Huacachina - Miski!

And now comes time for another story of an adventurous weekend in Perú. After Saturday classes, the trainees and I jetted off to Lima in a taxi to catch a bus to Ica. Ica is the area of Perú on the coast, just south of the providence of Lima.  And, it's quite different than Lima. Ica is the desert. Sand and sea for as far as you can see. It's absolutely gorgeous. So, the bus ride there was silently eventful. It was a very nice bus, and it looked more like an airplane on the inside, and we were kind of treated like it was an airplane. There were flight attendants, but it wasn't a plane, so maybe they're called bus attendants? I'm not quite sure. Anyways, they served us food and drinks and provided entertainment. The DVD player on board was pretty much a wreck - it kept skipping and messing up all the movies that were played. The only movie that made it semi-ok to the end was a Nicolas Cage movie, Lord of War. Except, it was in Spanish, so it was translated to "Hombre Peligroso." But, it wasn't quite the same in Spanish. The voices that were dubbed over didn't quite fix right with the movie. So, after 2 more failed attempts of showing movies, the bus staff defaulted to playing music. And, it was the absolute worst music I've ever heard. Horrible jazz, ridiculous covers, languages I've never heard, it was just plain hilarious and weird. Of what I can remember, there was "Bohemian Rhapsody (A Tribute to the Band Queen)," which was the weirdest thing. Then, there was a Beat It cover by Frankie Cheese and his creepy children's choir. It was freakin' weird.  Anyways, after a 5 hour ride, we arrived in Ica late that evening. From the bus station, we took a taxi to our hostel, Banana's Adventure in Huacachina, Ica. Huacachina is a small little hipster back-pack town right over some sand dunes from the city of Ica (Ica is a city and providence, like Lima). There is a lagoon, and essentially it's just 2 streets around the lagoon. There's lots of hostels and restaurants and Peruvian knick knack stands and such. So, our hostel was pretty awesome. It was based more outdoors - there were little cabins and bathrooms around the outside. In the middle, there was a courtyard with hammocks and banana trees, and the restaurant/bar. Very chill, clean, and cheap, just like a hostel should be.  We got to Huacachina kind of late, so we headed down the street to a Pub to grab some food. It was the Peruvian owner, tons of British people, and us. Our waiter was pretty awesome. He was from London, and came to South America for 7 months to volunteer and travel. He loved Huacachina so much he got a job at the Pub and stayed. But, it was his last night at work because his visa was about to expire, so he was headed to Bolivia in the next few days. It was his last day at the pub, so he'd warned us he'd had Pisco for breakfast. Pisco - el sangre de Peruanos. It's kinda like tequila, but a little worse. After dinner, we headed back to chill at the hostel to wait for the other trainees to arrive. They'd had class later than us and caught a later bus. It was super late when they arrived, and the only place still open was that same pub. We went back, at some dessert while they ate dinner, and saw a bit of a band play. They covered the classics and weren't bad at all. After some chill time and girl talk, it was time for bed.

A few hours later, the barking dog woke up the room the girls were staying in, and Donovan was very upset by this. She impatiently opened the window shouted "cállate perro" and went back to bed. It was actually pretty hilarious. 


We got out of bed super early the next morning to depart for Paracas, a city farther down on the coast. It was about an hour bus ride there through the desert, and once we got there, we got on a boat to go see the islands and peninsula. There were lots of boobies (Peruvian white headed birds), penguins (yes, there are penguins in Perú), and sea lions. It was pretty incredible, but smelled absolutely horrible. The islands are there in an effort to preserve the guano (precious, expensive, fancy poop) from the birds. On one island, 3 guards live on the island for 3 months at a time with no electricity or running water in order to protect the guano and assist biologists. I have respect for them...I could never do their job. So after freezing our butts off from the lack of sun, seeing tons of animals, and smelling lots of bird poop, we returned to the shore and walked around Paracas for a little while. And, I ate a traditional Peruvian breakfast, which I'm really going to miss when I go back to the states. Fresh bread, fried egg, mermelada, mantequilla, cafe, y jugo fresco. Bien rico! Buenaso! And, all the rest of the words Peruvians use to describe food and such. It seems like I could get that in the states, but it's just not the same as here.

Nobody really knows how this got here.

Yup, pinguinos. Who'd a thunk?

Daww. 

Anyways, we headed back to Huacachina and explored the city a little more in the daytime. It was absolutely gorgeous, and I'm going to live there one day. It's so chill and calm, but super exciting and full of interesting people. We ate lunch, walked around, chilled, and I brought some Peruvian pants. They look ridiculous and are super comfortable. Best investment thus far. Afterwards, it was time for sandboarding and dune buggying on the dunes with our crazy driver, Luis. This guy is like 60 years old, and he drives dune buggies and goes sandboarding for a living. How awesome is that?! It was absolutely amazing. There's nothing like flying fat down a huge mountain of sand while lying on your stomach. We even saw the sunset while we were up in the dunes. It was the most beautiful sky I've ever seen. I have about 50,000 pictures of it. While sand boarding, I met a nice gay couple from Colombia, a British couple just out of university, another British couple from Man City who were in the 9th month of their year long world tour, and some Canadian dudes, one of whom who has the most ridiculous mullet I've ever seen. I highly recommend if you're going to Perú, go to Huacachina. 

Sand boarding ended, and we chilled around the city and the hostel for a while, and then headed to dinner at another random restaurant. It was buenaso. Nothing crazy, just trainee bonding time. The next morning, the Latino trainees + Binita woke up early to catch a bus back to Lima so they could teach class. The other trainees on the other hand got to sleep in a bit. We woke up, ate breakfast, and then when on a tour of two different bodegas. It was interesting, for lack of a better word. We met some crazy people also learned a bit of Quechua, the other official language of Perú. Después, we ate lunch, ran into our British waiter friend who was about to get kicked out of Perú, said our goodbyes to the hostal, and left for the bus station. The ride back to Lima was less eventful, but consisted of the same horrible music and a viewing of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," in Spanish, of course. We were surprised at the bus station by our wonderful friend Tatí, so we stayed in Lima for a bit and ate dinner with her while telling her about our Huacachinan escapades. Then, back to Chosica, and back to work for the week.

It was a great weekend and a great adventure. As of today, I officially have one month left in Perú. Can't wait to see what other adventures God has in store for me!