Day 8 and 9: Weekend adventures!

 

This weekend has been great! Yesterday was exhausting but SO much fun! My awesome roommate Kelsey found a tour for us to take to Ica, which is several miles south of Lima. All 15 of us decided to go and the tour company cut the price in half! The company was run by this precious little Peruvian man named Ervin (or Erwin?). He was our Papa for the day. We were picked up from our hotel at 7am and set out for a 4 hour ride to Ica. Thankfully this bus was private, just the 15 of us, and much more comfortable than the city bus we took to the water park.

 

Along the drive from Lima to Ica we saw just about every terrain there is. On one side of the road we would see the Pacific Ocean and on the other side there would be massive sand dunes jutting out of the earth. A mile later there might be miles of flat green farm land with crops like pumpkin, asparagus, artichoke, and paprika on one side while the other would be sandy, dusty desert again. Then we would see the coast again and million dollar beach homes and across the street would be huts made of straw. It was a fascinating ride.

The Pacific Ocean. I wish I could have gotten a better picture of the cliffs and blue color of the water but it was really foggy and I was taking the picture from the other side of the bus.

 

A shanty town in the middle of the desert.

 

I think that is asparagus growing behind the shepherd herding his flock.

 

A few of us sitting in the back of the bus were entertained by this bread roll get closer and closer to falling on our tour guide's head with every bump. And it finally did! He said, “De bump made de bread go boop bump.” Haha it gave us all a good laugh. He was so sweet!

Along the way we stopped in Chincha Alto, a very nice town in the middle of the desert, to get breakfast. I had an empanada de pollo (chicken). For those of you from Starkville, the bread tasted just like Stromboli’s pizza crust!

 

A little before noon we arrived at a small Vineyard outside of Ica. We had a tour of the vineyard that grows the grapes to make Peru’s national drink Pisco, which is a grape brandy. Our tour included tasting pecans, fresh jam, and of course, Pisco and other wines! The Pisco is very strong not tasty AT ALL. One “wine” we tasted (it was more like strong liquor) was called "Perfecto Amor". Our tour guide said the common name was “Baby Maker”. Ahh, good thing no one had more than one sip!!

From the vineyard we hopped back on the bus and headed to the Huacachina Oasis for a delicious lunch and then, highlight of the day: SANDBOARDING AND DUNE BUGGY RIDES!!! The view was beautiful and the sandboarding was so much fun. The buggy rides were surprisingly the most fun! It was like a roller coaster. Our guide laughed the entire time because we screamed so much.

 

Boarding on the belly! See that little red speck at the bottom...that's where I ended up! Had to scream with my mouth closed to keep the sand out!

The oasis

 

Sadly, we had to leave the dunes and head back to Lima. I sat in a window seat hoping to get a picture of the sun setting over the ocean but unfortunately we didn’t make it in time.

 

I did get this picture of the sun setting over the desert.

On the way back we stopped in Chincha Alto again and grabbed dessert! I had a fabulous chocolate tart! We made it back sometime before 10, took much needed showers to get the sand out of our nooks and cranies, and hit the sack. We all slept very well!

This morning I woke up and had a very strong cup of coffee from the hotel and spent some much needed time in the Word. I am so thankful for this experience. This trip has truly been a blessing.
 

Breakfast grenada!

After my breakfast of quinoa and grenada, a yummy fruit that looks like an orange grenade from the outside and frog eggs on the inside, my roommates and I headed to the Historic District in Central Lima for shopping in some Ica markets and site seeing! It was a very relaxing trip to town. Very little traffic on Sundays. We had a taxi drop us off in front of the Church of San Francisco and then we walked all around the area. We thought this would be a touristy area, but we only saw a handful of tourist. In fact, this area must be a hot spot for Peruvians on Sundays because it was packed!!

At one point we were walking through a crowd that reminded me of walking in Time Square in New York, except that we were the tallest people and our light colored skin/hair made everyone we walked by do a double take. Dana's blond head attached to her 5'9" body sticks out just a little. 

A glimpse of the Historic District. My pictures do not capture the beauty of the buildings or the view. I forgot to put the SD card back in my camera so I had to take pictures with my phone.

The Church of San Francisco. All of those black dots on the building are these nasty little pigeons that really enjoyed swarming my head.

 

Outside.......................................Inside

 

Plaza de Armas

 

Just doing a little vacuuming. If you look closely you can see a little red train packed with Peruvians. We didn't take the train around the district because we thought it was too touristy. Apparently the locals didn't think so!

 

We had a great time shopping and I got a few souvenirs to bring back as gifts! Thomas, get excited!!! I may have bought you a llama (well something with a llama on it).

 

I love the mannequins here.

 

We also had a wonderful lunch. I had vegetables!!!!!!!!! Vegetables (that are safe to eat) are hard to come by here so when we saw grilled vegetables on the menu of course we, the nutrition students, were SOO excited!! And they were delicious. My actual meal was pretty good too. Beef, beans, and rice. Always rice. I think this was my first meal without potatoes!

 

 

 

Now I am back at the hotel visiting with my roommates and getting ready for school tomorrow. Day 2 of data collection in Manchay. More weighing and measuring babies!!