Meredith's Peruvian Adventures

I finally got around to joining the local gym with another classmate for our last month here. It’s a nice facility, and I’m sure my abs...

.This Sunday was the church’s 10th anniversary, so they gave us lunch after the service and some people performed songs and dances. It...

My host mom meant to take me to a Bolivian market to try to find some cheap winter clothes this morning at 9, but I forgot that she...

We finished really early today, since we only had one Spanish class, and I went straight from class to meet with my advisor for my final...

After lunch Wednesday, I went with some friends to tour the Cathedral in the Plaza de Armas. I recalled this being one of my favorite...

Our guest professor today was possibly my favorite lecturer we’ve had all semester. The topic was about climate change and how that’s...

It was quite a shock to the senses to have normal class again after a whole week (oh how we had missed Julia), but our professor had pity...

Happy Easter! I finally made it to the morning mass at San Blas with my friend, and although it was my first Catholic mass, my friend...

I barely slept last night, coming home as late as we did from the procession, because I had to wake up at 3 am to meet up with the rest...

For Good Friday, another tradition in Cusco is to have a sort of procession starting from the main cathedral in the Plaza de Armas and...

Because this week is Semana Santa (Holy Week), today we went to my host mom’s parents’ house for lunch to celebrate a tradition that is...

In the morning, we had a reflection session to talk about our experiences in the indigenous communities. I think all of us on this...

After breakfast at 6 am sharp, we went to a piranha-infested lake called Tres Chimbadas where we spotted several cool birds. We returned...

This morning, we were all abruptly informed that we’d be going to stay in the eco-lodge in Infierno for the night and that it had no...

Today when we returned to Infierno, we were tasked with helping our host families work on their farms. Our host family’s farm was a 10...

Today we visited a different indigenous community, called “Infierno” (literally “Hell”). After a long bus ride on one of the most...

The indigenous community we visited today was called Palma Real, a good two hours by boat up the river. After a brief introduction by the...

Today we had two very long class sessions about indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, who have extremely minimal contact with the...

Before I left this morning, my host mom handed me some cash and a hand-drawn map of the Plaza de Armas in Puerto Maldonado so I could buy...

Because we’re leaving tomorrow for the jungle, today felt like a Friday, and so I decided to treat myself again. I went back to the...