one more week

so here is a quick recap of the last few weeks:

macchu piccu trip. left thursday morning by plane. after arriving in the mountains we took about a two hour hike to some ruins. had a free afternoon. friday we went to macchu piccu which was awesome. after touring around in the ruins some of us took a 40 minute hike up to the sun gate, which gives a spectacular view and is the end of the inca trail. saturday morning we went to some more ruins and spent the night in cusco, where me and a few buddies saw a crazy fireworks show. sunday flew home after some weather delays in the airport.

this wednesday (oct. 31), we took off in a really small bus to northern peru. left around 6:30pm and arrived in trujillo around 2ish. thursday morning was spent at the beach, were the water wasn't cold at all but really couldn't go in due ton of rocks. but that didn't stop me from rolling around in the shorebreak. in the afternoon we did some ocean kayaking on traditional canoes, and then we visited some 900 year old ruins that were pretty interesting. but since we have seen so many ruins in the last few weeks a few sayings have become popular within my group: no mas ruinas (no more ruins) and i'm ruined out. anyways, friday we drove through chiclayo and went to a musuem that had a ton of gold artifacts. we then continued on to piura and mancura, beaches up in way northern peru. spent the night there and then spent all of saturday at mancura, bodysurfing and having a blast in the sun. there was also some women's world surfing competition going on, so watched that for awhile, but the waves were terrible so they couldn't do much. and then sunday rolled along. we left our hotel at 8:30am and i got home at 4:20am monday morning. long long long bus ride.

this trip to the beaches up north was an included free trip, but we were informed beforehand that we had to pay for all our meals, which caused a long of complaining. but being mr. frugal, me and a couple buddies deviated from the nicer restaurants and enjoyed fine peruvian cuisine in sketchy hole in the walls. however, my meals ranged from $1-2. not bad i must say. and the food rocked.

plans for this week:
wednesday i have a presentation in spanish and I am doing it on Fujimori (peru´s president from 1990-2000). thursday i have a test, shouldn't be too bad. friday no school. saturday night flying out to argentina.

oh yeah, my camera is malfunctioning. brand new. argggh. guess i had some sand in my pocket. its weird though, i took a few photos. turned it off. then turned it back on 2 minutes later to look at the photos and the lense is going all wack on me. bummer. will try and fix but who knows. if not i'm buying a bunch of disposables. allright!!

it is weird to think that i have is a week left in peru. i've really enjoyed my time here and have had the chance to explore a huge portion of the country. something i've really enjoyed here is conversing with my taxi drivers. to get anywhere in this giant city takes at least 25 minutes, and i'll usually take a taxi 2-5 times a weeks, so i do what i can to strike up a conversation, not only is this good spanish practice, but i've learned alot. here are some brief stories i've encounter:
-retired man who spent 25yrs in a marketing firm who is now driving a taxi to pass the time
-25 year guy who is married with a 2 yr old driving to make ends meet
-man who owned a electronics store that went under due to cheap imports/knockoffs from china/elsewhere and is now driving a taxi and running a grocery store out of his home
-man who drove a bus in the public transportation system but is now driving a taxi because it offers better hours and isn't as stressful
-another guy was my age and was a surfer/pothead who was super hard to understand due to all the slang he used.
-another taxi driver who worked in the US as a janitor but returned to peru because it was to hard to get by in the states
-and one of my bus drivers to northern peru has worked in japan for 3 years and is currently married with a 1yr old. enjoys his job, because one, he has a job (hard to find these days), and it allows him to visit all of peru.

so yeah. this experience has been awesome so far. i'm looking forward to what argentina has to offer. i'll be living with Jud again (my roommate from mexico) and we will be living with a retired couple. excited to hear stories about argentina in the old days (watched a movie in my spanish class about part of argentina's history, some of the recent revolutions have had some big impacts on modern day argentina).

well, off to dinner and work on my presentation. hope all is well. enjoying this adventure but looking forward to being home again and back at messiah. chau.