Some random photos of life here

These are coca leaves. Here, they have been used to help calm altitude sickness or fight fatigue. This is also where cocaine is derived from. So I can't bring any coca leaves back to the US. Darn. Why must good things like this be abused?
I like to drink coca tea here :)



These are some pieces of ancient pottery from the Lambayeque civilization.
They are so many pretty pieces like this in Peru.



This is also from the Lambayeque civilization. Cool design, no? Nice Lambayeque, nice.



This is Abby and me drinking something called Chicha de jora en poto. It's basically a drink made from fermented corn. Super good! And poto, refers to the bowl that it's drunken from, which is part of a dried and painted squash. Poto also means butt. Just sayin' :)



These are the wonderful people we met on our trip to Chiclayo/Lambayeque. Chiclayo's motto is 'la ciudad de la amistad' or 'the city of friendship' These people really lived up to that slogan. They were so sweet and loving towards us. I'll miss them :)



These are some cute lil' ugly baby birds from Alejo's collection of birdies.



These are one of the adult birds. Aren't they pretty? There are about 60 of them. And they chirp all day. It's beautiful. It adds another element to the environment of the house. Love it!



This is a stand in selling food in the park in Miraflores.



This is what I bought from said stand. It's a dessert here called 'Arroz con leche con mazamorra morada.' It's basically a rice and milk dessert accompanied with fruity goodness. So good! Possibly my favorite Peruvian dessert.



This is beauty in a pie pan. Also known as a pie I made from a pumpkin that I bought, because they don't sell pumpkin puree. My first legit pumpkin pie, and it was epically delicious. I was excited and my host family loved it!



This is a dish called 'Choritos a la chalaca' It's basically mussels, or maybe scallops? covered with lime, spices, tomato, onion, and a bunch of other veggies. Something like that. Since Lima is on the coast, there is a lot of seafood. Mmmm!



Ok look closely. On the statues head there is a small llama. See it? There is a funny story behind this. The sculptor of the statue, while he was in the process of sculpting, was told to put a 'llama' above the head of the statue. In Spanish 'llama' not only means llama, as in the animal, but it also means flame. So the sculptor, instead of interpreting 'llama' as flame, which was the desire of the designer, interpreted it as the animal. So know, in one of the major plazas of Lima, there is a statue with a llama on it's head, instead of a flame. Hehe.



These are churros. Sooo good. They are churros filled with manjar blanco(caramel milky saucy goodness), churros filled with chocolate, and churros filled with pastry cream.



This is one of my host dad's paintings that he sold at his art exhibition. Isn't it beautiful? My room is right beside his art studio, so I get to see him painting a lot. It's neat :)



This is the typical cocktail here, called Pisco sour. It's made from Pisco, which is Peru's typical liquor, lime, sugar and egg whites. I'm not a big fan of Pisco. It's reaaaaallly strong.




These are my beautiful friends from CBU! CBU is a christian group on campus. I've had a lot of fun with them :)



Look at all those potatoes! Did you know that the potato originated in southern Peru? Cool, right? There are sooo many different species of potatoes here, about 300 varieties of them.



I'm crazy about the yogurt here. There are so many flavors! Most of the yogurt here is drinkable, but it's really good!



These are anticuchos! Another awesome Peruvian dish. What are they, you ask? Oh, just pieces of beef hearts on a stick. Super good though, trust me ;)



Palta!! Or Avocado!!! The avocados here are amazing! They are always in season, always huge, and always really yummy. I eat avocado here a lot. yum :)




This is a Peruvian hairless dog. They're kind of cute. Maybe. Sometimes. Not really. Haha. They're neat though. Since they don't have hair, they make up for the lack of protection from the cold by giving off a lot of heat. So a lot of people claim that their heat can ease arthritis pain, if you let the dog sleep in the bed with you.



This is Chancho! He is my host family's dog. Chancho means pig. Haha. He's scared of the camera so I tried to trap him between myaelf and the door, but he still managed to run away. Silly Chanchito.