Autumn in America

I have left the land of instant coffee, internet cafes, abundant noxious chemicals and rip-off scams, and non-potable water and have entered the land of hot showers, soymilk, suburbs, expensive produce, and people not quite so impressed by my communication skillz. The good juices are already missed.
I'm currently in Iowa, preparing for my move to New Mexico, and I am really really excited for the fall weather!

Would you believe these are mushrooms? I love the farmers' market

Frolicking in the woods in Iowa City

Last push

getting ready to try it out

For my last weekend in Peru I wanted to meet a friend in Chincha, the center of Afro-Peruvian music, because it was a place I really wanted to visit last year and never got a chance to. From Paracas I took a collectivo to Pisco, and from there a bus to Chincha. I walked around the market, enjoyed my favorite activity in Peru: drinking juice at one of the fruit stalls, and waited for my friend to arrive. When she got there, we took a taxi to El Carmen, the more tranquil town outside Chincha where beautiful plantations and haciendas remain from the colonial period.

Since I was running out of $$ as my time neared to an end, I planned to put our stay at the luxurious Hacienda San Jose on my credit card and then let Pamela pay for the things we needed in cash, like taxis and food. Well...it turned out that the hacienda (and most of the town) was still in disrepair from the earthquake 2 years ago, and so it was not open (unmentioned on their website)...nor was anything else, including the dancing/drumming shows that we had come to see.

filling up the bus on the side of the highway

So, we decided to take a bus 2 hrs south to Ica from Chincha...back to Chincha by taxi and then south again (the direction from which I had come that morning). Upon arriving in Ica, we decided to go to Huaca China, another small town outside of town that is more tranquil...another taxi (note the $$ flying by without much purpose). Again I thought, ok, well I´ll just pay for the hotel and we´ll be fine. It turned out that no hotels in town took credit cards...shit! Ok ok, well I have an emergency $20 USD in my bag, we´ll use that for the hotel. Pamela will pay for our excursions and we´ll have to eat at nicer restaurants so I can use my card. (I may have de-emphasized my lack of cash earlier, when what I meant to say was that I had exactly what I needed to get me to the airport and pay the airport tax and no more...I was just praying that in Lima, since it´s a big city that I could use my card to live for the couple days I was there). Well that worked for one meal, and then for the next morning for breakfast, we intended to pay with my card again and the electricity went out in the whole town...so we ended up using all of our money except what we needed for the taxi to get to Ica hopefully use an ATM there.

When we got to Ica, the electricity was out there too, and so we could not use any ATMs. With only 20soles (aka $6), there wasn´t much we could do, and Pamela had to get back to Lima (5hrs north) for class in the morning. I starting thinking, ok, I have almost all my belongings with me...what can I sell to get money for our bus fare?? Then Pamela had the genius idea to take a bus back to Chincha, for which the fare was only 6soles. So we walked to the bus station and returned to Chincha we went. We searched around for a little while before finding a working ATM, as even though they had electricity there--thank god--some of the ATMs did not have $$. Finally I was able to get some money out...just enough to pay for the bus rides back to Lima and minimal accomodations there.

Walking back to the bus station, we decided to buy snacks for the bus, since we had some change and by this time it was 5pm and we hadn´t eaten lunch. We also wanted to buy some wine, since we were in the center of the Peruvian wineland. We happened upon a place selling ¨wine¨ out of giant barrels, ciphened with a large hose into used bottles for 1.5soles (aka 50cents): we´ll take it!! We happily skipped back to the bus station with our $2 feast (the snacks costing much more than the bottle of wine). All of a sudden, a guy jumped on me, stealing my sunglasses off my head and our bag of treats (but not the wine, which Pamela was carrying)...we ran away but caught sight of justice in action, a bystander punching the guy who jumped us.

Finally we made it back to Lima after a traffic-filled bus ride. We feasted at a nice restaurant, using my card of course, and then back in my homey hostel in Miraflores, we drank our ¨wine,¨ which was delicious and surprisingly strong.

Ommitted from the story, was the fact that we did have a great time in Ica sandboarding and dune-buggying in the giant sand dunes. The end.

big sand dune, with dune buggy at top and Pamela at the bottom

Overnight flight to the US tonight! Looking forward to being ¨home,¨ whatever that means for me at this point...

Paracas

I have officially left the land of crazy Spanish, yummy empanadas and pastel de choclo, healthy stray dogs, and high prices, and am back in the land of Pisco, scam-artists, street food, and crappy computers. I am currently enjoying Paracas/El Chaco/Pisco (Peru), which is a desert/ocean preserve on the edge of a small town outside of a larger town (in corresponding order). After a flight and a 16 hour bus ride, I have spent the last day and a half gawking at the pristine coastline and the sand dunes, drinking Pisco (since I`m in the home of the liquor after all), and letting lonely restaurant/hotel boys treat me and a girl I met from DC.

Heaps of colored sand in Paracas

Pelicans

Paracas Reserve

Tomorrow I am meeting a clowning amiga in Chincha (3hrs south of Lima) to explore the world of musica negra, Peru`s african music, and a large hacienda which remains from the Spanish colonial era.

Semillitas (little seeds)

Colca Cañon: (end of August) I made a 3 day trek of Colca Canyon with 2 German girls and a pair of Auzzies. Don´t be too impressed by the 3 days...you cover the same ground as the 2 day trek but in 3 days, which I was definitely glad of, as it afforded plenty of time to relax and enjoy the journey as well as the destinations. Colca Cañon is supposedly twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, but I don´t believe it... Anyway, we spent our first night in a little village at the bottom and the 2nd in a place called ¨The Oasis,¨aptly named with its palm trees and swimming pools filled from nearby water falls. On the second day of hiking we happened upon a village festival and wound up dancing and drinking chicha (a regional alcohol, in this case made out of corn) with the locals, who were dressed up in colorful embroidered outfits. The last day, we awoke at 4:45am and climbed out of the canyon which took about 2 and a half hours--straight up. It was a killer. I´m not sure which was making me feel worse: the altitude climb or the low blood sugar, but I felt vomitous a good portion of the day. That night, after returning to Arequipa, the group reunited at a restaurant called ChiCha, which is owned by the most famous chef in Peru (possibly all of Latin America): Gaston Acurio. Then the 2 Aussies and I dragged ourselves to a local pub to drink some anis and mojitos before calling it a very long day.

Meat drying in the sun in Colca

Santiago: Chile is wonderful and surprisingly different from Peru (I know, I shouldn´t be surprised). Most notably, it is more expensive, more modern, more green, and the stray dogs are a lot healthier! The biggest drawback is that the food is not as good as in Peru despite being about double the price. They eat a lot more bread here (I´ve been told they are second only to Russia in per-capita bread consumption), and like in the mountainous areas of Peru, they eat a ton of dairy.
I have enjoyed being a sloth here in the palace of my parents´former exchange student´s family. They have a Spanish style home that is laid out on one floor with each room having a sliding glass door to the ample and lush garden area. ¨The garden¨ consists of a pool, hammoc, a set of wicker table and chairs, tons of green plants, flowers, and fruit trees, and 5 cats who live like kings.

On my first day I visited the home of Pablo Neruda, rented a bike and biked around--to the various parks (including a Japanese garden) and boulevards, the Plaza de Armas, and up Cerro San Cristobal to get a nice view of the city. Another day I went to La Moneda (their White House) which is much more accessable because the Presidenta (a woman: Michelle Bachelet) does not live there (business only...though still I am surprised at how close you can get). There are several art exhibitions in the basement which you can visit (which I did). Another day I visited one of the many fine wineries of Chile with Veronica and Manuel (my Chilean parents) and tasted lots of yummy wines and cheeses. I´ve spent a lot of time just hanging out with the family: going grocery shopping and running errands with them, etc. One night we had a party and I´d like to reiterate that South Americans really know how to party. Even though Chileans are supossed to be the least lively, the group of adults and kids were up until 3am drinking wine, eating sopapillas, and raucously playing a board game.

The day after the party, we went to Valporaiso, which is west of Santiago on the coast. The city is full of artists and remnants of English presense (as oppossed to southern Chile which is very German-influenced and Santiago which is very Spanish). I loved strolling the colorful streets with all the art work: murals, sculptures, clever graffiti, etc. We had coffee and cake at one of the many cafés tucked into the windy brick streets. Basically it was a lazy sea-side weekend, with lots of snoozing, wine, rich food, and nice walks. Yum!

Valporaiso

Just another wonderful family dinner of coffee, hot chocolate, and creamy cakes (Pictured at Café con Letras en Valpo)

Now I´m back in Santiago, making ¨chocolate pie¨(my rendition of brownies) with my 13 year old Chilean sister. On Wednesday I officially start my trek north.... (first to Arica by plane, then Pisco-Paracas-Chincha and Lima by bus, and finally Ioway!)

Santiago

My new favorite fruit: Chirimoya

I am in Santiago after a 6 hour bus ride from Areqpuipa to Tacna, half hour taxi from Tacna to Arica, and a 32 hour bus ride from Arica. It really wasn´t as bad as one might think--I paid the extra for the delux bus, which basically just meant that I could recline my chair more and have more leg room, and as a result I did manage to sleep much of the trip. I arrived at 6am on Sunday, totally whacked out though, and proceeded through the rest of the day like normal. I am still sort of catching up, but yesterday I rented a bike and biked all around downtown, which was lovely. I am happy to see all sorts of trees and plants again after being in the desert. Every morning we drink fresh orange juice and it´s basicaly a paradise here at Alonso´s house (former foreign exchange student of my parents). I can even drink the water from the tap! helllz yeah!
More later.
xoxo