security team came down the day before with the supplies for Chile. It was quite an awesome sight seeing all the medical supplies, building supplies, and pallets of water! Seriously, we had six pallets of water bottles for while we were in Chile alone! Actually, every city we had a home base in had an airport so we could get the supplies we needed for each region we were in. The super rich UMB alumni who funded this venture and helped plan it were super smart with the logistics!
But enough about work! On to being a tourist! We saw several sites in Santiago. It was cool that most of the time it was just me, Billy, and Robbie. Robbie was the security person assigned to Billy and I since we had to be at the installation sites before the others. Funny thing, Robbie is also LDS and is from Richmond. I thought that it was awesome! Apparently, Robbie was grateful he got us to watch over since we decided to actually go sight see instead of frequent the clubs and bars. Not to mention, he likes to eat as much as I do! It also helped that he served his mission in Peru so he served as our translator too! Small world, isn't it?
The first site we saw was the house that Pablo Neruda built for his mistress, Matilde. It is called La Chascona. It was really cool to see the house since I read most of Neruda's poetry when I was 15. Being able to see where he wrote some of my favorite poems was eye-opening and allowed me to kind of see into his life.

Sign to La Chascona

Decorative Sign at La Chascona

The Outside of La Chascona. It is actually a nice design and it's painted nice bright colors!

The courtyard of La Chascona

La Chascona had the most brilliant library! Unfortunately, our tour guide wouldn't let us take pictures in the house. It was an interesting place to see. It was also cool to see a bunch of teenagers hanging around the courtyard just talking. It seems that Neruda's courtyard is a popular hangout spot for them. I bet Neruda would have like that.
Santiago seems to have churches everywhere! And several of them are really old! We went to Iglesia de San Francisco which is the oldest church in the city and it has survived three earthquakes! It was built in the late 1500s around 1586 they think. It was cool being in a place so old! It also hosts a wall inside that students come in and write their prayers for their family and friends down. I thought that that was an awesome thing that the students did!

Iglesia de San Francisco

The ceiling was amazing!

Inside the church

The prayer wall.

The only other church I took a picture of was the Basilica de La Merced and that was because it was super pretty.

See! It's absolutely gorgeous!

We also went to the Plaza de Armas which is like the city center. It has the Catedral Metropolitania which is a HUGE cathedral and other sites that we weren't able to get to.

The Plaza de Armas with the Cathedral on the other side.

We also were able to see the La Moneda which is the Presidential Palace. It was huge too!

La Moneda

Look at all of the Chilean flags outside La Moneda

La Moneda is huge!!!

We also went to Cerro San Cristóbal which is a hill in Santiago that is the home to the largest park in Santiago as well as a huge statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

At Cerro San Cristóbal going to go see the Virgin Mary statue

The Virgin Mary Statue

You can light a candle by the statue. Billy lit one before we left.

The view of Santiago from Cerro San Cristóbal.

The last thing we saw was Cerro Santa Lucia which is a hill that was in the center of Santiago. It is a pretty place with a lot of stairways and fountains. It also is the home of Fort Hidalgo which was visited by Charles Darwin. There is also a cemetery there that is the burial place for the dissendents or people who didn't follow the Catholic faith when it was mandatory in Santiago.

The park at Santa Lucia.

I liked all the beautiful buildings. I think the Plaza Neptune is what this is. I can't remember.

This is Fort Hidalgo or what remains of it.

The view of Santiago from Fort Hidalgo.

One of my favorite things was seeing the Santiago temple. We were heading to one of the installation sites and I saw it up ahead and made Billy stop. Apparently, I scared Billy since I was the navigator. He thought we were going the wrong way. He was a little surprised that the fuss was about stopping to take a picture. Oh well! I don't regret it.

The Santiago temple!

We also took part of a day to go see Vina del Mar which is a beach town about 90 minutes from Santiago. It was very pretty. But the best part was that I got to see an Easter Island head (Moai) at the monastery there! I had no idea that Easter Island was off the coast of Chile!

The view of Santiago on the way to Vina del Mar.

Vina del Mar

Castillo Ross

Castillo Wulf. It was built by German immigrants.

The Moai at Vina del Mar!!!

Santiago on the way back from Vina del Mar. It's kinda pretty at night!

One of the best part of traveling is the food! Which I took full advantage of! I stuffed myself full of papa rellenas, empanadas, and this delicious strawberry juice! Yum!

Papas Rellenas! They are pretty much mashed potatoes with flour added to make a dough. The centers are filled with meat and cheese and then fried. So good!

The Strawberry Juice!

That's all we saw in Chile. It looks like a lot but we actually saw most of the sites in the evenings. It also helped that the last day in Chile we got to spend sightseeing. I want to go back!

Go to South America? Heck Yes!!!

Back in February, I went to a meeting that discussed the possibility of members of the School of Pharmacy going to South America on a humanitarian/health initiative. Our initiative would provide needed vaccinations and water purification systems for some of the poorer residents of South America. I was recruited by Dr. Coop to figure out how to put together the water purification systems they wanted to take down to install in small towns and orphanages. So I figured the system out and wrote up a step-by-step procedure on how to build it. I turned it in and never heard anything about it again. I know they were having trouble figuring out how to fund the initiative. So when I got a phone call from my old advisor at UMB on June 14 asking if I was still willing to go, I was super surprised. But of course, I said yes! Everyone who has known me for any length of time knows that I've always wanted to go to South America. The biggest incentive, for me, was that it was completely paid for because I was going to be a team leader. Or in layman's terms, I was the only one who knew how to put together the water purification systems so they had to make sure I made it down there.
When I asked when we were going, I was surprised that we were leaving the following Wednesday. I had only six days to get everything ready! The whole initiative was a month long endeavor that hit most of the countries in South America and in Central America. Actually, the only ones that they didn't go to was Colombia (for obvious reasons), Honduras, and Nicaragua (I don't know why they didn't go to the last two). Unfortunately, since I have started working for Argonne at the University of Maryland and have the Exotic Beam Summer School in August, I was only able to go for a week. Thank goodness that week had me going to the two South American countries I've wanted to go to the most!!! I was able to go to Chile and Peru!!!
It was an amazing experience! We installed sixteen water purification systems throughout Chile and Peru. Also, my team helped to build some bunk houses at three orphanages in Chile so they would be able to house more kids. It was a very humbling experience working in those orphanages and small towns. I am very blessed and I need to be reminded of that more often.
But we didn't just work hard, we played hard too! Oh my goodness! I ate so much food! And it was all SO good! I can't even begin to describe it!
Do you guys remember me mentioning several times that I am a terrible tourist? Well, I remembered my camera, but I forgot the battery charger and the battery was dead. So I wasn't able to get very many pictures and the ones I got are either from my phone or my friend Billy's phone/camera. I'm really sad about it but it gives me an excuse to go back, right?
The airplane ride takes forever! It was a thirteen hour flight from Atlanta! Seriously, I about went stir crazy! I think that Dr. Coop is now very glad that we weren't able to go to that conference in London. I really don't think that I was that bad but I'm going to be teased about it by Billy for the rest of my life. Actually, the thing that sucked was that my laptop and my Nook died with over seven hours of flight time left. I slept a little but I've never been good at sleeping while traveling so that lasted all of maybe an hour. And me in my stupidity, didn't bring a real book. I'll never make that mistake again! But, it worked out! Wanda, who is Dr. Coop's girlfriend/partner, saved me. She had shoved a carry on full of books. She seriously had around 45 books shoved into that suitcase! So she lent me books the whole trip for when we were traveling in exchange for me dragging the suitcase around South America. It worked out for everyone since we were sick of hearing Dr. Coop complain about having to haul the thing around himself. Take home lesson, as great as my nook is, it is useless with no power. I will have a real book with me from now on when traveling.
Speaking of flights, our group that went to South America took up one-third of the plane! Our group had 73 members plus a 25 man security team. The security team was just to make sure that our large group of gringos was not attacked or kidnapped which I guess is a real issue in some South American countries.  Thankfully, Peru and Chile were some of our safest stops on the initiative.
I just realize that this is a long post already so I will post my tourist/eating activities in two posts. One for Chile and one for Peru.