This was the first mass email I sent out before deciding to create a blog:

Hi Everybody!
Well, as some of you know, and some do not, I am currently in Lima, Peru, in the continent of South America. I have been travelling for just over two weeks and have a plane ticket to return to Phildelphia on March 21. I hope to write several updates over the next three months, and you are being sent this email because I care about you, want you to know what I am up to and I want to hear from you! I also understand if you don´t want to get these nonpersonal mass emails, so just let me know. And if you think someone would like to see this email, please feel free to forward it as well.
I arrived in Cuzco, Peru on Dec 12, and my sister Mirra, met me at the airport. We stayed in Pisac, 40 min. outside of Cuzco for two days acclimatizing (the city is 3326 meters above sea level) and talking about plans. We also ate Choclo con queso- large corn on the cob with fresh cheese-delicious! We spent our days walking around in both Pisac and Cuzco. Our last day and night we spent with a family that adopted Mirra for a month during her studies. Mirra played a Huayno (local music) that she learned here on her little guitar and the parents sang along. We got up 5am our last morning in Cuzco to see Sacsayhuaman, Incan ruins around the edge of the city. It was a temple dedicated to the sun at one point before the Spanish took it apart and used the gigantic beautiful stone to build cathedrals. The huge stones fit perfectly together like lovers. There are many theories as to how these humongous stones were moved and fit together, I don´t know any of them, and still it is a mystery. The air was fresh, and the sight with very few people.
We left Cuzco and went south eight hours to Arequipa, and city edged by two volcanoes and the old buildings of the city made of a beautiful volcanic white rock. Our two days in Arequipa were spent walking and talking some more, lighting for the first nights of Channukkah, and eating in Mirra´s favorite restaurant of tea infusions and yogurt with fruit and Meusli.
We traveled over night to Yanque, a town in the beautiful and grand Colca Canyon. There we stayed with another family. Gloria is the founder and director of the preschool, and we were guests in their Navidad ceremony for the end of the school year. We drank much Chicha, home-brewed fermented corn juice-yum, took some beautiful walks, and dipped in the town´s hot springs. On the outskirts of the town is an incredible pre-Incan ampetheatre of corn and potato fields with the river as its stage in the center.
Next we traveled up north, two days on the bus (I could write a seperate email just about traveling on the bus in Peru) to Chiclayo, to stay with another family that had also adopted Mirra. We went to Pimentel Beach and ate dinner on Dec 24-25 at Midnight as is the custom here. Now we are in Lima and are about to part ways. Mirra will go back to Philadelphia and I will continue on to Ecuador where I will meet up with friends and hopefully after that stay put for a little while doing volunteer work. I will miss Mirra dearly.
I hope to use these next months wisely, however that may be and am still planning for them. I welcome any recommendations and contacts you may have. Also, I am downloading photos on my new flicker site for all to see, and when I figure it out, I will send a link. I send my love to all of you and wish you a renewing, peaceful, and joyous new year.
In Peace
Annah