Long Time No Blog!

Sorry it has been such a long time since I have written, there has been so much going on here that I haven’t had a chance to even to write in my own journal! To start off, a 24-hour flu had hit the house (we call it the Gringo Plague), and I was the second person to get it, so Wednesday and Thursday were absolutely miserable. I couldn’t go to placement on either day even if I felt a little nauseous, because Peruvians already think all of the gringos have Swine flu, and if I did get sick at the health clinic they wouldn’t let anyone from the program go anywhere in Ayacucho in fear that we were going to contaminate the whole city. I think that 24 people were ill on Friday, which turned the house into complete chaos! You see, we had about twenty of us leaving for the Peruvian coast this weekend and so a good portion of the people couldn't go because they were stuck in bed.

Luckily I was better by then, so after placement on Friday I hopped onto the bus for an 8 hour drive to Ica, Peru. The drive was gorgeous! Large rolling mountains, whispy white trees that reminded me of the Aspens in Colorado and at home in New Mexico, vineyards, wild llamas, and a crisp clear blue sky filled the windows, it was like a piece of art that stretched for miles and miles. And the sky! I never thought that such a deep black exsisted. There were no lights along the road so I swear I could see the cloudlike belt of the Milkyway as we drove along. We slept in Ica that night and continued our journey to the sand dunes and the winery the next day.

We got to see how it is they make wine in Peru and went to a museum where the owners kept all of the things that people would trade their wine for in the past. I bought champagne at the second winery we visited but the high altitude and the heat of the bus made the corks pop on the champagne everyone bought. All of the wine tastes a lot sweeter here than what I have had in the US. I also tried a sip of Pisco, its kind of the national hard alcohol, its very strong and is supposed to have a flavor much like that of brandy. After the wineries, we went in a dune buggy all around these giant sand dunes! They took us to these huge sand hills where we took sand boards and rode down the dunes on our bellies like penguins. I don’t think I have screamed that loud in my life or done anything that terrifyingly crazy!

The next day we went up in a tiny plane to see the famous Nasca (or Nazca) lines and the pilot was moving the plane back and forth, side to side, oh man lots of people lost their breakfast that day. After the awful plane ride, we drove to the coast and had dinner and our warm flat champagne by the ocean. There was a black out during dinner and I have to say it was extremely scary being in a dark that deep, in a strange country, and you can barely see your hand in front of your face.

Our last day we took a boat trip out to the Paracas Islands to see the Peruvian penguins and the sea lions in their natural habitat! It was awesome and the penguins are so cute. The boat ride was freezing so it was nice to be back on the bus in the warmth, even though we had a long drive back home. All in all it was a great trip and it was so nice to not be sick. I got a great look at a different part of the landscape in Peru.
Well have a great night everyone! Thanks for listening! Miss you all! Love you!
- Caity