Pisco Sweet

My birthday in Buenos Aires was an absolute delight. We had a barbeque at the hostel I stayed at and all the friends I made in the past week and a half were in full force putting up signs and buying me drinks. The hostel even bought a cake (which was made with dulce de leche, the national sweet flavor, delicious) with a candle and everyone sang before heading out to a club to dance all night. It was definitely one of the more memorable birthdays not only because of the location but because of the heartwarming gestures made by everyone who I´d only just met days or even hours before. The next day was spent lounging around, packing, and getting ready for my next little adventure: Peru.
This was an unexpected stop on my trip but so far has proven to be well worth another airplane ticket. About a year and a half ago there was a very bad earthquake in Pisco, Peru, home of the Pisco Sour, that killed hundreds of people and destroyed almost thousands of homes. I found out from other travelers about something called Pisco Sin Fronteras, a group of volunteers dedicated to rebuilding homes, schools, and other community service projects around the area. I checked out the organization online (piscosinfronteras.org) and found that it was something I really wanted to be a part of. So Friday I flew from Buenos Aires to Lima and took a four hour bus ride to Pisco where I found the headquarters and will be staying for the next couple weeks. We´ve got about 20 people now digging trenches, laying bricks, going to schools, and rebuilding furniture all out of the goodness of their hearts. The past few days I have been doing more manual labor than I have ever done before, and though I´m exhausted and completely out of shape, the looks on the faces of the families we´re helping more than compensates for it. I even got to play soccer last night with some of the guys who live and work here against some nasty tour guides. We lost unfortunately, but surprisingly enough I put up a somewhat impressive performance for not playing in two months, or at least I wasn´t embarrassed off the hard court. I´ll write more about the projects as we go along, but I invite anyone reading to please look at the website and check it out. It´s definitely worth a look...