I have so much to tell you...let's start with my parents' visit. One word...AMAZING! I met them in Lima and, after 10 months apart, the reunion was overwhelming. Tears and hugs and kisses all around (ok, only me and my mom cried, but you get the point ;). We met my host family where I lived in the 2.5 months of training and again, it was so wonderful. I adore them, and they were so good to me last summer, so it was really special for the families to be able to meet. My mom brought this awesome light-up squishy ball and the kids went crazy. Even though they couldn't communicate directly with each other. a lot of love and joy was shared between the two families. That night we ate our first of many amazing meals at Astrid & Gaston in Mira Flores. Here are my parents with their backpacks (so proud!) at the Lima hotel.
The next day we flew to Cuzco, headed to the main plaza and plopped down in the Starbucks for some nice coffee and a gorgeous view. We spent the next two days seeing nearby towns and ruins, kind of building up to Machu Picchu. We got to see an Easter procession in the plaza and go to church right there in the beautiful Cathedral. It was standing room only and the priest encouraged us to have a sincere, steadfast faith and pursue Christ. I loved it! Since I live here, I was blown away by how expensive everything was, but its a once in a lifetime thing so what can you do. Then we headed to Aguas Calientes, the closest city to Machu Picchu to spend the night. We got up super early and were among the first visitors to MP the next day...so gorgeous! We decided to climb up Huayna Picchu, a HUGE mountain that took us about 2 hours to climb. Its super steep and I'm glad we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into, but when we got up to the top it was so worth it...
After taking a time-out to rest and eat, we hired a guide to take us around the ruins for an hour and it was totally worth it. Learned so much...the Incans were absolutely brilliant with their architecture.
That night we started making our way back to Cuzco and stayed in a WONDERFUL hotel about an hour out of the city. It was like a hidden resort. Used to be a monastery, and just had beautiful grounds, a huge stone-floored lobby , amazing restaurant with free buffet breakfast (the best I've seen in Peru). I wish we could have stayed there longer but its not super close to the city or Machu Picchu, so we had to settle for one night :) I don't have any pics of it, but just imagine!
Then we headed back to Lima and took the bus overnight 15.5 hrs to my capital city, Cajamarca. We spent two days in my site where my parents felt like celebrities (people are still asking about them) and they got to see my life here. They came to our youth group meeting and the kids loved it. We visited my family. Nick's family, and I introduced them to everyone I could. Then we spent a day in the capital city with my best friend Heidi where my parents got to experience the hot baths (mmm...so relaxing), buy artisan stuff and just walk around. We had a great lunch...burgers and fries to prepare them to go back to the states (ha!) and accompanied them to the airport where (after quite a struggle, I won't go into detail) they got on the first of three flights to make it back home.
It was seriously such a gift from God to have them here. They mean so much to me and even writing this I'm tearing up cuz I miss them so much. BUTTT I will be coming home exaclty two months from tomorrow, so its all good!!!
**One important thing I want to mention before I sign off..we do 2 youth camps a year here, one for girls and one for boys. We have the boys youth camp (Valor) next month and could use some financial support. Here is the link if you want to donate: https://donate.peacecorps.gov/
Thanks y'all for reading, and much love!
Jackie
