Peru- Day 2

After hanging out at the Juliaca airport for awhile, everyone finally arrived and surprisingly all of our luggage made it there without any issues. We then boarded a nice luxury bus that would take us another 1 1/2 hours away to Puno, our first destination.

I was in awe at what I was seeing out the window. I moved down to the extra seat at the front of the bus behind the front window. I was snapping pictures left and right. It was at this time that I began to have an inkling of what it means to be a third world county. I couldn't believe my eyes. Here are a few things I learned right away about Peru.

-Peruvians speaking Spanish is much easier to understand than Mexicans or even Americans speaking Spanish.

-There concept of nice and good quality is very different than ours.

-There are stray dogs everywhere in Peru and I mean everywhere. They were constantly running out in front of the bus and our driver would honk and hope that they would move.

-People do not obey traffic laws. Whoever is bigger usually has the right of way. And since we were in a bus we had a definite advantage. This includes people. There were many a grandma or bicyclist that just about ended their lives right on the front grill of our bus.

-Peruvians really do dress up in bright colors and wear hats and carry their babies in blankets on their backs. It is not for the tourists. (And in this area there were no other tourists)

-More than once I saw a family of 5 riding on on motorcycle among the chaos of the traffic.

-Peruvians must have stomachs of steel as I saw all kinds of food vendors in the streets with less than sanitary conditions.

-The pace of life is much slower here. Many times I saw women or children sitting in a field watching their sheep or llamas appearing to have no other care in the world.

-By our standards, things are much cheaper in Peru than here.

-You had to keep a close eye on your belongings because the people really are desperate and are willing to do about anything to get a leg up.

-Sanitizer is my friend.

-There really are llamas (or alpacas) all over.

-Inca Kola is the Bebida de Peru.

These are just a few of the observations that I made within just a few hours of being in the country. I thought is was crazy then and had no idea how much more my eyes were about to be opened throughout the remainder of the trip.

Peru - Day 1

My dad works for a non-profit organization called Eagle Condor. This organization does humanitarian work for people in Peru. My dad has been down there several times as well as my sisters and mom. They would come back sharing amazing stories of the people, the country and the service they did. I had such a strong desire to also go there and have those experiences but with my time of life and the poor economy and so forth I wasn't sure it would ever become a reality.

Well my mom and dad offered me a great opportunity. There was a group of 20 people that wanted to go down there and they needed someone to lead them. My dad didn't want to do this one so he asked Missy and I if we would be willing to take the expedition. It took a lot of arranging and relying on other people but we were finally able to work it out. My dad and mom pooled their flight miles to get me a ticket down there. Roger selflessly encouraged me to go and stepped up and took on a whole lot more home responsibility so that I could leave the kids without a worry. Family members and friends also helped with my children to keep them happy and entertained. I am so grateful to everyone that made this incredible experience happen for me.

It took quite a bit of preparation to get everything ready to lead a huge group to a third world country. Missy and I arranged the schedule, decided on the service projects, contacted people in Peru, solicited donations of books, clothes, toys, computers and money for the people down there. We had orientation meetings and a packing party. On paper everything looked good and the departure day finally arrived.

I was feeling quite nervous and sick at this point. I have never left my children or husband for that amount of time. I also feel as if I have buried a little of my independence and courage to try new things since becoming a mother and staying home in my comfort zone. I was hoping and praying that I would get over that. Plus I was a little nervous about my Spanish since I haven't used it much in my daily life. The night before I left, I asked Roger for a blessing and it was beautiful. It brought much peace to me and throughout the trip I saw the promises in that blessing being fulfilled. I was truly grateful for that.

So our adventure began. It was nice to have uninterrupted conversations with my sister. I didn't have to worry about taking care of the needs of my children. I could sit on the plane and read or watch movies or sleep or whatever. It was nice for a change.

We flew to Atlanta for 3 1/2 hours. Had a 2 hour layover and then it was another flight to Lima, Peru. This one was 6 1/2 hours. I should have tried to sleep but I was just to0 excited and enjoyed the free movies on the flight.

We arrived in Lima just before midnight and went through customs and immigration and so forth. I just couldn't believe that I was truly there in another country. Our next task was to check in for our flight to Juliaca and this is where we had our first major hiccup. (I was told that in Peru you have to roll with things because it was always changing.) Apparently they had overbooked flights and put our group on 2 separate flights through 2 different cities. Once we got over the panic and assured everyone that they would still all make it to the same place we were able to move on to other things. We exchanged money, paid taxes and got to a terminal where we could try and get some sleep.

The first flight left at 4:50 a.m. We all attempted to sleep since we had been going straight through the night and was quite comical. Missy took several pictures of our group in all of their glory. Unfortunately Missy's camera got stolen on the last day of the trip and thus many pictures were lost. So I will just have to fill in the gaps with words.

Our in-country flight was on a small plane that made a quick stop at an airport in Arequipa. It was literally like a bus stop. We landed on this tiny airstrip with a Podunk building on the side. People jumped on and off the plane and then we were back in the air 20 minutes later. It was crazy.

We finally landed in Juliaca, an airport not much bigger than Arequipa. We deplaned with the first group and then waited for the rest of our group to come in an hour later.

Up to this point, Missy and I were still a little nervous about being in charge of all these seasoned travels and young adults. But when we got off the plane, we immediately say Hernan, our in-country guide. Relief settled over us and we knew all would be well.

While we were waiting for our group we were continually bombarded by Peruvian women and even children selling their wares. It was hard to constantly say no thanks to them as they were quite pushy. It didn't take me long to realize that I wasn't in America any more.