My name is Austin. I am 12 years old and I am from Lancaster, Pa., USA. I will be going to Cuzco, Peru, and then I will head to the Mennonite World Conference (a big gathering of people from my church from all over the world) in Asuncion, Paraguay.

I will be in South America from July 3 to 19, starting out with a week in Peru. I will then go to Buenos Aires, Argentina, from where we will take an 18 hour bus ride to Ascuncion. I am excited to eat some cuy (guinea pig) and to meet my pen pals from the Mennonite World Conference.

I enjoy playing and watching sports and I am ready to learn more about soccer.

Scroll down for the most recent entries.

Here is a picture of my cousin Daulton and I wearing the hats we bought today.

Yes I finally made it! 16 long hours after leaving Philadelphia International Airport, we arrived at the small Cusco airport at 8:30 AM local time on Saturday, July 4. We had layovers in Miami International and Lima, Peru. We started with a 2 hour flight to Miami. We then hopped on a 6 hour flight to Lima. After that, we took a short 45 minute flight to Cusco where we met my sister Karissa, her friend Brianna, and the family that would be hosting us.

From the Shultz house (family hosting us), we traveled to the house i will be staying in. I had to sleep for a little so i slept until i returned to the Shultz house with their son, Jeremiah. I there met my cousin, Daulton, who finally woke up. I then had lunch at the school we would be helping with and had soup with chicken's foot, rice, and normal chicken. We then after a little while of resting, traveled to the downtown plaza. There were a ton of people trying to sell their handmade things to us. I finally bought a chullo (warm hat made of alpaca fur) for 5 soles ($1.70.) Then after a little more shopping we headed to the Shultz house to relax for the night.

Day 2! We had some breakfast and then we headed off to church. We went to the church where the Shultz family usually goes (Mennonite Church of San Jeronimo). After church we had taco salad for lunch, which is the big meal in Peru. After lunch, we headed out to market. As soon as you arrive in market, you're hit with smells that clog your nose and your throat. Every part of every animal is used and sold in Peru. Even the nose of a cow. There was also a selection of exotic fruits such as starfruit (end shaped like a star), granadillas (similar to passion fruit), and lucuma (called eggfruit in English). Once we were through the market, we headed home for the night.

We had to get up at 6:30 so we could get to Moray and the salt flats on time. We traveled for 1 hour 30 minutes in a van that let you feel every bump and rock on the road. Moray is an old Incan agricultural site where they tested growing conditions for food and plants. There are rocks hanging over the side that you get to use as steps. It gets hotter and hotter as you head down because of lack of breeze.

After Moray, we headed over to the Salt Flats of Maras. The salt flats are a huge area of salt plots that is supplied by the salty mountain water. There are over 3000 salt plots at the salt flats! We tasted the salty water and walked on the harder salt plots. Once we were done with the salt flats, the whole group went to Urubamba for lunch. After lunch, we headed to the final destination on that van, which was Ollantaytambo, where we met the train headed for Machu Picchu town.

After we woke up, we headed to the bus station for travel to Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is one of the 7 wonders of the world. We had an hour and a half ride up to Aguas Calientes (the town we were staying in). We had some supper as the parade marched through the middle of town. We loaded the bus at 6:30 in the morning for the 20 minute ride. The road was made up of cutbacks and turns. We wanted to climb the mountain, Huayna Picchu, but it turned out that we had to get our tickets by 6 am in order to go up. Anyway, we got to see our llamas and even a few geckos. After 4 hours, we decided to head back to the bus. We rode back to Aguas Calientes for some shopping and supper. For supper I had a very good alpaca pizza. Alpaca meat tastes like beef sooooooooo much. After the day was done and we saw the sights, we headed back to Cusco.

Hello from Cusco. Today was the first day that we went to help with Promesa, the school. Daulton, Jeremiah, and I first sanded the bottom of the walls and then painted the first coat of paint on. After we helped with the painting, we headed back home on the bus for lunch. After another traditional lunch, Daulton, Jeremiah, and I headed up to a concrete soccer field to play soccer (Daulton's and my first time playing soccer in Peru.) After that, we headed over to Molina, and Molina has a huge market. I bought a soccer jersey, which is the souvenier I most wanted to buy in Peru. Then we headed home for the night.

We again started off the day by heading over to Promesa. After working at Promesa, we traveled over to an orphanage. We played games with the kids from 1 1/2 to about 13 years of age. The kids there were really excited to see us because not too many people visit the orphanage and a few of the kids wanted us to write our names on pieces of paper for them. After spending a few hours at the orphanage, we headed home to watch another movie and then go to bed.

Note: Juan Eloy is the child we are sponsoring in Promesa. He is the boy with the red beanie. Osmar is the kid on the see-saw.

Last day in Peru. Already. We started off with another early morning in Peru, but this time, we were heading toward Pisac. When we arrived in Pisac, some families traveled to the red market, while others were going to the Royal Inka Club, which is basically a huge sports complex. One group decided to travel up to the ruins, while everyone else stayed at the Club. My day included tennis, soccer, and eating.

After the Club, we headed into town for some cuy (the Quechua word for guinea pig)! We looked at a few guinea pig castles, where they keep the guinea pigs, and then headed towards the place where we would have some cuy. We received the cuy for pictures, but after a few, we gave the platter to the working man to cut up the cuy. I love cuy. Period. There is almost no possible way to describe cuy because of the texture, but either way it was delicious. After supper and dessert, we traveled home for the night. Ciao, Peru. Ciao.

Ugh. I hate overnight flights. We arrived in the Buenos Aires Airport at 4 o' clock this morning. Karissa, Lauren, Brianna, and I slept while my dad and mom were guarding the luggage while trying to find a taxi. We were all woken at 8 AM after sleeping for 3 hours. We crawled into the taxis and made our way to the city. The city is and probably will be the most American-like place we will be visiting. Unlike in Peru, here it was hard to distinguish the natives and the tourists. But however big some of the differences are, one thing remains the same. They are soccer nations. Not even an argument there. I am still looking for that elusive Argentina National team jersey, but we soon have to load our 18-hour bus ride to Asuncion. Ciao.

The 14th. Long, long, long, long day. We started off with the last 12 hours of the 18 hour bus ride. But we finally arrived in Paraguay (OH YEAH!). We got a bus ride to Olimpiakos camp. We stayed at Olimpiakos for about 3 hours. After Olimpiakos, we all headed over to the main buliding of Mennonite World Conference. Before we could head inside, my dad and Brianna had to get us registered, which took another hour. After we were all settled we finally picked up our luggage and found some seats in the balcony of the church sanctuary. And I´m talking about a huge church. There is 1 main floor and 2 balconies. There are a little over 6000 people at the conference, and there were about 600 seats. After the opening service and dinner, we got on the bus to travel over to our sleeping quarters, Camp Tuperenda. We got our keys, then we dragged our luggage to our room, where we slept in a bed for the first time for 2 nights.

Another early morning for Camp Tuperenda. After a breakfast of hot tea and bread, we got onto the bus to head over to the church. This morning, instead of going to the normal service, Lauren and I went to the Teen Worship. This is a service for kids from 13-17 years old, and even though I'm not 13 yet, I will turn 13 in 6 days and counting and I didn't want to stay at the normal service, so my parents allowed me to join Lauren. We played a few games, sang, watched a skit, then we had some lunch. After lunch, we hit the Global Villages, where I found Patrik Kehler, one of my pen pals. I was invited to stay the afternoon at Patrik's, so I did. They have a pool, 5 dogs, 7 birds, 2 sheep, and a horse. After staying at Patrik's for a little, they took me back to the church where I stayed until we traveled home for the night.

Back home again. The last 3 days we didn't do too much but the things we did do were big. On Friday, from 9:30 to 4:30 lauren and I did a service in a mission by sanding the walls. On Saturday, after the service, we went as a family to a restaraunt. the special thing about the restaraunt was it is loaded with meats that they bring to you. it also has a buffet and dessert bar. After the meal, we went to explore downtown. We found a statue of a bad dictator. The statue has a big heavy concrete box on top of him, and the body is crushed after he was not a dictator. Then on sunday, we got up at 2 o' clock to travel in a taxi to get to the airport. After 1 1/2, 8, then 2 hour flights, we arrived in Philadelphia Airport to end the vacation.. Ciao, and thanks for reading.