Hola!

So I’m still playing catch-up with my digital entries, but I am proud to say that I have been doing a pretty darn good job keeping a journal. I’ve never consistently kept a journal or anything of the sort (I think my record before Peru was 4 days), so it has definitely been a struggle, especially with both my journal and a blog, but I am very proud of how good I have been doing with my journal, considering my lack of experience. Anyways, I’m going to give you a couple updates here about what has been happening since my time in the mountains!

So between trips (the way I measure time here), not much happened. That’s been a common theme this whole term. While there are definitely activities to do in Lima, we never end up doing much other than hanging out with friends and going to school. School is honestly such a low part of my trip. Don’t get me wrong, I’m one to enjoy school, but the education system in Peru is definitely in need of reform. My friends and I joke that the “L” word (logic) isn’t used in this country nearly as much as we are used to. Whether that be the education system, transportation system, or many of the other things on our list of complaints, there just isn’t much logic. We have found ourselves confused time and time again as to why certain things are the way that they are. Usually this is because things are much more complicated than they should be. I really do love this country, though, and I am enjoying my time here so much. I wouldn’t change anything about my trip.

Besides school, we have been keeping busy with various social events. We met up with our program director one day for lunch, which was lots of fun. I enjoyed my first hamburger in Peru. Our program director has kind of been our stand-in mom for us. We know that any time we have any issue we can go to her and she will gladly listen. During our first couple weeks here in Peru we spent a lot of time with her and had great bonding experiences with her and her husband. So naturally, after over a month we missed them greatly. Other things that have kept us busy have been various parties, nights full of dancing, times hanging out will new (and not-so-new) friends, and having countless adventures.

Adventure. That is our Huacachina trip in one word. A very common trip for tourists is traveling to an area called Ica. It is to the south of Lima by about four hours, and generally lumped into this place are the cities of Pisco, Paracas, and Huacachina. We arrived in Pisco by bus and spent that evening and the next day in Paracas. Paracas is in the coastal desert region and is home to large tourism, fishing, and oil industries. Paracas is best known for Las Islas Ballestas, which are islands just off the coast, accessible by boat. However, they are a national reserve, so you can’t actually go onto the islands. They are for looking by boat. What is there to look at? Penguins, seagulls, and sea lions! I know, not too exciting for someone who comes from oregon and has seen the penguins at the zoo (same type), goes to the beach often, and has visited the Sea Lion Caves. But it was still a cool experience to have! My favorite part was the sea lions. They are a lot bigger up close! Not too close though, no worries. I was also excited to see pelicans for the first time! Like Nigel from Finding Nemo, which is one of my favorite movies ever. So of course I was pretty excited about this. We also went on a tour of a bunch of different beaches in the national reserve. They were all different, which was cool. When we got back into Paracas I got to experience my first sandstorm! Like a legitimate sandstorm. Everyone had closed up their shops and restaurants and there were no vehicles on the roads.

Once we eventually came across a taxi, we smashed the five of us (six including the driver) into the taxi and drove inland for about an hour to Huacachina, which was our ultimate destination. Huacachina is a city located smack dab in the middle of a bunch of sand dunes. Why? Well, because oases are cool. The oasis in Huacachina is the center of the town and is honestly probably the only reason Huacachina exists. I was definitely surprised by the scenery. Especially in the towering dunes. I legitimately felt as if I was in Aladdin. I had a hard time believing they were real because I was so surprised. I suppose because I have never seen anything like it in real life. Not even close. These dunes were the source of a lot of thrill and adventure the next day. We went on a dune buggy and sand boarding tour that day. Imagine a ten person Jeep flying over sand dunes like a roller coaster, but not on a track. That’s exactly how it was. While several of the passengers weren’t big fans of the ride, me adrenaline-loving self loved it! I suppose I was a little nervous, but the fun and adrenaline definitely won. I attempted sandboarding down a dune once and was not so successful, which is understandable, considering I have never done any type of sport that involves a board. I ended up with a very large amount of powdery sand caked all over my body and decided to stick to sledding down the dunes on my board. Apparently the safest way to go down the humongous dunes is on your stomach, head first. Scary! But so fun and worth it once you got over the difficulty of getting yourself to go for it. I will never forget the final dune we went down. The bottom was unbelievably far. So far that because of the slight curvature of the dune I couldn’t see the bottom. But down I went anyways and it was a blast!

And that was our Huacachina trip. 🙂

Best,

Abby