Putre and Parque Nacional Lauca

This past week we had a group excursion into the mountains. First we went to Putre, which is a small rural village where a lot of the indigenous Aymarans live. We were included in a ceremony for health and good luck in our studies, and we each got to place some leaves and stones on the central platter. The next day, we had a class about traditional medicine with an old Aymaran man who showed us all of his herbs that he uses to cure the people in the village. He was super dedicated to his herbs, and whenever we asked about their effectiveness or what happens when they don´t work,  he would either pick up a different bag of herbs to suggest or tell us to use more. At the time, it was hilarious how he just kept shoving more herbs in our faces, but it really is interesting to understand that some people in the world really do believe that nature can cure everything. When we asked him about pills and surgery he basically said he doesn´t like their side effects and he doesn´t trust them. In between classes and meals, we got to do some shopping at the little shops in the village to buy alpaca socks and sweaters! =)

On Friday we went even further into the mountains to an elevation of 13,500 feet to see el Parque Nacional Lauca, or the Lauca National Park. The views from the bus were unbelievable, and we got to see llamas, alpacas, and vicuñas. I´m pretty sure we drove by some flamingos too, but we didn´t get to stop and see them. We eventually made it to Lago Chungara, the lake with the highest elevation out of all the lakes in the world. I was super excited to see it because I remember learning about it way back in Middle School in Spanish class! It was absolutely amazing and we spent forever taking pictures of the lake/mountains/alpacas/ourselves. It was awesome. 

Katie and I at Lago Chungara!

Then we went to las Termas Jurasi. They are pools with water from the hot springs that run from the volcanoes nearby. They were wayyy hotter than any hottub I have ever been in, but we were brave and went in for a couple minutes!

Oh, and I just have to mention what was quite possibly the most exciting thing that happened on the trip. We decided to have this contest to see who could talk in Spanish the most for a day, to motivate us to stop speaking to each other in English. The prize was a free ice cream at Di Mango, my favorite ice cream place in the city. I'm like obsessed with the place, so I really wanted to win and basically didn't speak any English all day. I won and was so excited, you have no ideaaa! :-)