Nazca lines!
Friday we went to Huacachinero which is like 4 hours away in the desert. When we drove into the cute little town we could see the surrounding sand dunes. The hotel was super cute and snuggled right up to the sand dune. Its like a mountain of sand behind it. I cant belive it the sand dunes actually blow my mind just how it can be formed of sand…we watched alladin on the way which was a perfect movie to get us in the mood to go dune buggyin in the sand dunes. The dune buggying was a blast. It was like a real live rollercoaster and I felt much safer than I expected plus the sand didn’t fly in our faces or anything. Once we got to the top all we could see was sand dunes for miles it was more like were were up in the desert at that point . it was sooo much fun! I loved the feeling. The dunes were really different than I expected I kept imagining myself in the sahara desert or in Egypt or something..we went sand boarding as well, down two very steep dunes I went on my stomach though. The next morning bright and early we left for ica which was a town on the ocean that reminded me of the mediteranean, once again very cute . we took a boat ride to the isles ballestas which are covered with guano (bird crap) we saw lobos del mar (tons of sealions) and a few penguinos, and thousands upon thousands of birds. It was cool, interesting, the sealions are incredible to watch.
We drove off to nazca after and arrived at the hotel in the evening. Another cute hotel of course, the city is in the desert basically and near mountains its so crazy that they have green vegetation I think its thanks to wonderful irrigation. We went to a presentation in the tiny planetarium that consisted of showing us pictures and data about the nazca lines and telling us the theories about them. I was shocked at how big they are, how many there are and how far across the desert they are spread. Its incredible really that people made these lines like a thousand years ago in the desert. The theories are whether they were areas for rituals, which people walked on. Whether it has to do with the caclendar and summer solstice etc, whether its partly to mark water areas and irrigation, or whether it has to do with mapping the solar system. I believe the water is the most probable with a mix of the calendar (for the geometrical shapes) and maybe some ritual events as well. Really its all a mystery..crazy that we don’t really know what happened they are still researching and making findings..after we hit up a street vender, I had a great chorizo sandwhich and other people ate a near by street cart as well..it was great I love the food in the streets.
Sunday was the big day when we took a little 5 seater passenger plane flying over the lines. I couldn’t believe how big and clear they were, its crazy to see these huge shapes spread out all over the desert at the base of the mountains. My favorite is the monkey shape but its really interesting how there are so many figures! Its not just geometrical lines, its really fascinating. It felt almost surreal flying over them and thinking about how incredibly long they have been there..
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
In the jungle the mighty jungle: Iquitos!
Iquitos
So we were supposed to go to the rain forest..but thanks to the cloudy lima skys our flight got canceled after waiting in the airport for seven hours of delays. We waited around to try to get in on the next flight on Friday but that was a feria day here and the flights were full so we got our trip rescheduled for the next week. It worked out kind of cool cause now we have another three day weekend next week! While at the aiport we had the priveledge of being reminded about the swine flue..gripe porcina here. As soon as we got there I was jolted by the amount of people wearing masks. It made me nervous to be honest..but then it turned into a form of entertainment aw we tried to get as many pictures of masked people in the waiting room as we could.
Our first flight to Iquitos was canceled and we therefore had to wait a week to go. The week was very enjoyable though, and the trip tourned out great postponed one week. We left the Lima airport around 7 and got there around 9 , this time there weren’t so many people wearing the swine flu masks as the fervor over the flu had died down a little during the week. When we got to Iquitos immediately we felt the heat and humidity. It was almost like suffocating humidity but it really wasn’t that bad. Just different to get used to for the first few minutes. We had a personal tour guide and a package deal for the weekend so we got picked up by our guide and headed to our first hostel. The hostel was only like a block or two away from the plaza de armas which is always nice.
We went out in search of food and Henry and I went for the street food as we normally we do. He found a killer burger and I got mollejas de pollo which is the stomach or pancreas of chicken. It was surprisingly good.
Friday we got up and took our little boat from the city of Iquitos to our lodge Sichuhuy or something like that which was about an hour from Iquitos. I was shocked and in awe by the size of the amazon river ..it felt like I was on a lake! The boat was a cute little boat that we were all able to pile into with its thatched roof. I never imagined after learning about the amazon or hearing about it on the discovery chanel that I would actually be there and be able to touch it..que loco! We got to the lodge and it was soo cool. Its like all made of wood and very rustic but at the same time very comfortable. The river was really high so it was pretty flooded but everything is on platforms so we got to stay on like this little island. There were hammocks and everything..it was awesome. From there we headed out in another even smaller boat through the amazon for a little and learned about the area. We went to a little village and walked through the forest a little to the house of a shaman. He did a presentation about the local products and local herbs and other things that they use to heal people. it was really interesting, we got to drink the liquid that came from one of the plants..how cool. we walked through to this womans house where she had a sugar cane juicer. It was a cool contraption that you put the cane in and push down ona lever and the juices come out into the bowl below. We all got to try it for a little ebit..its hard work, I cant really imagine if that was my job forever..hard. We haeded back to the lodge and rested then lathered up in bug spray and headed out in our little eboat to listen to the sounds of the selva. It was bien interesante. The sounds were soo loud and clear it was like listening to one of those relaxing noise cds only live and way cooler plus it was helped by the fact htat there was a full moon that was incredible and brighter than I have probably ever seen the moon. I keep being places on this trip where the sky is just so impressive at night from El Chalten, to Ollantantambo y Pisac, to Ica..its so impressive and here was no exception it was sooo dark. Our hotel didn’t have electricity which was nice and very tranquil. We used oil lamps to light the paths and our rooms.. I felt like I was in a different world!
Saturday we got up early and headed out on the boat to ride around the rivers..the amazing thing about the amazon is how many tributaries there is..its like there is roads only they are made of rivers..and they are wide, and people ride around in little boats and houses are elevated..but we saw so many with the water almost up to the doors..we went through a place where there was a lot of water and we were literally having to use a machete to chop down little trees so our boat could go through..they were really small like banana trees and stuff..we got a really secluded area a dlooked at plants and birds and stuff..we went into a pretty foresty part to see this huge hidden tree and all of a sudden the guy in the fornt who had been cutting trees started going at something like crazy with the machete..turned out to be a snake of the fer-de-lance family that is one of the most venomous snakes there is and almost attacked the guys foot..he was like inches away from it and it kills you in three hours..wow..he had to hack at it for a couple minutes until he was able to hold it up dead for all of us to see..later kept riding around exploring the different parts of the river, ate lunch at a different lodge that was even more secluded, watched the impressive sunset over the water..the sky and clouds in that area are really impressive..then headed back for a tranquil dinner and calm evening. The next morning on Sunday we got up and did a boat tour of birds ., oh yeah we saw dolphins! A lot of regular dolphins are in the river ad there are also pink dolphins, that we only saw one of but it was awesome! There are a lot of local mythis about the pink dolphin like its magical, pretty interesting. We fished for piranhas using stickes and pieces of chicken hanging off the srings..two people got lucky and caught them then returned them to the water. Then we visited the yagua Indian tribe that is one of the main tribes in the area, they have kept their own language for many years and now since the government has helped to promote their culture through tourism, there are a few settlements in the area that we were in that we were able to visit them. we had a brief demonstration and danced and then got our chance to shoot blow guns= cool! We headed back for lunch and relaxed before making the trip back to Iquitos which is the highest, largest city in the world not accessable by roads. We had free time to shop at the artisans and eat..street food again! This time we had juane which is a rice dish served with chicken and other thigs inside and is served wrapped up in a banana leaf..very good! Then we ended our trip with a calm flight back to Lima
So we were supposed to go to the rain forest..but thanks to the cloudy lima skys our flight got canceled after waiting in the airport for seven hours of delays. We waited around to try to get in on the next flight on Friday but that was a feria day here and the flights were full so we got our trip rescheduled for the next week. It worked out kind of cool cause now we have another three day weekend next week! While at the aiport we had the priveledge of being reminded about the swine flue..gripe porcina here. As soon as we got there I was jolted by the amount of people wearing masks. It made me nervous to be honest..but then it turned into a form of entertainment aw we tried to get as many pictures of masked people in the waiting room as we could.
Our first flight to Iquitos was canceled and we therefore had to wait a week to go. The week was very enjoyable though, and the trip tourned out great postponed one week. We left the Lima airport around 7 and got there around 9 , this time there weren’t so many people wearing the swine flu masks as the fervor over the flu had died down a little during the week. When we got to Iquitos immediately we felt the heat and humidity. It was almost like suffocating humidity but it really wasn’t that bad. Just different to get used to for the first few minutes. We had a personal tour guide and a package deal for the weekend so we got picked up by our guide and headed to our first hostel. The hostel was only like a block or two away from the plaza de armas which is always nice.
We went out in search of food and Henry and I went for the street food as we normally we do. He found a killer burger and I got mollejas de pollo which is the stomach or pancreas of chicken. It was surprisingly good.
Friday we got up and took our little boat from the city of Iquitos to our lodge Sichuhuy or something like that which was about an hour from Iquitos. I was shocked and in awe by the size of the amazon river ..it felt like I was on a lake! The boat was a cute little boat that we were all able to pile into with its thatched roof. I never imagined after learning about the amazon or hearing about it on the discovery chanel that I would actually be there and be able to touch it..que loco! We got to the lodge and it was soo cool. Its like all made of wood and very rustic but at the same time very comfortable. The river was really high so it was pretty flooded but everything is on platforms so we got to stay on like this little island. There were hammocks and everything..it was awesome. From there we headed out in another even smaller boat through the amazon for a little and learned about the area. We went to a little village and walked through the forest a little to the house of a shaman. He did a presentation about the local products and local herbs and other things that they use to heal people. it was really interesting, we got to drink the liquid that came from one of the plants..how cool. we walked through to this womans house where she had a sugar cane juicer. It was a cool contraption that you put the cane in and push down ona lever and the juices come out into the bowl below. We all got to try it for a little ebit..its hard work, I cant really imagine if that was my job forever..hard. We haeded back to the lodge and rested then lathered up in bug spray and headed out in our little eboat to listen to the sounds of the selva. It was bien interesante. The sounds were soo loud and clear it was like listening to one of those relaxing noise cds only live and way cooler plus it was helped by the fact htat there was a full moon that was incredible and brighter than I have probably ever seen the moon. I keep being places on this trip where the sky is just so impressive at night from El Chalten, to Ollantantambo y Pisac, to Ica..its so impressive and here was no exception it was sooo dark. Our hotel didn’t have electricity which was nice and very tranquil. We used oil lamps to light the paths and our rooms.. I felt like I was in a different world!
Saturday we got up early and headed out on the boat to ride around the rivers..the amazing thing about the amazon is how many tributaries there is..its like there is roads only they are made of rivers..and they are wide, and people ride around in little boats and houses are elevated..but we saw so many with the water almost up to the doors..we went through a place where there was a lot of water and we were literally having to use a machete to chop down little trees so our boat could go through..they were really small like banana trees and stuff..we got a really secluded area a dlooked at plants and birds and stuff..we went into a pretty foresty part to see this huge hidden tree and all of a sudden the guy in the fornt who had been cutting trees started going at something like crazy with the machete..turned out to be a snake of the fer-de-lance family that is one of the most venomous snakes there is and almost attacked the guys foot..he was like inches away from it and it kills you in three hours..wow..he had to hack at it for a couple minutes until he was able to hold it up dead for all of us to see..later kept riding around exploring the different parts of the river, ate lunch at a different lodge that was even more secluded, watched the impressive sunset over the water..the sky and clouds in that area are really impressive..then headed back for a tranquil dinner and calm evening. The next morning on Sunday we got up and did a boat tour of birds ., oh yeah we saw dolphins! A lot of regular dolphins are in the river ad there are also pink dolphins, that we only saw one of but it was awesome! There are a lot of local mythis about the pink dolphin like its magical, pretty interesting. We fished for piranhas using stickes and pieces of chicken hanging off the srings..two people got lucky and caught them then returned them to the water. Then we visited the yagua Indian tribe that is one of the main tribes in the area, they have kept their own language for many years and now since the government has helped to promote their culture through tourism, there are a few settlements in the area that we were in that we were able to visit them. we had a brief demonstration and danced and then got our chance to shoot blow guns= cool! We headed back for lunch and relaxed before making the trip back to Iquitos which is the highest, largest city in the world not accessable by roads. We had free time to shop at the artisans and eat..street food again! This time we had juane which is a rice dish served with chicken and other thigs inside and is served wrapped up in a banana leaf..very good! Then we ended our trip with a calm flight back to Lima
Monday, May 4, 2009
Update
I love Peru..its going to hard to leave, especially as i look back on the trip and realize that its nearing its end..
I havent updated in a while so heres a quick update: for semana sante i took the second highest pasenger train in the world to huancayo. We stayed there a night, it was really cold, and expereinced a street food fair yayy. then we went to la merced the next day that is more in the rain forest, we saw a mud slide and drove almost right though it it was crazy..they were only letting small vehicles through so there was such a back up of trucks there. the next day we went on an adventure walking through the river and climbing waterfalls..very fun..that night we experienced the easter celebration in the plaza of tarma, fireworks and alll..incredible..and headed home the next day cold, tired, and wet..
I havent updated in a while so heres a quick update: for semana sante i took the second highest pasenger train in the world to huancayo. We stayed there a night, it was really cold, and expereinced a street food fair yayy. then we went to la merced the next day that is more in the rain forest, we saw a mud slide and drove almost right though it it was crazy..they were only letting small vehicles through so there was such a back up of trucks there. the next day we went on an adventure walking through the river and climbing waterfalls..very fun..that night we experienced the easter celebration in the plaza of tarma, fireworks and alll..incredible..and headed home the next day cold, tired, and wet..
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