Songs of Joy: Camping in Urubamba

On Friday I went on a camping trip in Urubamba. Isn't that an exciting name? It's a town 2 hours west of Cusco in what is known as the Sacred Valley. Urubamba is smaller town with an artsy flavor. It's at the foot of the Chicon Glacier and the view is gorgeous!!!

The camping trip was organized by some of the "Cusco" youth (what was the Cusco church is now integrated with San Jeronimo). There were about 10 of us and we set up tents in the back yard of a church. Our connection with the church was the cousin of Pamela (my fellow PROMESA teacher). There was an event going on in the plaza to raise money for the victims of the earthquake so we stopped to watch the clown and musical groups. We also went out to eat pizza at a cool place with ecletic furniture, artwork and a pool table. Another part of our weekend was singing with one of the cousins in the church. We were being silly and singing all sorts of praise and worship songs. God was faithful to even meet us in that time and minister to several of the people in the group (I love it when He "shows" up in worship!).

There was not much sleeping with 7 silly girls in one tent and noisy chickens in the back yard! Besides, you are always tossing and turning when you are in a sleeping bag on the ground. The funniest thing was that in the morning one of the girls thought that the chicken noises was me goofing around. Okay, so I'm known for my animal noises already!

Our group (minus Juan and Oliver): LtoR and top to bottom - Pamela, Gloria, Juan Carlos, Marysol, Alicia, Me, Mariella & Illari

The next day we hiked towards the glacier with the goal to get back by one p.m. It was such a gorgeous walk even if it was work. We walked up and up - past small villages, people working in their fields and all sorts of beautiful outdoor sights. The funniest part was when we tried to cross a stream. The cousin (Juan) was trying to help us all across on rocks but the rocks were sooo slippery!! I was the first one across and by the end one of my shoes was soaked. It got worse as we went along and Juan started purposefully getting his cousins wet. It was so funny and we were all a bit wet by the end.

Cousins: Pamela & Juan

A church along the way.

Don't worry we had quite a bit more of our hike left so we dried out by the top. At one point we stopped and tried a non-acoholic version of chicha in a señora's backyard. It was kind of sour but after Juan dumped a cup of sugar in it some of us decided it was worth drinking. So there we sat in her backyard with her ducks, piglets and kitten... it was quite a sight! We continued our walk until we got to a children's home at the top where several of our group knew the directors. Then it was time to turn around and walk down and down and down. The second trip across the stream was uneventful but Illari and Pamela refused their cousin's help (hmmm... wonder why??). Of course the trip down was much easier but as you can imagine we were all exhausted when we got back to the church!