One month of adventure…

The dunes at Hucachina!

wooo!!

So much fun.

An oasis called Huacachina

Proof that I swam off the Peruvian cost! Brrrr.

About to go on a crazy ride

So I have been travelling for over a month now and looking back I can not believe my travel are already more than halfway over.  Sice my last post I have done a lot more exploring of the city of Lima itself and I am liking it more and more.  Once you get past the fact that the traffic as absolutely insane (stop signs have no meaning, street lights are merely suggestions and the idea of pedestrian right-away is foreign) and people see me and want to sell me something it truly is an amazing city. But before I talk about the city explorations I will talk about Ica and the short vacation we went on last weekend.

Ica is a city that is about a 5 hour bus ride south of Lima (about $4). The city is a gateway to many tourist attractions such as sand dunes, the lines of Nazca (giant designs carved in the earth by aliens, or whoever), the town of Pisco and some beaches. We spent one day exploring a small town called Huacachina which is in the middle of the most expansive sand dunes I have ever seen. We took a dune buggy tour which was a blast and included sandboarding down some crazy steep hills. Needless to say Im still washing sand from my body… The next days were spent seeing the town of Pisco and Ica.  About two years ago these towns were devastated by an earthquake and it is still obvious with desolate neighborhoods and neglected steets and sidewalks. We spent some time at the beach, wasnt the cleanest beach ever but I was the brave, or dumb, one who went swimming.

Yesterday was an awesome day in Lima.  We went to the Plaza de Armas (city square) and visited some catacombs underneath a church that houses about 36 padres, not sure what exactly a padre is but they look like monks to me.  Also saw the judiciary square where the president lives and some other immpressive buildings.  This part of Lima is beautiful.  We also took a bus tour up to a mirador of Lima.  Basically a lookour that oversees all of Lima.  The bus ride was short and terrifying. He took turns on a road about 1000 feet high on cliffs that I would not attempt in a sports car. But worth the view, I will get pics of that up at some point.

All the tours were in Spanish, I wish I could give you more facts about the city and Plaza de Armas but by the time I understand one sentence the tours over. ha, not really but it is hard.  I enjoy learning, sometimes it is very frustrating though. I feel like I can kinda follow a conversation but when someone expects me to talk, my brain cannot function fast enough. But I do enjoy the challenge.

I bought my tickets to Cusco yesterday! I leave in exactly a week and am very excited.  I bought a plane ticket, it was either a 1.5 hour plane ride for $170 or a day and a half bus ride for $90. I think I made the right choice. I am very excited to see the area, I know there will plenty of things to do there to keep me busy for a couple weeks including the Inca trail, rivers and meeting people from all aroud the world.

Thats it for now. The family is still awesome and I will be very sad to leave them but they have offered to keep some of my stuff here while I travel and I will stay with them again on my last night in Peru. Thanks for reading! Miss and love you all!!