In the AZ...

Sneak peeks of Argentina trip...

After my tenure in Peru was up I toured around South America with some PCV buddies.. Unfortunately, I was dumb and accidentally left my digital camera in Lima so I just got the photos from my friends and hence, will be sharing them shortly. Here are a few enticing photos to get you excited.. :)

What could it be? An advancing glacier? Hmm... stay tuned!

Indiana Jones fell down these falls in his latest movie.. but I was content with our boat ride into the splashing mist...

Went to a tropical animal rescue center. Oooh, toucans.

Departing photos from my last week at site...

Last night in San Marcos w some chocolate, some panetón, and some good company!

Sittin' on a hilltop w my host-sis.

What do you think.. Do I need a little visit from Stacy London and Clinton Kelly?

Last visit to the orphanage with the kiddies...

I'm going to miss this so much!!!

Farewell to San Marcos (sniff..)

The only picture I finally managed to take with my host - family. I made them all stand up and gather in the kitchen. Notice the Inca Kola on the table.

My amazing friend Ruth is taking a weaving class. She is good, no? She wove a purse for me for my farewell gift.. So cute.. :)

There's my favorite host-sister.. getting way more fun out of my hammock then I ever did.

Brand New Chavin Museum! :)

I finally made it to the Chavin museum! I was at this event in July when the museum was inaugurated by the president of Peru, Alan Garcia. Unfortunately, I didn't have a special invitation so I had to hang out behind police lines with my visiting friends Stephanie and Meghan (see July blogs..) Anyway, they hadn't decided on a price to charge yet in November so it was still free.. (yay!) I didn't know this so when no one was at the entrance I snuck in spy style and hid behind walls for a while. I hope there were security cameras because it was a good show...

A model of the Chavin ruins.

One of the "Cabeza Clavas" (Nailed Heads). The heads represent the transformation from a human head to an animal head.

I don't know the story behind this guy but he has a funny face.

The famous condor. Most of the Chavin culture relics are separate from the ruins because people would take them or break them off from their original places. Luckily, many of the people with relics didn't move far away and many were donated to the Chavin monument.

A carved shell. (Where did they get a shell? They were in the mountains... Whoa....)

Farewell to the Health Post

In my last week in San Marcos, I gave my final powerpoint presentation (yes, I had to write two formal letters to call the meeting and to request the projector... I accidently requested a "multi-uso" instead of a "multi-media" but they let it slide... basically I requested silverware drawer instead of the computer projector..)

Just a few weeks ago I had done a presentation with my fellow two volunteers but in this one I was flying solo... the lone Conchucos volunteer.. :(

But, now there is a super team of three on the prowl in Conchucos... Yay Peru 12!

Halloween

Celebrating Halloween.. EEUU style:

Team Sport Ancash is the local soccor team of Ancash. Go team!

Newbies come to Musho

In October of 2008, four Peru 12ers came to the Callejon de Huaylas... Three of them ended up with sites in the Conchucos. (That's where I was!) :)

Doing house visits in Musho. Most of the time in a house visit day is actually spent hiking from house to house. As you can see, they're not close together. :)

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Movistar Tower

Ok, the hill I climbed that overlooks San Marcos is called Shayhua but I call it the Movistar tower hill. The crosses were the main attraction until, through much protest, the cell phone tower moved in with it's spotty service, despite being in a pretty much perfect location for the village. Here are some photos I took from my two hour adventure.. Views of town, the potatoes growing on a nearby farm.. It's pretty much self-explanatory.

Doctor House Call

After almost TWO years and much "reminding," Dr. Jorge finally made a visit to Conchucos.. He had NEVER been here! Volunteers had been in the area for at least four years. During that time there had been up to four volunteers in the area but I got him to visit me even though at that point I was the only one in my little valley.

Did I feel special?

Yep! :)

One last hike..

Well, you know I had to do it... One last hike before I left my beloved Ancash. For the last year I had talked to my San Marquino friends about going to Rahupampa, meadow of snow-capped peaks, at the end of Carhuazcancha. (Avid blog readers will remember that Carhuazcancha was the site of a 19 hour hike in 2007!) Well, Rahupampa was not quite as intense (only about 14 hours) but still not for the faint of heart. :)
We started this mess at 1am in the morning. This time we drove to a town called Acopara and started the hike from there. About 9am we reached the park limits... Oddly enough, no park rangers at this isolated entry point.

We stopped for meals at the various huts that we passed along the way. My friends who were from here always knew who each hut belonged to... Although this was inside a national park and very isolated in general, many farmers let their cows or horses wander in this valley and sometimes daily make the hike to check on them. It took them a lot less time than it took us to make the same hike..

We were looking for snow capped peaks but the regular mountains were still a sight to see...

As we turned the corner, I was a little worried. We were making this last minute hike during the beginning of rainy season and clouds are a big part of, well, rain. I wasn't sure if we would see those mountain peaks after all our hard work!

But, it turns out we had nothing to worry about! At least for a while.. :)

We finally made it to the glacial lake. This lake is called Maparaju lake and lies at the base of .... (wait for it)..... Maparaju.

Then we hiked over to another lake before making our descent back to civilization and a nice, icy shower!

This stream is the beginning of a river called Yurayacu or Whitewater. The water that flows from the glaciers and the sediment that it contains gives it this white-blue-ish hue.

One last waterfall before hitting the road!

We got to the town where the car was parked around 4pm. We left around 6pm because the driver wanted to play in a volleyball game so we sat around and waited for him to finish. Because, really, who wants to walk another two hours when you could sit two hours and catch a ride?

The Next Wave of PCV's

Well, after many comments of, "Why did you stop you're blog?" and "Every time I look at your blog I just see that silly picture of a darkroom." I've finally come around to continuing on my delightful blog.. First though, many things have happened these last few months, including my return to the United States of America! Hence, I'm going to back track a little (or rather, a lot) to share my last few months at site.

"Take a picture of ME!!"

Before I left my site, I had to clear the way for some new, wonderful, volunteers to pick up where and and other volunteers had left off in the Callejón de Conchucos. Since there wasn't any "management" from Peace Corps in Ancash, each volunteer had to develop the new sites that were close to them. I developed three sites over on my site of the valley. Above is a picture of one of the potential host-brothers in the families that I was interviewing.

And here is one of the potential host-moms!

Artichokes!

In the sierra of Peru, there are many farmers who grow the six month crop of artichokes to sell for export. Unfortunately, por falta de costumbre, nobody eats them.. In fact, the only artichokes I ever saw in my house got moldy and were thrown out. When I asked about why we didn't eat them I was told, "Oh, did you know how to?"

The beautiful view of one of the new volunteer's sites!

Two of the new sites are a little more "rustic" than my metropolitan San Marcos. Lots of walking involved! The view is better too, as shown above, so I like to think it evens out..

On a side note, for those of you who have fallen in love with my little village in Peru, continue getting a slice of the Peruvian side of life with my replacement's blog:

http://myheartandsol.blogspot.com/

Or another volunteer who lives just down the road (I developed his site before I left) in Conchucos Valley:

http://tylerspeaceofperu.wordpress.com/