Hauacachina, Peru

12/5/2005

hey everyone,
how are yall doing? thanks for the emails.
we are leaving for nasca today. but those guys are still sleeping... so i
thought i would check the internet.
peruvian food still tends to outdo what we got in america... and the weather
is warm. i got my first nose burn yesterday when we took a boat out to this
remote island to see the sea lion colony, the dolphins, the penguins and all
these other native peruvian birds. the peruvians harvest the bird feces for
a natural fertilizer. apparently it was one of the biggest money makers
here (back in the day)
yesterday i spent in a dune buggy, and then on a sandboard. it essentially
works like a snowboard, but on these huge sand dunes instead. only i laid
down on mine. it was kinda scary... especially when it almost ripped my
pants off - but i was hoping i would break something so i wouldn´t be able
to climb up the incan trail. (and leslie, thanks for putting the 6000 ft in
perspective for me! -i think- HEHEHE) ended the day at a salsa club. and
these places are all ages. i couldn´t shake this one girl. she was nice
and all, and could dance ok, but i am sure she musta been 17. and what do u
say to someone that doesn´t speak english? ¨¿tienes inca cola dieta?¨
some of you may remember how i was thinking that paul and edgar had already
planned the trip and there was the whole thing of me trying to get paul to
call me before the trip. (and then, he finally called me on my cell after
he saw me drive by in the agency van a week ago hehehe) well. nothing
could be further from the truth. paul and edgar didn´t do ANY planning. in
fact, they didn´t even know that you had to take a guide up the incan trail.
so they packed as if they were going by themselves. and here i am (and i
never thought i was much of a planner) having watched 5 videos about peru,
got a book outa the library, and bought a guide book. it is pretty funny.
so we spent a lot of our first day in lima figuring out our basic route.
paul struggles a bit with the dirt and the small bathrooms, (which i
secretly find entertaining - well, not always too secret) but he seems to be
enjoying himself. edgar is laid back and loves to eat everything just like
me - i finally found my traveling equal. he is in the national gaurd and so
i guess if he can put up with that, he can put up with anything. hehehe.
but we all get along real well. our last night in pisco, we were in this
cheap cheap hotel (arranged through my skills in bargaining - so i thought)
and the noise on the street was so bad that NONE of us could sleep. even
me, and i can sleep through anything. in fact, i thrive on noisiness when
its time for bed. but there were cars! and more cars! and they honk and
every intersection! - just in case some other car is driving around at 2 in
the morning! the horns sound like the pacman video game too! we were
laughing about it all till 3 in the morning. and then we heard this
fighting going on, and i looked out the window and what did i see? these
kids in a gang-like fight. first one group chased the smaller group up the
street, then the smaller group came back, screaming and shouting, and i was
confused cause the bigger group started to run. but sho´nuff, the kid out
in front of the smaller group had a gun in his hand! we could see it
shining in the street light.
we shoulda put our heads back in the window. but we got this strange urge
to stick them out further so we could see better. i can´t explain it, but
thats how it was. but anyway, the final conclusion was - our cheap hotel
cost had nothing to do with my skills at the deal, and everything to do with
everything else. oh, and the bed sagged really really bad. i was hurting.
more later. let me know if my emails are too long. u would think i have
nothing better to do... (which is true cause those guys are sleeping like
crazy! hehehe)
joseph