Pictures!

Check out the first round of pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/meghan.magennis/AndesAmazon

Guinea pig for breakfast

Finally, it was time to head back east to the Andean town of Tarma.

Our lunch (or more correctly breakfast, because we ate at 10 am) was cooked in an underground oven called a Pachamanca, which comes from the quechua words pacha (earth) and manca (food). In this underground oven, they layered pork, cuy (guinea pig), yellow potatoes, white potatoes, humitas (tamales) and havas (huge lima beans) on top of hot rocks and then covered the hole with herbs and leaves. It was delicious!

Our last stop on our whirlwind journey was to the Stone Forest in the province of Huayllay. As you can see in my pictures, the stones are amazing. Their shape reminded me of a cross between Joshua Tree and Bryce Canyon. We took a small hike, making sure to go slowly because we were at such high altitude. At 5000M, I got out of breath going up the smallest hills!

That pretty much concludes happenings of our class trip. We certainly have been through a lot of excitement in our first week in Peru!

Thank you to all of you who expressed your concerns about the earthquake. The situation in the South is still quite terrible, and if you have the opportunity to donate to any organization that is providing aid in this crisis, I'm sure your efforts will not go underappreciated.

Keep checking in! Now that classes have started, I expect my entries to be shorter and less regular. Love you!

Barges, not bridges

From the school in Pichanaqui, we traveled another hour east to reach the jungle town of Satipo. Both Pichinaqui and Satipo are unique because they are very new towns; they sprouted around a road that was built only 20 years ago. In these new towns, there is an interesting clash between modern and primitive elements. For example, we were excited to find abundant internet cafes in the main square in Satipo, we used a rustic barge rather than a bridge to cross the river about a mile down the road.

In Satipo, we ate lunch in a reed-roofed restaurant that served typical "jungle food." We tried yuca (a starchy root that tastes somewhat like a potato), platanos fritos (fried sweet bananas), doncella (a river fish), majaz (a dark meat that some locals say is the best meat in the world-- I beg to differ), and cocona (a sweet, yellow fruit that is native to the area).

After our feast, we visited a local farm that prinicpally harvests oranges, bananas, and mahogany. The best part was getting there! There is no bridge to cross the river, so the bus dropped us off near the river's edge. Once we crossed the Rio Perene by barge, the farm was still a two-hour walk on foot. So, we gave a local some soles (money) and piled 15 people into the back of a rusty Toyota pick-up truck. I can say with confidence that it is the first time that I hitch-hiked with my professor!

When our visit was over, we enjoyed a more spacious, but more bumpy, ride back to the river on the bed of a tractor trailor. At a 15-mile-per-hour pace, it took us about 40 minutes to reach the edge of the river. To our dismay, the barge was stationed further down the river. So, we turned around, retraced the road where we came from, and took another one down. Then we had to beep the horn until the boat operaters woke up, and we were finally able to cross. In this case, it was very evident that this small jungle town of Satipo is still very far from modernity.

Earthquakes and Landslides

Before a delicious lunch of ceviche (a traditional Peruvian seafood dish) we watched the waves crash into the coast while Professor Secada pionted to a building where he used to teach. He went on to tell us that, in 1974, the building collapsed from an earthquake. It had been 30 years, he said, since Lima had been shaken that badly.

About four hours later, I was waiting for the rest of the group in a cafe when the ground began to shake! The irony of this situation is that I probably would not have known what was happening if we had not been talking about earthquakes earlier that afternoon! It was a surreal experience-- buildings were swaying and cars were moving back and forth. We found out later that the earthquake was rated at 7.5 and that it lasted for over 2 minutes. Luckily, Lima suffered very little damage, and all of the students from UVA are fine. The southern provinces of Ica and Pisco suffered most of the damage with almost 300 deaths.

The following morning, UVA in Peru departed for a field trip to the high sierras and the amazon. It took us 17 hours to drive a distance that normally takes 5 hours. There was a landslide caused by the earthquake that blocked the only road that leads east from Lima. But, when we arrived in Tarma, a small villiage in the mountains, were received with a delicious dinner of Andean bread and Asparagus soup at 2:30 am. The hotel that we stayed at was constructed in 1730, and it was beatifully decorated with flowers, including the rosa verde, or green rose.

Today, we traveled further east to the Amazon and visited a small town called Pichanaqui. We visited with the social director of the school there, and she explained that one of the biggest problems for the school is lack of family structure. Many parents are farmers who rent a room in the city for their children, give them money and then abandon them to return to the fields. As you can imagine, this leads to serious problems with malnutrition, hygene, sexual abuse, and drug problems. After our discussion, we chatted with some of the children and took pictures. Some of the kids thought that we were celebrities, and tried to get our autographs!!

More to come... I love you and miss you.

Stop signs are just a suggestion

For the first couple of days, Paco and Jorge took care of our transportation through this large city. Finally, it came time to prove my first step towards independence: riding the micro, or the city bus, to the Universidad Catolica. Although Catolica is only about six blocks away, it is an adventure every time. Even though there are bus stops, you have to flag the bust down. The bus has not even stopped by the time you have asked him where it is going, and it is already moving again the moment your feet get off the ground. Once you are on the bus, it battles for the quickest lane and the quickest route. Lane-lines, padestrian crosswalks, and stop signs are clearly just a suggestion.

PERU 101: Intro to Peru

Greetings from Lima! I hope this post finds you well. I especially hope that Papa, who just had surgery, is recovering quickly.

On Saturday, Aug. 13th, at 2:30 am-- an hour before most college students have even gone to sleep-- all of the students in the UVA in Peru program met in the Miami airport at 2:30 am-- ready to embark on our journey. There are seven UVA students in the fall semester program, which is an intimate group compared to the 45 students who came for the summer term. Everyone is enthusiastic, so I think it is going to be a great semester.

After an exhausting flight next to a hyper but adorable two-year-old, we arrived in Lima. We were greeted by the two program directors, Jorge Secada and Paco Tumi. I will introduce them quickly, becuase I am sure that I will refer to them many times in this blog.

Jorge Secada: Professor Secada was born in Peru, but he spent many years in the U.S. getting his Ph.D. He is a philosophy professor at UVA, and he founded the UVA in Peru program and organizes all of our excursions.

Paco (Francisco) Tumi: Paco is a professor at a Peruvian university in Lima, and he is working with our program as the second program director. He has been a fantastic guide around Lima.

Both leaders have mirrored the exceptional nature of this program. They are always available to answer any questions, and they have been hypothetically holding our hands until we get comfortable in this country.

My host parents are Carlos and Graciela de Castro, whose children are married with children. Now, they have three rooms which they give to me, Suzie (another UVA student) and another student from Cuzco. This couple, as well as their neighbors, has been hosting exchange students for over 7 years-- they know what they are doing, and the transition has been pleasant and smooth. So far, the food (strawberries with cream!) and accomodations have been outstanding.

You can write to me at mem8sp@virginia.edu to get my contact information. The program also provided us with cell phones, which is especially convenient.

Off to Peru!

I'll post some pictures and stories from my study abroad in Lima, Peru here. Check in when you can!