Lochness.

Ok! Holy Moly. So much has changed! I have so much to catch up on. So short form:
Thursday we went to go to Grupo 5, but it was sold out! So instead we decided to go dancing... and I fell off this alpaca bench and hurt my foot! But anyways, it seemed fine at the time but then I woke up after about a half an hour of sleeping with intense foot pain, and didn't sleep the rest of the night! So I ended up at the hospital the next morning for x-rays, where I spent four hours in a wheelchair with my host mom being the sweetest person in the world as she got the doctors to look at me and eventually they told me there was nothing wrong, just crazy pain and that I had to take ibuprofen and rub gel on it. So we went home, and to my extreme surprise I could swollow the ibuprofen! Kelsey coached me through it, and now it is my very best skill! I did miss a day of travelling, but all was fine.
Saturday we left for Machu Picchu... one of the wonders of the world! We got up and first went to Pisac, where I hung out with the cab driver while the girls (including Julie, Jess' grant supervisor) climbed the mountain... my old foot kept me from being able to. Then we went to Urubamba for lunch, where we ate at the muse 2 (our fav) and they had a special menu for volunteers! Then we took a crazy combi to OllentayTamboy where we saw a baby who looked just like our friend Camarote... and from OT we took the train to Aguas Caliente, where Machu Picchu is. At the train station, they had a wheelchair, and since my foot was killing and I had an excuse, I hopped in. We laughed a little, and then when it was time to board the train the girls ran to the train but these train guard people would not let me get our of the chair! They kept telling me to just wait... and then finally almost everyone had boarded and they carried me, in chair, to the train! And then they bumped the girls and I up a class, because they wanted us to be comfortable! It was so funny! Since we got to AC at night, we didn't really see anything, and just went straight to bed.
Sunday we got up at 4 to catch the 5:30 bus to Machu Picchu, because it gets really full really early. So we stood in line in the pitch dark with about 70 other tourists, waiting for our bus up the mountain. When we got there, the sun was just comming up, and we climbed about a gazillion steps (painfully!) until finally we were looking over the crazy Inca ruin town! It was so insane! It's like, an entire village, preserved. So crazy. Anyways, the girls went off to climb WaynaPicchu, but I couldn't really with my foot so I checked out the village at my own pace then sat down for a little while near the gardens, where I heard about 12 tours stop and heard about 12 different explenations... one tourist asked 'are there any avacado plants here?', to which her guide answered 'no'. The next guide came along with his group and said 'and here is the avocado tree'... haha! It makes you wonder how much these guides make up! Anyways, we spent the rest of the day checking out Machu and AC, then trained home, where we had some crazy conversations with an American man who had seen more of Canada than I have, and was once pulled over by a mountie in the Yukon!
Monday we volunteered at the clinic in the morning, I cannot wait until I have sufficient time to tell you all about those kids. Ask me about Roger. You will laugh. After the clinic, we had parade prep! My foot was still sore, but I was determined to dance, so Marita gave us huge yarn braids and we threw on our rediculously short skirts and puffed sleeves, and got ready for the parade! It was so fun, and even though I wanted to cut my foot off by the end of it, it was an unreal experience! After, we went to Camarotes house for a traditional Peruvian after party, haha.
Tuesday was a holiday, their version of Canada day. But that night we had a kind of 'closing ceremony' with Jorge, and got our volunteer certificates and then went out for pizza. After pizza we met our friends in the plaza, and Jorge, Beth, Monique, Julian, Kelsey, Jess, Brian, Fab, Camarote, Celine and I went to celebrate Cusco day, before burying some keys.
Wednesday was our big finish up day. First, we volunteered in the clinic for the last time! So crazy! Then we had tree planting in Chocco, so we picked up our trees then went to the community and planted for a couple of hours. The kids were so cute, they all had their picks and buckets and we just going at it! Then that night, we had our final meeting with the adolescents and the photography group. Seeing their pictures was unreal, they were so good! And their albums were amazing. Finally, we went home for our last supper with Jess, but had to run off to catch a night bus to Puno.
Thursday we arrived in Puno at about 4am, and got a hostal for two hours before our 7am tour of Lake Titikaka. We saw floating islands, and hiked up island Tequile. The floating islands were the best part though, they are man made and the people who live on them are so crazy! But the weirdest part is, because of the humidity and unstability of the ground, they are super susceptible to arthritis and their life expectancy is under 50. Finally, we caught the night bus home (coldest thing of my life. At first, people kept offering us blankets and coats and we were like 'they are so weird!' ... joke was on us though!) and got back to Cusco at about 5am.
Friday was wrap up day. We spent a lot of time at the market, buying our final souvernirs, and then had a laid back supper with the family before taking our last family pictures. :( I cannot believe how fast this was all ending!
This morning we had our last breakfast with Celine, and then said goodbye as she left for the jungle, and we left for a Spanish evaluation with Jorge. We are now at a low Advanced level of Spanish! When we got to Cusco, we were high Intermediate, so we got a bit better, which is awesome! After that, we finished packing, had a quick lunch, then had to go to the airport!! IT was so funny, we got in the cab after saying our goodbyes and Kelsey and I just looked at each other and started bawling! It is so weird to be gone... it really felt like home there for that month!
So now we are back in Lima, spending a few nights at the volunteer house. It's nice to be back, but I feel like I left half my heart in Cusco! We had so many good times there... but who knows, maybe we'll be back someday!