Just a border town

MoNiOf course I came down with a fever right when my friend was coming. The same thing happend with uncle osh when he came here I got sick half way through. Being sick sucks in general and it sucks 2 or 3 times more when you are travelling. Sharing dorms, not having your own space, someone yelling at you that its time to check out etc etc. And when you travel you don't want to be sick and lay around all day in a hostal, the point of travelling is to explore and see things so you must be in shape to do just that.

I was on the road to recovery and figured I  would rather suck it up and take advantage of my big weekend id been waiting for then to get better quicker but be stuck in my "standard" Arequipa life.

We hopped on the bus and were on the road, one of the places I now feel most comfortable and excited. 7 hrs later entering the dry Atacama desert we were in Arica, Chile (not Africa).

Funny/annoying side note the buses are always stopping here for people to get on to sell things, those minutes stack up and its quite annoying for the passengers, or at least the gringo ones. When your travelling on local buses and constantly stopping it worries you. Why your stopping where you are etc. Also you see entertaining things. Moms feeding babies fantasize from babymilk bottles. We decided if your not old enough to drink from the actual bottle you probably shouldn't be drinking soda to begin with. Soda here is Soooooo popular. You have to buy water bc you can't drink from the tap (maybe some people do) but soda is cheaper than water. So the obvious choice for these people is soda, more flavor, sugar, etc. All the good stuff. But surprisingly peoples teeth aren't rotting out of their heads. As im the one with soft teeth gripping my San Luis 2.5L water bottle tightly. Jokes on me? Well they prbly don't spend their money watching over their teeth. Also on the bus they play movies dubbed in spanish that are never became popular or have famous actors.  Did I mention they were dubbed and blasting throughout the bus?

We heard before that Arica was "just a border town" whatever the hell that means. We had no clue how to interpret it but we later made our own interpretation of that phrase. We stayed at a great hostal that I would recommend all stay at named Arica Unite. Owned by a French couple it sits 5 minutes walking distance from surfing or swimming with sea turtles, or a combination of the 2! Every morning they make you a surprise breakfast, as long as you wake up between 8:30-10. The first day was crepes. Second day pancakes. Third day waffles! All variations! They were delicious and came with a French artsy fruit platter. We explored the beaches during the day. A beach is a beach but what takes it to the next level? Tranquility or activities? From me its activities. And there were plenty of these. Surfing along the entire beaxh with great breaks and small to large waves. It was a pick what you want type of wave buffet. There was a little rock climbing wall on the beach,  zip line, beach soccer, paddle sports and swimmers. In the mornings if you woke up early enough and were lucky enough you could catch the sea lions, even surf with them. Throughout the day but more populated at dusk you could swim with the sea turtles and these sea turtles are enormous! The water isn't clear enough to see to the bottom but they are so curious that they pop there heads up like a submarine telescope. The whole time I was feeling like I was 8 years old at the grove looking at the impressive turtles. This was my childhood dream and I was swimming next to them! It was fantastic!

TBC!  Delay due to sleep!

Continue...

In our hostal a legend was living. We heard about him on the internet before leaving for the trip. His name, Yoyo. The surf bum of the town. But he's not a bum he's a schemer. He owns his own surf company where he takes you surfing and hangs out with you. Cooks for you, shows you the local spots etc. It was like paying for a friend and to me it seemed like an amazing job. Foreigners coming all the time who are happy bc they are travelling. Teaching them to surf and showing them around the cool spots, which there are a lot of. He is a 5th dimensional being. One of those people who is with you for one second and the next they are no where to be found only to reappear when you least expect it with a crazy story of where he's been or a past experience and then boom, gone again.

The next day we rented scooters and cruised to all the cool spots. I felt like I was in Asia again riding around on little quick motor bikes in a foreigner country with no traffic rules and crazy drivers. It was my first time driving since September so I made sure to take it easy bc the cement didn't look too soft! We went and explored caves outside the city. The caves were cool but the best part was the little empanada shack on the beach right next door. What I remember from Chile before was the seafood empanadas and this only made these feelings stronger. A shack with plastic chairs and palapas right in the sand close enough to the water to feel the impressive waves crash onto the rocks. Here we had seafood empanadas filled with crab, shrimp, fish and cheese. When they came out it looked like he was serving us a full on entree it was so massive! The dough by itself was so tasty let alone the fresh mariscos surrounded by delicious hot melty cheese. Hands down best empanadas of my life. So good we tried to order another but it was the last of the ingredients until the boats came back in the afternoon. One of those things that was better that way. 2 might have been too much.  But 1 was too perfect.

After cruising around to various spots such as world surfing tour spots and big Jesus's on top of hills we went to a hummingbird park our hostal owner told us about. How the hell is there a hummingbird park in the middle of this incredibly dry desert without any trees or flowers or water!?!?!? As we got outside of town, which isn't easy in south American traffic, it began to feel like israel. Dry desert with rows and rows and rows of olive trees in a fertile valley. It was amazing! After missing a turnoff, which doesn't matter when your in another country on scooters bc its all about the exploration, we found the hummingbird park down a narrow dusty road. Was this place where I felt Ken Kesey lived in at one point. In the middle of this desert that's rainfall is 0.08mm/year are all these amazing flowers and trees and cactuses where. I mean flowers in colors id never seen before in shapes I didn't know existed. Hummingbirds flying all over the place making you feel like your the weird one. Around small pathway corners were couches and around other corners were antique furniture and old record players and soda bottles. Around the next bend was the Shaqtus, the size of the Sears tower, in the cactus world. Wow was this place crazier and crazier what was going to pop out of the next corner?
Exotic birds is what. All kinds of colorful birds of all sizes, unfortunately in cages though. We crossed to the other side to find peacocks, chickens and ducks (go ducks!). This whole crazy time all we could think about was what kind of people lived in this place? People from where? What did they look like? Their backgrounds? Why they have this etc etc.

As we were leaving we saw an old women and and old man, could it be theirs? They seemed so normal t o have a place like this. Not Eugene, Oregon enough!

Overall, border towns are awesome if that's what they are all like!

P.S. first day there, went to a kind of sketch bar mid afternoon for a brew and ended up staying there for 5 hrs with a group of Chileans we met. Talking in Spanish and having a hell of a time. Turns out thwy are all the street vendors that sell things illegally on the street. They wanted me to carry things (toys, watches, etc) not drugs, across the border for them and work for them in Peru. This is what we discover a border town was. Schemers who find cheap things in yiur country and bring it to the one over. Entrepreneurs of the black market. But great ppl. The $ sounds good. Im thinking about it!

Love you!

Imagine me!

Finding your community

NuWhat is community? How do you become a part of it? By choice? By acceptance? By hobbies? Work? Friends? Random selection?

Finding your community is important for success and happiness. But how do we find those people who share mutual interests when you are in a new environment?

You talk to people, you ask questions, you read signs, you stop people who are wearing t-shirts or riding a bike, playing an instrument or kicking a soccer ball. You search. We all have interests and believe it or not your not alone. Everywhere you go to you can find somebody who shares the same interest, passions and hobbies. Even if it's in a different language or in a different contezt. Maybe you play on concrete instead of grass, play at night instead of the day or have to rent space versus using your own basement. Whatever the differences are the activities are more or less the same.

I finally found my soccer community after searching for a long time. I've been handing out my number asking everyone I meet and trying to send out all my signals and finally I got one back! This process sometimes all falls into place in one day or sometimes you have to keep trying to weeks. But its important to be persistent not get donw on yourself and most importantly never give up.

Find your community. Spend your free time doing things you enjoy. But very importantly try things you've never tried before. Meet people with different hobbies and try there's. Ask them if you can tag along. Because it could end up being your new hobby.

Also importantly be the person to invite people to do your hobbies with you if they've never done it before. Make people step outside of there normal hobbies and give yours a go. Don't just take, make sure to give as well.

Playing soccer at midnight under the moon and the lights only hearing our own footsteps hitting the concrete and the street dogs barking were the noises of me finding my soccer community here in Arequipa.  Splitting a celebratory coca cola afterwards between the 12 of us with only 3 Dixie cups being passes around was the cherry on top. As the time ticked and I knew I had to be up in a few hours to teach I said eff it. You have to risk it to st the biscuit!

Try new things, your never to old to start something new, because your ALIVE! Act like it!

Casa Chapi, Chivay

Wow! I'm sorry it took me this long to write about this magical weekend in Chivay, 3 hrs outside Arequipa in the Colca valley. Teaching Monday-Saturday made me hesitant to go and teach on Sunday. However, I knew that whatever I would be doing in Arequipa wouldn't equate to what I would be doing in Chivay (or so I thought). The weekend was free also, as they paid for our Ida y vuelta and they gave us a bed under a thatched roof in the mountains with Alpaca blankets to keep us warm and food to keep our bellies full. Warm Andean grain drink and alpaca meat is the norm in those parts and both make you feel like your in the Andes. Go where the locals go, do what the locals do and eat what the locals eat!

Arriving Saturday evening, a little consado from the long bus ride over and some sleepless nights trying to balance partying and waking up early (hint, they don't really balance) we arrived at casa chapi. The car illuminating the house as we entered was the sign the chickens needed to run out of the coop. It was a struggle to put my foot on the ground as I was afraid I would step on a kid there were so many! Instant love as every kid covered us in hugs and kisses. Smiles, laughs and love were all that was in the air as we ran around and got to know each other.

After playing with the kids and eating dinner the kids were off to bed and the teachers were off to star gaze. The stars and moon lit the sky as if it was full of diamonds, Lucy! One of the clearest sky's I had ever seen, with views of the milky way stretching overhead and star patterns that were clearly constellations, we just didn't know which ones. As we gazed in the unknown with curiosity, we swang on the swing set like little kids!

After such a warm greeting I didn't know they could get even better! We just had a blast all day long. They called me tio Mac (uncle Mac). I had my sunglasses and every single kid wanted to wear them and how could anyone resist (not my good pair!). It reminded me of the movie Big Daddy when he gives the kids glasses and he "disappears" so that he can go into situations where he is uncomfortable or scared. I would look around the playground as everyone was playing and see one kid off in the distance just sitting down wearing my glasses, thinking they were the coolest invisible kid on the playground. We played soccer and it was a lung burner at around 15,000ft!

Above everything what stuck out to me was how great this house was for the kids. A guy named Mike from the US opened up this school for the kids a few years ago. For kids ages 5-13 whose parents cant give them an education or take sufficient care of them so they send them to casa chapi. The parents come and visit every once in a while and I think the kids go to their houses every once in a while as well. While I was there one of the moms was there and she only spoke Quecha.  Most of the students understood Quecha but couldn't speak it. It was culturally enriching to be around people from such different backgrounds than me. At the school the kids eat, sleep, go to school, clean their own clothes, rooms, kitchen etc, play, garden, raise animals and have dentist and doctor checkups. Possibly even more than that. The facilities were simple but nice and it just put a smile on my face to see these kids getting opportunities and being a family together.

I was so surprised about how well behaved they were. NO kid was a brat NO kid was mean. While I ws s there to kids cried or fought. It was unbelievable. They just had fun and they all got along. The best parts of kids without having to deal with the worst parts!

Overall, it was one of my most rewarding experiences in Peru so far. Make sure to always push yourself, especially when it's easier not to. And help out. Were lucky, make others feel lucky.

On a side note, turns out their Ducks fans also!!! OOOOOOO!