This weekend was full of experiences, and I couldn't wait to share them! So, I decided to have another blog post if you would like to read it!
Maeve and I headed with the family to Chiclayo for the weekend! Our host dad had a conference for the school we are student teaching at, so we got to tag along! We LOVED it because we got to hang out with the family, meet extended family, and also discovered a new city in Peru. Here's us on the top of the school with the city of Chiclayo behind us:
Chiclayo is the "ciudad de amistad" or "city of friendship" and we definitely felt that while we were there! Everyone we met through the school, the restaurants, and our hotel was so nice!
My personal favorite part was the "Plaza de Armas" which is the park that is central to the city. It has the park area for people to rest and catch up with friends and is also home to street performers and vendors. (A group of street performers came up to us and gave us their business card, *Mo and Uncle Michael it reminded me of something you would do..haha)
Next to the "plaza de armas" there is also the cathedral for the city. Chiclayo's cathedral was HUGE and my host dad said that they modeled it after a cathedral in France. Wow. How connected the world is. The part that I thought was the coolest was I learned every city in Peru has their own "plaza de armas" with their own cathedral. Muy. Cool. Here's some photos of my adventures in the "Plaza de Armas."
* Above * Me cheesing with a KingKong bar which are only made in the Lambayeque region of Peru. It was so sweet!
* The cathedral
*Plaza de Armas
Chiclayo is also home to good seafood, as it is near the coastline. After visiting Pimentel beach (and getting flocked by seagulls because some guy was throwing fish guts everywhere to attract them...what.), we went and ate some fresh ceviche. I ordered the "ceviche mixto" which was different types of seafood all put together and it is now my favorite food...nbd. Here's a photo:
Too bad..I guess I'll have to return here to eat it again ;).
On Saturday we got to visit the "Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán" which was a museum of Sipans royal tombs. Here we learned about the ancient civilizations found in the Lambayeque region of Peru and got to see amazingly preserved artifacts from the time period which was 50-700AD. Maeve and I were blown away by the preservations of the gold, silver, and all the pots and pans that were made. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos inside, so I cannot show you that. But, the most interesting thing I learned was that when Sipan died, they buried his body with 6 sacrificed people and 1 dog. Oh. Que triste...?
Even though that part was a bit sad, I was proud of myself because we had a guided tour...all in Spanish, and I understood everything! It's been about a month here and I really feel as though my Spanish has improved and this experience definitely proved that! Here's a photo of the museum and then Maeve and I hamming it up!
Yes. This last photo is me with my broken flip-flop. You know, I wish there was some story to go along with how my shoe broke in the middle of a city after a museum tour. But, no. In Lauren's life, things just happen. So...yes, I had to take a taxi with a broken shoe, yes I had to go to lunch with a broken shoe, and yes my family laughed at me. Once again, expect nothing less!
You're also probably wondering how the title of this blog post applies. Well, during this trip, our host uncle started singing a song and it was about a blonde girl on an airplane. And yes. In the whole city of Chiclayo, that only applied to me. So, on our way back Saturday night, Maeve, our host uncle, and I enjoyed riding the airplane listening to the song "with a blonde in the airplane" because it was so applicable...hahaha! Also, we got to walk on the runway to the plane! So of course we captured the moment:
Sunday was a day for the books!!
We got up at 5am (shocking for me after a late night getting back) and drove to Lunahuana for the day! This town is about 2 hours south of Lima and is home to many outdoor adventures! So, for the first time in my life I went white-water rafting!! It was AMAZING and I was beaming the whole time! Here's a photo of our group:
*Shoutout to Grammy and Umpa, I know you did not enjoy your white-water rafting experience. However at a 2/5 scale I would recommend this to anyone! And no worries, I survived! Our guide was really cool and I enjoyed using my Spanish to talk to him! I also choked back tears of happiness while riding on the water between the mountains. I know I'm a lot....lo siento.
After the rafting, we had the option of hiking up a bit of the mountains to a viewpoint. Some of the people did not want to do the walk, but I was ALL OVER IT. Also, I was wearing cheap shoes from Charlotte Russe but of course I could not pass up the opportunity! I mean, look at this view:
Yes, this is a candid of the wind taking my hat! But no worries, I captured it and neither one of us fell down the mountain..success!
If you look at the pictures, you can also tell that my shoes are super dirty and ruined. So I lost 2 pairs of shoes in 2 days, but hey that's an excuse to buy more, right? Sorry friends... :P
As the tour continued, we also got to go to Wine, Pisco, and Honey tastings! If you don't know, Pisco is a liquor made in south America. I find it funny because both Chile and Peru take credit for inventing it first. However, as our lovely guides tell us, it was definitely Peru back in 1543! (*sorry, Kelly). We got to see how the wine and pisco was made and got to try some too! It was so fun to go on these adventures with our group and learn more about Peru along the way.
*One of my favorite photos from the day!
Another experience that I want to share was as we were going through the town, we found an opportunity to ride horses! In the town, there were opportunities for adventures to view the town on horseback. Maeve has been wanting to ride horses for awhile and I was kind of on the fence. However, the adventure part of me said yes and off we went! *Shoutout to Kath, those horseback riding lessons we took when we were like 10 and 8 really came in handy here!
This young boy was in charge of the horse I rode and he was so nice to me while we were walking. We had little conversations and I learned about his horse, but the funniest part was he started quizzing me on my spanish! He started asking me what different colors were in spanish and was happy when I got them all correct. Mind you, it was probably the easiest spanish test I had ever taken! But he was happy, I was happy, and agreed to take this photo with me afterwards!
After this trip, we took the car back to Lima. All 8 of us full of smiles and memories, and Lauren's legs full of bug bites....lol. *Shoutout to the Bingo Bunch for the anti-itch cream. As I've been saying, I love South America, but I am not sure if it likes me...hahaha. First the sun, now the bug bites...what's next?
I've said this a couple times, but I really love my host family here. We got to spend so much time with them this weekend in Chiclayo and my host dad's daughter was on the trip with us to Lunahuana. I really feel loved, welcomed, and at home! <3
Stay tuned for more upcoming adventures!
Lauren :)