oye guera!: couchsurfing, without the couch

I have been making friends with people in the CouchSurfing community here. They are really fun, energetic people, and a good mix of locals and other travelers. Usually, the common language is Spanish so it's great practice for me. It's much more fun than studying or taking classes, and just as good.

I took a day off of work and went rafting with them a few weeks ago. It was a blast, but terrrrribly freezing. A bunch of people chose to jump into the river, but i opted out of that one.

The guy in the front right doesn't speak English, so couldn't understand the commands that the guide was giving and was always paddling the wrong direction or at the wrong times. I was cracking up and yelling the spanish commands at him. I think I might have found it funnier than him...

Last weekend we went to a festival-type rock concert of mostly bands from peru and other south american countries. it included one band dressed up in costumes of different children tv show characters.

Pink Panther spent the whole time wandering around the stage and humping others

After that concert, we went to a bar downtown that had the most fantastic live music EVER. It was kind of like energetic latin ska covers of popular songs here. my legs were sore the next day from jumping and dancing.

Jaime and Jose Luis

With Jaime, from San Francisco, and Ellie, from Montreal

Sunday we went on a trip to see some waterfalls outside of town. I thought it was just going to be a short walk, but it turned out to take almost 4 hours to get there, (we thought we were lost a few times) walking under the blazing sun and through the river. Luckily I had worn my chacos but other people had to go barefoot. The water was freeeeezing (again... it's the dead of winter here) and sharp rocks hurt when they get between the soles of your sandals and your feet. But we finally made it and had a little picnic at the falls. Then we found a faster way back. Much better.