Nazca Lines and Motion Sickness

our little plane

So Anabel and I decided to do something a little crazy.  Actually a lot crazy.  We wanted to go fly over the Nazca lines which are ancient geoglyphs located in the southern deserts of Peru.  They were created around two thousand years ago and consist of hundreds of figures ranging from simple lines to ornate carved animals.  All sounds great right? Only downside was that to get to Nazca, we had to take two buses totally a seven and a half hour trip, just one way....so naturally we decided to do it all in one day.  Got on the bus at 330 in the morning, just to clarify, i'm not a morning person, and we had to be at the bus station an hour and a half early (although we just sat in the VIP waiting room the entire time so that was pointless).  Buses were awesome, super comfy and they even gave us snacks.  Only one problem, they decided to turn on a movie (who wants to watch a movie at 4am??) and cranked the volume up.  On top of this they had the radio on, also at full volume.  So we are all rolling down the road in this bumpin vehicle listening to the tv and the radio compete with each other over which one can destroy our hearing first.  Not exactly conducive to a sound sleep.  Seven unslept hours later (although I did see the sunrise over the desert which was gorgeous) we arrived in Nazca.  Immediately got taken to the airstrip and got loaded into a four seater plane.  As in this plane was the smallest thing I have ever seen.  My host family had warned me about the bumpyness of the plane and I had told them not to worry as I have an iron stomach and never throw up.  I was wrong.  Within five minutes of takeoff the combination of air rollercoaster, searching for lines in the ground, and trying to take photos, all at the same time, my stomach was in knots.  I managed to hold it together for the majority of the flight and then the puke bag came out.  Not a proud moment.  Upon landing I got whisked off to the doctor (yes there is a doctor on site) who told me not to worry as 8 people had already thrown up that morning...which made me feel a little better.  BUT, besides the extreme motion sickness, the lines were incredible to see from the air.  Definitely an experience I would recommend to all.  After I was released from the doctor we headed straight back to the bus terminal and bused seven hours home again.  All in a days work.

the hummingbird

can you see the spider-middle of right side

Sandboarding

Overnight tripped it to Ica this past weekend which is about 5 hours south of Lima by bus.  Ica is in a desert and about 20 minutes away are these ridiculously high sand dunes that stretch for miles with an oasis called Huacachina right splat dab in the middle of them.  As soon as we arrived we were loaded into two sand buggies and before we had even buckled our seat belts, our drivers decided to let loose and take us on the equivalent of a sand rollercoaster.  I feel bad for all the people who got motion sick on that trip, but for those of us who don't mind vertical drops it was awesome.  Sand was flying everywhere, we all had sand lining our teeth! To add to the excitement, our guides whipped out a bunch of sandboards....which looks like snowboards except they have rudimentary velcro straps, are chipped all over the place, and look like something out of the Back To the Future franchise.  You lie down on your stomach and lift your legs up, and before you know it you are flying across burning hot sand at about 40 miles an hour.  Sounds safe right? Well a friend and I decided to up it to the next level and try it "parada" style, or standing up (aka how you would ride a snowboard).  I can now officially say that it is wayyy harder to sandboard, then it is to snowboard.  Pretty much no control at all, you basically have to just point your board down and try and stay standing.  We stopped overlooking the oasis to take some pictures, and then headed back because the heat was getting to all of us.  After a big lunch on the lake of Huacachina, we headed to our hotel Las Dunas for the night where we had actual water pressure for our showers...i forgot to mention that in Lima, there is little to no water pressure, so its more of a water drip out of the shower head.  Needless to say, we were so excited to have a real shower again.  We had planned on doing a bar crawl called the "Shitfaced Tour" but opted out of it as it was kind of far away.  But instead of going to bed at a reasonable hour, about seven of us decided to hike up the dune overlooking the hotel at midnight in our pyjamas with some cheap wine and a six pack of beer.  Took us about forty five minutes but the view was spectacular, overlooking all the city lights while sitting on top of a sand ridge.

Early the next morning we headed out on the bus to Paracas and Islas Ballestas, aka the Gallapegos Islands of Peru where we boarded a boat to tour the area.  The islands are formed from natural rock formations which are in the shape of natural arches and are inhabited by penguins and sea lions.  Having taken about a thousands pictures of both of these in Ushuaia, I tried to refrain from being too trigger happy.  While on this happy little boat ride, the entire left side of the boat got pooped on by the condors circling overhead.  The right side of the boat (including me) thought this was hilarious, while the left side's reactions alternated between mild irritation, laughter, and full on angry.  We joked that this was the real "Shitfaced Tour," which they didn't think was very funny.  Ironically, in the 1850's Peru got itself out of major financial issues by exporting thousands of tonnes of bird poop as a natural fertilizer to the US, England, and other places....so I guess it can't be all bad! Disembarking, we headed over to a seaside resaturant where we dined on pulpo (octopus), calamari, and ceviche (raw fish marinated in a lemon citrus juice and served with onions).  All of it so good!

Can't believe I only have 32 days left in South America, where did all this time go?!

Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley

cusco

Trip Highlight: Machu Picchu! The entire spring program in Lima flew to Cusco, the capital of the Incan Empire, in the the Andes.  The city rests at an elevation of nearly 11,000 feet which can cause some nasty altitude sickness for travelers which can be avoided (or at least reduced) by chewing coca leaves (same plant that cocaine comes from).  First time we emerged from the hotel we were greeted by three women in traditional dress with a llama being pulled along behind them.  Imagine our excitement! So we all took turns snapping photos only to be accosted for money as we were attempting to leave.  The women wanted 10 soles per person, for 6 of us, so 60 soles...thats like $30.  Highway robbery! We learned quickly not to take pictures of the locals in traditional dress because they only present themselves that way so they can make money off tourists snapping photos.  It's sad, because many women bring their children out to the streets with them because they know that tourists would rather take pictures of little kids playing with baby llamas.
We visited the ruins of Sacsayhuamán which are on the northern edge of the city which was added as a UNESCO World Heritage site, along with the Cusco proper.  The stones are so precisely fit together that you cannot fit a single piece of paper between two.  Now the city is used as a site to celebrate Inti Raymi, or the winter solstice (summer for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere).  Immediately after we had a brief tour of Cusco and all it had to offer and then we were set loose on the city.  Us girls spent a vast majority of the day shopping in the beautiful markets which were filled with exquisite scarves, gloves, bags and so much more all made out of Alpaca wool which is some of the finest in the world.  Not gonna lie, we went a little crazy.  Word for the wise, never unleash a pack of girls in an Incan market without supervision, although I'm sure all the shopkeepers were very happy that day.
Next stop on our tour was Ollantaytambo, which was the royal estate of Pachacuti, emperor of the Incan empire.  We hiked up all the terraces built so that the Incans could take advantage of the different climates at different heights to take in the beautiful view from the top through the Sacred Valley.
Nelly's House was our next stop where we learned how the women of the region prepare Alpaca wool and got a demonstration in cleaning, dyeing, and weaving the wool.  They use all natural soaps and fruits to dye the wool.  She showed us how to differentiate between baby Alpaca, Alpaca and sheep wool, baby Alpaca being the softest and sheep being the most coarse.  Also on display for us ladies were natural lip dyes, which according to Nelly are "kiss proof" which she demonstrated on the boys! They walked around the rest of the day with big red lips on their cheeks which they couldn't scrub off!

From Ollantaytambo we took a two hour train ride to the base camp for Machu Picchu.  Anabel, Bryan, Karina and I spent the entire duration of the trip playing Spades, which got very competitive.  When our train came to a stop we looked out the window to find that we were in the center of the town, as in the railway was in the center of the street.  Kind of a novelty, but we didn't take time to appreciate it as it was off to bed for our 5am wake up call the next morning.

in the sacred valley

ollantaytambo

pretty much stairs the whole way up

made it to the top of machu picchu mountain!

our group

To get to Machu Picchu you have to take a 20 minute bus ride from the town, winding up through the mountains until you feel like you are on top of the world.  It was so surreal to finally be at this location that I have heard so much about and seen in so many pictures.  A couple of us hiked up Machu Picchu mountain while the rest of the group climbed Huayna Picchu.  I'll just say this, it was like a two hour session on the stairmaster.  My buns got a serious workout.  But the view from the top, words cannot explain it, so I'll let my pictures do the talking.

Familia

A few things about Lima:
It never rains in Lima, ever.
Limenian food is top ten in the world, specialties include Cuy (guinea pig) and ceviche (raw fish)
Pisco (the local liquor) is Peruvian, no matter what the Chileans say.
They take pride in keeping their city clean, and you will find street crews sweeping the streets daily.
Lima is like Las Vegas, Casinos on every street corner.
Theres a fountain in the city center that they fill with Pisco on their Independence Day and turn it into a giant free bar!

My host family here consists of Amalia (Mami!) and her three children who are all older, Amalia, Ana, Carlos and her grandson Willy who is my age and just spent a couple months in Colorado as he is training to be a chef.  Absolutely love them all.  Mami is super up on all her health food, so we get fresh fruit juices every day and low fat soups, etc which are soooo good.  We also tried Anticucho which is cow heart, glad no one told me what it was before I tasted it, don't think I would have been able to stomach it knowing what it was, but, having said that, it was really good! There is also an abundance of fruits that I have never even heard of before, Granadilla, Guanabana, Lucuma, and a bright orange fruit that no one seems to know the name of.  They also have Passion Fruit everywhere which I eat at every opportunity! However, this sugar addict is currently missing all her cakes, cookies, and brownie batter.  I'm being spoiled rotten, if I lift a finger to help clear plates Mami comes running over and tells me to leave it all, I told her that my own mother is not going to like the person she is turning me into! We spend hours sitting around chatting, my spanish, I am happy to announce is markedly improving.

Guanabana

Granadilla

The first two days in Lima we spent on full day walking tours of the city, getting to know the area we are living in and the center of the city!  I am living in a barrio called Lince and am only about 8 blocks from the Pacifica University where we are studying.  

New Beginnings

On March 31st, the Multi-Country program participants sadly departed Buenos Aires and flew on to Lima Peru.  Some of the things I won't miss in Argentina. 1) desert which consists of a slab of cheese covered in a slab of sweet potato jelly. gross. 2) platform birkenstocks, a hot trend right now 3) the nightmare dog living in our apartment.  Things I'm super excited for in Lima 1) Machu Picchu 2) Finally having a class in English again! 3) trekking through the Amazon!