ICA..LAS DUNAS!

CAUTION: LONG POST-----Well well well, it has been an EXTREMELY long weekend/week that is for sure. But it was extremely long with all of the traveling and fun that I did! Starting on Friday my family and me decided to go camping on the beach again :). We had a lot of fun with swimming in the ocean, going out, and wake-boarding! Sadly we couldn't stay till sunday because I was leaving for my trip to ICA on sunday! When sunday came our tour bus ( was a two story bus) was leaving at 7:30 am. and so my dad dropped me off at the station a little before! Once we got on the bus I was very impressed with how nice it was! We had nice big comfy/reclining chairs, pillows and blankets, air conditioning, free breakfasts and dinners, and a TV that played movies for us the whole way! I can honestly say I was very content :) The bus took around 3-4 hours until we finally arrived at our hotel resort! It was called Las Dunas ! We went and got our keys and Whitney, Allie, and me all shared a really nice room!   After we all got settled in we went out to Central Ica and took lunch out there! After lunch we went back to the hotel and Marta found us a guide that said she would take us to the area where the dunes were so that we could go "sand"boarding... :) After sand boarding she said she would take us to a pisco/vinery! We decided to go and change and get ready for our adventure! We got in her bus and she took us to where we needed to go. Once we arrived we payed 50S for all of the equipment, a ride out on the cart, and an hour sand boarding! I was terrified to go into this big go-cart looking contraption. But once I did, it was so much fun. It felt like we were going on a roller coaster up and down the sand mountains really fast. We had interesting seat-belts so that we would not fly out and if they were not there, it was definitely a possibility. These carts were flying everywhere around the sand and it was a very beautiful site to see all of the mountains of sand around us. Once we arrived at our stop where we would start to sand board, we were all covered in sand and eating a little bit of it as well. The guides kindly took a bunch of  pictures for us on top of the mountain before we were given our boards. My board was red, it had 4 velcro straps on it and that was all that we needed :) I was one of the last ones to go down the hill, and I was terrified that my board was just going to PLUNGE into the sand at the bottom because of how steep this hill was. The stance was to have both of your elbows inside the board while holding onto the straps. After I did that you had to spread your legs and keep them off of the sand so that you were not constantly "braking". I flew down the hill and made it all the way to the bottom with no sand in my face or anything! It was amazing and very fun. Then we climbed the next hill and proceeded to go down another hill that was smaller then the first. I decided that I wanted to stand up and "snow board" down this one.

To my amazement I did not fall once!!--until the end. I made it all the way down the hill some how and had a blast! Finally we all went down one last hill, this one was my least favorite because I sat on my board for this one. You had to sit with your feet on the board, hands extended out and close to the ground to brake. I did not seem to catch this memo of "braking" because I kept my hands out to the sides of me no where near the ground. I suffered at the end and went over what felt like a HUGE ramp, and landed pretty hard. I survived and was not hurt but had a little pain from the landing. Once we all finished going down the hills we were covered in sand and we all looked really dirty! We got back into our buggy and had a fun ride back over lots of cliffs and hills. When we returned our guide from the hotel took us to this amazing vineyard. We got a tour of the area and an explanation of how everything was made and picked. After the tour we all got to try little shots of wine, pisco, and creams. At the end some of purchased some wines and creams to bring back to the states for our friends and families to try! Despues the vineyard we went back to the hotel y all went straight to change into our swimsuits. We immediately jumped into the pool to rinse off our sand! We ended up playing a very heated game of pool basketball and after decided we needed some rest because the next day (Monday) was our trip to Las Islas. We had to be up and ready by 6 because our transportation was leaving at 6:30. We all got up early and went to eat breakfast which consisted of FRESH fruits, FRESH fruit drinks, breads, cheeses, hams, eggs, and jellies! It was a filling breakfast and we needed it for the energy. The guide took us to Las Islas (islands) around 50 minutes away from our hotel. Once we arrived we were given some time to shop around and look at the little souvenir shops. Paracas was the little name on all of the souvenirs and such and here I bought a hat finally! We also went and looked around the sand at puppies and a man that was friending lots of pelicans. They were following  him around and he was feeding them fish. They were so adorable and some people went to take pictures next to them. Finally it was our turn to get onto the big speed boat. When we did we all had to wear bright orange lifejackets and then we started on our way. We drove, they said, for 2 hours out to the islands where all of the seals were, and stopped a few places along the way for cool pictures and stories about the area. It was chilly on the boat ride but we managed to make it through, and eventually did not notice because of the wind and sun. When we arrived to the islands, it was a jaw-dropping site...There were big rocks coming out of the water, with arches and holes and different levels, it was amazing!! We went around the islands and saw TONS of seals and baby seal pups, crabs, birds everywhere, and jellyfish! 

They were the biggest jellyfish I have ever seen in my life, and they were a kind of orange color with LONG long tentacles. When I said birds were everywhere, it is not an exaggeration. They were constantly flying and there had to be millions and millions just sitting on all of the rocks and flying around. The sky was full of them and yes, people did get bird poop on them :X !! I was lucky and did not but others, not so lucky. On the way back we got to see one of the NAZCA LINES!! It was so neat because I never thought I would ever get the chance to see them! The others you have to take a plane ride to go and see but we were lucky enough to see this one from the boat!! :) After we got back we returned to our hotel and decided to go out to eat at an Italian Restaurant. We ate and shopped a little around the area and then returned to spend the rest of the night around the hotel. At one point, I wish I could remember what day and when, we went to a chocolate factory :) It was very cool and I of course bought some chocolates for myself! When Tuesday rolled around we all got lunch and lounged around by the pool until it was time to return home on our CRUZ DE SUR bus. It was an exceptional trip and I had loads of fun. :) Can not wait to see what the AMAZON has to offer this friday--TOMORROW :) Nos Vemos! 

MINION weekend. :)

Time has been flying by. I want it to slow down! This weekend I went to my first theater play in Lima! It was called TOC TOC and it was allllllll in spanish :). I was very happy and proud of myself that I could understand most of what they were saying! It was about all of these different people that came into a doctors office and were waiting for the doctor. They all had different problems for ex. one had the tics, one had OCD, another had a problem with germs, another repeated everything two times, one was obsessed with numbers and dates, and the last one was always thinking that she was forgetting things. It was a comedy and it ended up being extremely funny with many different twists at the end! I am very happy I went and my father even packed up snacks for us to take in secret to put in our purses! Saturday and Sunday I was the bum at the beach and I enjoyed it very very much. I can not imagine coming home and not having the option of going to the beach anymore. It makes me sad and jealous because they live so close to it here! This past Thursday my sister and I went out shopping at Larco Mar. We took little buses to get there, which never cease to please me....and then arrived at these little shops! First we walked around a lot and saw lots of interesting things!  We stopped to get a

manicure and it was only 4 US dollars! There they also had these tanks where you put your feet in and these little fish in the tanks suck on your feet! They do not have teeth but I found it insane! I have never seen anything like that before but it is supposed to be very healthy for you! After that we kept walking around and at one store I bought myself a Peruvian Jersey for the soccer game that we are going to go to March 22! I am very excited because it has been on my bucket list to go to a big soccer game in a professional stadium. This game between Chile and Peru is a qualifying match to enter into the World Cup. I heard these games are crazy and it doesn't help that Peru and Chile are rivalries!! But I am excited either way ! Later that night  a couple of us went to a very classy pub and hung out there for the night, it was called Aura. This week here has already started up I am once again busy as ever. Spanish is starting to stick a little more everyday but it is deff. something I have to study everyday. Loving it here. Not wanting to leave. Bueñas :)

Un Carnaval de Pintura!!

Friday, 22 of February some of our friends and our conversations partners went to a paint carnival down in Lima! It was amazing and very interesting to experience. We arrived there and waited in line and payed 15S to get in. Once we arrived we made our way up to the front of the stage and started dancing and having fun! There was un monton of people there and it was very hot for awhile. They played a lot of fun songs and old ones, some in spanish and some in ingles. Songs from the Backstreet Boys, Mariah Carey, and many others! After awhile of dancing men in white outfits came on stage with paint guns. They started spraying the crowd with all different colors or neon paints. I was not paying attention to what was happening until after the paints were in my mouth and my eyes. Was not prepared for that but after it was so funny to watch everyone get hit with paint. We danced around with everyone and they kept spraying paints and playing music. They then emptied a big bag of confetti and balloons out to the crowd. The stage was all decorated and they had decorated flags that they also let loose after the confetti. It was a blast and we stayed and danced until the paint was uncomfortable and we needed showers haha. The next day I went to the beach with my parents and my brother 

Andres. We stayed there all day and then in the night Danilelle came over and we had a barbeque with my family on our deck upstairs. We took chorrisos, hamburgers, and cheese on sticks, all really good food! Sunday my family and me went to Jockey and had Pizza Hut, and then went to a movie! My first movie in Peru! It was called- Duro de matar-Hard to Kill. It was an action movie so I enjoyed it a lot! It was in 3 different languages and I am very happy to say I understood all of it-Russian, Español, y Ingles. It was another amazing weekend in Perú 
and I cant wrap my mind around how long I have been here and how much longer I have! This week has been crammed with examens and I learn more and more everyday. Speaking is the hardest part because there is so many ways to say the same thing. I hope to figure it out soon enough. I can understand a lot though which is extremely exciting, now its just putting it together in my head! This week I met some more of my family here, my cousins and aunts and uncles, all extremely nice people and we also celebrated my cousin's birthday! I love how everyone has a lot of family time here, something I wish people in the states did more. Puesssss, Hasta Luego!

Never waiting for más adventure!

Kidnappings in Cuzco...no bueño. :( I was so sad that we were not going to Cuzco this weekend but I have discovered other fun things to do around Lima that I was not sad for long ! We were done with classes early this week and decided to go hang out after class Wednesday in Mira Flores with our companeros de conversacion! We passed by a very pretty park area where they have a bunch of chess tables! It was really cool looking and reminded me of the movies :) We took a snack and drink at this famous place called La Lucha-it was an outside restaurant! After we went to this place called Huaringas for a drink and it was in a cool house, tons of stairs and levels, and we went all the way into the attic. It was decorated very neat and had great drinks! The next day we all decided to go check out las tiendas that we would have seen in Cuzco. We went and shopped all around and I bought a couple things which was good because everything was so cheap! Later that evening I made my family lonche!! It was a mad mess going to the store and trying to find these items to make my food. The store was huge and when I tried to explain I needed chocolate chips and butterscoth chips....well it was a lost cause after awhile. I made it work though with different ingredients and thankfully it worked just fine!  They wanted an American snack and so I prepared Little Smokies, Scotcharooes, and Deviled Eggs! I was surprised but they loved all of it and thought it was all really weird until they tried it. Tonight I am very excited, Me and some of our Peruvian friends and american friends are going to go to a Carnaval Dance :) It should be a lot of fun and I can not wait. I will write more when this never ending weekend...ends. :)  

Perú el Zoologico !

After a long week at school I decided to take a more relaxed weekend at home, it was amazing. Friday I got up early and went to the Zoo!! I didn't know what to expect but when we arrived we got trampled by mobs of people trying to sell us umbrellas and hats due to the sun! We entered and started walking around. They had lots of play areas for kids, penguinis, a ton of monos (monkeys), birds, and tigers. We walked through a tree/plant garden which was interesting, and also a fake "selva" jungle. It was exciting to see the fake selva because it got me excited to see the Amazon when we go this march!! I think my favorite part was when we got to see a huge lake of lily pads. It was so pretty and we walked along it and looked at different animals and baby monkeys! They had huge bamboo trees all throughout and on them people wrote their names and who they loved, I thought it was cute so I wrote an L.. for myself hah. We walked through the whole zoo, smaller then ours but still pretty big, and we were exhausted. I went and had lunch at home and then went to mass that evening with my family! I also didn't no what to expect for this either! When we walked up they didn't have doors, so people can go and leave as they please. It was   more relaxed then our churches in Estados Unidos porque all the people dress down more here. My dad said people here can wear swim-trunks and it will be okay to wear. Crazy! Mass started and everything, that I could understand, was in the same order so that was nice! They had fun music with tambourines, bells, and drums and it sounded very pretty in español! They take confession before being able to receive the Body of Christ which I thought was interesting, but also kind of neat. We made the sign of peace, and here they hug and kiss on the cheek which is also what we kind of do! When it was time to receive the host, they do not wait here to go row by row but instead everyone that  wants/has had confession, stands and just gets in lines! After mass was over my mom took me to the front because after the priest uses holy water and sprays you with it and puts it in your hands if you hold them out. 
We did this and while we were leaving the group still

there was singing feliz cumpleaños to the priest! It was quite an experience. On saturday I went running and site seeing with my parents and ate a really nice restaurant, and Sunday I went to the beach :) I love when we go because it is so relaxing and getting a tan is never bad :) After the beach we had a big dinner at the best sushi place I have ever eaten at. I can sadly say it was better then BLUE. For 45S we got a buffet of sushi and ate and ordered all different kinds until we couldn't move. It was heaven and really good because it was sushi with all different kinds of Peruvian sauces. I will be going back there for sure! This week is going to be really exciting and really busy because this thursday were going off to CUSCO!! I can not wait....Write more this week :) Hasta la proxima vez! 

Arequipa,Llamas,Condors,Pisco,y amigos :)

Our first viaje alone!! Well, it sadly was not supposed to be but Marta got food poisoning from eating duck. No bueno! Regardless we traveled our way to the airport at 2 in the morning and waited for our flight. In order to get to the plane we had to take a packed bus (terrible) to the plane to board outside. We took the baby plane out to Arequipa and it had breakfast but I was a zombie and fell asleep so I missed it! Once we arrived we waited in the airport until our Johnny Depp look alike came and found us saying that he was our tour guide! He spoke really good english and right from there we started our tour to Colca Valley and Chivay. We had others on the tour with us and they were from Chile, really nice people :). We started our site seeing of volcanoes and beautiful mountains. 

Along the way we got to see alpacas, llamas, and another kind of llama just roaming around the land. When we made a stop at a restaurant they had a little shop where they sold llama and alpaca fur clothes. It was amazingly soft and I bought socks and other things there! We mainly stopped there to drink coca tea. The tea was supposed to help us all with the altitude sickness that some of us were feeling. For some of us it made us more groggy but Im so thankful that I was feeling okay. When we reached the highest point where the volcanoes were, we took a stop at some open huts. These huts were our bathrooms :) and a hole in the floor. Here we felt the worst I think haha and we had to jump over a little creek to get to the bathrooms and that is when I felt weird. Danielle had to put her head between her legs, and I had to eat about 20 lemon drop candies to feel better! It was an amazing view but a little painful! 

Finally we arrived to Chivay. Here we took lunch and we had alpaca meat! It was nothing to brag about thats for sure but I am glad I tried it! Our hostel was actually connected to the place where we took lunch and so we went and got situated and then off to the hot springs we went! This tour/ trip really did not allow sleeping, it was unheard off actually. The hot springs were very cool! We walked down thousands of stairs and the hot-spring looked like an actual pool. It was extremely warm and it relaxed us all for awhile until we thought our bodies were cooking from the openings in the pool that shoot out water (im lost of this english word. . . really thought about it for a good 10min. and now I give up)

 After the hot-springs we traveled back to the hotel and it just seemed like the day was never ending. Our tour guide told us he would be back to pick us up in an hour in half. Me and Danielle went to our room and pretty much pretended to sleep and then we got ready for a dinner and a show! We ate at a restaurant that had peruvian music and dancing! It was very cool and Luke and Whitney got pulled into dancing! The dances told stories and they were funny at times too. I had alfredo con tomato soup and a cake for dessert! It was all very good and by the end of the night we went to sleep but only till we had to wake up at 6:30 :) Saturday we went and traveled to Colca Valley to see condors!! THE BIGGEST FLYING BIRDS IN THE WORLD. Once we arrived it was unfortunately foggy but I did see a huge rabbit thing :) Me and Danielle saw more of their stacking rocks around this area and I decided to stack some rocks too and make a tower to honor gods. (the reason why we saw condors later) Once we left and headed back to Chivay, we stopped at two more site seeing places where we eventually saw condors, held huge hawks, and took pictures de the landscape and cute llamas! Our tour guide told us stories about the land and everything and how Colca Valley is the biggest canon in the world. He dropped us off at our hotel in Arequipa which was an amazing place with a huge REAL WORLD looking kitchen. Once we got here it was around 5:00 o clock and we decided to walk around La Plaza de Armas to see shops and gather food for an American styled dinner. Macaroni and Cheese with sandwiches. 

We ate them up and then we played card games and finally went out on the town in Arequipa. The downtown area was a really fun place and the dancing was non-stop. Definitely made some memories down there. After our fun night out we went to bed and woke up early to check out and go shopping around Arequipa. After we got attacked by children with water buckets and cans of spraying soap, we ate a little restaurant and then headed back to the hotel.

 ATMS are impossible to find in Arequipa, and children attack GRINGOS,  heads up for everyone!!

We had taxis called for us to take us to the airport and at the airport we all bought the famous chocolate from Arequipa-Iberica. It was really good and to top it off we got food on the plane again, and this time I was awake. I was awake because someone had to be due to our flight attendant was falling asleep showing the safety procedures, and our plane roof was falling down. :) It was a great trip and something I will never forget !!

Camping a la playa!!

Que bueno! Que lindo! Que gracioso no?

Loving the spanish language. Even though at times I like to rethink what on earth am I doing here, I honestly enjoy everything about Peru. This weekend I got a full ear full of spanish because I was with my family, my cousin and my sisters friend camping a la playa! It was an amazing experience. We arrived there and set up our tents just like you do if you were en un bosque, and then we unpacked all our stuff! We got settled in and my father started making us some hamburgers for dinner! 

Friday night my sister, Natalia ( her friend) and I got ready and went out to the clubs near the beach we were camping at. First we went to her friends house where they had an outdoor pool! ( soo cool, looked like the ones that fall out over the edge!) We then went as a big group out to the club strip. They had a bunch of little places to go and dance and eat and it was all outdoors! We stayed out till 5-am and then we all took a charter bus shuttle back to the beach and went to sleep right away.

 We were in the tent and I only slept for about 4 hours until I started getting hot from the sun. We all woke up about the same time and we grabbed our pareos, laid them down on the sand under shade, grabbed our pillows and slept some more outside. It was definitely something I could get use to- falling asleep to the sound of the ocean. After there was not a lot of breeze and the sun was getting hotter we were forced to wake up. My dad made us cheese sandwiches for breakfast and then we changed and fell asleep by la piscina. We took lunch at Del Abuelos where me and my sister had hawiana pizza! My cousin joined us in the night and we had a BBQ with chorizo y hamburgers and a little bonfire. My family had never heard of SMORES before so I went and bought some supplies at the mini market in the beach and I taught them how to make them. They loved them which was good and they thought it was the weirdest combination. How? I have no idea because sometimes I wonder in my head how they come up with some of their creations. Always good though :) 

Mi cousin! Making us a bonfire for SMORES

By sunday I didnt think it was possible to listen or try to comprehend anymore spanish. It was SUPERBOWL sunday and when I got home and showered I watched the game. . . in spanish none-the-less. It was a great way to end my weekend though and I cant wait for more adventures. Spanish is slowly creeping in my brain at all times. When I am talking to my friends I forget english words and im constantly making words and phrases in my head. Scary but interesting haha. 

Pueesssssss..........buenas noches! ;)