Justin's Peruvian Winter Trip

Remember when I said, “El Barbón volverá” (the Beard will return)? Well, it didn’t.

But Justin did!

Justin came to visit me for the second time and he gave me the best birthday present a girl could ask for—a somewhat clean shaven face that allowed me to see my boyfriend’s smile again! Justin kept it a secret, including from his family, and shaved in the Portland airport on his way down. As I waited for him to step out of the tiny single-terminal airport and into my arms, I grew worried that he had missed his flight, as I could not see a massive beard or anyone waving at me at all. It wasn’t until he was five feet in front of my face with a smirk and a hood over his head that I realized my boyfriend is, and always will be, a tricky bastard.

I know there are some avid Beard fans out there who were living vicariously through Justin as he let the beard grow with wild abandon that not many men are allowed or able to, and there has been somewhat of an outrage in the dismantling of this icon of pure rugged manliness. And to those people I send my condolences. I also remind them, it’s a beard, and, you didn’t have to kiss that beard. Besides, he’s already growing it back out.

Justin’s visit was highly anticipated by many, as I told everyone in town of his visit. My host family was happy to see him again and joked that I actually have two boyfriends, as he looked nothing like they remembered.

I was very lucky that he had figured out a way to come visit me for a second time and there were many highlights to his visit. I wanted him to write a guest blog while he was here, but we were fairly busy and Justin is a perfectionist so the task was very daunting for him. So here are some of my personal favorite highlights:

¿Justin Bieber?

Last time Justin was here, his experience was shrouded with attention over his beard. Well, now that Justin’s face wasn’t completely overtaken by what could’ve been mistaken for a wild animal, he was getting a much different kind of attention. Justin spent some time in site with me and followed me around as I worked in the schools and in the municipality. His first day stepping onto school grounds during the girls’ school hours was quite memorable. Girls stared, whispered, giggled, and called me over to ask me who my “friend” was.

“He’s my boyfriend,” I said.

This was followed by high-pitched screams and “ooo”s worthy of tv show audience tracks.

“What’s his name?” they asked.

“Justin."

“Like Justin Bieber?!” they asked exasperated.

“Yeah, only cuter,” I responded.

By this point a mob of girls had gathered.

¡Beso! ¡Beso! ¡Beso! They chanted (kiss!kiss!kiss!)

I refused, of course, to which they chanted, ¡Abrazo! ¡Abrazo! ¡Abrazo! (hug!hug!hug!)

Once again, I refused.

“Can I hug him?” one girl yelled out.

“Sure,” I said.

Poor Justin didn’t even know what was coming. One by one, the girls darted out to give him a squeeze and run squealing back to the shelter of the pack. One girl hugged him three times. Then I remembered I had a camera (Justin brought down for me) and I stepped back to take a picture. At this point, almost all of the girls ran to Justin for a big group hug, knocking him into the wall behind him. (And now I can't find the picture, and I'm very angry about it!)

For the remainder of his time in my site, he was stared down by every girl in site, and girls couldn't stop talking about his pretty blue eyes.

“They just keep staring at me,” he said.

Welcome to the club!

Pacasmayo International Marathon Poster Children

One of the reasons Justin came to visit at this particular time of year was to run the Pacasmayo Marathon with me. Well, after having issues with my Achilles tendon and not feeling confident with training for the full, I decided it would be best to run the half marathon. Justin was happy to run with me either way, so he trained in Oregon while I trained here.

The Pacasmayo Marathon was actually started by a Peace Corps volunteer a few years back as a 4^th of July race, and has turned into quite the event run by Peruvians. The town of Pacasmayo is in the department of La Libertad, and is actually fairly close to my site. However, the geography of the area is much different.

While I trained on the panamerican highway with not a single hill in sight, the route for the race was very hilly on a variety of terrain, some of which I would consider closer to trail running. I didn’t do as well as I would’ve liked, and I may have screamed and cursed at the 10 mile mark, but Justin and I ran the entire race together and finished holding hands. Little did we know our lovey-dovey finish would cause quite the commotion, as our picture is now on the website and all over facebook with comments like, “How lovely for a couple to run together and not be competitive with one another.”

I don't know who even took this picture, it's just on facebook.

Overall it was a great experience, and it was a good opportunity for Justin to meet a lot of my volunteer friends from different departments.

Pre-race, most of the volunteers getting ready to run (photo from Monica Chase)

Love at first sight

After the race in Pacasmayo, Justin and I headed to Ancash to see the mountains. Justin is a mountain man through and through, so it only seemed appropriate that he visit one of the most beautiful departments in Peru with its snow capped peaks, breath-taking mountain ranges, and glacier lakes.

Literally, breath taking.

Huaraz, the capital, sits at around 10,000 feet in elevation and even day hikes reach heights of 13,000 to 15,000 feet. And since I live at practically negative sea level here on the coast, it was a little hard on my body.

Of course, Justin fell in love with it immediately.

Within two hours of being in the city of Huaraz, as we sat in a popular café sipping tea and looking out over the mountains he declared, “I could live here.” (there were a lot of “if’s” in his requirements for living there, but he meant it all the same).

Since Ancash is a place you have to see to believe, maybe it’s best I let pictures speak for this part of the trip (even though they never do it justice). 

There were many great aspects to Justin’s visit, but for me it meant a lot that Justin was able to spend more time in my site and see my day-to-day life and work. He was able to sit in on some of my classes, helped me teach English, and helped make meals and treats for my host family. And even though he doesn’t speak Spanish, my host family likes him and can tell he is a nice, genuine person from his actions.

And whether or not we move to Ancash someday, I know Justin will have more opportunities to spend time with my host family in the future, because I will always come back here to visit. Maybe by then he’ll speak Spanish.