Trip Stories:

White water rafting
Our first stop on our trip we went to a little, quiet town about three hours southwest of Lima called Lunahuana. We arrived, had lunch, and after lunch we decided to go white water rafting with a small company who had been hounding our business. We loaded into a combi and went down the road to a small motel, where we retrieved the rafting gear out of a run down car, and then headed for the river. The guide offered to take pictures of us on the river, which we accepted with some hesitance (will our camera be on the black market tomorrow?), however we did keep our money in our pockets. We got our stuff when we got back, however they got paid in soaking wet bills!

Lunahuana Bar Owner
Our first evening in Lunahuana we had been invited by the rafting guide to have a drink at “the bar” in town—a Pisco tasting bar right on the plaza, which happened to be closed that night! Luckily, we encountered a guy who had been hanging around the plaza all day (since we had arrived) and he knew where the owner lived. We followed him and found the owner taking a snooze. We woke him and told him we would love to have a drink, and he offered to open the bar for us! At his bar, he put on quite a show of Pisco sampling (what wretched stuff!) and made us the best Pisco Sour ever. Before long the place was packed, and he called for his 12 year old son to help. The following day we saw him in the plaza. He thanked us for keeping him open until 2:30am that night—not bad money for a day off!

All night party outside our window
Our second stop on our way to Chile was a town called Chincha, home to the Afro-Peruvian population and the location of the festival called “Verano Negro” or “Black Summer”. We thought that we would find lots of cultural dancing, when in fact we found a Peruvian hip hop concert right outside of our hotel window that lasted until 5:00 in the morning. We left as quickly as we could the next morning without any sleep.

Pisco / Paracas guano island
Our third stop on the trip was in Pisco, named after the famous Peruvian drink. The Paracas National Reservation is near by—beautiful deserts, beaches, and several island covered in “guano” or bird poop, which is used as fertilizer and heavily exported. We took the boat tour out to see this “bird poop” island and see the thousands of birds and sea lions as well as several groups of penguins that lived there. We also took in the strong aroma of an island made out of bird poop! The funniest part of the trip was when a woman asked for silence on the boat so she could take a sound sample of the seals with an old tape recorder—at least we got a lot of laughs out of it!

Dune buggy trip
After Pisco, we headed for a small oasis in the desert called Huacachina—near the town of Ica. We scheduled a late afternoon dune buggy and sand boarding trip, and when the dune buggy picked us up we went blazing into the desert, going 70 mph up and down the dunes. This was like some sort of amusement ride, but there were no tracks! We tried the sand boarding several times, but could not totally get the hang of it—we pretty much rolled down the hills totally covered in sand. Finally, we watched the sunset, something you would see in your dreams—truly amazing!

Our little dog friend in Arica, Chile
After our time in Arequipa and the Colca Canyon, we crossed the Chilean border for our Passport renewal. We crossed the border only with a minor snag and headed for the small town of Arica, Chile. Chile currently has the strongest economy in South America, and it is very evident the minute you cross the border. We had a number of meals on the beautiful pedestrian walkway and each time we would encounter the same small dog. One day after lunch we took a walk to the beach and the dog followed us for at least four miles there and back. It had to stop several times to take a nap—its little legs couldn’t keep up! We got quite a few looks—gringos with a little dog? Wish we could have brought her home—I don’t think border control would have approved!

Stories:

Papa Johns Pizza in Peru
There is a Papa Johns Pizza in Lima where we managed to go three times on our trip. Other than giving us 20 soles in false bills it was a religious experience! We miss you USA!

People getting lost on the mountain
Tino had the brilliant idea of taking our group of 21 volunteers, plus program staff, up a mountain to visit an ancient Wancan ruin at 5:30pm. It gets dark in Huancayo at 6:00pm, and half way to the top we found ourselves in darkness. On our way down the last four people in the group found themselves alone in darkness and took a wrong turn getting lost for almost an hour and a half. Tino went back up the mountain to find them and luckily did—scared and cold. That is the last night mountain climbing trip that we (Terry and Alison) are going take!

Look what I found.
We were looking for Shrek 2 at the DVD shop (copies for $1). In the back of the pile of the kid’s movies, we found several porn movies. We were shocked and even more shocked when they refused to test them for us to make sure that they were in English