Parents, cameras, and other things..

Wow, there have been some whirlwind weeks happening since I last updated my blog. It's like the snowball effect, there has been so much going on that I don't even know what to say about it and then, well, more stuff happens and the problem gets worse.. :)

Anyway, I'll start at the beginning, gloss over the middle, and go to the end. Good? :) I went to pick up my parents from Lima on Saturday, the 29th of April by taking the very respectable CRUZ DEL SUR bus line. It know now that they are not so respectable because when I gave my suitcase to them to hold for the three hours before departure time, they opened my bag and stole my digital camera! Aaaah! Why am I paying so much for bus tickets if they're going to steal my stuff? Urgh.. It's been an interesting process since then filled with lots of arguing and police reports, a bit drawn out because, well, I had to leave on the bus anyway (which, I'm sure, makes stealing from bus passengers all the more fruitful.) Anyway, warning to all tourists, Peace Corps volunteers, wayward travelers, nationals, anyone taking the bus: LOCK your luggage going under the bus and I would like to recommend MOVIL TOURS, ITTSA, LINEA, SOYUZ, for your busing needs and NOT Cruz Del Sur!

Ok, just wanted to say that. Anyway, glossing over now commences as I am not going to get in the interesting and fascinating adventures of my hard core parents. I'm waiting for the pictures to come to illustrate my fantastic tales and perhaps literary input from my mom who was taking gripping notes the entire vacation. :)

And thus, I end my tale with a return trip to Lima to drop off the folks. There are two bus stops in Lima and one is rather close to the airport. So, I was trying to be clever and got my parents to get off at the first one so that they could get a cheaper ride to their flight. I was worried because they don't have much Spanish so when the bus stop came, I ran off the bus and talked to the ladies working at the station to find an authorized taxi driver to the airport. Sigh. Well, it kinda worked.... But as the bus pulled out of the station I looked out of the window to see my parents looking confused talking to a not so authorized looking taxi driver with sad and annoyed looks on their faces. Aaaah! Commence freaking out here. I was so worried they wouldn't make it to the airport or that something would happen to them!

THEN, the little stinkers didn't call me until two and a half hours later! (If I were their parents, I'd ground them) because they decided to eat dinner before calling. Aaah! Letting me think I had stranded them in scary Lima... not very nice indeed.

Well, in Lima, I had a fun and interesting time. I thought I would be seeing the dermatologist about cyst that wasn't a big deal and just thought it would be a good use of time and medical care while in Lima. However, the silly thing got infected during fun parent time whereupon I looked like a duck, complete with large beak, but no tail feathers... (Don’t worry, pictures to come!)

Goodness, I thought my face was going to explode and made sad calls to the doctor about once a day during the last week of the trip but finally at my appointment in Lima I was informed of the diagnosis. I had an abscess because it had gotten infected and they were taking the whole thing out!

Mind you, this is all on my face and after one dermatologist said, "It will be easy, you're very white so you won't scar." I began to have nightmares of crazy slash marks and Peruvian doctors saying to me, "That's weird, I thought white people didn't scar..."

So, after explaining my sad thoughts and stress, I shall tell you of the quite nice outcome. No scarring 'cause they went under my lip/nose skin (whatever that's called) and pulled out a nasty little piece o' adipose tissue and Amanda is now healthy with only a slightly numb lip a few days later and back kickin' it in Ancash. Yay!

Alright, I'm not done yet, you can take a break and get a pop if this is getting to be too long of a blog (may I recommend a nice, cold Inca Kola?) :) I had to stay in Huaraz for the regional meeting on Saturday (each month the Ancash volunteers get together for business and other related matters) and we decided to have it at Churup Lake. (Only in Ancash is this feasible and quite frankly, done on a regular basis...) Churup Lake is a two hour hike from the trailhead (located in the middle of nowhere) to a lake formed by the mountain Churup in between the Valleys of Cojup and Quilcayhuanca (just in case you wanted to find it on a map..) :) It was absolutely stunning and quite the locale for a business meeting. Next week, the plan is an over night camping trip / regional meeting. (What? We have a lot of business to discuss!!)

Camera issues have undermined my awesome uploading of photos for all to see but I will utilize this interesting invention called the INTERNET and show you the splendor that is Churup...

Things for hanging in there 'til the end!

More consistent blogging coming soon! Shorter entries! Yay! :)