Ica y Paracas

This weekend’s trip was another great one filled with sunshine and exciting adventures. Once again, I only wish we had more time! About a four hour bus ride took us from Lima to the department of Ica, which is a desert coastal department in Southern Peru. We arrived at the Huacachina Oasis to ride dune buggies and sand board which at first I was not all that excited about for whatever reason. However, when we got off the bus and I felt the perfectly sunny 75 degree weather, I decided it didn’t really matter what we did that day, I was going to love it. We were told “no need to bring anything!” as we all jumped into dune buggies, buckled our seat belts and were excited about doing whatever it was we were doing even though I think few of us even had a clue… We started driving and I was almost instantly reminded of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. With the sound of the cutting engines and then the jostling of the buggy that turned into an all-out insane adventure ride brought to us by our awesome driver. It was soooo much fun. I was in the back with Kyle and Kristen and we were just laughing, laughing and laughing our heads off, with others screaming and some waving their hands in the air, when really all I wanted to do was hold on for dear life! It was pretty crazy. We eventually stopped, hopped out at the top of a giant sand hill, and were handed boards. They said, lay down, elbows in, legs apart and pushed us down the hill. It reminded me a lot of sledding except dirtier (covered in sand…) but slightly less dangerous feeling. I don’t think wiping out in sand would hurt as much as snow or worse, ice. It was really fun the only disappointing thing was we only did three sand hills… so I didn’t get to do it very many times, but I think I enjoyed the buggy ride the most anyways!

We got back to the oasis entrance area and had lunch, I tried a little bit of everything we had, chicha morada for drinking, appetizers and arroz con pollo and sopa seca. After we ate, we got on the bus to return to our hotel where we were to have free time for the rest of the day. We arrived at the hotel around 3pm and I am thinking “what on earth are we going to do all day?” but, upon entering the grounds, we discovered there was a TON to do. I swam in the pool, went on the water slide and then did some more sand boarding on the hotels giant sand dune in the back   of their lot! We also went on the playground and enjoyed some extremely comfortable swings! There was a gold course, horseback riding, karaoke, and tons more to do. It was a really pretty hotel. When dinner time rolled around, a few of us grabbed a taxi and said, “take us to somewhere good to eat” which he did, but we pretty quickly concluded was too expensive. We then spotted a place called ‘Mango’, which looked like a fruit stand with a little more to offer. We ate some delicious sandwiches and I had my first chicharrón sandwich in Peru and I was in heaven! After that we meandered and purchased some dessert and sweet wine and headed back to the hotel for a relaxing night.

Sunday morning we awoke to an amazing hotel breakfast buffet. A chef at the grill to make to order omlettes, there was also maybe 10 different types of bread including chocolate croissants, there was French toast, tamales, an array of meats and cheeses, a cauldron of delicious hot chocolate and many more things. The hot chocolate here is so interesting. It has this slight hint of chai every time I drink it, but whenever I ask how it is made, they always tell me “chocolate and milk”. So I think I have concluded that the type of chocolate they use for hot chocolate must just be slightly different then whatever we use at home but I just cant place it yet. Its chai-esqe…

Anyways… after that paragraph on food… we got on the bus to go to Paracas, a coastal town where we boarded large motor boats to head out to see the Islas Ballestas. These islands had lots of sea lions, lots of penguins. Lots of birds and mostly importantly-lots of bird poop! It was really interesting to see these guano islands after I and a few other of my friends in the program, have learned about the guano boom in Peru in our History of Peru class. The use of this bird poop as a fertilizer and economic stimulus for the Peruvian economy in the middle of the 19^th century is a very important piece of Peruvian history but was also just very, very smelly. After taking way too many pictures of sea lions and birds, we headed back to shore to have a delicious lunch and do some shopping in the outside markets. We then took the bus back to cloudy Lima to continue our lives here!


Pictures can be found in my Facebook album here:Pictures of Ica y Paracas!

Machu Picchu

We started our day early in order to be one of the 400 visitors of the day to climb Huayna Picchu which means “smaller mountain” in Quechua. And by smaller, it does not mean small… The sun was out bright and early and five minutes into the hike, everyone in our group had stripped to their last layer of clothing, which luckily for me was workout pants and a tank top, in comparison to some who were in jeans. No matter what outfit you were wearing, that hike worked up a sweat! It was 45 minutes more or less up, up, up the mountain with lots of stairs, and lots of precarious edges and one very small, very dark cave. I struggled to get through that little cave, and there are many people on that trip taller than myself. I was quite impressed! Once we got to the top there was an amazing view. I don’t know if I have ever hiked to the tippy top of a mountain before and it’s really awesome to look at all the pictures of Machu Picchu now and say hey, see that really tall mountain up there? I was on the top of it. After taking copious amounts of pictures at the top, we started the hike back down. That was the part that got me. It was definitely difficult, it was definitely hard. Probably the second hardest thing I have done in the past year after racing an 800 on my home track. Finishing that hike with no falls, cuts or bruises, was enough for me to pack up and go home 100% rewarded and thrilled beyond imagination. But don’t worry, I didn’t go home yet. We then got a tour with our same guides we have had all weekend in Cusco and Ollantaytambo and we learned about various myths, facts, assumptions and knowledge they had about this ancient Incan city. It was really interesting to hear about and we did tons more walking. After that, we had about two hours of free time to just walk around and explore. That time was fabulous as well. We took pictures, sat on ledges and enjoyed the view, talked, met other travelers from all over the world and ate some snacks that we brought for the day (obviously). The scenery was just amazing and I wish I could express it in words but I just can’t. Look at the pictures, go visit yourself. I highly recommend it. I am so excited for my parents to come and see it.


I have now seen 2 of the 7 wonders of the world and that’s so exciting to me! That was never a goal of mine in life but, I might make it be. After being there, after being here, I just feel like there are so many things in the world that I still need to see and still need to visit. I have always loved to travel and I have always wanted to go all over the world but the longer I stay here the more I realize how much I have to learn and how much I have to see.

In addition to my own amazement and enjoyment of the day, being around my new friends and seeing the wonder on their faces after every turn or climb made me so happy. We have such a diverse group of people here. Some people have traveled all over, some people have never left the U.S, some people are 19, some are 28 and I loved the clashing of experiences and watching everyone go through the day. Leah’s voice was in the back of my head all day, or wait, Leah was probably just right behind me all day which is why her voice was around all day and it was amazing because every few minutes would just come a deep breath and a “wow” or a “holy crap” or “check this view” and I loved it. I loved enjoying it and feeling other people enjoy it and just feeling magnificently high.

Speaking of high: Here is a fun Peru facts paragraph about the coca plant and coca leaves. Coca is the plant that cocaine is made from. Here, it has a deep history and was used by the ancient civilizations as a multi-purpose plant. It curbed hunger, it gave you energy and for those of us who are not accustomed to altitude, we drink mate de coca tea like cocaine addicts (which maybe is a small possibility), we suck on coca candies, or chew on coca leaves to help prevent altitude sickness. We used the leaves as a remedy for our train trip to Junin a few weeks back as well and the tea is served at all the hotels, planes, trains and whenever we are traveling to somewhere with altitude. Some people thought the flavor was really bad but I thought it was pretty good. It was definitely a different flavor than I have tasted before but it’s something I will never have in the states so might as well have it here!

After Machu Picchu everything just seemed a little better. We did some more shopping at a market full of alpaca fur things, held some baby llamas, fed some alpacas and vicuñas at a little petting zoo/animal park thing and we returned home to cloudy cold Lima late Monday evening. But even the lack of sun didn’t damped my spirits because even as I write this now, I feel slightly warmer and can get butterflies in my stomach when I remember jumping into the air with the most beautiful backdrop in the world behind me.

*All Machu Picchu pictures can be found in my Cusco and Machu Picchu album as well as on my Facebook!*

Cusco and Ollantaytambo

We started our weekend arriving to Cusco in the beautiful sunshine! We checked into our hotel, walking slowly everywhere as most of us felt the altitude whack us in the face… We then got a city walking/bus tour and saw Sacsaywaman, the Cathedral in Cusco and Qoricancha. Qoricancha was a religious temple built to worship the Inca’s more important God, Inti, the Sun God. Sacsaywaman was the former capital of the Incan Empire. There was a lot of walking, a lot of stairs and one very small, pitch black cave that we walked through. Still feeling the altitude, it was definitely a lot of work to get around. The Cathedral was beautiful and we spent a ton of time listening to the guide talk about different paintings and statues and walking around inside. I love visiting churches so much more now than I did when I was young. These cathedrals in themselves are works of art and are filled with history and even more art! I also love the blending of cultures that can be seen in the religion and the churches here. For example, in a giant portrait of the Last Supper in the Cathedral, the food in the center piece of the table is a cuy (guinea pig) which is a traditional Peruvian meal, and not so traditional in other Catholic countries… After that we grabbed dinner and I crashed from exhaustion in the hotel to prepare for the next day!

Saturday, we bused to and through the Sacred Valley watched a wool dying and weaving presentation, walking through the Ollantaytambo Ruins and eating a tasty lunch buffet. The walk through the ruins of this Incan city was like a mini warm up for Machu Picchu! There was a plethora of stairs and beautiful mountains to be seen and more interesting facts to be learned about from our awesome tour guides. After lunch we went to a bar where we learned about a common drink in the Cusco region called Chicha, which is a fermented corn beer. It tasted okay but the Chicha with strawberries and sugar that they drink at parties, birthdays and special occasions was much more delicious. We then hung out playing this bar game where you try to throw a coin into the mouth of this frog mouth (not a live frog) although, it was pretty hard. We ended our day in the Sacred Valley by getting on the train to Aguas Calientes, the city of Machu Picchu, where we checked into our hotel and slept, again in preparation for our next big day to come!