Day 04: Hiking Through Peru

After our breakfast of yogurt and cereal (yes, we ate them together, but I promise it’s normal here), we prepared ourselves for a hike with liberal applications of sunscreen and bug spray. Once we were all thoroughly covered from head to toe, we began to make our way over the river and through the woods to a national cemetery located at the original location of Yungay. Over 20,000 bodies are buried there after a major earthquake had decimated the entire town in 1970. Following this Peru declared the area a national cemetery and has since then never excavated it.

-        Danny

Later that day, we went to the town of Caraz. The town is vibrant with colors and la comida es muy bueno. Our first stop was the bakery where we loaded up on tons of pastries and ice cream. Next we explored the market. The market is filled with various smells ranging from the delicious scents of exotic spices to the occasional not as pleasant whiffs of fecal matter. The items being sold were as various as the scents- live guinea pigs (for eating) to hand-woven blankets. It was quite the experience and learning how to haggle with the vendors was interesting; I definitely got swindled a couple times. Jacob and Katherine both bought guinea pigs to eat which we brought back with us to Kusi and ended the day with a nice dinner of fried guinea pig. (I did not eat the guinea pig because they were cruelly stuffed into bags and squealed the entire bus ride back to Kusi- Andrew Bansek enjoyed eating one of the heads and I might not ever forgive him.)

-        - Kellyanna

Later in the afternoon we began our second day of VBS. Today we split in groups, half of the SouthLake students ran VBS and the other half worked on paving sidewalks and continuing to prep for paint work. The VBS was run at Kusi today, which seemed to work much better. We had a turn out between 30 to 35 children, some from the boy’s home and some from the school. The children were much more engaged and were genuinely excited to be there. They participated in our songs and responded to the questions we asked them (something that did not happen when we went to the school to do it). The children were very excited to make their craft today as well, which was a periscope. The children always ask if they are allowed to keep the crafts and initially try to return them to me. However, it’s easy enough to explain in Spanish that it is theirs. 

- Danny