Huancayo

I apologize to all ten people who are reading this. I wrote this when I first arrived here and I have been trying to upload the pictures that go along with it for the last week. I have so far been unsuccessful, so I am going to give up for now and just post entries without the pictures and then I will add the pictures when I get the chance.

Nestled in the center of the Montaro Valley, sits the city of Huancayo. At more than 9,000 ft. it`s a little tiring to walk around up here. The city itself contains about 100,000 people and has everything that a typical hispanic city usually has. It has a parque central with fountains and pigeons. It has cement buildings and whitewashed walls with advertisements all over the place. It has dirt roads with cows and chickens and dogs wandering down them and it has the feel of place where people actually live and not where tourists typically go to visit. Sucks for the tourists.



This place is beautiful. There are verdant, green mountains surrounding the city. They overflow with produce and trails for hiking. If you look to the north, you can see the glaciers just peaking out over the top of the mountains. The valley is chock full of mountain biking routes, paragliding sites, hiking trails, camping places, rafting, kayaking, and other outdoor fun. Huancayo is famous for the surrounding villages that apparently produce some of the best crafts in Peru. I haven´t seen them first-hand, but I`ll be taking my moutain bike out tomorrow. The people are really kind and everyone I`ve talked to has been really helpful. Best part about the place is that there are no tourists. I`m probably one of only a handful of gringos here. It`s perfect.

I arrived after the horrific bus ride, and stayed at the recommended hostel. The hostal was nice, but I felt a lot of pressure to join one of their programs. The owner of the hostal is trying to turn Huancayo into a tourist destination, and I wish him the best of luck, but I`m not here to be a tourist, per se. It had some really cool parts like very comfortable beds and a parrot that squaked "Hola" when you came near it.




I spent the majority of the first day exploring the city and then meeting up with my teacher. This has turned out to be a great deal. I finally found her apartment after much searching (the streets here don`t have street signs) and she introduced me to her son. He`s the cutest little Peruvian boy. His name is Barclay and he`s just learning how to walk and talk. The apartment was nice and I was excited to move in. I spent that first night in the hostal and then moved out the second day.





Moving out was a little interesting. My teacher`s house is about 3 miles away from the hostal and although I knew the general direction, I had no idea where I was going. So I took my small backpack and just started riding. After coming close to getting hit by a microbus, I decided to find the backroads and proceeded to become hopelessly lost. Luckily, everyone I asked was very kind, and although I couldn`t understand a word they said, pointing works wonders. I eventually found the house after riding about a mile out of town and back. I dropped off my bag, headed back for my bigger backpack. This was a much more interesting trip. The backpack was pretty unstable on the roads and I looked like a complete fool. I passed a school and I could hear a wave of laughter follow me down the road. I did make much better time, and now I was all moved in.

We had lunch at my teacher`s mom`s house. This was a great and humbling experience. This is really the first time I have gotten to see how a Peruvian family actually lives. When I was in Guatemala, I was a little sheltered by a house the catered exclusively to tourists. It was more like a bed and breakfast than a family stay. This is an actual family stay. They are very poor and barely have enough room for all the sisters and their kids. But the kids run around happily and everyone is kind and boisterous and the food was delicious.

My first lesson was today and I`d forgotten how hard it is to concentrate for that long. My mind is very tired, but I can already feel myself becoming more comfortable with Spanish. Questions and phrases that I knew in Guatemala fly off my lips much more easily now. I still can`t understand, but that will come with time. Right now, I`m off to study some more and sleep early so I can get up and go mountain biking tommorrow.