Hello all!

Happy 4th of July!! We had a great vacation, Frieda, Kate, and I, in Yauyos, the mountains of peru. They were, not even joking, the most beautiful place I have ever been! Not only were they beautiful, but one of a kind. They were slightly like mountains in europe, near the north of Italy, but had a touch of norwegian plains, and slightly skinnier. Its hard to describe, but its worth seeing. There is no cell service, internet, and hardly even light!! But the volunteers up there are happy. we hiked up and saw some ruins, went to a natural lake, and ate lots of alpaca meat, which is some what like llama. Teh hostals there are nice, for the most part, though lask warm water. Sometimes they didnt even have showers! Not that I was going to take a cold one up there anyways. The stars were amazing! I felt like I could just reach up and touch them, they were so close!! Mind you, we are at 4000 meters at that point. Luckily, none of us got altitude sickness, which would have sucked. But we were drinking water like it was our job! It was nice and quiet, which is a great change from the hustle and bustle of the coast. Things are just more dirty down on the coast! People look meaner!! All in all, I would recommend going to yayos for those folks who like to explore the not-so-trekked path. You do need to know how to speak spanish, however. And bringing your own transportaqtion is recommended.

After travelling in a foreign country which I know the language, UI think its going to be hard going back to not knowing what people are saying on vacations!! Things are so much easier when you can just ask someone on the street where things are. There is the best place to eat, where can I use internet, the best bank, etc. Travelling where I cant understand anyone will be a hard transition.

Hope things are well!

Happy travels,

Teigan