Peruvian Adventure

i wanted to write yesterday, but couldn´t as we were too busy adventuring. we started the day early with a very packed bus ride to the coast, to a town called paracas, it´s really more of a district of pisco (where we had our first, but certainly not last, pisco sour–no worries, grandma, not as strong as rumoured). from there, we took a boat ride to the islas ballestas, off the coast of paracas. the boat ride was crazy. look forward to some very classic shots of cassidy and i in fishy orange vests. we hope to have shots of some very awesome mullets we saw too. there were all kinds of birds. the birds actually made a kind of paint by numbers landscape against the sky and we were really overwhelmed, and of course, pooped on. there were also sea lions and seals. we then went back to the dock town of paracas and from there took anothere bus ride to a museum, where we learned a lot about the wildlife of coastal peru. after that, we went to a rock formation called the cathedral and the red beach, which were both gorgeous. our favorite part of the day, though, was lunch. we ate right on the water….a different version of this than in california, as i mean actually on the rocks, i could touch the tide from where i was sitting…we got pictures of this too. had my first real peruvian food, rice, potatoes, and fish. the best was the snack before lunch, almost popped corn…in such huge kernals…perfect with our cervezas. then, it was time to go back to pisco where we hopped on a bus to ica, and then took a taxi to huacachina. we met some fabulous nurses on the bus, they were so young and so interested in talking to us white girls. they wrote out some slang words so we could sound cool. they also invited us to a party on friday, but i´m not sure we´ll be here. we got into the hostel, casa de arena, and it was like real world peru. there was already a party going on, loud music, people around the pool, etc. we met a guy named renee who talked us into barbeque, interestingly, his dad lives in fremont, ca. we ate dinner with some israeli guys, who were very nice. it´s been very interesting to see people´s perspectives on the world. i also adopted a peruvian dog (not permanently, of course) and now likely have fleas. he was sooooo cute. he put his paws in my lap and slept curled up by me outside. he also pushed his nose into my door and came into my room. que lindo. well, there are other people waiting on the internet! much love to everyone! thanks for posting, and we´ll write soon…on to nazca.
love,
darcy

thanks to all of you who posted! we are in miraflores today and loving it as it is by the coast and a little ritzier than our neighborhood in breña. we still love our family and were joined by a dutch couple at the b and b last night. they are both so well traveled and excellent in speaking spanish. they told us some pretty crazy stories as they have been driving a rental car all around peru for the last six months. our breakfast today at the b and b was delicious and simple. we filled up on rolls with peanut butter, jam, and drank down a lot of nescafe. we are hoping this will allow us to skip lunch and save on our money. i just noticed cass is done typing, so i must finish too. dad, i´ve heard quite enough about my car being a ýellow blight.´ lay off the french fries, i don´t want a fat family to come back to and also great work on the song for grandma´s birthday! esp. tim´s version. we plan to take a bus to pisco este noche and see some animals and take a boat trip there, then we will drop down to nazca from there, check out the lines, etc. i think we are on the gringo loop, though we have seen few other travelers and the kids still stare at us, but since we are staring at everything too, fair is fair. laura, you would love all of the street´pets,´lots of cute faced dogs and skinny cats. this city is so loud and surging and shrouded in fog. got to go…love you all.

I just wrote a huge description, which I accidently deleted. All else goes well, our luggage arrived, our host family is incredible, we love the bed and breakfast, and we succesfully exchanged our money. The b and b ... [Continue reading this entry]

My day of departure draws near. It's hectic trying to wrap up the school year, move out of an apartment, and plan for a trip all at the same time. I just got my shots today and, boy, ... [Continue reading this entry]