Moquegua: where the grass don´t grow and the mummies are smelly

Ok so... I´ve totally not updated for a long time. BUT I swear, I´ve been super busy? At least, having too much fun to tell you all about it :P but now I´ll try and give you some of the highlights...

--high school graduation party in Copa called ¨Tomar El Nombre¨which means ¨To Drink the Name¨. Every graduating class picks a special name based off the padrinos of that year- the people who help pay for this party and guide the kids later in life. This year, Sergio and Stasia were the padrino and madrina so they were the guests of honor which basically meant they had to drink the most! Sergio suggested that we students should do a little performance or something to represent US culture to these people (eek?! what?!) so, under my direction, we line danced for them at this party! It was totally absurd and all the teenage bolivian boys were like uhhhhwhat. But it was a lot of fun to perform for like 200 people and then get to do some drinking and real dancing!

--Island of the Sun: for all you anthropologists, you can ignore this part if you feel like you know allllll about it. but for everyone else... the Island of the Sun is an island (duh) in the middle of Lake Titicaca (aka lake BP) that was especially sacred to the Inka Empire. Actually, they considered it to be their place of origin in their mythology and the Sapa Inka (king) would make annual pilgrimages there on the solstice or for other important events to make offerings etc. So there are some cool ruins and big carved stone that looks like a puma head and a temple and stuff. There are of course tons of tours and stuff but its cool bc unlike most European tourist attractions, its not for the faint of heart or out of shape. You have to hike for about 45 minutes to get the main sites (on somewhat paved roads, probably originally Inka) up and down hills and stuff. That wasn´t so bad but then to get to the south side of the Island, where your boat picks you up, you hike for 3 hours across some rather large hills, (dare I say mountains?). (Emilie, imagine that mountain in France, but up AND down instead of just up. and more interspersed up then down then up etc. But just as tiring!) But it was a lot of fun and obviously totally worth it because the views were gorgeous and it felt like the top of the world. I can see why the Inka chose it as their mythical origins!!

--Finally, the title of this post. Moquegua. Its in Peru and its where I am now! Moquegua is in the middle of the Atacama desert, one of the driest largest deserts in the world. Luckily for people, its also a mountanous area and the valleys between mountains have glacial rivers running through them, so the valleys are inhabitable. Luckily for archaeologists, the dry climate makes preservation unreal! there are a ton of mummies for this area (the earliest mummies in the world come from about an hourish south of here, in North Chile) which is actaully kinda gross hahah bc alot of the bones I´m studying still have bits of muscle attached. And it smells terrible. Kinda sickly sweet and musky at the same time. Blergh. But, really freakin cool!!!

I´m staying with a sweet family here- a mom and her two kids who are all so nice although talk very very quickly. Needless to say, my spanish is slowly imporving but we still do a lot of miming. The mom is already trying to set me up with her 24 year old son in Arequipa, so its just like being at home. :)

Alright well i´m supposed to be eating lunch so... adios for now! Oh, and I got a cell phone here so if anyone feels like spending money, call me at 953 69 43 42 (tahts exactly what to dial from the US too)!

Saraaaaaaaaaaa