Our Peruvian Adventure

I am back home!! But, not for long. We just returned from our Peruvian trip yesterday (after some logistical snafoos), and we will be leaving again tomorrow. The day before we were leaving for Peru, Geoff found out to his HUGE disappointment that the house he had been looking to purchase in Jersey had fallen through. So, while we were in Peru, we each bought a round-trip ticket to Jersey. We leave tomorrow evening; I will be in the States for two weeks, visiting friends(!) and swing-dancing(!!), while Geoff looks around at other properties in NJ. The plan is that he will be in Jersey for four weeks total, but this way at least we are not apart for the entire time. (I will have to get back to San Salvador within two weeks, because that is when all returning teachers will start to prepare "officially" for the year. In truth, I have been on-and-off doing all sorts of prep this summer, but it will be nice to finally get a class schedule, finalized room assignment, meet the new hires, etc.)

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Peru took my breath away, both literally and figuratively. On our 5 days / 4 nights trek, the highest point we reached was about 4600 meters, or over 15000 feet above sea level. That is an astonishing feat! The temperature dropped below freezing on the first night of the trip -- in the 20s Fahrenheit range. What had happened to Geoff and me was that we had only arrived in Cuzco the day before our trek was due to start, so our bodies didn't have enough time to adjust to the altitude before beginning the climb into even higher altitudes. I threw up twice on the first day while ascending the mountain, and my chest hurt the entire time as I was walking / breathing, because my lungs were constricted. We passed by a couple of tombstones along the way, and the guide explained that one of them belonged to a gal whose asthma had flared up in the high altitudes, but who pushed on obstinately until things went from bad to worse. (I'm highly asthmatic, so that story got Geoff and me both a bit worried.) Finally, after about 9 or 10 hours of hiking, I gave up and hopped onto an emergency horse for the last hour of hike of the day.

On day 2 of the hike, the guides put me on a horse on the way up to the highest point, since the air was so thin. Geoff, too, was having a lot of trouble breathing -- and he runs marathons!! He was very pale by the time he finally got to the top of the mountain. I hopped off the horse and took a few steps on completely flat ground, and I already could not catch my breath. I had thought that descending would be easier for me to walk (even though we were still at an altitude > 4500 meters), but I clearly was wrong, because after walking for about 15 minutes, I threw up again. The guide insisted on me getting back onto the horse, and I threw up once more that day. Not my strongest showing, and I was super disappointed in myself that day. :(

That night, we got back to a lower altitude (in the 2000s meter-wise). By the time I woke up the next morning, the tightness in my chest had subsided. I was able to walk the rest of the trip, and even raced my way to the entrance of Machu Picchu to be one of the 400 people each day to receive a ticket to hike Wainapicchu (a nearby super-steep but stunningly beautiful mountain; you can see it in the picture above)! I was so proud of myself, because we had started hiking at 3:30am, in pitch darkness, and we were ascending these steep stairways that seemed to never end. Geoff was eager to be one of the 400 people, so he ran up the entire stairway and left me to climbing by myself. It was a tough mental game, but I was able to outrace a lot of people in similar (or better) physical condition than me, because I really wanted to get one of those tickets to Wainapicchu!

I can't describe how amazing Wainapicchu was, and our pictures do not do it any justice. It was like climbing up to a city in the clouds -- you have to use your hands and feet, rock wall-climbing style, in order to get up the narrow and VERY steep stairs. (I was really freaked out, naturally, because I'm terrified of heights. But, I tried not to focus on the fact that if you missed a step, you might very well tumble down the mountain and die. On the way down was much scarier, because you couldn't avoid looking at how high up you are.) When you look down from the top of Wainapicchu, even the immensity that is Machu Picchu is entirely dwarfed at the base of this mountain. It was definitely the highlight of our entire trip!

In Lima, Geoff and I also spent some time going to discotecas and bars. We also checked out a peña, which is essentially a local Peruvian cabaret, where traditional dancers come out in fancy outfits and dance during your dinner. Geoff and I found a place called "La Brisa de Titicaca" (the Breeze of Titicaca), which was cheap and you can get up in between the dance numbers to dance to traditional music! It was super fun. And, while walking around Lima during the day, we decided on a whim to go paragliding, since we had never done it before! It was awesome to fly over the cliffs of the Peruvian coastline. And, of course we also checked out some delicious Peruvian cuisine -- including cuy, or guinea pig!!

My only (HUGE) annoyance from the entire trip was that when we arrived at the Lima Airport yesterday, 3 hours before our scheduled flight back to El Salvador, the Copa Airline guy told us that the Salvadorean rule is for you to be deported from El Salvador (back to Peru), unless you can show proof that you have been vaccinated against the Yellow Fever more than 10 days BEFORE your scheduled flight from a country with active cases of the disease (ie. Peru)! In fact, the only reason that Copa eventually allowed us to check in to our flight was because the doctor on-site at the airport did Geoff and me a huge favor and wrote "Revacunado" ("Re-vaccinated") on our immunization record cards, after administering the vaccine to us! Otherwise, we would have been literally stuck in Peru for another 10 days!! Ridiculous!!

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Anyway, that's it for now. Ciao! I've got some errands to run (as is the nature of things when you keep leaving the country), but I'll leave you with this cute picture of us from our Peruvian trek. There was purple chalk on our faces and confetti in our hair, because it happened to be our hike-mate, Kate's, birthday, and that's how the Peruvians helped her celebrate!


How can you not love this country??

Costa Rica!

After much anticipation / some anxiety, I arrived in Costa Rica on the Tuesday of Holy Week, only to find out that the guy I was supposed to be meeting from the Chinese embassy had just left town and would not be around until Thursday evening! I was pretty upset, considering that I had only arrived in San Jose 1.5 days early to take care of this errand stuff before Geoff would arrive, and now it looked like it was still going to trample our vacation plans anyway. Alas, it is Central America, so you have to be tranquilo and to just play it by ear.

Between Tuesday and Wednesday, I walked around San Jose (which is a bit of a dump during the day) and checked out their famous Museo del Oro (Museum of Gold). I also made some progress in my reading book and went on a crocodile safari tour. As it turned out, I got to see everything on the tour (monkeys, frogs, sloths, lizards, snakes...) EXCEPT for crocodiles. Ironic, but like I said, it's Central America. Apparently, some tour operators in a different part of Costa Rica would habitually throw chickens into the water to lure the crocs out of their lazy afternoon naps. Next time, mark my words, I will be bringing my own chicken. :) Anyway, the tour itself was kind of slow, but the people on the tour were really fun, so it made the time fly by!

Geoff arrived on Wednesday night. (He got to San Jose later than me, since he works for himself and therefore didn't want to take off quite so many days to go on this trip.) We met up, as originally planned, at the hostel. Our hostel is a beautiful place, by the way -- the Costa Rican Backpackers, located on the western tip of the capital city. I would highly recommend staying there if you had to pass through San Jose at some point. They have a pool and a lovely restaurant with good Jamaican food(!!) and lovely Belgian ales. After some catching up, Geoff and I and his dormmate Cody ended up heading down to Casino Del Ray (sp), which is a bit of a shady spot by reputation. It was the first brothel I had ever seen!! All around the bar are old men and young, boobilicious women. It was really interesting, except for the fact that the servers and bartenders were pretty rude to our group of 3, since it was pretty obvious that we were mostly sight-seeing. Eventually, we went across the street to a much quieter casino (no shady goings-on here, at least that we could see), and played a few rounds of blackjack. All in all, it was a fun and very educational night. :)

The next day, Cody, Geoff, and I took a bus and then a cab to La Paz Waterfall. I wish we had more time there, because there was a series of butterfly and bird conservatory places that we could check out, but by the time we had finally made our way there and had hung out a bit by the water, it was getting pretty late in the day, and we needed to start heading back to San Jose. (My priority for the day was to meet up with the embassy folks to get my Chinese tourist visa, so I needed to be back in San Jose by around 5:30pm.) Thankfully, the visa app went off without a hitch in the evening, and Geoff and I took -- wait for this -- a $200 cab ride from San Jose to La Fortuna late in the night, to arrive at our hotel in La Fortuna!!! Damn embassy people -- this is what happens when they flake out on you repeatedly and cause disruptions to your previously tight travel plans. At that hour of the night (it was about 8pm when we finally set out for La Fortuna, after taking care of the visa paperwork), we didn't really have many options left in terms of renting a car OR taking a bus.

Anyway, our next couple of days in La Fortuna made all of the hectic traveling worth it, however. We took our friends' advice and rented an SUV and drove up to Rio Celeste, which is a stunningly beautiful blue river that is created naturally as a result of chemical precipitation. We also took another friend's advice and did a day of whitewater-rafting down one of the many beautiful rivers of Costa Rica. And to top it all off, Geoff and I booked an evening of amazing getaway at the most famous of La Fortuna hotsprings -- Tabacon. For $70, you get a very delicious dinner buffet, plus you get to explore the extensive labyrinth of amazing hot springs at this extremely luxurious spa / resort. Ahhh. Neither Geoff nor I had ever seen anything like it before. The $70, which seemed like a lot of money when we first made our reservation, turned out to be worth every penny.



I loved Costa Rica. Most of all, I loved the rainforest and the plethora of wildlife. I hope that we get to go back at some point to explore more of the beautiful country!

The magic of teaching; El Trifinio

I've been cruising during the last couple of weeks at work. In between teaching increasingly difficult algebraic topics, I sprinkled in some fun Geometric activities, various pep-talking, and some small-group tutoring to help my 9th-graders get through this time. For Geometry, March and April are our last push of heavy algebra before we move on to hands-on 3-D geometry stuff, so at least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It helps that this period of heavy algebra coincides with kids working harder on their own to stay afloat during the second semester -- I cannot tell if this is a result of this being a private school or if my various pep talks throughout the year have finally started to pay off. But, the other day, when a kid had not completed his homework assignment, before I could say anything, another kid turned to him and said in an imitation of me, "Herbert, you're not making good choices." It cracked me up, and I think that it's a good sign that the kids are at least partially internalizing what I say to them...

Some of my Algebra 2 Honors kids are lobbying for me to move up with them to teach Pre-Calculus Honors. The word on the street is that I'll be teaching only Geometry (both regular and Honors) next year. I am excited about the prospect of teaching Geometry Honors, now that I have (close to) a year of experience under my belt in teaching regular Geometry. The second time around, I think I can make the Geometry topics a lot more fun than they had been the first time, because I have been collecting various teaching materials and ideas throughout the year. But, I will miss my older students. So, I am taking the stance of sitting back and seeing what comes out of their lobbying, even though I'm pretty sure they won't be able to influence the school's plan of letting me teach Geometry full-time. (I don't really know, but I would guess that there is probably some small bit of politics involved in moving "up" to teach Pre-Calculus and Calculus. Especially in a department like mine, where I am the only teacher under the age of 35, I try to stay under the drama radar.)

In other news, Geoff and I are going to Costa Rica soon! The Holy Week is coming up, which is a big deal here in Central America. We teachers actually get 10 days off -- weekend to weekend, plus the following Monday. Since I need to get a tourist visa to China before June, I had been on the phone with a guy from the nearest Chinese embassy, located in Costa Rica. He assured me that they will open their doors to allow me an appointment during Semana Santa, so I went ahead and purchased my tickets to go to Costa Rica. Geoff will join me and spend a few days there as well, so that we can look around. --I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!! Costa Rica is supposed to be a lush tropical jungle, Jurassic Park-style. I cannot be more thrilled to go there. :)


By the way, our friend Colleen recently organized an amazing trip to the Montecristo National Park. We drove up there (Geoff and I drove in our sedan, which was not a pretty picture on those mountain roads), camped out on Saturday, and then did a day hike on Sunday to summit the point where Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala borders all meet at El Trifinio. It was a foggy day and the view wasn't great, but the hike was amazingly comfortable through the serene forest. I had missed being outdoors!

Climbing Volcano Izalco

A few weeks ago, when Geoff and I drove out to see Volcano Izalco for the first time, we had found out from the locals that there are guided tours to climb the volcano. The tours cost $1, and they start actually at a recreational campsite on top of a nearby volcano, Cerra Verde. We had decided that this sounded like a climb not to be missed, so yesterday, with a group of other teachers, we set out to climb the volcano.

To give a little bit of background about this volcano, Izalco had been continuously active between the 1700s and 1966, and was called the "Lighthouse of the Pacific", because ships would use its light to help guide their navigation at night. It is perfectly cone-shaped, and has a height of 650 meters, with a crater that measures 40 meters deep and 200 meters wide. At some point, some businessman decided to build a hotel on top of the nearby dormant volcano Cerra Verde, to try and make a profit off of the beautiful erupting Izalco. The hotel costed a lot of money to build, and you were supposed to be able to have a beautiful night view of the erupting volcano from the hotel. But, as the local lores have it, the day before the hotel was finished, the volcano erupted for the last time! Nature, in fact, had the last laugh... :)

Since its last eruption was relatively recent, Volcano Izalco still looks like a pile of rocks, only sparsely covered with vegetation. The so-called "path" to the top is also rough, at best. Most people in my group were in great shape, but I was pretty nervous ascending the volcano. I had to grab on to the rocks for the most part, and to lean into the mountain because I was nervous that I would slip down the side of the steep mountainside. At one point, I fell and was lying flat on the ground, because the rocks I was grabbing onto were loose and slippery themselves. When, finally, we got to the top, the view from top of the volcano was absolutely stunning! You are literally sitting on the edge of the crater, looking both into the crater of the volcano and looking out to the surrounding farmland! We walked almost all the way around the crater to the vent that was still emitting hot steam from underground. (Oddly, it didn't smell like sulfur, unlike the volcanoes I remember visiting in Hawaii.) Geoff and I had brought some bread, so we had a quick bite at the top before it came time to head back down. (By that time, the clouds had set in, and the view was obstructed. It was pretty clear that the guides wanted to get back before the rain would arrive, because I can imagine that hiking down that already-slippery mountainside in the rain would NOT be fun!)

Climbing down the volcano was much easier than going up, I thought, even though the gravel was definitely loose under our feet, and you slip downwards with every step. I fell once on the way down and was cut on a sharp rock, adding to my battle wound scratch marks for the day. The hardest part of the whole day was that after we had descended Izalco, we still needed to climb back up the other mountain -- to an even higher ground than the summit of Izalco -- to get back to our cars on top of Cerra Verde! Holy smack. That trail is well-paved and maintained, but the steepness of the incline makes it really exhausting. By the time we finally got back to the top, everyone was eager for some drinks and food.

We wrapped up the beautiful day by driving down the mountain to Lago de Coatepeque. The last time Geoff and I had gone there, we had found a nice little "restaubar" that is right on the water. This time, the gang went to the same place to grab some food and drinks, and Geoff and Greg both went for a quick dip in the lake. It was a perfect wind-down time after a day of hiking! I think everybody had a really great time. Even the weather remained beautiful the rest of the afternoon! :)

--Oh, and throughout the day, we had continued to encounter some amazing wildlife. Geoff took a picture of a giant grasshopper on top of the volcano; it was about 2/3 the length of my hand! And earlier, during our drive, Geoff and I had seen a vulture dragging a roadkill off to the side. We continued to see similar (big) black birds -- maybe vultures, maybe hawks -- as we were climbing the volcano...

I love El Salvador. I miss many things about New York City, but I really love it here. :)