La Vida es Loca en Perú (Life is Crazy in Perú)

This past week we finally got out to see some sights, and not just the night life of Peru. Classes are still going well, I keep having to remind myself to do my homework as the Peruvians have gotten me to think its summer and who wants to go to summer school?! This past week I have been sick, but only with a cold, which is bad enough. On Friday we went to La Iglesia de San Francisco (The Church of San Francisco) in the Center of Lima. Our Grammar teacher, Roberto, took us there and showed us the Metro system they have. It was a lot cheaper than a taxi, but it took about twice the time and we were packed inside next to some interesting people. Needless to say I think of all of girls were happy to keep at least on eye on the guys in our group, just in case. After the Metro we had to walk aways through some shops, but the buildings/architecture was pretty and reminded me of New Orleans, LA. When we got to the church it was huge! We couldn't take any pictures of the inside, but we got plenty on the outside.

They had a Library (still stocked with old books), garden, beautiful sanctuary, and catacombs... This was the only cemetery for a while in the city, so there are over 127,000 bodies below the church. We were able to walk down into the catacombs, if it wasn't so cool I probably would have been a little more scared... They had bones on display everywhere. They sorted out like bones, so there were piles of femurs, pelvises, and... skulls. In some of the rooms they even put the bones in patterns to make a design. Other than that creepy part it was a very beautiful church! Then we got to see The Governor's Castle right next to the church.

Saturday we had to meet at UPC at 7am to leave for our hiking trip in Matucana. It was a tad bit early for all of us... but definitely worth it. Matucana is about two hours from Lima so we were able to get some sleep in on the bus/combi ride there. We all woke up though when our bus got pulled over by the police. Apparently we didn't have permission to be driving on that road, so our driver paid-off the policeman with 10 soles and we went on our way! Our driver was happy he didn't get a ticket, and the cop was happy he had 10 more soles in his pocket! (I wish I could pay the police $4 every time I got pulled over...) But we got to Matucana safe and sound, picked up our tour guide in the town square and  drove to the trail. The hike ended up being a total of 14 miles and it was worth it! We had two dogs follow us to the Waterfall, and they were probably thinking, "Why did I want to follow those humans?". We had to cross a big rope bridge to get across to the waterfall, and of course we were all jumping on it! When we got to the waterfall we all took off our shoes and walked across the stream, and the water was freezing! There is a lagoon at the top in the Andes' Mountains that feeds the waterfall. There is also a myth about the waterfall that we discussed in class, so it was interesting to get to see it in person. The walk back was almost as hard as the hike up (honestly not even close...) but the path was gravel and we were slipping everywhere. We didn't know if it was easier to run down, but then when you got to a turn you had to slow down and when you slowed down almost every time you would fall. When we got back to town we met the Mayor of the district. She gave us free books about the history of Matucana and basically told us that Cusco and other famous places in Perú are nothing compared to Matucana... We will see about that. We ate in the town and then went home! We realized while driving through Lima that we all might die from Carbon Monoxide poisoning. It was nice to finally get some fresh air while hiking and see some real grass.

Sunday was the day to recuperate, and I didn't do too much (definitely should have done some homework). But instead I watched the season finale of Downton Abbey and was slightly depressed for the rest of the night. I'm glad I watched it though because apparently that's when it played in the states on pbs and facebook would have ruined the ending for me. Well, that is all for now! We just planned our trip to Arequipa for Feb. 8-10 I'm really excited for that! It will definitely be a tiring trip since our flight out of Lima is at 6am then we go straight to our 2 day tour. But I know it will be worth it! Chao for now!