Well folks it’s been quite a while since I updated this and I apologize but the main reason I haven’t is that I had been on vacation. Four friends came down last month to visit me and I took my first real vacation. We met in Cajamarca then visited Contumaza where, after surviving the journey, they got to see where I live, meet my host family, see one of the schools I work at (where they were literally mobbed by my students), and visit the town puma. We then traveled on the coastal city of Trujillo where we spent the day at the beach relaxing and eating delicious Peruvian cebiche. We quickly ventured out of the North on to Lima where we took the oh so luxurious “Super VIP” bus where we flew on to Cusco.

We spent quite a bit of time in and around Cusco. I was a little concerned that I would be biased against such a tourist destination after having spent a year in the “real Peru” but I loved it. It’s an absolutely beautiful city where you literally feel the history. It was a little weird being somewhere the tourists (gringos and Peruvians alike) may have outnumbered the locals. We spent a day touring the Sacred Valley visiting various ruins and markets and well as seeing how local textiles are made. My friends enjoyed a number of typical Peruvian dishes including the infamous cuy.

Then it was on to Machu Picchu! We took the easy route which was the train from Cusco to Machu Picchu Pueblo aka Aguas Calientes (Misleading name , the thermal bathes were very disappointing). Aguas Calientes, while beautiful, is almost completely comprised of hotels and expensive tourist restaurants. Although because there are so many those restaurants are very eager to bargain their prices and we happily took advantage of the4 x 1 drink specials.

Due to the protesting and general upheaval in Puno we changed route, vowing to see Lake Titticaca some other time, and made are way to Arequipa for a few days. Day 1 we spent whitewater rafting in ice cold water, day 2 we mountain biked on the base of the local bad ass volcano, El Misti, and day 3 was a tour of the Colca Canyon which is the 2^nd deepest canyon in the world (2^nd to its nearby neighbor Cotahuasi Canyon).

The trip was fantastic and it was so nice to see friends and really hard to say goodbye again. I promise a good time to anyone who dames to make the trip! Now I’m back in site and back to work…well sort of. Its Fiestas Patrias here which is Peruvian Independence day. School begin a short vacation next week and will last 2….maybe 3 weeks, nobody seems to be clear on when vacation will end. Meanwhile I plan to busy myself with library things as we just received a grant which we will use to created a kid friendly reading environment and purchase more books so that we can kick off our afterschool reading programs ASAP. First step is getting the municipal lawyer moved out of his “temporary” (going on 7 months) office which is currently located in our reading room.