Peru

Hi ALL,
I had a Wow day yesterday. We went on a boat to Ballestas islands and saw tons of birds and sea lions, seals teaching their young to swim. It was a poor man´s Galapagos, since it only took a couple of hours, but I think we actually saw more birds and animals than on my Galapagos portion.

Then it was on to a vineyard to see how they make the national drink Pisco which tastes great when you sweeten it up and add lime and an egg. We had lunch at the vineyard and although the weather is sweltering, we ate under the bamboo covering, so it was bearable.

After that, we went on a dune buggy ride in the desert. Image a roller coaster at the EX times 3. I couldn´t believe the angles at which the driver did the slopes. I didn´t participate in the sandsliding, but the young ones and 1 older brave man did. I merely took photos.

Exhausted by that, I fell asleep in the bus as we went to our next stop, through switchbacks in the mountains and overlooking sad little huts (not even like succahs) in our travels to the Nazca tower. from which we saw one of the Nazca lines....a couple of hands drawn in the desert hundreds of years ago and still clearly visible for a number of reasons, one of which is that it doesn´t rain more than 30 minutes a year here.

I just got up from the computer this second because there was a minor earthquake. Everything shook, it lasted a few seconds. it is apparently common.
We finally arrived at an out of the way hotel. That was exciting too, because I discovered a huge black insect on my bed. It was stifling in my room, only a ceiling fan which didn´t do much for me.

Today I am suffering the effects of the dune buggy ride, I haven´t been able to keep food down.

While the others took a small plane to see the Nazca lines, I´ve been nursing my stomach. I didn´t get much better as we went to a cemetery which I normally like, but we saw skulls with hair and babies swaddled in cloths, so it was kind of eery.

Tonight, we are taking an overnight bus to Arequipa, which will bring us to a different area of Peru, more high, but also cooler.

I am having fun. The people in the group and the leaders are great! It´s just a very fast pace.
That´s it for now, guys!