Peru

We spent two and a half weeks in Peru and visited Lima, Cusco, Sacred Valley, Huilloc, and Trujillo. We went to numerous ancient ruins and saw such a huge variety of culture, history, and business. I'm amazed at how diverse Peru is within its boundaries. Once again, there was some culture shock transitioning from Brasil to Peru.

Lauren and me in our first hotel in Lima

Yet another amazing Cathedral. This time in Lima.

It was so beautiful when it was all lit up at night.

It was a few blocks from our hotel and we found it on our way to dinner. We actually stumbled upon in just in time to go inside and listen to a musical program which was awesome.

In between business visits one day in Lima, we stopped at this mall that was right along the coast. We went to lunch and went shopping around for a few hours. It was beautiful!

Kristina, Andrea, Maren, me, Brittany

Derek and me

Eddie and me on the balcony of the outdoor mall, overlooking the coast!

What a fun surprise, a little bit of sun shone through! :)

In Lima, we got to go to Museo Larco, where there were some pretty cool artifacts and pieces of pottery, sculptures, etc. Here we learned a lot about culture, history, beliefs of Peru.

And saw some beautiful flowers and ate good food :) It was really neat.

Stuff in Museo Larco.

After being in Lima for a couple days, we went to Cusco!

Sacsaywuman

This is ONE rock! Look how tall it is!

The Indigenous culture is alive and strong all over Cusco area, it is fascinating.

Cusco.

More to come!

Brasil!

Next stop: Brasil!

We spent a few days in Sao Paulo, which is such a HUGE city. When we flew into the city, there were just lights and buildings for as far as you could see. I felt a bit of culture shock going from Chile to Brasil because they are pretty different.

It took awhile to warm up to Brasil, but I loved it.

Here's the view of Sao Paulo from the top of the tallest building in the city--37 stories high.

We got there at the perfect time, just as the sun was setting!
Beautiful, huh!

Derek, me, and Sam

This is a plaza out front of this beautiful Cathedral.

One night we went to eat at a Churrascarria, an authentic Brasillian grill.
They just kept bringing more and more meat... YUM!
Here's me, Chris, Sam--extrememly full and content after the feast :)

Our first Saturday in Brasil, we went on a jeep tour/hike through a Brasillian forest!
Andrea, Tyson, Lauren, Sam and I in the jeeps right before our adventure.

Leavin' the city in the jeeps....

and endin' in the forest!
This waterfall was sooooooooooooo huge and beautiful!
The picture doesn't really do it justice.

me and Maren on our hike

Exhibit A: Brasillian forest. Cool huh!

After some time in Sao Paulo, we headed to RIO!

Here is a view of Rio!

Brittany, Lauren, me, Becky at Corcavado, one of the seven wonders of the world!

It wouldn't be a trip to Brasil without going to a soccer game!!

Here's the group of us at the biggest futbol stadium in the world.

The inside of the stadium!

The fans are seriously, super fans.

I think cheering, yelling, screaming, and music were going on throughout the entire game... seriously! There were flags waving and faces painted, singing... so much energy in this stadium!

We stood out from the rest of the crowd just a little bit... haha!

Todd, Ross, me, Sam, Brian

Toward the end of the game, it started to rain!!

After the game, we ran back to the metro, but we ended up getting pretty wet... so cute!

Maren, me, Andrea, Lauren, Shannon

I love these girls!

When we were in Rio, we stayed at the Copacabanna Palace, just about three blocks from the ocean and Copacabanna Beach. Hello! This is the view from my window.

I gotta say, I ended up with stellar views at pretty much every hotel.

Team outing! We spent the day in Rio around the blocks of our hotel. At one little shop, they had a gazillion different flavors of Mentos packs, sooo we all bought Mentos! :)

Rob, Justin, Rob, Anthony, me

Okay. Hello. I'm drinking coconut water out of a coconut on Copacabanna Beach. We're talking I watched the man at the little shop punch a hole in the coconut and stick a straw in. Legit.

This was such a great afternoon! :)

Later that afternoon we met up with the rest of the group for BEACH DAY! :)

-the girls at the beach-

me, Kristina, Shannon, Irina, Lauren, Andrea, Maren

Andrea and me at The Churro Stand!

These churros were filled with chocolate or dulce,

and we seriously went to this stand like every day we were in Rio.

We packed so many activities in just a few days!

Brasil was beautiful.

-darcy

Vina del Mar

So, I was sad to leave Santiago, but have LOVED Vina dal Mar. It is beautiful!!! Our hotel is a few blocks away from the coast. I'm on the sixth floor so I get to look out over the city and see all the bright lights at night! :)

Our first day in Vina del Mar, we spent some time at the University. We had a few lectures on the Chilean fruit market and their exports/economy. We also took a tour of the agricultural experimental fruit farms. Kiwi trees!

Avacado trees!

Chili is a huge producer of avacados.

We actually got to tour an avacado producing facility and it was fascinating!

Lauren and I bought these scarves at the market in Santiago, and wore them to dinner on our first night in Vina del Mar. Our first night, we went to dinner and walked along the coast.

Tyson, Lauren, Brent, me, Andrea on the coast.

We spent a day tidepooling! We drove up the Chilean coast and went to a few different places, including Ventanna. Ventanna is "window" in Spanish. This is Brittney and me at our little pool, the first place we found. We saw a little baby lobster guy and some sea urchins in this place! You can see our reflection :) There were tons of creatures though, and we saw a ton of cool things.

Here's the window! (the ventanna!)

Starfish!

This guy was huge!

A Sea... Thing.

A little crab!

As part of our tour, we had a hosted lunch at a resort on the top of the mountain. It was beautiful, with delicious food, it was like... um, not real! Ross pinched me to help me figure out that it was, indeed, actually happening. haha! After lunch, we tidepooled some more and hiked around the coast. We stopped at a place called Penguin Island.

A group of us in front of Penguin Island! A group of penguins live on this island year-round apparently, but we did not see any today. We did see, however, a BUNCH of dolphins!! That was neat! There were a ton of them flipping out of the water in the distance.

Jumping for joy at the tidepools excursion! :)
Success!

Carlos and I before heading to our fancy dinner. I helped him pick out his ensemble, and basically we were matching like dates! :) This kid is hilarious. He's from the Domincan Republic. His Spanish comes in handy down here!!

Fancy dinner at the casino!

We had dinner with students from the Principado Universidad Catholica. We're working on some projects and case studies with these students next week. It was really fun to get to know some of them and enjoy an amazing meal with them! :)

Derrik, me, Sam

Fancy food just kept coming. Yum.