Peru!!!! .....again :)

I had the awesome opportunity to go back to Cusco, Peru.  I lived in Cusco for 3 months back in the fall of 2014, and I never dreamed I'd be able to go back this soon?!  This time I even got to take my mom!!  It was so great!  We went with our high school Spanish Club and community members and it was so fun to go with friends :)  Here are some of my favorite moments in pictures. 

The best juice in the world is found at San Pedro Market :)

 Pig head anyone??

Familia Delgado.  I lived with these sweet people the three months I was in Cusco.  I was able to go over one evening and have dinner with them.  They are so great!  

So many people on the trip brought suitcases full of clothes down to donate.  We left them with Flor, Andres, and Daniel to distribute where they see need, because they know.  I taught preschool with Flor and she is probably the most Christ-like person I have ever met.  Such a blessing to know her and I am so glad I was able to go to their home and introduce so many friends to her and her family.  

 Stairs to Cristo Blanco.  These people are troopers!

The view of Cusco from up there is fabulous!

The Plaza at night

Mom and Brooklyn in a doorway in Saqsayhuaman.  

Pano of the ruins. 

I look like this in so many pictures.  It's just incredible?!  Anyways, this guy was playing some fun Peruvian music.

The Sacred Valley coming into view. 

 Mom having a stare down with the Condor. 

 The alpaca vest that I wanted SO BAD!

 Awesome niches in Ollantaytambo.  

So many stairs!

 All of the group in Ollantaytambo. 

 The sun coming up on our hike up to Machu Picchu.  

 With my mom :) :) 

 Mom and Carol Clark.  Two amazing ladies!

 These guys are just too much fun! 

The sign of a dang good day--dirty feet.  

We just had so so so much fun in and around Cusco.  I just felt so comfortable there this time around and it was so fun to see everything that was still so familiar.  The people, the streets, the smells.  Memories just came flooding back and so many new memories were made.  I love that place.  'Til next time :)   

The Amazon

We went to the Amazon at the start of our trip.  There was a group of 14 of us.  We got to go on jungle walks, fishing, visit a village, cruise along the Amazon River, and so much more!  We stayed at Heliconia Lodge about an hour and a half out of Iquitos, Peru via boat.  The accommodations were great!   We had the best time!  Here are some of my favorite pictures.  

Mom feeding a monkey.

So picturesque.  

You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy.  Their vine lassos were the best!  

The leaf fans were very needed!

 Some cows shading up. 

These kids.  So dang cute! 

 Dinner time! 

 Carol killed us all in sapo!

 Giant lily pad

 Lunch.  They always made it look so pretty. 

 Some homes up on stilts.  These were right where we were getting off the boat in Iquitos.  

The little wooden chair on the bike was my favorite! 

The rooftops, the greenery, the sky.  

And here's a fun little video of parts of the trip :)

Saturday in Oslob :)

Saturday morning we packed up and headed out on our motorbikes.  We drove them to a neighboring town, Sibulan and hopped on a barge that took us across a section of ocean to Cebu Island.  Our destination was Oslob where we were going to go swimming with the butanding, Cebuano for whale shark.  

I was warned of this outing before I even got to the Philippines, and I was pretty sure I was going to opt out of it.  There was NO way in heck I was going to get in the water with sharks.  They tried to reassure me that they wouldn't harm me, they could care less about humans, etc...  Well, I still wasn't convinced.  Then on Wednesday, Faith and I decided to research them for science.  So, we looked them up, and found out that whale sharks are actually a type of whale, not a type of shark.  Large whale sharks are about 40 feet long--the size of a bus.  While they are the largest fish, they only feed on fish eggs and shrimp.  (You'll notice in the video the fish swimming around--they know they are completely safe.)  Learning this about butanding helped ease my fears, and I decided to do it! 

I was still a little nervous to get in the water once we got there.  I accidentally left my GoPro on, but you can see me getting a little nervous as I put my goggles on and took the plunge!  Once I got in there, I was in heaven!  It was so cool!  My adrenaline was pumping and the whale sharks were so big and SO CLOSE!   I couldn't believe it!  We were instructed before to stay 4 meters away, but that didn't really happen.... One time I was trying to back away from it, and ran into the bottom of a boat.  It's tail fin grazed my leg--it felt a lot like wet fabric.  We had so much fun, and I was bummed when we had to get back in the boat.  It was hard to keep track, but I figure I saw 5 or 6 different whale sharks, and the largest 2 were definitely as long as a school bus!  

 Our time with the sharks was a little over 30 minutes, and I couldn't believe I had swam that long without a break?!  I'm not a swimmer, but give me some adrenaline and I guess I can last in the water for a while :)  

After our fun time with the whale sharks, we ate lunch and went to these cool ruins in a nearby town.  They were from when the Spanish first came to the Philippines. The structures, the ocean near, and the blue skies made for a beautiful setting.  

Me with the Ryskamps :)

After we had explored the ruins, we headed up to some water falls called Tumalog Falls.  

Sidenote: Thank heavens for the motor bikes!  We can go wherever we want, whenever we want, and it's just so convenient!  Leo, Angie, and I were the drivers and each of us had two passengers.  It just works great!  

The falls were unlike anything I'd ever seen!  I felt like I was in a scene from Lord of the Rings.  I truly thought that falls like these were probably animated when I saw them in movies.  There were just so many little trickles of water coming down!  

They also had a natural fish spa there that we enjoyed :)

After that we headed to the barge and made our way back home where Angie made us some delicious shrimp for dinner (I'm gonna miss that fresh shrimp!).  

The Ryskamps + Saturdays + The Philippines = a dang good time! 

Amlan Zoo

On Friday we decided to hop on the scooters and head up to the zoo in Amlan!  I wasn't expecting too much, but was pretty pleased with what we saw!  

 Turkeys

I loved seeing these birds using an old coconut for their nest!

There were so many of these cute, colorful little birds! My mom would have loved seeing them!

Then Maddie discovered that they would eat food out of your hand!  We were so shocked! 

Multiple birds would come and land on your hand at once and eat.  It was so fun! 

Everyone got into it!

Then we saw some warthogs or Pumba's, whichever you'd like to call them.  

They also had horses.  So exotic, I know!  haha

I also got to feed a camel.  In the Philippines.  

Ostriches.  

 Monkeys.

 Tigers!  

Eating chicken heads. 

 I've never been so close to a tiger in my life!  I was seriously like 3 feet from this one! 

And isn't that picture just beautiful?  I can't get enough of the coconut trees against this Philippine sky :)

We had a great time at the zoo!  Foreign zoos are definitely different, but they have their own unique charm.  We had a great time together.  My highlights were definitely the birds and the tigers!  It was just so cool being that close to the animals.