More...

I've started publishing fun stuff on LAFL's blog. Here's a piece on Ayacucho. A couple more shots I grabbed from Kevin's flickr page. H'es been doing an excellent job of documenting my experiences. I'm not sure what I'm going to do without him. Check it out.

Here I am with my main man, Chino in the Casa.


A little juggling action in Cusco for old times sake.

La Ciudad de Los Reyes

After a week of being stuck in Cusco because of severe landslides and flooding, I finally made it safely to Lima (via Arequipa). Here's a shot of Plaza de Armas, Cusco during one of those fleeting moments of morale-boosting sunshine.


It's hard to believe we are almost into the third month of the year! Ayacucho feels like last week, and Guinea feels like a month ago. I don't even know what season it is. This has been the weirdest year for seasons, I can't even explain it. Spring is coming soon at home, and here, well, I'm not really sure.

One year ago this time, I was celebrating the completion of my Peace Corps medical application and about to begin the invitation waiting game. If things hadn't ended up the way they did in Guinea, I'd be well into my first year of teaching math to Guinean high school students. Lima is hot, but that's definitely all it has in common with Yende Milimou.

I just finished my third week of work at my new job. It's pretty easy learning how to sell travel destinations to people. I never really need much convincing to visit a new place, and neither do a lot of people it seems. I write probably a few thousand words a day, describing beautiful places and cultures.

I live at the South American Explorers Clubhouse, in downtown Miraflores. It's quiet, the other boarders are all interesting, and there are lots of books. We welcomed in the Chinese New Year with a grand feast.


¡Feliz Año del Tigre! According to my Chinese roommates this means I'm going to eat well all year, which sounds good to me. Also, I've been learning a lot about what it means that I'm a product of the Year of the Rat. Rats are ugly, and I'm terribly afraid of them so I'm not sure how that fits in but it certainly explains why I love cheese so much. I really do love cheese a lot.

I can take a fifteen minute bus ride to get to work, but a lot of the times I try to walk which takes around 45 minutes. It's an especially nice walk in the evening. The sunset here is pretty spectacular, and when there's a decent moon the smoggy skies sort of glow pinkish-orange throughout the entire night.

I've got free time but it disappears pretty quickly between books and studying and cooking. I've also been practicing a lot on my sweet Peru guitar.



Next weekend I'm moving into my new home 10 minutes down the road. I'm excited to have a comfortable place to call home for a good long period of time.

Ok, I've just thrown in a bunch of pictures now; these will hopefully tide my mom over for a while.

Here's a picture from New Year's. I can't think of a more spectacular place to have brought in 2010 than from the Mirador in Ayacucho, overlooking the whole city!


Here are some pics from Wayna Picchu. I wasn't in the soup the whole time; it was actually really spectacular the way the clouds moved in and out.


I think Kevin would be proud of this next one. Maybe I'll see what TIME magazine thinks ;)



Right when I entered Machu Picchu it was raining hard enough for me to bring out my poncho. That 2 dollar pink poncho saved my tush from getting soaked throughout my whole vacation.



There were supposed to be more pictures, I was uploading them, left for a hockey game at the local Western World bar, America beat Canada! and now I don't have time to figure out why my pictures didn't upload. Sweet dreams of American Hockey fairies dancing in Canadian heads :)

¡Cuidate!