El Senor de Los Milagros

Every year in October (and here we are half way through November! I can't believe how behind I am!) things in Lima start to turn purple. Purple? Yes you read that right, purple. October is known as Mes Morado here in Lima as people celebrate El Senor de Los Milagros or Lord of Miracles. Purple and white balloons are out over stores and houses, the Lima soccer team even changes their jersey from a blue and white to a purple and white for the month of October. Several times throughout the month the streets of Lima are filled with Limenos dressed in purple to watch the painting being carried for all to see.

The paining in the procession is a replica of the original painting, since the original is actually a wall.




"El Señor de Los Milagros is an image of Jesus Christ painted during the 17th century. The artist is an unnamed African taken from Angola to Peru as a slave. Christ is shown enduring the pain of crucifixion. Above the cross is the Holy Spirit and God the Father. Below and to the right of Jesus is his mother, the Virgin Mary with her heart pierced by a metaphorical sword of sorrow and to her right at the foot of the cross is St. Mary Magdalene. Its name originated in a massive earthquake in the 18th century, which destroyed most of the city leaving only that mural standing. This is considered a miraculous occurrence by many living there." (Description taken from a website that I can't remember right now!)

Courtesy of www.deperu.com

Every few feet a new group of men take their place at the foot of the statue to continue the honor of carrying the gorgeous painting. At every stopping place there are beautifully handmade drawings filled in with flower petals that are made only to be destroyed minutes later by the procession. The amount of work put into them is amazing to watch and we stood by and watched one from start to finish as the procession slowly progressed closer and closer to our location. More than once we thought that there was no way they were going to get done in time, but they did and there was another beautiful picture on the ground to signify the stopping point.

Outlining the chalk drawing in coffee grounds

Beginning to add the colored flower petals

Half way there

Finishing Touches

All done and time to move on to the next

We quickly moved along after the last flower petal was laid. Earlier in the day we decided to catch up to the procession and join the crowd to watch it walk by. That may have been a mistake. As the procession continued past our location the mob of people standing by to watch it quickly followed and we were caught in a stampede of people aiming for another glimpse of the painting. We inched along looking for anywhere to break free of the crowd. (you can see in the photos below that the lady behind was neither thrilled to be caught in the crowd or thrilled to be in our selfie!)

Angry moving mob

While it was a bit overwhelming being trapped in a moving mob of people, it was quite an experience to be part of the largest procession in the world for this holiday. It takes place 3 or 4 times during the month of October and into November 1. After this one experience we made sure not to get caught in it again, as beautiful as it was. 

Until next time. 

-Monica

Where to start?!

I can't believe it has been OVER a month since the last time I have updated you on anything going on. Needless to say we have been REALLY busy.

First I have switched internship sites. We had an incident and I really should't disclose the details over the internet (ask me about it when I return home!) but it ended in me saying good bye to Instituto Mundo Libre and moving on to another internship placement site.

I am now working with a great NGO called Building Dignity. They are headquartered in St. Paul MN and have their Center for Development with Dignity (CEDED) here in Villa El Salvador in Lima. It is an amazing organization working to help the people in the community of La Encantada. Currently I am working with them developing lesson plans, tutoring and developing a University Readiness program for their youth group. The staff and volunteers are wonderful and I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to work with such a wonderful organization. It was a bit of work to get everything organized and together but I am happily settled in until the end of the month.

Villa El Salvador

We spent our Halloween with the youth in La Encantada supervising a party put on by the older youth in our group, It was such a great time and we were beat afterwards.

CEDED Volunteers before the kids arrived

We also have done a ton of other fun stuff like observe the biggest Catholic procession,eating street food, Oktoberfest and exploring other parts of Lima. I will have posts coming up soon telling you all about the fun and exciting things we have been up to. Keep an eye out!

Restaurant Series 1: Papachos

I think it is my feeling of inferiority to the amazing writing skills of my husband that has left me not doing anything on the blog for the past week. It took forever for me to convince (guilt?) him into writing a post, but when he does something he sure does it right! Let's just hope that you all enjoy reading my subpar writing until he gets another entry on here.

This is one of those posts I have been saving for a weekend where nothing exciting happened to us. This weekend was that weekend. We spent most of the time in our room doing homework and watching Netflix. More Netflix than homework, but it sounds good to throw that in there. It is midterms week for Mitch and I myself have quite a bit of homework to catch up on. Needless to say it wasn't a very eventful weekend.

When we first arrived to Peru, Michelle, our ISA coordinator, gave us a list of restaurants that we should try before leaving. We looked over the list, vowed to try every single restaurant on it and tucked it away in our paperwork drawer, forgotten about. Well, we finally started making our way down that list this a few weekends ago with a trip to Papacho's in Miraflores. It is one of the restaurants by Gaston Acurio, who is a well known Peruvian chef and ambassador of Peruvian Cuisine.

 

Admittedly we had been to one while we were in Cusco as well, but it was SOO good we couldn't pass up the opportunity to go again (and AGAIN after our 15K). When craving a good burger this is the place to go. They claim in their restaurant and on their menu that anything can be made into a hamburger, and I think they mean it! Both the times that we have gone in Lima Mitch ordered the crab burger. A crab burger? It is what it sounds like, a crab cake formed into a patty on a hamburger bun. AMAZING! It was so good that Mitch felt bad for me and offered me half of his burger the next time we went. That is not to say that I was disappointed with what I ordered. While I got a regular burger, the flavor was great and it was topped with potatoes strings, avocado and aji sauce. One of the other great things about Papacho's is they have baked potatoes! Potatoes is a must have in EVERY Peruvian meal, pureed potatoes, fried potatoes, but not baked potatoes. Potatoes are potatoes right? Wrong. These baked potatoes were so good, especially smothered in aji sauce and butter. It is hard for me to decide which part of my meal I liked best.

Mine

The Crab burger

It was a very comfortable atmosphere. Both times we went before the lunch time rush so it wasn't very crowded. There was nothing overly remarkable about the restaurant except for the tables. They were covered in brown kraft paper and we were given a little container of crayons to color with while we waited for our food. We took advantage to let you all know that we are thinking about you. I wish I could say that we will be back for sure, but with such a long list of restaurants we have to try before we leave.. I just don't know.

Hasta Luego!

Mitchell's Blog Cherry

So, I'm not sure if I am a horrible traveler or just a horrible husband, maybe both. As Monica was falling asleep, she rolled over to look at me and asked, "Have you even read the blog?" I had, but while we were still in California, before we left on this incredible adventure, we had decided it would be both of our blog. Obviously I am a horrible blogger, and if it weren't for Monica, many of you may have forgotten that we even left the country. I suppose I will start from the beginning, and I will try to keep it brief since Monica has already caught everyone up to speed.

The year was 1789, and a social revolution had just begun in France... Just kidding. So, we left Colorado in May, with two full cars and one excited dog until he quickly remembered that roadtrips to California SUCK. Fortunately for him though, we broke it up pretty well I think. We stopped at Arches National Park in Utah for a night and stayed peeing distance from the Colorado River which kinda freaked Cooper out, but it was incredible. The next morning, we got up early-ish and had breakfast at a dog-friendly diner in Moab, Utah where I ordered Green Eggs and Ham. It's not my first time ordering them, but I simply can't resist. Especially when the green comes from pesto potatoes. Our server, when he asked us where we were from, lit up with excitement when we told him we started our road trip from our adopted hometown of Fort Collins, Colorado. He explained that he and his dog lived at the Drive-In and ran it for years before he moved to Utah. Small world! We gassed up, and drove into Arizona and reached the Grand Canyon with enough time to sneak a peak at an indescribably beautiful sight before we bought a six pack of beer (Ranger IPA) and watched the sun set over the massive landscape. In the interest of keeping this post relatively brief, I geek out by gushing over the fact that the Grand Canyon was formed by the tireless current of the Colorado river, instead, I'll keep to what's actually important... I peed off the ledge of the Grand Canyon. It wasn't on my bucket list, but it should have been; either way, it's checked off now.

California was great, as visiting family always is... Moving on to the new stuff.

We had to leave Cooper with my parents in Davis. I knew it would be hard, but it was heartbreaking to leave my best friend without being able to explain to him that I would be back. I know a lot of people think that a dog is just a pet, but there is a reason they call them man's best friend.

Our first stop on our official start to our honeymoon was Boston, Massachusetts. In a sentence, I could see myself living there. Incredible city, incredible seafood, good baseball people. I could live there. We took buses from Boston to Fort Lauderdale over the course of 10 days, which I might recommend as judicial punishment for severe crimes. We broke up our bus adventure with stops in New York and to see my family in Maryland. New York was amazing, and since we left, I have been itching to go back; in fact, I have even looked on craigslist to see if there is any way we could live there. Not likely. Two days was obviously not enough, but we saw the essentials (even if from a distance) and in the 4 days between Boston and New York, Monica and I walked easily 25 miles and became pros at the respective subway systems.

As I said, we bused it from New York to Baltimore, where my Uncle Tony picked us up and scared us into wishing we hadn't walked the block and a half to his car. It was about an hour trip from downtown to their house in Mount Airy, and it felt amazing to stop for a the first time in almost a week and just relax around family. We were only with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins for a weekend, but it was great to catch up, and I was reminded how much I miss them and that even with cell phones and Facebook, nothing substitutes a hug and sitting down face to face with loved ones.

Driving through the South on a Greyhound bus is a memory I do not want to revisit, so I'll skip ahead 28 hours (no joke) from where my Aunt Miriam and my cousin Beccy dropped us off in Baltimore, to where another of my cousins, Jon, picked us up in West Palm Beach, Florida. We spent the night at his new apartment and got to meet his lovely girlfriend. Because the air conditioner was out in his new apartment,we did not spend much time there. In fact, we didn't spend much time in Florida at all, and it may be safe to say that I will never go back to that state in July. We were incredibly grateful to my amazing family for letting us intrude on their space and going out of their way to making us feel at home.

Monica mostly caught you up on our first couple weeks in Peru (and everything since) but there are a few things that she can't speak to, since she wasn't there for. Those things, and her making me feel super guilty are the reasons I am writing this entry. That and I have developed what some might call "insomnia."

Within a couple days of being in Peru, my cousin Ashley introduced us to her friend Abraham, who she met years ago when she was in Lima. Abraham lives here in Lima, and was one of the first people we met in Peru and he went out of his way to make us feel at home. He walked around San Borja with us for three days, helping us find a place to live. He also invited me to play rugby with him, which I gladly accepted and went with him to practice, where I realized that I am definitely not in rugby shape anymore. Unfortunately, school and homework has gotten in the way of us hanging out much, but hopefully we will get together soon. When we met him, I was convinced that many of my stories from Lima would include Abraham.

The reasons there are no cute pictures on this post to this point is because my cell phone was stolen the day we got back from Machu Picchu which was what I used exclusively as my camera since the road trip began in Colorado. So all pictures of the Grand Canyon, Cooper, my drunken birthday, Boston, New York, the visit with my family, et cetra, and Machu Picchu are lost forever. But, the weekend after Machu Picchu, my ISA group went to the Amazon. Those pictures I still have.

AMAZON

We flew from Lima to Iquitos, Peru and when we got there it was so humid, it was hard to breathe. It felt like invisible rain as the moisture was soaking my clothes just between the staircase getting off the plane to the airport terminal. As we got inside the terminal, it started to pour. I thought it was an indicator of how the weather would be that weekend, but it surprisingly did not rain again. Our first stop was to a manatee rescue in Iquitos, where we got to feed rescued manatees. There were even some in my group who were brave enough to kiss them!

Our next stop was to a lake where the Paiche, the world's largest freshwater fish live. We threw in chunks of bread to bribe them up to the surface so we could snap pictures of their beautiful red scales.

We took a bus out to the river town of Nauta, where we boarded a rickety motorboat and traveled about half an hour down the River Marañón to where it meets the Amazon River. Going back upstream proved to be difficult for the little motor that couldn't, and we waited for a couple hours to be picked up by a bigger boat which we took to our hotel, the Pacaya Samiria Amazon Lodge. The lodge was incredible. The only way to access it was by boat, and it sits in the middle of the amazon wilderness. The rooms were bungalows with huge mesh screens which made up the entire back wall of the hut, and our (the guys) room was equipped with a hammock on the back deck. Because there were no windows, at night the sounds of the rain forest were incredibly loud but unbelievably relaxing.

Bungalows at the lodge
(not my photo)

My little piranha

The first night,we went on a dusk/twilight/night hike from the lodge into the rain forest. Our guide, Rey, who was with us all weekend had such an incredible eye for finding the critters that I'm pretty sure he put them there himself. It was too dark for pictures, but on the walk I saw some of the meanest looking bugs on the planet. We turned out all of the flashlights on our way back and just sat in silence and let our eyes adjust to the dark. In the minute or so that passed before we turned the flashlights back on, I had the most incredible view of the night sky including a foggy stream of stars making up a perfect sight of the Milky Way. As I was looking up at the stars, the life around us in the darkness got louder and seemed to get closer, meaning that the critters began to carry on with their lives after pausing when our lights and footsteps passed by. 

The baby cayman

The next day was spent entirely on the river. We fished for Piranha, we watched pink river dolphins flirt with the wake of our boat, monkeys howl in the trees and after sunset, we searched the river bank for the red glowing eyes of a Cayman, a relative of a crocodile and alligator.

Our last day in the Amazon started early, as we hoped into the boat and ventured into sloth territory, where their favorite trees are in abundance. We were incredibly lucky to find a female sloth so low on a tree that Rey was able to pull her down, where each of us was able to take pictures with the adorable stuffed animal-like wild creature. After we returned for breakfast, we headed out again to meet locals in a nearby village, where they taught us the art of scaling palm trees (some of us were much better than others).

We boated, and bused our way back to the Iquitos airport for our flight back to Lima where I sat exhausted on the floor of the terminal. Even though it was an amazing trip, I was really disappointed that Monica wasn't able to join me, leaving me feeling like a return trip was necessary.

  That's all for now. Please forgive me for not citing the pictures that aren't mine. I am waaay too lazy. My next post promises to be soon, and I will describe what it's like to be a student at "the most prestigious university in Peru." And if you have seen Monica's recent posts, no need to worry, I have gotten a haircut since the Amazon. 

Birthday Festivities!

I was still recovering from being sick on my Birthday. I had the day off work and Mitch stayed home with me to spend the day with me. He made me blueberry pancakes for breakfast, which were amazing, and we hung out just the two of us at home for most of the day. At night he took me out to dinner at a sushi restaurant called EDO and we had Peruvian sushi. It is delicious. :)

After dinner we did a little shopping around Jockey Plaza where he bought me some gifts, we got gelato and by the end of it all I was pretty exhausted and wanted to go home so I could blow my nose without people staring at me. :) It was a great Peruvian birthday!

Since I was feeling better this weekend, Mitch decided to treat me again on Friday for my birthday. It was nice to go out while I was feeling better. We both agreed that had we tried to do what he had planned on my actual day, it wouldn't had been as fun.

It started out by him taking me to a water park in Downtown Lima. During the day it is just fountains, but once it gets dark they have three different water shows.

 

We were a little late to the first show because our taxi driver didn't actually know where he was taking us and dropped us off three block away two streets over and we had to walk. When we did make it there we were only about two minutes late and still got to see most of the show.

After the show we walked around and got to see the other fountains. There were huge ones, colored ones, a water bridge that we got to walk under ( and got a little wet ) and a water playground that came up from ground. There was also a train that took children around, it was a little creepy to be honest, but the rest was a blast!

After our time at the water park we left for our dinner reservations. Everything was a surprise for me so I had no idea where we were going, all I heard the taxi driver confirm was that we were going to beach. Automatically I was excited. When we arrived to Lima we saw an amazing little restaurant that went out into the ocean. It was kind of like it's own little pier. 

I was gorgeous. We got an awesome little table that was right by a window so we got to see the waves crashing and felt it every time one hit the supports of the restaurant. We got seated and got handed seperate menu's. Mitch's was blue, mine was yellow. We didn't think there was a different at first until I realized that my menu had NO PRICES on it but Mitch's did! Looking around the place, all women had a yellow menu, all men had blue ones! 

Our Menus

We both ordered seafood and had wine with dinner. Everything was beyond amazing! I can't even begin to explain how wonderful of an evening it was. We left stuffed and happy. It was such a wonderful day! Happy Birthday to me!

My Salmon

Mitch's Sea Bass

Our Table

My phone likes to make it's own photo collaborations. IDK why. 

15K Race in through Lima

So I am pretty sure the running gods hate me. My first organized race  (only a 5K) I ran with a sprained ankle and a sprained knee. This one, 15K, I had a cough, sore throat, chapped nose, and was SUPER congested. I don't know if it is a sign or a test of my dedication. If it was a test of my dedication, I passed because Mitch helped encouraged me to get out of bed and run the darn thing. We got to the starting line at about 7:15, race started at 8:00. We walked around and met up with a friend from ISA that was also running it. It was an amazing sea of neon yellow as we prepared to start. We started in San Isidro, ran through San Borja, into Surco and back to San Isidro.

I wasn't feeling my best, but I had a couple goals. 1. To finish the race running 2. to not be last and 3. to finish in 2 hours. I couldn't have done it without Mitch who waited for me at the 14K mark to encourage me to finish strong. I finished running, I wasn't last but sadly it took me 2:15 to finish. Being sick and only running 4 times before the race (we signed up 2 weeks before the date) I will take it. I am so glad that I got out there and ran and that I had an amazing support system to help me finish strong, even though I kinda felt like dying. :)

We just crossed the finish line!

With our finisher shirts on

Hasta Luego!

What have we been up to?

I have been horribly sick lately. It started last Wednesday with just a cough and a little sore throat. I thought nothing of it, figured it would go away by the next day. I was wrong. I have been in bed for about the past week with an ear infection (maybe two), a cough that won't go away, a sore throat (that luckily has subsided), and congestion. I apologize for not getting to this, but I haven't been in the mood to do much of anything but sleep and watch Netflix with the hubby.

Now that I am feeling better, I wanted to tell you a lot that we have been up to since Mistura, which seems like FOREVER ago!

We spent a Friday with Fanny and we went to a place called Gamarra. It is a market in the district of La Victoria and has everything a person could ever want. They had shops for knock off clothing, food, accessories, fabric, craft supplies, EVERYTHING! It was crazy. There were people everywhere and we only saw a small portion of the market. I went specifically to look for items to bring to the girls for workshops this week, but we ended up purchasing and couple of sweatshirts as well. We spent a good part of the day running after Fanny who was trying to show us everything there was to see there. We were pretty exhausted after a couple hours. I haven't been able to get Mitch back since.

After Gamarra we rushed off to the ISA office where they were hosting a class teaching us how to play the cajon. The Cajon is a drum that that has an afro-peruvian influence. I had a blast learning how to play. It was a ton of fun and I think that we both want to figure out how to bring one home so that we can continue to practice.

The ISA group learning how to place Cajon

We also got to learn about a few other instruments that Peruvian use, one of which was a jawbone that had dried out so the teeth were loose. At the end we each got a different instrument and all played together.

 


We went and visited either the largest or second largest shopping mall in Lima. It is right up the street from our house, a short bus ride away, and we had a great time shopping and exploring the stores. We got a bunch of new running gear to prepare for our 15K and some new clothes. We also went out to eat at Hard Rock Cafe Lima and had an amazing burger! It was one of the nicest Hard Rocks we have been to. Not overly decorated like some others. We had a really good time.

 

Other than that we have been kicking back, doing homework and trying to kick this cold. I have a couple other posts that I am working on now that I am feeling better to include a short one about the 15K that we ran!

Hasta Luego!