Weekend trip

Notice the gap between posts? Yup, I told you school would start to get in the way of the important things on this trip...

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Luckily we managed to find time for a little fun between the mass readings and our very first paper (done, yay!). This past weekend we hopped on a non air-conditioned bus through the desert to Ica, Peru. From there we jumped over to Pisco to spend the night thinking that this town would have more to offer us than Ica Not....so...much. Two years ago Pisco was devastated by an earthquake and even with the help of volunteers the town has yet to recover. Something tells me it would be quite different in the United States.

After spending the night in a very basic hostel we went to the Islas Ballestas. I can sum this up in 5 words: boat, island, seals, biiiirds, guano. There, now you know what they were like. I also attached pictures from facebook so you can get the FULL effect.

Afterwards, we traveled to Huacachina where we dominated at sandboarding. Tearing through the desert in a dunebuggy is basically the most fun you can have. Again, see pictures. Even when I look back I'm jealous, of myself.

The next day we went to back to Ica for wine and pisco tasting at a couple of the local bodegas. We went around to the various stages of the pisco and wine process and eventually arrived to the tasting part - least complicated part for me. The wine made in Peru is very sweet and not completely my style but wine nonetheless. Then there is pisco. How can I explain pisco effectively? Oh, ok. Go into the garage. Find the lighter fluid. Now, don't chug it all at once or you'll burn your mouth. Put it on the tip of your tongue first just so all your taste buds DIE. Then chug it. Unlike the other girls, I actually tried every sample I was offered. Like a champ.


Food section: Today....oh today. After class Laura, Katie, and I went to a restaurant only a few blocks from our house. Free chicha morada (purple drank made from corn), endless hospitality, very cheap. All is well. So for 7.5 soles I got a free drink, soup, and a large plate of noodles with chicken. The soup was chicken soup. More specifically, chicken noodle soup. However, not the parts of the chicken you normally would expect. As I sifted through the contents I found the liver, heart, and lungs of the chicken. Mmhmm. Num num. Note: I DID NOT eat those parts, I just found every noodle and moved on. However, I will have to overcome this fear of eating organs if I ever want to try to local dish called anticucho. Cow heart. I guess when in Peru...if I get drunk enough.

While that wasn't exactly what I am into, dinner at the house yielded a very pleasant surprise. Our host mom made ice cream from lúcuma. SHE MADE IT POR MANO! Lúcuma is a type of fruit that is hard to explain but it is very dry and doesn't taste that great but add some sugar and milk and it tastes just like butterscotch. Come to think of it, I don't know what butterscotch is made of so maybe it is lúcuma...and if it isn't, it should be.


Coming up: This Saturday we're going to the mud baths in Chilca which is kind of amazing. I hear the aliens made them and they have some kind of healing power, so there's that. Then next week is Semana Santa so we're traveling 8 hours in a bus to Ayacucho which has the second biggest Catholic procession in the world. SO excited.