Que Bueno

Well alright then I have been quite busy lately on a side note, I just read my brothers blog, www.zacharyleschhuie.blogspot.com, and it has inspired me to as my peruvian mother would say in her strangled english, speak good. My bro's blog is truly amazing and even contains pictures, the things that I continue to promise I will some day put here in this blog.
Well as far as what has been happening in my life lately, a whole hell of a lot. I just got back from one of the best hikes and experiences in my life, the Inca Trail. This is four days of hiking and on the final day you arrive in machu pichu, one of the most spiritual beautiful and greatest places I have ever been, despite the massive amounts of gringos everywhere and tourists alike. This was an extremely hard hike composed of total ups and downs, up a mountain, down a mountain. The hike was made harder because all the ups and downs are composed of steps, some of which are original Incan steps. Hiking the Inca trail nowadays is estremely regulated and you have to have a guide and porters. In the past there was no regulations and the are and the trail was getting trashed so the government came in and created regulations, which I think is for the better. The porters are only allowed to carry a certain amount and only so many people are allowed to hike it each day and these type of things. Down there in the sacred valley which is where the hike begins is the urubamba river which at this time was extremely flooded and awesome, the normal class 4/5 section was absolutely burly and I got to see the whole thing riding in a train along side it. I am very excited about my friends coming here from the states in a few weeks and then I will begin my kayaking journeys in Peru and Chile. Good stuff.
Well my classes are winding down and I have began writing papers, which eventually are in Spanish. First I do all my research and then I write my papers in Spanish, after that I spend a lot of time converting the paper from english to spanish. I have already written one paper for my development class and it was about the type of ethics, ideas, and philosophies that people have about doing development work in what are usually poorer countries and also about if development work is truly ever helpful. I really enjoyed writing it and giving a presentation about it in class, a very good time.
Tomorrow will be our last day working in Mantay, the house for adolescent mothers, and today we had sort of a good bye party and celebration of our good work there. I really have enjoyed my time there. There is some type of phenomenon that exists here which is that whenever I go into the country or in less touristy type places, I am gawked at, laughed at, and generally have a good time with the locals. I ask them why they are laughing at me and usually present that they are probably laughing at me because I am a very tall gringo, which makes them laugh even more. I really like this dynamic. At mantay all the young mothers there do the same. They are very shy and if I joke with them or try to interact with them they always laugh and shy away, it's quite funny. Today during our little party I eventually built up the courage to dance with one of these girls, after dragging her across the floor and then her having to coax me as well we danced. This was very funny as all the other girls were laughing at us and just generally an embarrassingly good time. I think this new building that we have helped construct for these ladies will be quite helpful. Well I guess that is more or less my present life. I am feeling poopy again, literally, so on monday I am gonna go get a blood test to see if I got anything living in there because this has been going on for while.
Everyone in my program is a little sad because we are realizing how little time we have left I feel very fortunate to be down here traveling for another 2/3 months after my school ends. Well ya'll take it easy and enjoy yourselves.
Love, nate