Hi guys!
I got back from my week-long adventure through the South of Peru last Saturday. Taylor got here on Monday (after a LONG delay) and by Monday afternoon we were in the Amazon (more about that below)!! We are doing great, but thought we should check in :)Anyway, my mini-vacation was a great trip, but with over 7 days of action-packed adventure, you better grab a snack or something, because this is a long update! ;)
Hope you are all great!! ~Kristyn
Friday, July 23: Leave for Arequipa
We (me, and 3 other gringos - Mike, Fanny, and Victoria) left for a city called Arequipa last Friday. We
opted to take a short flight there instead of the torturous sounding 18 hour bus ride, and arrived quickly and easily. The first thing we noticed once we landed was the SUN! Lima is SO cloudy 24 hours of day. You can't see the sun, the stars or anything...but we could actually SEE the sun and the moon! After doing a little happy dance on the tarmac, we grabbed our bags and headed to our hostel. We dumped our bags and went to find dinner: Arequipa (Air-ah-key-pa) is known for its amazingly beautiful main plaza and for being a gastronomic capital of South America.We quickly found a place offering "traditional" food, and ordered things that were excitedly and repeated recommend by all the Peruvian we work with. I had rocoto relleno, which is a slightly spicy red pepper stuffed with beef (or alpaca) with this amazing creamy, cheesy sauce. It was awesome!
After eating too much, we wandered to the main plaza to see it all lit up at night. The cathedral and buildings are carved out of this cool white, volcanic stone, which gives Arequipa the nickname of the White City. We bought cookies and ice cream while meandering around, and went back to the hostel early to get some rest before our early morning.Saturday, July 24: Headed to Colca Canyon!
On Saturday we were picked up by our tour bus to go to Colca Canyon. The canyon is the deepest in the world, but its also really, really high up. I totally forgot to bring my altitude sickness meds...but figured I would be fine. The mini-bus took us out of town and towards the mountain pass that threads through the valley of 2 huge volcanoes that sit outside of the city. We passed by alpaca farms, llama farms, and wild vicunas (a cousin of the other two!) which has fine, red fur. They can only be sheared every 2 years, and a scarf made out of its fur can cost over $1500!
After staring at the animals, we started to go over a pass that was over 4,910 meters (OVER 16,000 FEET!). Just to give you an idea, Denver is about 5,280 feet, and the highest mountain in the 48 states is only 14,500 feet. I started to get a little headache, but we tried drinking some water and Coca tea, 
which is supposed to help with the altitude...I was doing ok until we got to a windy mountain road. Then me and the two other girls just kinda curled up into balls in the back of the bus and counted down the minutes until we got to our lunch place.
We got to lunch without any major incidents, but we felt pretty crappy. I was just so amazed that just 
being at that altitude can have such an immediate effect. In Arequipa we were all a little out of breath if we tried to climb stairs (7,800 feet above sea level), but we didn't feel bad. I spent most of the lunch time just appreciating the fact that I wasn't moving, but luckily we had descended to about 12,000 feet. I eventually had some amazing Peruvian soup and a soda, and felt mostly better.We were then taken to our little hotel in the middle of nowhere at the mouth of the canyon and we able to just hang out and lay in the sun for a couple hours. After relaxing, we headed to some geothermal hot springs in the canyon! It was pretty cool, and there were 4 or 5 different pools to choose from. We watched the sun set and the stars come out over the valley before getting out and redressed for dinner. The tour included dinner at a restaurant with traditional dancers. The food was underwhelming, but the
dancers were great! They were so much fun to watch (I have videos to post eventually!) and they of course dragged us all out of our seats for the end of every dance.
We went back to the cute hotel, and went to bed...except one of the girls couldn't sleep (snorer in the next room) so she knocked on our door to see if she could swap. When she woke me up I was completely disoriented...I had the WORST headache I have ever felt. I grabbed for my water and Advil, and after about 2 liters and probably way too many ibuprofens, I tried to go to sleep. It got so bad that I attempted to call Taylor on my Peruvian cell (he, of course, did not answer ;) so he could Google what I should do. I was definitely really sick from the altitude, but besides getting evacuated I didn't know what I could do or if I was in trouble. I watched the minutes tick by for about another 90 minutes, and must have briefly fallen asleep because when I woke back up, the headache was going away. Glad I wasn't drying from altitude sickness (yay!), I tried to sleep until our 5am wakeup call. I am still amazed that I was so affected by the thin air, and will never again forget my altitude meds!!
Sunday, July 25: The canyon and the condors
We woke up early to a cold and windy morning in the canyon. It was about 40 degrees, but as soon as the sun rose over the ridge and hit the canyon floor, it began to warm up. We started the 3 hour drive to our goal of the day: the Andean Condor lookout at the top of one of the deepest parts of the canyon. The Andean condors are the world's largest flying bird, and a huge attraction here. Along the way we stopped at quaint towns with beautiful plazas, ancient per-Inca tombs and ruins, and so many scenic vistas that we almost got tired of staring at the canyon! It was so pretty, with huge terraces that sloped into the canyon (like giant rice paddies), a river running through the bottom, and the bluest sky.
We were approaching the Condor lookout and were super lucky to find a group of condors flying away from the huge group of tourists that had convened at the official lookout. Our driver pulled over and the condors literally circled right over us for about 20 minutes...It was awesome! They can have a wingspan of over 10.5 feet and weigh up to 33 pounds! They just glided around our heads and dipped and dove into the canyon for a while before we peeled ourselves away to go join the rest of the crowd. And when we got to the real lookout, there were even more! We saw at least 20 huge, adult condors....they were circling, swooping, and zipping around everywhere! We spent about an hour watching them glide around on the hot air rising out of the canyon, and then all piled back into the van for our drive back to Arequipa. 
It was a 4-5 hour drive back the same way we came, and after a short stop for lunch (yummy food!), and another trip over the high pass of 16,000+ feet, we made it back to Arequipa. We had a relaxing dinner and all fell asleep early!Monday, July 26: Sightseeing in the White City
On Monday we woke up refreshed and ready to explore more of the White City. We headed to the Santa Catalina Monastery, which was a breath-takingly beautiful old convent that had been mostly opened to the public. I took us hours to wander through all the maze-like corridors, cloisters, and gardens, but it was worth it. After the sight seeing, we felt like not being tourists for a while, so we found a Chinese food place for our late lunch (they LOVE Chinese food here, and call the Peruvian-Chinese cuisine "Chifa") and then a cute Moroccan themed bar to relax in. We had a few drinks and waited until it was time to get on our overnight bus.Tuesday, July 27: Nazca and the famous lines
Overnight buses are not my favorite, but they are a really efficient way to get around. You don't have to pay for a hostel on the night you take the bus, and you wake up in a new city. Plus, on these huge, double-decker luxury buses (way better than greyhound) they feed you almost decent meals and play movies, like a airplane! I didn't sleep too much, but we made it to Nazca around 6:30 am, and were immediately aware we were in the desert. It was dry, cool in the shade, but blazing in the sun. We took a quick nap at the hostel, and then Mike and I set off for the next adventure: a chartered plane ride in a Cessna over the mysterious Nazca lines.
The lines are a series of 70+ huge shapes in the desert. Nobody knows why, but the ancient Nasca people created huge drawings of plants, animals, shapes, and lines by removing the first layer of darker desert stones to reveal lighter rocks. From the air, they are amazing, with some lines reaching almost 5 miles in length. We went to the airport and hopped into a little 7-seat airplane and took off over the desert. I saw a giant spider, a monkey, a condor, a tree, a dog, and a bunch more! It was cool, but after about 30 minutes of repeatedly circling the lines on each side of the plane (tight spiral around the line clockwise, then counterclockwise for the people on the other side), we were both getting a little green and were ready for solid ground.
The girls had gone to tour an old cemetery in the desert, so we went back to the hostel for the hottest part of the day and took a little siesta. We woke up in time to take Mike to the bus station - he had to go back to Lima and fly back to the states. We all said goodbye and then we three girls went to find some food and drinks. Nazca isn't a very big town, and we walked around it about 3 times in search of a bottle of wine before we gave up, had a couple of Pisco sours (the national drink) and bought some weird but delicious Passion Fruit flavored soda "fortified" with vodka (think wine coolers).We relaxed in the hostel and hung out, deciding we didn't feel like dealing with going to a bar or figuring out the local scene, and went to bed.
Wednesday, July 28: Viva el Peru!
Wednesday was Peruvian Independence Day and we woke up to the sounds of parades. We got packed up and wanted to go check them out, but one of the girls was moving a bit slowly, and we ended up not having any time before our bus. We went straight to the bus station, and passed a couple of marching bands, but overall it didn't seem that crazy. We had a fast breakfast and got on a bus headed for Ica, a small town about 2 hours away in the desert. We got to Ica with no problems, and got a taxi to our hotel, which was actually 15 minutes outside of town in the middle of the giant dunes beside an oasis. 
Honestly, I had no idea anything like this actually existed (much less in Peru) but the oasis was a green lake ringed by palm trees in the middle of huge, mountainous sand dunes. It was pretty cool, and since it was a holiday, it was swarming with Peruvian families. We checked into the expensive hotel we had booked, because nothing else was available for the holiday. The room was pretty spartan, and we were all sort of amazed at what we were getting charged for our one night! Just to put in in perspective, most of the hostels we had stayed at were under $10 a person…and this place was $108 for the three of us!But it was a beautiful evening, so we hired a taxi to take us to a wine and pisco vineyard for dinner. They call the local family run pisco producers "bodegas" and we went to one that had a nice big outdoor restaurant. We tasted wines and piscos, got the grand tour of the production areas, and then had a tasty dinner. It was cool to see all the similarities and differences between the way they make everything here and the way they make everything at the other vineyards I have visited.
We stayed and talked to some people for a while, had a couple of drinks, and danced a bit, but ended up leaving around 3am because the girls were getting tired. I think the club was probably going to go until dawn, because on our way out there was a line around the block waiting to get in!
Thursday, July 29: Wine tasting in the desert
I slept in while Fanny went out super early and climbed the giant sand dune next to the oasis. I had wanted to go, but the thought of attempting to get up at daybreak to trudge up a sandy hill started to sound worse and worse the later we stayed out the night before, and I opted to just look at her pictures upon her return :)
When she got back we went to a quick lunch and headed out to wine country. Ica is surrounded by vineyards, and I was really excited to go to a big winery and see what it was like I really just love seeing vineyards: its always warm and dry, the vines are beautiful, the surrounding landscape is always spectacular, and everyone is so relaxed and happy. Plus, you get to try wines! The vineyard we went to, named Tacama, is South America's oldest vineyard. It was beautiful, surrounded by mountains, but in the middle of a dry looking flat valley. The building of the vineyard were all painted a rosy pink, and were so pretty!
We took a tour of the place (in Spanish) and then got to try the wines. Apparently Peru is known more for their whites, and the hot climate makes the wines sweet. We had 2 amazing sweet and semi-dry whites, a decent red, and some yummy champagne :) We lingered for a while, but we had hired a taxi driver to take us on the 30 minute drive to the vineyard, wait for us, and then drive us back in time for our bus (cost = 50 soles or $17 for our 3 hour voyage!), and it was nearing the time to leave, so I reluctantly said goodbye to the pet eagles and the vineyard, and we returned to the dunes.We got on a bus and went only 45 minutes to a town called Paracas. It is a beach ton in the middle of one of Peru's few nature reserves. We found our hostel easily, had a great dinner of super fresh seafood, and wandered the town….it only took us about 10 minutes to circle the whole village, so a free "welcome to Paracas" drink at our hostel's bar, we hit the hay.
Friday, July 30: Penguins!
On Friday we woke up and I walked back to the bus station to meet other friends that happened to be coming to Paracas. We all dumped their gear at the hostel, had a continental breakfast, and headed to the dock to meet our tour - we all wanted to go to the Ballestas Islands, a group of tiny islands off the coast that is home to millions of birds. I was particularly psyched to see wild penguins! We hopped on a boat and took a 2 hour boat ride to, around, and through the islands! There were sea lions, so many birds (literally millions), and of course, the adorable penguins :)
We got back to dry land and spent the last day of our vacation lounging around. We ate more awesome seafood, took naps, and read by the beach. Overall, it was a great way to end the fun week! The next day we took a 4 hour bus ride back to Lima, and I started getting ready for Taylor's arrival.Now!
After a bit of drama (4 hour flight delay), Taylor made it to Lima! He got in at 4am on Monday morning. We had a short day in Lima, and then went right back to the airport in the afternoon and flew to the Amazon. We are staying here in Iquitos so Taylor can collect blood samples from patients infected with malaria for his research. I am his official translator (and tour booker, restaurant picker, and price negotiator :), and since work days here have been pretty short, we have had a very relaxing time. There is so much good food….I really can't stress enough how amazing all the Peruvian cuisine has been, and the jungle has even MORE! There are so many fruits I have never heard of or seen, I could spend 2 weeks just wandering the markets tasting them!After arriving Monday, we spent Tuesday with our boss from UCSD touring different lab sites around the area (he was here to show some US government big wigs around, so we tagged along). Since then, we have just been going to lab or strolling the city during the day, and eating and drinking too much in the evenings. This weekend, we went to the giant market in town on Saturday then hung out with all the other gringos (there are 3 other girls from UCSD here, what a coincidence!). We went to see some live music at this huge outdoor venue. The band must have had about 30 members, and it was even complete with very scantily clad dancers.
On Sunday, we got up early and had our first real Amazonian adventure. We got into a water taxi at the docks, motored 20 minutes downriver (while our driver bailed out the boat…haha), and went to a Butterfly Farm & Animal Orphanage. It was great! They had over 40 different species of butterflies, and around the area were tons of tame-ish monkeys. We also saw (and I got to pet!) an ocelot, a jaguar (no petting allowed, but I did make sure to ask), and tons of other animals they had rescued.
We are having a great time, and are planning to spend this weekend at a lodge up the Amazon river (after Taylor is done "working"). I will take lots of pictures and bring lots of mosquito repellent!
Pictures on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2604787&id=5100214&l=58f7cee77b
Ciao,
Kristyn
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