Trip #1: Huacachina and Nazca

Wow. Where to even begin to tell about the past week! Monday was class registration-- it was hectic and crazy, but worked out for the best! I'm taking Peruvian Social Reality, an advanced Spanish literature class, Andean Ethnography, and International Relations. Best of all, I have Thursdays and Fridays free!! The rest of the week involved going to classes, squeezing in a run here and there, a few errands, etc. One important lesson learned: I've been calling Andy my "novio," which I have always learned as the word for boyfriend. Then my host aunt asked when we were getting married... now he is just my "enamorado" (which feels funny since the literal translation is "lover"!) 

 On Thursday evening, Veronica, Kaylie, Kaylie's host sister Cathy, and I went to see "The Hunger Games" in the theater! It was good although I felt like it focused on the negative qualities of human nature while I prefer to look for all the good that is out there. Friday morning I slept in a bit, went for a run, and got ready to leave for our first Peruvian side trip! At 2:30, we hopped on a Cruz del Sur bus and headed for Ica!

My bus buddy Carina, a German student who's in one of my classes at PUCP.

We arrived in Ica around 7:30 and caught a cab to Huacachina, a desert oasis of about 100 people 3 miles from Ica. We checked in at our hostel, explored a bit, and had a drink to celebrate our arrival! Our waiter sat and chatted with us for a long time till we eventually turned in for the night.

The IFSA-Butler girls in front of our hostel, Desert Nights.


 The next morning, we woke up, got ready, and headed out to tour some local bodegas/wineries!  At the first bodega we visited, El Catador, we got to see the entire wine and pisco making process. First the grapes are stomped, then smooshed by a giant wooden press. The juice runs into an area where it is collected in ceramic containers and allowed to ferment. In order to turn it into pisco, a grape brandy, it goes into a special device where it is heated into an alcoholic vapor and then condensed in a series of pipes under water! Pretty interesting! We got to sample some of the different wines and piscos they make at El Catador and then moved on to our next bodega where we actually got to help stomp the grapes! It was such a neat, and unexpected, experience!

After our visits to the bodegas, we returned to Huacachina to relax, grab some lunch, and do a bit of shopping in the local market. I bought a handmade bracelet from a man at the market and was chatting with him a bit, when he suddenly decided to make me a pendant necklace with a lucky huayruro bead right in front of me! It was so nice-- definitely something I'll treasure!

At 4:30, our group climbed aboard a dune buggy and took off into the desert! The dune buggy ride was completely exhilarating! There were definitely times when I thought I was about to die as we careened over the tops of mountainous sand dunes, but it was SO FUN! The dune buggy stopped at last and we were told it was time to try sandboarding. My friends and I thought at first that our guide was joking-- the hill we were standing atop was incredibly tall and steep-- but when they pushed the first brave man off, we realized that it was no joke! Soon, we got brave and flew down the dune ourselves and, of course, it was amazing! We sandboarded (on our stomachs, sled-style) down two more hills-- I was even brave enough to be the very first person down the last dune! As an end to our desert adventure, we parked and watched the sunset over the desert. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. 

We spent the evening eating dinner (and some fabulous dessert!) and went to bed semi-early. We woke up bright and early and, after dealing with a bedbug issue, returned to Ica to catch a bus to Nazca! After a beautiful 2 hour bus ride, we arrived in the dusty little town of Nazca where Kaylie, Megan, and I made our way to the airport to find a flight over the Nazca Lines! We climbed into the smallest plane I have ever been in-- 2 pilots, 4 passengers, and not an inch to spare!-- and headed up into the sky! The view was incredible and seeing the mysterious Nazca Lines was amazing. Unfortunately, I got pretty motion sick, but I am still so happy I went along! It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience and seeing the Lines is ranked #2 in my guidebook-- something not to be missed! 

Once we got out of the plane, and I started feeling better, we went back into town for a quick and delicious lunch. We realized we had about an hour and a half before we needed to meet up with our group and board a bus back to Lima-- just enough time to squeeze in one last adventure! We found a cab driver who gave us a pretty good price for a drive out to Chauchilla Cemetery-- 30 kilometers south of Nazca. The Cemetery was a burial ground for the Nazca culture, was destroyed by grave robbers, and was later reconstructed by archaeologists. It was fascinating in an eerie sort of way. It's so interesting to see what past cultures have left behind-- some mysterious drawings in the sand and mummies of their dead-- and to think about what might be left of us in a thousand years.

It was such an incredible weekend. If I'm not able to do one more thing while in Peru, I think I would be satisfied, but the good news is that I get to do SO MUCH MORE!! I'm already done with classes for the week and will be heading to Caral, the oldest known civilization in the Americas, on Saturday! Next week is Ayacucho for Semana Santa, then Cusco, and then-- drumroll please-- Andy is visiting me! It was a semi-surprise and just about the best one ever! He'll be here in the beginning of May and I think that we're going to go to Huaraz, a beautiful mountain town, together! I was thinking the other day about luck. I always say that I'm not "lucky" and it's true in the sense that I don't usually win prizes, find money on the ground, or have rich relatives magically turn up. In reality, though, I am the luckiest girl in the entire world. I am so, so blessed to have such amazing opportunities, such amazing people supporting me, and so much love in my life! Thank you to everybody who is a part of making me feel so incredibly lucky!