Wedding Extravaganza!

Yesenia invited me to her cousin´s wedding. I was so excited to go to a real latin wedding. I knew it would be crazy and so much fun. I was not disappointed! Well She had told me the day before that the wedding started at 7 pm and to meet her at her house at 630. So I got all ready and when I got to her house her mom told me it actually started at 8 and that Yesenia was still getting ready. So I went back to my uncles house and waited. I went back to pick her up at 730 and she still wans´t ready. So she was hurrying and trying to get done quickly. As we were leaving already it was 8. And she remembered she didnt have the reception passes! So she had to track some down so we could get in. We finally got to the cathedral around 815. It´s so funny to me how nothing here ever starts on time. Kinda like how my life has always been, but everyone is always ad that I´m late for everything. Here I seem to fit in just fine! So our friend Luz was already at the church waiting for us. She had actually got there 30 minutes early! Well the wedding hadnt even started the bride was late ad everyone was waiting. There weren´t many people there yet either. So the ceremony finally started. It was a little unusual to me because I had never really been to a catholic wedding and you have to repeat stuff and do all these things. I just stoood their really confused. Then towards the end the priest said that he needed 2 witnesses. And he said that he chooses the 2 girls in the front row. Which were me and Yesenia! I was so embarrassed. But I went up on stage anyways. The priest said all this stuff and then asked my name and I had to sign some paper. It was funny, Ive never even been a witness to anything before.


After the ceremony we went to the reception. It was in a different part of town. It was so nice and exclusive too. We had to have passes to get in. It was this huge tent like thing decorated so nice with flowers and candles and a huge dance floor. As we walked in they handed us Pisco Sours.


We got a table and then we had to wait for the bride and groom to get there. They were going around to all the tables giving away bottles of Wiskey. It was crazy! When the bride and groom got there they had their first dance. Then the DJ person was calling family members to come and dance with the bride and groom. Yesenia told me that the witnesses have to get up and dance too and that they would probably call my name. I was freaking out because how embarrassing! Luckily that didn´t happen though. After the dance they had a couple dance La Marinera. It was so beautiful. They were dressed in the typical dress. It was awesome!



After that the servers started serving some appetizers. They served mini empanadas and they were delicious! The also served some champagne for the toast. I couldnt wait to eat dinner though! The tradition here is to serve dinner at midnight so we had to wait until then. But it was fun in the meantime.


Cheers!


Dinner was so good! The rice was shaped like a heart. Everything was delicious!

After dinner the dancing began. The music was fun and everyone was dancing. Her family is so much fun. The band played all these cumbias the whole time. It was funny. So I went to the bathroom for a few minutes and when I got back to the table there were balloons everywhere! And these clowns on stilts! Crazy! We went back to the dance floor and everyone was just dancing and jumping and throwing balloons and beach balls and the lights were all frantic. It was sooo fun! We ended up dancing and having fun until 5 in the morning! They didnt serve any cake though. The tradition is to not serve any cake but that the next day the brife and groom go from house to house and pass out the cake. Sounds strange to me. All I wanted was to taste the cake! Oh well. This was the funnest wedding I have ever been to!



dancing

dancing

and dancing!

me and Luz

Yesenia, me and her cousin

standing outside the tent

me and Luz

with the bride and groom

the stage


the cake that was never cut

baloons!

we took the ross from the center pieces

another beach day!

Today I went to the beach again with my cousins Cleusa and Jonathon. We left early to get as much sun as possible. We took a tent and set it up and just hung out and took pictures. This beach is kinda rocky though. Everytime I´d get into the water my feet would get all scraped and roughed up by the rocks. Once I got out and my feet were all bloody! Oh well. I love being at beach no matter what.



getting trampled by the ocean waves

me and Cleusa

my bleeding feet

some people drove their moto taxi onto the sand and it got stuck..what a bunch of idiots!

Day at the beach...

I just got back from Huanchaco..It was so nice to just lay out on the beach. The weather was perfect! I got up this morning and went for my morning run at the park and it was already warm and sunny! I knew that I just had to go to the beach. I decided I would just try to make it out on my own. I have to learn to get around alone eventually. I can´t just depend on everyone else. But if I was in Lima I probably wouldn´t even try. But it is pretty safe here. Atleast alot safer. I made some oatmeal and was sitting eating breakfast and I told Tia Palmira that I planned on spending the afternoon at the beach. I told her that I know what buses to take there and which one to take back. She was a little nervous at the thought of me going alone. But I assured here I knew my way around well enough to make it back safely. And if I did get lost I would just call the house with my cell. Well before I left the house she said she´d feel better if my cousin Jonathon would picked me up in the afternoon. He would call me when he got there to know where I was at. She said she just didn´t want me coming back by myslef. Well I guess it probably would be better that way. So I had to get a prepaid card for my cell phone because I had no minutes left. I went to all the little corner stores around the neighborhood and no one had any. I ran into Pepe, Yesenia´s brother in law who was supposed to walk me to the bus stop yesterday,at one of the stores and told him I was headed to the beach. So he walked me to the bus stop, which was good because he took me to a different one where more buses come by with less people. So I got on and just hoped to get to the beach safely. When I got there I walked around for a little bit and looked in lsome of the little stores. It feels so good to be alone sometimes. I just need alone time every once in a while. The sun was so bright! I knew I would finally get a good tan. I laid on the sand and tried to take a nap. Then some other girls laid down close by. They were so loud and annoying. Well the good thing about them being there was when the tide started to come closer they all screamed, so we all moved up a little bit so we wouldn´t get wet. After maybe 10 minutes I heard that girl scream again. I opened my eyes and looked up and this huge wave just came upon me! Ahh! It was awful! I tried to grab my purse and my clothes and my book but it was too late. Then I remembered my cell phone was laying next to my head. I couldn´t find it anywhere! It had been swept away by the ocean alone with one of my flip flops! Augh..So I tried to find it and one of the girls had ran down to grab the rest of their stuff that had been swept away too. She had found my phone and some man came up and brought me my flip flop. It had wandered all the way to the dock. I was so happy. But when I tried to use my phone it didn´t work! I was so pissed and annoyed and kinda worried because Jonathan was supposed to call me when he got there. And I wouldn´t know where to find him. So the only thing I could do was call my mom. I spent almost 3 dollars on making that phone call. Oh well. But she was able to call and let them know where I would be at to find me. So after all that I just got in the ocean. I figured now that my cell phone is broken I didnt have anything valuable left for anyone to steal. The ocean was freezing but it felt so good to be in it. I think I´m going to have to live by the ocean for the rest of my life somehow..

I´m sick!

So I´ve been a little sick since Friday but I figured it would just go away..Saturday I felt terrible. I didn´t do anything all day but just lay around and watch crime shows. I´m really getting into all this CSI, Law and Order, and The Mentalist shows. I guess that´s all that is really good to watch in english here. Other than The Hills. And after realizing that I was getting into THAT show I knew I had to find something, ANYTHING else to watch!
But anyways, Sunday I felt a little better. I got up and went to church. It was the church´s anniversary so there was going to be some activities all day. After the serbice we had lunch. They made Pure de Manzana, which is pretty much like applesauce, but homemade. But they eat it kinda wierd here. They eat it with the food. Like rice and chicken. I tried it with rice and it really didn´t do anything for me. So I ate it for dessert. It was really good. After lunch there were going to be some Futbol games. So I watched that for a while then it got to cold so I came back inside. Later i went by yeseina´s house to get her for the night service. After that there was going to be a special dinner. It was pretty fun. I took my camera and Jonathan just loved the camera so much I just let him be in charge of the photographing. The food was really good. We had steak and mashed potatoes and rice and salad. Kinda sounds like an American meal now that I think about it. But they toookd forever to bring out the drinks. For some reason here in Peru they serve drinks last. That´s one thing I don´t like. I am always dieing of thirst during my meals!

Jonathan, Yesenia and me

waiting for the food

Yesenia, Lily, and me

all the young people at the church. The cakes were so good!

MOnday I woke up sick again. I hate this! I hate to be sick. My throat was killing me and my nose was all stuffed up. I felt better towars the end of the day. I went to Yesenia´s mom´s little store and we just hung out. She always helps run it when she gets home from work. She has this brother in law named Pepe and he is hilarious. we all just laughed for like 2 hours, This other little lady came by to and stayed a while. He name is Graciela. She is schizophrenic. Atleast that´s what I think. She is so sweet though and so cute! Well I decidede I would try and go to the beach alone the next day. I know what buses to take so Pepe said he would walk me to the bus stope. I told him I would meet him around 12:30.

So then today I woke up and it was sunny again. I was excited becuase that meant it would be a nice day at the beach. I woke up and wnet for a morning run and got back and got ready to go. So I texted Pepe and told him to meet me at 12:45. Well I didnt have any minutes on my cellSo I had to buy a phone card. I couldnt find one in any store and I didnt know how to get a hold of him. So I was just walking around everywhere. Then Cleausa saw me she was coming back form school and she asked me what I was doing. i told her I was gonna go to the beach so we decieded to go together. Who knows what happend to that Pepe guy. Oh well. Wrll my uncle wanted us to eat lunch before we went so we didnt end up leaving until 1:45. We got to the beach and it was still sunny.I took a little nap and I was woken up to this little old man standing over me asking me if I wanted to buy some chocolate! At first I was so confused..Then I bought some chocolate covered coconut. It was really good. So the sun was gone and it was all cloudy and wndy. We decided to just walk back and get something to eat. We got some Papas Rellenas (stuffed potatoes) they were really good. After that we walked back again and went into some littel stores. They had alot of cute jewelry. Then we got on the bus and came back home. I was a little disappointed that I dint get any sun but regardless it´s just nice to be at the beach. We are all going to go again on Friday for a day at the beach. I can´t wait!

Huaca del Sol y la Luna

Today I went to La Huaca del Sol y la Luna. I went on this tour with Yesenia´s hotel again. When I got to the hotel there was some kind of protest on the street again. It had to do with fireworks and all that kind of celebration stuff. Now that it´s getting to closer to Chrstmas they try to get people to not use those types of things because they are so dangerous and alot of people get hurt or die every year because of it.






My group was small. There were only 4 of us in the english speaking group. There are 2 temples El Sol(sun) and La Luna (moon). El Sol is covered with sand still. Tourist can´t go into it. They are still working on restoring it. La Luna is the temple where we were able to go into. It was pretty big! And it was really interesting to learn about the Moche people and their culture and all their customs. We walked up this hill type thing and went into the temple. Some of the walls were colorful and well restored. All the colors are original. They have just done a really good job cleaning it and getting all the sand out of the paint. It´s just amazing to be in there and think about the history and everything that occurred right where I was standing it is just a surreal feeling.


outside of the temple before we went in

the walls are made of these dirt bricks

one of the walls that is still up.

these faces were all over the temple



Huaca del Sol, that sand dune looking thing is the temple

over looking Huaca del Sol













This is where they would have sacrifices

I think this wall is so pretty!

When we left the temple we walked back down to the entrance. There were little vendors selling jewelry and little things. We had about 10 minutes to look around. We walked to the front and came upon another Peruvian Hairless dog! We all just looked at it. One of the guys went on and on about how it was the ugliest thing and they should all be dead. I said that even these dogs are cute in their own way. They always look like they are dead though. this one didn´t move at all. But he was breathing.

So the whole time during out tour of the temple none of us from the group really talked to each other. One of the guys was from Australia, I talked to him a little but the other couple was kinda quiet. But when we got in the van we all started talking about Coke leaf tea and how if we could leagally bring it back into the states. They were funny. The girl was from Denmark and I can´t remember where he husband was from, but they live in London. And I just can´t remember their names either. So when we got to the hotel we were all hungry so we decided to just have lunch together. We ate at this restaraunt that was pretty expensive for me..Actually it´s not expensive at all but for the way I spend my money here now it was. I spent about 28 soles which is almost 10 bucks. I ordered duck with rice and an avocado salad and chicha morada to drink. It was quite delicious! We all ended up talking for hours. They all lead such interesting lives. The couple had already been all through southern Peru and had gone to Bolivia and Chile. They had some interesting stories. The Australian guy his name was Nigel he had been all through the south as well. They had all kinda gone to the same places but just at different times. He was kinda strange. He had some wierd stories about serial killers and stalkers. But it was pretty funny. He was like this Biologist Scientist or something crazy like that.. The girl was a therapist for autistic children and the other guy did something with pharmaceauticals. They were really fun to hang out with though. Ive met some really interesting people on this trip so far. I love going on all these tours!


one of the streets in downtown Trujillo, by the hotel

the cathedral infront of the hotel

Touristy stuff..

My friend Yesenia works at this hostal here in Trujillo and they have a travel agency there as well. So she got me in on a tour going to Some ruins called Chan Chan. I was a little nervous at first just because I would be by myself, but when I got there I felt better because I was going with the english speaking tour. Which is less people and easier for me to pay attention. We went on this little van thing and it was so sunny and hot! The first place we got to was "La Huaca Arco Iris (Dragon)" (I´m not sure what Huaca is in english but the rest of it is Rainbow Dragon). It´s this huge temple with all these symbols and cool architecture. My group was pretty small. Everyone was so nice though. And they all had cool English accents except for me. Everyone here seems to think American´s are so cool and interesting. To me they are all so much more interesting than I am. I met these two cousins from London named Nick and Andres. They are traveling all through South America for 5 months! They were really funny. I wish I could take off 5 months and travel all over the continent!


on top of the huaca

View from Huaca Arco Iris


When we were leaving the Huaca I almost stepped on this crazy looking dog. I actually though he was dead. He didn´t move at all. It was a Peruvian Hairless dog. Apparently they are on the endangered species list and they are like a symbol of Peru or something. I though he was kinda cute though!

Peruvian Hairless Dog

little Peruvian hairless dog

regular dogs with hair

The next stop was the Chan Chan Museum. They explained all the pottery and weapons and the kind of life the Chamu people lead. They were way before the Incas! They´re work was amazing though. Pretty intricate.


my ancestors, maybe?







The we headed to Chan Chan. It was pretty amazing. Except you can see how alot of the work isnt all original. It´s been restored alot and I think fixed up. But it was still pretty cool. i had been here once before about 8 years ago. But now it has grown and looks alot better.











this represented fishing nets



infront of a fresh water lagoon in Chan Cha


tombs




After walking all through Chan chan ruins we wnet to Huanchaco. It was really cold and windy and I was freezing! But I was on the beach so I didn´t really care all that much. I walked on the beach and also on this bridge that goes into the ocean. It was really pretty. I also took some pictures of the fishing boats. The fishermen here still make the same fishing boats they made in Moche times. It´s crazy how they fish on those. They seem like they wouldnt be all that steady. Í don´t think I could get on one anyway...

Huanchaco



fishing boats in Huanchaco

big metal things sticking out of the ocean..??

When we were driving back there were all these people in the streets and wouldn´t even let us get through. Apparently there was some kind of protest in the streets. it was kinda cool though. The streets were packed it probably took us an extra 10 minutes to get back to the Hostal because they wouldn´t let us drive through.

protest on the streets