One of the things that makes me laugh: My host brother. Ok, so tonight, I had to stay after classes and work on a group project for tomorrow and I was kind of in a cranky mood because it takes about an hour of driving through scary traffic (Today it was especially scary. I literally thought I was going to die about three or four times.) in a kind of sketchy van (called a combi...I think I described them before?) and I was really really hungry and just ready to be at home. Finally I got home, glad to be alive (!), and I went into the kitchen to have something to eat and in the garden were about 10 of Marcos' friends, all playing poker. So I was just sitting there eating and talking to my host mom and he came in to show us how much money he had won from his friends. Which was actually a lot! And he had sunglasses on, so I asked him why he was wearing them in the dark. And his response was to do this suave James Bond-y gesture and say, "That way....they can't see my expressions! That's how I win all this money." :)
We all burst out laughing. It was really funny.
Sunset in the desert!
Our dunebuggy. It looks hardcore, doesn't it? Flames and everything...
We all burst out laughing. It was really funny.
In other news...(gosh! There are so many things I wanted to write about here...hopefully I'll remember them all....)
We got back yesterday from a really really fun weekend trip! We left last Fri. morning and took a bus to Ica. That is a town about 2 or 3 hours south of Lima. It was just the ten Luther students, our professor and Wendy, our ISA go-to girl. (She is really wonderful. She's 26, from California but her parents are both Peruvian, and her job is basically to help us out when we need it and to plan all the trips that we take together on weekends. Its a lot of work but SO COOL! She gets to travel around and meet tons of people. She is just really fun and I think I would like to have her life in a few years....:)
So..we arrived at our hotel in the afternoon sometime on Fri. The hotel was actually in a place a little further along than Ica, called Oasis de Huacachina. Its this tiny little town that is built around a lake in the middle of the desert. When we got there, we had some time to just hang out, so some of us climbed a sand dune that was right behind the hotel. It was one of those things where we thought we could just run up really quickly but it turned out to be REALLY hard to get up there! (Duh, Kia...its a hill of sand!) My calves were dying and we all had to take lots of breaks but we finally made it up and it was so worth it. We had a gorgeous view of Ica and of the rest of the dunes surrounding the oasis. It was indescribable. Sand dunes are just so...I don't know...there's something very compelling about the desert. After taking lots of pictures, we ran down the dune back to the hotel. That was so much fun. It felt like I was flying down the hill.
When we got back, we went on a dunebuggy ride. Which was AMAZING. Luckily I didn''t read this until after I went but my Peru guidebook says to go at your own risk because the drivers "are notoriously unsafe"...
Our drivers seemed to know what they were doing, though, and it was a blast. It felt like a rollercoaster because they just drive right up and then down the other side of the sand dunes. As we were driving I just keep looking around and marvelling that places like that exist on Earth!!! Its just so incredible! We stopped once in awhile to take pictures and to sandboard, which is exactly like snowboarding but on...SAND! Haha. It was kind of scary at first but when I finally worked up the courage to just go down the hill, it was amazingly fun! I went laying down on my stomach because I didn't think I could go down standing up. It freaks me out to have both of my feet attached to one board...
We kept working up to bigger and bigger dunes and by the end, we were going down some pretty huge ones. It was so so so much fun...probably one of the coolest things I've ever done.
That night we just relaxed by the pool, had dinner, and hung out some more. It was really fun because I feel like we are really getting to know one another better. When you travel with people, I feel like you get closer so much more quickly.
We got back yesterday from a really really fun weekend trip! We left last Fri. morning and took a bus to Ica. That is a town about 2 or 3 hours south of Lima. It was just the ten Luther students, our professor and Wendy, our ISA go-to girl. (She is really wonderful. She's 26, from California but her parents are both Peruvian, and her job is basically to help us out when we need it and to plan all the trips that we take together on weekends. Its a lot of work but SO COOL! She gets to travel around and meet tons of people. She is just really fun and I think I would like to have her life in a few years....:)
So..we arrived at our hotel in the afternoon sometime on Fri. The hotel was actually in a place a little further along than Ica, called Oasis de Huacachina. Its this tiny little town that is built around a lake in the middle of the desert. When we got there, we had some time to just hang out, so some of us climbed a sand dune that was right behind the hotel. It was one of those things where we thought we could just run up really quickly but it turned out to be REALLY hard to get up there! (Duh, Kia...its a hill of sand!) My calves were dying and we all had to take lots of breaks but we finally made it up and it was so worth it. We had a gorgeous view of Ica and of the rest of the dunes surrounding the oasis. It was indescribable. Sand dunes are just so...I don't know...there's something very compelling about the desert. After taking lots of pictures, we ran down the dune back to the hotel. That was so much fun. It felt like I was flying down the hill.
When we got back, we went on a dunebuggy ride. Which was AMAZING. Luckily I didn''t read this until after I went but my Peru guidebook says to go at your own risk because the drivers "are notoriously unsafe"...
Our drivers seemed to know what they were doing, though, and it was a blast. It felt like a rollercoaster because they just drive right up and then down the other side of the sand dunes. As we were driving I just keep looking around and marvelling that places like that exist on Earth!!! Its just so incredible! We stopped once in awhile to take pictures and to sandboard, which is exactly like snowboarding but on...SAND! Haha. It was kind of scary at first but when I finally worked up the courage to just go down the hill, it was amazingly fun! I went laying down on my stomach because I didn't think I could go down standing up. It freaks me out to have both of my feet attached to one board...
We kept working up to bigger and bigger dunes and by the end, we were going down some pretty huge ones. It was so so so much fun...probably one of the coolest things I've ever done.
That night we just relaxed by the pool, had dinner, and hung out some more. It was really fun because I feel like we are really getting to know one another better. When you travel with people, I feel like you get closer so much more quickly.
Sunset in the desert!Our dunebuggy. It looks hardcore, doesn't it? Flames and everything...Me! Awkwardly standing in the desert.
This kind of shows the mix of species on the islands! All the different kinds of birds (penguins in the front!) and a sea lion and that is the guardian's house in the background. 
On the way back to shore, our boat ran out of gas. It was kind of funny because we were so close to the shore but we just couldn't make it, so another boat had to come out and replenish our gas tank....the people in the "rescue" boat were video taping and taking pictures of us and it was just kind of a ridiculous situation. :) When we finally got back to shore, we had a delicious lunch of fish and shopped a little bit in the market they had there. It was my FIRST time ever ordering fish in a restaurant...it was all they had. But I'm really glad I did because I liked it a lot. So..that was my big adventurous thing....
After we were all done in Paracas, we drove to Nazca and checked into our hotel there...more hanging out by the pool that afternoon. The next morning (sun.) we had to get up super early to catch our flights over the Nazca lines. The plane was a tiny little four-person one and it was an...interesting plane ride. It was really swervy and there was lots of dipping and sudden turning going on so I felt pretty sick but I still managed to enjoy seeing the lines. It just amazes me that people so long ago could create these shapes that can only be seen from the air. They are so intricate and its pretty incredible. There are lots of theories about why they are there...from being indicators of where water could be found to being linked somehow to the Nazca people's astronomical knowledge/beliefs. It was super interesting and I still can't fathom how these lines even can into existence!
The next morning, we got up kind of early and went to Paracas, which is a coastal town about an hour and a half away from Ica. From there, we took a boat to the Islas Ballestas (which are sometimes referred to as a Mini Galapagos). It took about 30 min. to get out there and it was really cool once we did. Except for the smell. That was not cool. These islands are absolutely COVERED in birds...pelicans, penguins, tons of different species that all live together there. Which means a lot of bird poop. They call it guano and it actually used to be one of the area's main exports...it was sold as fertilizer. They still collect it and sell it, but now that only happens every 10 years or so. We also got to see an incredible amount of sea lions. There was one beach where all the mothers and their babies were hanging out. It was so cute! They were all rambunctious and noisy. We also went past this kind of run-down looking building that was built on one of the islands and a guy came out and waved to us! The guide explained that he was the guardian of the islands and he lives there alone for months at a time. I think the guardian can go home to see his family once in awhile but other than that he is totally isolated on these islands. I can't even imagine what that would be like....the guide said that the guardian always comes out to wave to the tour boats because its the only human interaction he gets for such long periods of time....Yikes. I don't think I could handle that much isolation.
A view of some of caves in the islands....
Sea Lions!!!! This was the beach with moms and babies!
Sea Lions!!!! This was the beach with moms and babies! This kind of shows the mix of species on the islands! All the different kinds of birds (penguins in the front!) and a sea lion and that is the guardian's house in the background. On the way back to shore, our boat ran out of gas. It was kind of funny because we were so close to the shore but we just couldn't make it, so another boat had to come out and replenish our gas tank....the people in the "rescue" boat were video taping and taking pictures of us and it was just kind of a ridiculous situation. :) When we finally got back to shore, we had a delicious lunch of fish and shopped a little bit in the market they had there. It was my FIRST time ever ordering fish in a restaurant...it was all they had. But I'm really glad I did because I liked it a lot. So..that was my big adventurous thing....
After we were all done in Paracas, we drove to Nazca and checked into our hotel there...more hanging out by the pool that afternoon. The next morning (sun.) we had to get up super early to catch our flights over the Nazca lines. The plane was a tiny little four-person one and it was an...interesting plane ride. It was really swervy and there was lots of dipping and sudden turning going on so I felt pretty sick but I still managed to enjoy seeing the lines. It just amazes me that people so long ago could create these shapes that can only be seen from the air. They are so intricate and its pretty incredible. There are lots of theories about why they are there...from being indicators of where water could be found to being linked somehow to the Nazca people's astronomical knowledge/beliefs. It was super interesting and I still can't fathom how these lines even can into existence!
The hummingbird...it was kind of hard to take pictures in the plane...so I apologize if they are cut off, etc.
The Spider
After our flight we had breakfast (we were advised not to eat before the flight...GOOD ADVICE!) and then we had a 7 hour drive back to Lima. It was good to get "home" again and see my family.
This was just a really great first trip! It reminded me how much I love travelling and seeing all of these really amazing things. It just makes me feel excited and happy to be alive and I absolutely love the feeling of falling in love with a new place. The only thing that was not good was getting back into the Spanish groove when I came home...we spoke a lot of English on the trip...its really hard to speak Spanish when we are all together.When I came back I could definitely tell that I'd already lost some ground on my Spanish skills. ...I hope that next time we can all make more of an effort to keep speaking Spanish throughout the weekend...I don't want to keep taking steps backward when we do trips like that.
The SpiderAfter our flight we had breakfast (we were advised not to eat before the flight...GOOD ADVICE!) and then we had a 7 hour drive back to Lima. It was good to get "home" again and see my family.
This was just a really great first trip! It reminded me how much I love travelling and seeing all of these really amazing things. It just makes me feel excited and happy to be alive and I absolutely love the feeling of falling in love with a new place. The only thing that was not good was getting back into the Spanish groove when I came home...we spoke a lot of English on the trip...its really hard to speak Spanish when we are all together.When I came back I could definitely tell that I'd already lost some ground on my Spanish skills. ...I hope that next time we can all make more of an effort to keep speaking Spanish throughout the weekend...I don't want to keep taking steps backward when we do trips like that.
Our next organized trip isn't for awhile but I'm hoping to be able to travel with some friends a few weekends from now...there is so much I want to see here in Peru and I am HERE so I really need to take advantage!
Well, now that its the week again, I've got to go do some homework...
Ciao!
Well, now that its the week again, I've got to go do some homework...
Ciao!
P.S. I had a new kind of potato today!!! It was kind of hard to taste it because it was all mixed in with a sauce and meat and other things, but it was good from what I tasted! So far I've probably had about 7 or 8 types...so I've got to get working on that...haha.
Cool cool adventure Kia. I am envious!! Loved seeing the pics. Tell Bethany that we loved her photos too.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Mom