Trujillo

Wowwy, It has been a while longer than I'd have liked since my last post, but I'll make it worth your time! First of all, a shoutout to Pamela is necessary since she emailed me about the food I posted a picture of last time!! YAY PAMELA!!! Last weekend, we took a four day trip to Trujillo, which is on the northern coast, about an 8 hour drive from Lima. We took a very fancy overnight bus, which felt like a spaceship. In Trujillo, we stayed in the City Center, near the Plaza de Armas, which is kind of like a square park, with a fountain and lots of space for gatherings, etc. Here's a photo of one of the churches in the Plaza that I took one evening.

Half of our group stayed at a Fe y Alegría Training Hotel, which is a program with the schools that we visited during our first week..They also have training programs for young adults--housekeeping, cooking, factory work, car painting, and they also have two sites in the countryside, a farm and a vineyard. We spent a good portion of our trip visiting these sites, which was a surprise to us, but ultimately a worthwhile endeavor! Here are a few photos:

First of all, they gave us awesome vests and hats to wear during out tours to the various sites. We felt a lot like elementary students on a field trip

Artsy shot from the shoe factory

These are the Guinea Pigs we worked with during our afternoon at the farm site. We spent an hour or so beforehand collecting Alfalfa from the fields to feed them! (And later, they fed some of us...I passed!)

Here's a photo of us looking for caterpillars in the asparagus plants, which was my groups morning activity..it was fun!! We also went to the Vineyard one day, but I was feeling pretty crummy so I slept in the bus during the tour. Here's a photo of the vineyard taken by a friend (thanks Facebook!)

The second part of the trip involved visiting the Temples of the Sun and Moon and Chan Chan, which are both pretty ancient ruins. The Sun and Moon are much much older, from the Moche people, who lived between 100AD and 800AD (WOW!!) Here are a few photos from the Temple of the Sun (Huaca del Sol):

And here are some of Chan Chan (which was built by the Chimu around AD 850 and lasted until its conquest by the Inca Empire in AD 1470):

YAYYY, Teo, I found the Fish!! Okay, that's it for now. I'll post again (sooner) with an update about my volunteer work in El Agustino. We leave for Cusco on Sunday, so I'll try to do it before then! I miss you, and love you all! Happy MAY!!!