Eco Truly 'not what I was expecting' Park

The weekend after Cuzco, I went with a few friends to what I had imagined was a community of people living alternatively as far as growing organic food, eating vegetarian/vegan, practicing yoga, and being generally loving blahblahblah(<--my genius housemate recently had the realization that this comes from the word 'habla,' 'he/she talks' repeated. Way cool, huh?). Anyway, I was really excited for all of this! As, obviously, at this point I'm thinking advocating for more sustainable food systems in some way (farming/migrant farmworkers rights/urban ag programs) is what I want to do with at least a good part of my life, and I have a lot of respect for vegetarians and think it's important to be aware of how energy/water intensive meat is and eat less of it, and I love yoga, and I like the basic principle of extending love towards everyone and and and wow I don't always realize what a hippie I've become. Being here with a group of students that are from all over the states and having (in a lot of ways) very different experiences--considering we're all the same age and in college, and now, studying abroad in Peru--is really making me realize how much living in the Bay is shaping me. Ie, how much of my inner hippie is being/has been brought out! It's easy not to notice when you are amongst many people that are often better 'hippie prototypes' than I am. My (genius) housemate Camille is having a similar experience, for example, because she's never thought of herself as being an especially 'sorority-girl' type--but she is and it's only because she's normally around girls that fit that description way more-so.

K, this is a sidetrack from Eco Truly Park but I think hanging out with the people in my program is one of the coolest things about studying abroad! Cuz' very few of us would normally be friends I'm pretty sure. For example, I kind of fled the sorority scene and that was not an accident. And I've never been that stoked on girls that are very sexual and like to get lots of tattoos. Or guys that read/talk about the bible A LOT. Not that I would ever hate on these kinds of people, we just wouldn't normally gravitate towards being friends. But we are here, and I'm having so much fun! Especially with my roommate Camille, who is one of the easiest people to talk to about anything and everything, which we do.

So anyway, Eco Truly Park is a farm community of people that are part of the Hare Krishna movement and live in huts made of mud, called Truly's. They never miss an opportunity to talk about how and why everything they do is for the purpose of pleasing Hare Krishna, who wants everyone to live more natural, spiritual lives guided by the principle of unconditional love towards all that is living. Which sounds dandy.

But then there are other guiding principles, like cleanliness--when I went to volunteer in the kitchen, I had to rinse my mouth with water and be sure not to eat anything while I was cooking to avoid the 'boca sucia'--I guess the idea is your mouth can't be dirty because this is offensive to Hare Krishna? I don't really understand a lot of it, and I really agree with another volunteer that I got to know who took issue with how much authority plays into their religion. He was able to put in words something I had thought of as an issue with all religions, which is the whole 'obedience/feeling of indebtedness towards some higher authority.' I just think it shouldn't depend on the presence of some authority figure to get people interested in having good values. Plus, I don't like the idea that anyone can ever be objectively better than anyone else. I don't really think it's very 'loving' to encourage people to devote their (lesser) lives to a higher authority on the grounds that that's the most meaningful thing you can do with your life which is less than Krishnas', who knows objectively what is good.

So that was the Truly 'not what I was expecting' part about Eco Truly Park.

Plus, the yoga was really weird. We had to do this panting doggie breathing, look straight into the sun, hold hands and run along the beach, and I was temporarily suffocated by my instructor at one point after he whispered crazy sanskrit stuff that I didn't understand into my ear. And then there was temple! That was an experience--I've never seen so many old men so enthused, jumping around in circles, playing instruments, taking pictures like they were going to upload them onto facebook, all dancing to this 'Maha Mantra':

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

Yeah. But volunteering was really fun, and I met some other cool people volunteering there! Plus there was a chef that made BOMB alfajores.

It's-been-too-long-let-me-give-excuses-and-then-tell-you-about-Cuzco!

Wowzer. It's been awhile, a testament to how damn busy and overwhelmed I've been with how much fun I'm having. Between Cuzco, Eco Truly Park, Ica, and Iquitos, I was living it up every weekend in April! And between all the traveling, I was trying to keep up with school, capoeira, determining important things for next year (like my classes, where I'm living, and Alternative Breaks), and exploring Lima with my amazing host family.

K, where to begin seeing as it has almost been 2 months? Oh, yeah, CUZCO and MACHU PICCHU! I went there :) During Santa Semana, the weekend leading up to Easter.

Highlights:
Tours of Saqsaywaman and other ruins in SPANISH! Even though I might've missed a few things, I really need the practice listening. And I even learned a few words in Quechua, the native language of the area.

Cuzco is BEAUTIFUL. Maybe it's just the contrast to the smoggy-foggy Lima skies, but the sky there was always so epic. And the landscape was so GREEN and lush and mountainous. We had a free day where there were no organized tours for us, so I went to Pisaq with a few friends, a village that was a beautiful bus ride away, and we rode horses up to some ruins. My horses' name was Fantaseria, and she was very well-behaved unlike my friends horses. I can't remember why, but everyone else was having a lot of difficulties. I think my success with Fantaseria was due to my words of encouragement and constant spouting of flattering remarks.

The nightlife in Cuzco was also cool. I've never been into the whole 'clubbing' scene, but it seems to be the thing to do and it's pretty fun. It's mostly a lot of drinking then running around and dancing and more drinking. Mama Africa was the name of one of the popular places there, and I couldn't tell you what distinguished it from the rest except that for some reason there were large-screen tv's with white-water rafting videos playing. Maybe it's because I don't normally like to get drunk enough to really appreciate those places, but I definitely prefer hanging out in more chill settings where I can actually talk to people.

After 2 nights in Cuzco, we took a scenic bus ride that included a stop in this village where we watched women dye alpaca wool, and another stop to try chicha (!). First we played a game called 'sapo' (frog) that can be best compared to bags--you try to toss these coins into the mouth of a frog that's centered on a borad with other holes that are worth different amounts of points. I guess it's a pretty common game here as it's been at every hotel we've stayed at since, and I'm getting the hang of it ;) Then we got to learn about and try chicha, a drink made from chewed and spit out corn that is fermented (ohman i miss kombucha!) Riquísimo!

Then we took a train to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu. A group of us decided we wanted to hike the whole thing rather than take the bus to the entrance of the Huayna/Machu Picchu hikes. So we woke up at 4:30AM, ate some continental breakfast, and set out on an hour-long hike under the moonlit periwinkle sky. Then, it turned out that they didn't have enough passes for everyone to do the Huayna Picchu hike, so myself and a few others did the MACHU Picchu hike (which was a lot higher, no big deal ;) )  The day was a blur of a TON of stairs, epic views(see facebook for pictures), good people, and me trying to understand the tour guides when they talked about Incan history in spanish.

Then I went to the 'hot springs,' which weren't like the hot springs I was envisioning (a) because no one was naked, and (b) because they were cement and outside of a bohemian-style restaurant and not nestled in the mountains.

K, that's all for now. Adventures in Eco Truly Park and Ica coming shortly!
Amor!