New Blog url

Hi Everyone,
We have to change Lyssa's blog url - so, paste this link to get to the the real "Alyssa's Grand Peru Adventure" http://lyssainperu-lyssa.blogspot.com

Sunday, Sept. 12

¡Hola mi familia y amigos!

Wow, what a day! Well first, I’ll tell you about my evening last night. The picture from yesterday is the neighborhood by Wendy’s house. Wendy is the mother of Alexia, who is the girl who was baptized into the Catholic church yesterday. The baptism was pretty cool, then we had dinner at Wendy’s house. The food here is very good, not amazing, but simple and very good. We stayed at their house for a few hours just eating and talking. It was really good for me to be around that much Spanish. I’ve never been so immersed in so much Spanish before, and I think even in that one day, my understanding and even my speaking has improved a little bit. Wendy has another daughter, her name is Shirley. Shirley is about my age, very nice, and actually a member of our church! So that will be so nice to have someone to go to church with and have a friend there as well. After that nice visit, Micheal and I went to the market near Rosanna’s house. It’s amazing to me how much trash there is here, on the streets, in the Plaza’s, everywhere. But I guess that’s how all the stray dogs survive. I got to Video chat with Mother online last night so that was nice. It had only been a day since I’d seen her, but it feels like I’ve been here much longer. The past two days may have been the longest days of my life...but I’m not complaining! They’ve been awesome! I love being here, experiencing a different culture and something new! It’s wonderful! This morning I slept in; I’ll most definitely have to use the alarm on my phone because my watch didn’t wake me up at all. To my surprise, I got to take a fairly warm shower this morning. There is no heat in the houses, so I assumed that meant the water as well, but I guess Rosanna has heated water. It was really nice, but I probably won't be so lucky in Ocongate, and it’s much colder there than here in Cuzco. The whole city of Cuzco just amazes me; the streets, the people, the buildings, the drivers, the culture, the street vendors, it’s all so...so...Peruvian! Haha, I love it. I feel I already have a love for the Peruvian people, and I still can’t even talk with most of them. But anyway, today was my tour to the Sacred Valley. I honestly thought this was going to be a bus ride to a open valley of grass, and then a bus ride back. Boy, was I wrong. It was an all day tour of the Sacred Valley, and many of the Incan cities surrounding it. The sacred valley is huge, and is full of farms and towns. It’s not really sacred, it’s just called that because there is a river running through it called the Sacred River (also not really sacred, that’s just the name). Before the valley, we stopped in a market; I resisted from spending all my money on all the beautiful things there and only bought one sweater and some weird seed things. My sweater is made from alpaca fur and is incredibly soft. It is, of course, orange :) I wish I could remember all the names of the places we went to today...oh! it’s on my ticket! Un momento! Hoy, nosotros fuemos Pisac, Ollantaytambo, y Chinchero. Pisac y Ollantaytambo are mostly ruins, and boy are they amazing. I’m trying to remember which one is which, but at one of them we had to climb hundreds of stairs, and let me tell you, at 12,000 feet, not being used to this altitude, that’s pretty difficult. I chewed on Coca leaves most the day to help with the altitude, it helped a little. They don’t taste very good though. It’s weird, it’s only been two days and I’m already addicted to Coca tea, but I don’t really like the leaves. The leaves straight are bland and have a bitter after taste. But in tea with sugar...mmm es muy bueno! I’m sad it’s illegal in the states, I would love to drink it when I get home. For those of you who don’t know, Coca leaves are what are used to make Cocaine – after a long chemical process of course. By itself, it’s nothing like cocaine, and perfectly healthy, I promise. Anyway, the cities were amazing. My feet are a little sore from hiking all day, but it was very worth it. I’ll try to send some pictures to mi Madre so she can post them. We stopped in Urabamba for lunch; I tried alpaca! It’s not too much different from beef, pretty good though. I also tried alcohol for the first time today...whoops! At the restaurant they were offering the “drink of Peru” and it was free. I totally wanted to try it, but when it tasted like rotten nail polish, I realized it was an alcoholic beverage. Apparently it was delicious, said everyone at my table, but I thought it was pretty disgusting. I’m a little disappointed, I really wanted to go my whole life without even trying alcohol, but oh well. There were a lot of nice people on my tour, I made some friends, and it was really awesome. After a very long day hiking in the sun, they dropped us off in a plaza in Cuzco. There are plaza’s everywhere here, like Wendy’s in Utah County. The main plaza is Plaza de Arma. They dropped us off very near to there, so I went over to explore. The buildings there are so beautiful! I would have stayed longer but I really needed to use the restroom and there are no [free] public restrooms, so I called a taxi and came back here to Rosanna’s. The extended family was here for dinner, they were all very nice. It’s amazing to me how well I understand most the people here like Wendy and her family, but I can’t understand Rosanna for the life of me. I couldn’t understand her family either! She talks so very fast; it’s a good thing she also speaks English or I would never know what she was trying to tell me. She always talks to me en Español first, and then in English if I just can’t get it – which is most of the time. Oh! I met her children! They are very nice. She has one son and one daughter. The son’s name is Diego, he’s about my age, but a little strange. Her daughter is...I don’t know how old she is, a few years younger than me, her name is Luciero – I think. I don’t know if they don’t speak English at all or if they’re only speaking Spanish to me to help me learn, but either way is fine. School starts tomorrow, I’m excited to learn! I’m also excited for church next week, I missed going today. I’m not sure when I’ll be going to Machu Picchu, I still have to talk to Rosanna about that. Well, it’s only 9:30 but I’m pooped! So I think I’ll call it a night! Feel free to email me (alyssanicole47@gmail.com) and keep me updated on all of your lives! Thanks for the support and love! I love you all! ¡Buenos Noches!
P.s. Well it appears as though my camera has been stolen. Hopefully I've just misplaced it, but as of right now I can't seem to find it. How depressing, I had so many awesome pictures. Hopefully it shows up!
--
-Alyssa Nicole Escalante-

A few Pics!

Celebrating after Wendy's daughter's baptism and the neighborhood around Wendy's house

Well, it looks like my plans will be different than expected tomorrow. Tomorrow is when we will head down and take a tour of the Sacred Valley. We will leave at 8:30am and church is at 9:00, so i won't be able to go to church tomorrow - (don't worry mom, i'm still active). I don't think we will be getting back until evening, so maybe we'll have to wait until Monday evening to Skype. We'll see. I just took a very long, and needed nap. My bed is amazingly comfortable and warm. Rosanna is very well off and has a very beautiful home and lives on the longest (and probably busiest) street in Cuzco. Breakfast was great! I really like the Coca tea (or however you spell it). Micheal and I talked a lot. Because there is almost nothing to do in Ocongate for pleasure (there are two internet Café's, and one or two restaurants), Rosanna has offered to let me stay here on the weekends. I told them I will be coming in town for church every Sunday anyway, so that would be a great idea to just come Friday or Saturday and be here for the weekend. Obviously that wont happen every single week, but i now have that option, which is really nice. There are no other students staying at Rosanna's house right now except Micheal, so it's just us, Rosanna, and her two children. I haven't met them yet, but Micheal says they are very nice. I am going to a Catholic Baptism today that Micheal is participating in, he's the God-Father, or something. Then we'll have dinner, and possibly go to the Plaza de Arma. I sure hope so cause if we do, i'm getting a massage! They're pretty darn cheap here and you don't know how freaking sore i am! Ok, maybe some of you do, but i've never had my neck and shoulders this tight before. I will start school Monday morning at 8:45, and will have class for 8 hours a day. It's all individual tutoring,i'm excited to learn! Micheal says there are about 5 other students at the moment, so i'll meet them soon. oh! i forgot to tell you earlier! On the plane ride here i sat by a very nice young man, but he didn't speak English at all. I spoke better Spanish than he spoke English, but of course that's not saying much. I got that his name is Franco and he works at the airport and lives in Cuzco. Apparently this is flirting and i got his number and email address. He wasn't cute at all, but thanks anyway...i guess? The men are very forward here, especially since i slept most the flight so we barely even talked. But the short time i've been here, there are some very cute brown guys here! Not the typical "good looking" sort in the states, but still, very attractive. don't worry mother, even if they're cute, i'll have my pepper spray ready. although the people here are generally really nice, so far at least. Well, i don't have to be ready for the baptism for another 2 hours but i think i'll go explore the streets a little bit, take some pictures for you, etc. I love you so very much and am so excited to start this experience of mine!

p.s. we also had banana juice that Rosanna made with breakfast, suuuuuper yummy! :]

Hi Mom and Family!

I’ve made it to L.A. safely. I just finished eating breakfast here in the airport. My Airline doesn’t open it’s front desk for a while, so I’m stuck here out in the lobby area for now. I’ll attempt to entertain myself for a few more hours as it’s only 8:50am and my flight doesn’t depart until 1:30pm. So over the next 5 hours I may possibly die of boredom, but we’ll see. For now, I think I’ll save my battery until I’m REALLY bored (like in a few hours). I’ll let you know how my flight to Lima, Peru goes. Transferring my luggage in between Lima and Cuzco is going to be a pain. So for now, this will be a “To be Continued!!”...

Hey! I’m on the airplane right now heading to Lima. I’m not sure, but I think we’re a little less than 3 hours away from landing. This is by far the nicest plane I have ever been on. I know I haven’t been on many planes, but this is so nice! I have my own personal T.V. screen with games, movies, T.V. episodes, music, radio, airline info, and some other stuff. It is so very fancy. There was a very nice man sitting next to me but his brother is also on this flight in another section, anyway, there was an empty seat next to his brother, so he went up there. So I have had two seats to myself, and it’s been a pretty luxurious flight. The view has been amazing! I’m so glad I have a window seat. The clouds over the ocean are amazing, and I saw the most beautiful sunset! I took pictures but they hardly do it justice. So far everyone that has talked to me on this flight (passengers and flight attendants) have assumed I speak Spanish, so I guess I look like I speak Spanish. No worries, by the time I’m flying home I’ll really be understanding what they’re saying! It’s been a good flight but very long. Over 8 hours is too long to be on a plane. I’ll let you know how it goes on the next flight and with meeting Micheal at the airport. So, until then....

I am now in the Lima airport. Wow, that was a long flight. I’ve discovered that most the people here that think they know English, really only know Spanglish. But it’s not too bad because I can still get what they’re saying. Even the people who don’t speak English at all, I can understand most of what they say with gestures and stuff, which is a little comforting. I’m attempting to get internet right now in the Wi-Fi section of the airport, but it’s not really working. Oh well, I will have internet access tomorrow. A moment ago there was a cute little brown kid following me around. My that I mean he was like in his 20’s, but these Peruvian people are pretty little. He kept trying to sit kind of by me but I kept moving to try and get internet access, then he gave up and went away. It’s ok, he probably didn’t speak English anyway. And as cute as his smile was, he looked like a punk. It is about 2:00am right now, so that’s 1:00am Utah time. I’m not tired at all though, I slept on the flight here. Surprisingly enough the food was pretty good. But then again, that was a pretty fancy-dancey plane. I made it through customs and everything okay, I was a little concerned about that because I didn’t know what half the forms I was supposed to fill out said. After name, flight number, and passport number, I didn’t really get the rest. But no worries, everything went very smoothly. I don’t really know where I’m supposed to be right now. I technically don’t have a flight gate I guess, but I don’t know where I’m supposed to be either. That’s okay, I’ll figure it out later. They don’t start boarding until 4:45am anyway. Right now I’m sitting next to a very nice man who is also trying to get internet, but we’re both failing. He doesn’t speak English, but we’re still managing to communicate a little bit. Well, there’s still not a whole lot to tell, I’m mostly just writing because I’m bored and kind of sick of flying/being in an airport. It’s been an experience. I still don’t know if being in Peru hasn’t hit me yet, or if it has and I’m just really calm about the whole situation. Either way, I kind of like that no one is speaking English to me. This is a fun, and new experience. Well, I’m going to find something else to do because I really just don’t have that much to say right now. But no worries, I’m safe. Love you all! And I’ll write again soon....

Oh my goodness! I’m here! I’m at Rosanna’s house right now, it’s 7:15 in the morning and I’m about to go down and have some tea and bread for breakfast. Cuzco is an amazing city. It’s different than I was expecting. I think it’s finally starting to hit me, that I’ll be living in a 3^rd world country for the next three months. drivers here are a little crazy, but I think I was expecting that. Micheal y Rosanna picked me up from the airport and we took a taxi here to Rosanna’s house where I will be staying. There are a lot of stray dogs here, that eat all the garbage off the street. I’m sure Kimi would love it, because they’re all very big dogs and very friendly, if you have food that is. Well, they’re expecting me down stairs. I am here and safe, I’ll write again tomorrow I’m sure! And perhaps we can even Skype tomorrow. I love you!