My first American Visitor

Well, here is the promised update. Life has been good. Before my mom came to visit me, I had med checks in Lima. I had no cavities, and no parasitic infections. Clean all around which was nice to know. I was a little surprising I didn't have giardia, honestly. After that, I repacked my stuff back in site and got ready to meet my mom at the airport. The wait was really hard. Even when I knew she wouldn't be landing for an hour, I couldn't stop watching the people coming out and being anxious. Our ride back to the hostal was funny, because it wasn't noteworthy to me, but my mom was shocked by his driving. The thing was the lights weren't working, they were flashing red. So, he was ignoring them, and since it was 3 am, its not like there was a lot of traffic.

We had a little bit of difficulty getting transport to Paracas, which was our first destination. We ended up taking a 3:45am bus the 2nd morning and taking the tour of the beautiful wildlife islands shortly after arrival. Directly from there we got to head to the sand dunes of Huacachina, a wonderful little oasis in the desert of Ica. The sand buggy right was incredibly exhilarating and fun. We took an afternoon bus from Ica the day after our arrival in Huacachina, down to Nazca. Nazca was the only place I was disappointed with the tourism that I'd paid for. I guess it's not the fault of the tour company, Alegria tours, which was very nice and their hotel is wonderful. But the flight was a waste of our money in my opinion. The plane is a small, hot, sticky 6 seater. You go in circles over each Nazca line figure, both directions. I've never felt motion sickness before, but I was starting to feel a little queasy towards the end, and had to focus on the distance as we did the circles. The lines look exactly like the photos show, and while its nice to say I've seen the mystery, it would have been enough to know of it and know I was passing them.

After that we headed to Arequipa, and explored all the amazing colonial architecture. We went from there to the Colca canyon, Condor outlook to see the condors soaring. When we arrived there were 4 or 5 birds perched on the rocks and we waited to see them soar. Just as we ran out of time, the birds decided to grace us with their flight. Even more appeared, and it was incredible to see them overhead. I counted 8 in sight at once, but I'm positive there were more, since I'd lost sight of at least 2 juveniles that weren't with the 8 soaring adults. Directly from Chivay, we took a bus to Puno, which was nice although expensive. In Puno, we spent a lovely time relaxing in Colon Inn, passing Christmas in our room with a colored paper Christmas tree. We visited the floating islands and the burial towers along the coast, and both were interesting. Our next destination was my site for my birthday, which was lovely for me. I was preoccupied with my mom having troubles with the altitude, and stomach issues, but the lunch and Christmas presents given were wonderful. I felt very happy to share my host mom and my real mom with each other. We didn't really do much after that. In Lima, we saw the main plaza and the President's house. We watched his formal changing of the guard at noon, with a marching band and high precision marching.

I'm actually thinking about visiting home now; I really missed everyone once I saw my mom and realized how much more was missing still. But hopefully, my brother will come visit me this year, so I can see Machu Picchu and the rain forest. Those are practically the only places left on my must-see-during-my-time-here list.  Now I'm taking Quechua classes with the new group of Volunteers who swore in at the end of November (like I did last year). I'm surprised that I feel I'm actually learning a bit, since its so complicated and intimidating. But I'm excited to learn. These classes were definitely a good idea to transition from my long vacation back into work. It makes me excited to learn and looking forward to the future in the company of bright new eyes, rather than adrift and at a lost in site alone.

Hope you all had a wonderful New Year, cuidate bien!