Chaska in South America

Matt and I arrived to Lima last Friday. I’ll have to say that even though I’ve been here several times, it was still a shock upon arriving. Argentina is so European that I didn’t really experience any culture shock at all when first arriving…Peru is very different from Argentina!!! We got to Lima Friday morning and luckily one of my mom’s cousins came to collect us from the airport…we were kind of in a daze from only having about 30 minutes of sleep the night before, and things would have been pretty interesting if we had to get a taxi ourselves. My mom’s cousin, Susanna, got a taxi for us and took us to our hostel and was such a huge help! She also took us to a really typical Peruvian restaurant for lunch (which we would have NEVER gone in without her), and we had an awesome lunch for $2 each. Susanna also gave us the lowdown on how to take a “combi”, which is the Peruvian form of public transportation. There aren’t normal buses like in Buenos Aires, just small bus/van things that pick you up and drop you off where ever you want along their route. It’s a bit scary to jump on one if you don’t know what do do and say, so it’s so great that Susanna was able to tell us how to do it…otherwise, again, we would have NEVER done it on our own. Taxi’s are different here in Peru than in Argentina too…there aren’t any meters or anything, so you have to use your bargaining skills to get a price for the journey before you jump in the car. Most foreigners get charged WAY too much because they don’t know how to bargain. Within the 3 days spent in Lima, Matt and I got pretty good to bargaining our taxi rides and taking the combis…we were pretty proud of ourselves, although I’m sure we got ripped off a couple times. One really stupid thing I did while in Lima, right at the start, was I left my organizer on the seat of the taxi that took us to our hostel…I could have killed myself when I realized what I did! I didn’t have anything like money or anything like that in it, but I lost all phone numbers, addresses, email addresses and all contact info I had gotten from people prior to coming to South America. Oh well, hopefully that’s the worst thing I lose along this trip.
Matt and I left Lima Monday afternoon, after spending the whole morning trying to get our yellow fever vaccine that we need in order to get into Brazil from Peru…it was a pain in the butt, but we finally got it done. I swear Brazil better be amazing…you can’t imagine the trouble we’ve gone through to get there!!! We went to a tiny coastal town called Pisco that is just a few hours by bus from Lima and stayed one night there. While in Pisco, we took an excursion out the some islands called Las Islas Ballestas (called the poor man’s Gallapagos in our guide book.) It was really cool…mcuch better than I imagined. We went in small motor boat with a guide and about 20 ohter people. We saw so many animals, it was amazing. We saw dolphins, sea lions, and zillions of birds…including penguins! After Pisco we went to a town called Ica, where we spent one night. We visited a couple local bodegas (wineries) where they make wine and pisco (the most typical Peruvian alcohol), a modern one and one that is super old and traditional…they dance on the grapes to smash out the juice! They do that in March though, so we didn’t get to see them do it. While in Ica, we actually stayed in a tiny town just outside of Ica called Huacachina. It’s right in the middle of enormous sand dunes and we rented a couple sand boards (meaning a piece of wood with velcro straps on it) and went sand boarding…not as cool as I thought it would be since the wooden planks don’t work so well. We left Ica Wednesday night and took an overnight bus to Arequipa, where we are now. Oh my god, that bus ride was one of the craziest experiences. The bus driver seriously was going like 80 miles an hour on tiny moutain roads and even around sharp corners. He also loved passing up huge trucks on the two lane road with traffic coming quickly in our dirrection…I honestly thought we were going to die several times. Not exactly the easiest conditions for falling asleep…Matt and were absolutely bewildered by all the snoring Peruvians surrounding us. Thanks to our maniac bus driver, we made it to Arequipa in record time and arrived two hours early, despite leaving an hour late. Matt and I have decided to only take first class buses from now on…the driving may not be any better, but at least we’ll die in class!
So, anyway now we’re in Arequipa. We’re staying with some relatives of mine whom I just met for the first time yesterday. They are really friendly and are so nice for having us stay with them, but at times we feel a bit “trapped”… they insist on always eating with them, doing things with them, etc. Again though, they are SO nice for accepting two more or less strangers into their home!!! Arequipa is a really nice little town with a really beautiful center and a lot to see and do. We went out with my cousin and his girlfriend last night and had a really fun night…Matt is absolutely LOVING all the female attention he’s getting here in Peru. You should have seen him last night, just surrounded by beautiful girls on that dance floor! As my uncle called them today, “casadores de gringos” (gringo hunters.) Tomorrow, Matt and I are planning to take a two day excursion into Colca Canyon, a nearby canyon where we are going to go see condors. Well, here are some photos from this past week!

This is the Plaza de Armas in Lima. It is SO much nicer and cleaner than I remember it being when I last visited it about 10 years ago. All of Lima is actually really clean. There are people in little orange suits sweeping up constantly. It was especially noticeable to us since we were coming from Buenos Aires, which is definitely not the cleanest city in the world.

The plaza was all decorated for Christmas. It was really pretty.

Here’s a picture of a hill in Lima. You can see the pueblo joven, which is what the shanty towns that surround Lima are called. We really got to see a ton of pueblos jovenes on our way out of Lima by bus…it was pretty incredible to see the living conditions.

The coast in Lima. This day was actually a little bit sunny. It’s rarely sunny in Lima.

This is my mom’s cousin Susanna who helped us out so much. Our hostel was just across from this park, yes that is a statue of Kennedy…the park is called Parque Kennedy.

Matt enjoying a nice refreshing Incakola…the most popular soda in Peru. It tastes like bubble gum and looks like pee.

We went to my mom’s uncle’s house for lunch one day. These are some of my family…Uncle Cansio, Jose, Vilma, and Susanna. Oh yes, we had Incakola!

My cousin Erin is living in Lima with her husband Tim. They teach in an international school. We met with them one afternoon.

These are what the combis look like. There’s always a guy at the door yelling out the route to people on the sidewalk.

This, on the other hand, is the public transportation in Pisco. They’re fun to ride around in! The church in the back had a big banner with a National Geographic on it. We think maybe it was in National Geographic?

This is the Plaza de Armas (main plaza) in Pisco.

This was on our trip out the Islas Ballestas. All the little black things underneath the arc are sealions.

Penguins!!!! They were so cute.
These are Peruvian boobies!

This was on the way out to the islands. They aren’t exactly sure who did it…either the Nazcas or the Incas. We decided not to go to Nazca because we were told that you can’t really see the lines without going up in a plane. It was cool to see this though!

This was our hostel in Ica, or actually Huacachina. It was basically a gringo haven…so many gringos! It looks a lot nicer than it actually was. The bathrooms were absolutely discusting!!

Matt checking out the slopes.

This was our tour guide to the bodegas, Williams. He was actually our taxi driver on the way to the hostel and convinced us to do the tour of the wineries with him. He was a really nice guy! They put all the grapes in that big cement thing and dance on them, then put the big log down to get the rest of the juice.

Me and williams. They keep the wine in those big ceramic things behind us…all just piled up in that room like that.

Here’s a painting of how they dance on the grapes. If you go in March, you can actually jump in and join them!

Yes, we got to taste it! It was all really good, but the pisco was super strong.

This is my uncle (not my uncle, but I’m not sure what to call him) in Arequipa. He showed us all around yesterday.

This is the whole family. Floro, Josefina (my grandfather’s cousin), and Jose.

The cathedral in the Plaza de Armas in Arequipa.

The central market here in Arequipa. It’s huge and really cool.

You can just barely see it behind all the haze, but this the Volcano Misti here in Arequipa.

The river here in Arequipa.

This is my cousin Jose and his girlfriend Brenda.

Here’s Matt last night, just loving all the attention he’s getting from las Peruanas!

Yay!!!! This was in a market in Lima…it was the name of the little shop. Chaska, for those of you who don’t know, means star in Quechua (the Incan language.) Wasi means house.

Tags: Travel

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