beach or mountains... why choose when you can have both?

(kat´s ramblings)
when thinking about where to go on a honeymoon, luke and i pondered some of our favorite ways to enjoy nature. the beach, a river, the mountains. and now that we are actually on our trip, turns out we haven´t had to choose, but rather have been able to enjoy all of the above! since our arrival to peru, we passed through the less traveled northern parts of peru on our way to the beach. i was having a bit of a sore tummy, so we basically bummed around the beach called Huanchaco for a week. we enjoyed falling asleep to the sounds of crashing waves from the comfort of our tent, drinking lots of mate while marvelling at the beauty of the waves, and eating lots of fresh mangoes (which are currently costing about $1 for 6 or 7 mangoes). we explored some ancient ruins of the Moche people, took our first night bus, and landed in Huaraz, the gateway city to exploring the Cordillera Blanca (some of the tallest mountains in South America). from our base at a lodge way up in the hills, we have been able to be amazed day after day by the stunning, jagged, snow covered peaks poking out from behind the andes. taking walks into valleys and following winding rivers, climbing up ridges to glacial lakes, and enjoying the daily light show that is sunset in the mountains, we have been so blessed to see the creativity of our heavenly father. we are now back in huaraz before heading up north to enjoy more of the cordillera before my mom gets here in one week to enjoy thanksgiving and machu picchu with us!


little fishing boats called caballitos in huanchaco made out of totora reeds

since being in peru a few weeks, we have noticed a few differences from life in ecuador. sure, there are the obvious things like the currency, the increased amount of quechua (an indigenous language spoken by people who live up in the mountains) that is heard, and the food. but there are also some more subtle differences and one of them would have to be the fact that peruvians are always willing to stop whatever they are doing to engage in a conversation with us- to tell us about their country and ask us about ours. i could write for hours about peruvian culture and how we have experienced it, but want to tell you about two different times in which we felt this particular friendliness of peruvians.

1. we had just arrived in the city of trujillo, peru on the coast and were ready to begin our exploration of the city. armed with our dinky map that the lonely planet guide book gives us and barely legible street signs, we headed towards the plaza de armas (the main square). in our wanderings, we landed in a plaza that was full of girls all dressed in school uniforms and a few in elaborate costumes. we realized we must have made a wrong turn and just as we were about to turn around to fix our mistake, luke was being pulled on both arms by pre-teen girls that were guiding him towards what seemed to be a display of sorts. in spanish, all the girls soon crowded around and encouraged the gringo to try a variety of food dishes prepared with camote (sweet potato). they asked us about where we were from and what we eat, and a myriad of other questions, the whole time giggling every time luke would try a new food. after we tried all the dishes, several gals took pictures of us with their group. as we left, we asked them to point us in the correct direction and we walked off, chuckling to ourselves at the novelty of being extranjeros and they were all beside themselves that they have succeeded not only in getting someone to check out their display, but the fact that we were americans to boot!




2. a few days later also in trujillo, we were headed back to the city after exploring some ancient ruins. we landed in the plaza de armas (that we were looking for a few days before) and decided to sit and enjoy some terere to kill time because the power was out in the whole city, meaning that we would not be able to get money from any ATM (a few restaurants had generators, but not the banks. go figure) the power was supposed to come back on at five (or at least we were told that by everyone we asked), so we just chilled and people watched. soon enough, a japanese man we had met on our tour of the ruins showed up and we started chatting with him. he generously shared some tomatoes with us that he had just got from some farmers and before we knew it, there were three children who timidly came up and started questioning us about why we were eating tomatoes plain, and not with anything else. these simple questions led to more and more and before i knew it, i was busy talking to these children about any and everything that has to do with life in the US. boy, was i thankful to have a little photo book of our life to share with them! distracted as i was by these children, i didn´t even notice the crowd begin to gather around luke. soon, there were 15-20 adults talking to him! (imagine that we are literally just sitting on the curb and everyone else is standing up around us). luke starts showing our postcard book of oregon, and explaining the guampa and bombilla for mate, our buckets, and anything else that pops into these curious people´s minds. an hour passes. SEVERAL people wander over and ask ¨¿que venden aqui?¨ (what are you selling?) we just had to laugh. we were selling nothing, but rather just sharing about us and our lives and that was enough to entertain people who chose to listen to us on a sunday afternoon in the plaza. we finally excused ourselves, not wanting the crowd to grow any bigger.


from both of those experiences, we learned to always take a genuine interest in the lives of the people we come across, although it´s something that we´re still working on and will be for awhile. we also learned that everytime we get ¨lost¨, we end up finding something that is much more memorable than what we set out to find in the first place!

as each day comes and goes, we cannot help but be incredibly grateful for all of our friends and families that gave us the gift of this trip. we are having ordinary and extraordinary experiences daily that are allowing us to experience a new place, practice our spanish and grow our love for the latin american culture, and get to know each other more and more, while learning how we work together and can grow as a couple. for that, we say MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS! we think of you all often.