Huacachina!

May 20th, 21st and 22nd

This weekend, the 9 of us went on an adventure about 5 hrs south of Lima to the town of Huacachina, which is in Ica. It´s basically a tiny tourist town surrounded by desert and big dunes. It´s so neat when you drive in. We stayed at a hostal and it even had a pool. We haven´t had the greatest weather in Lima so we were so excited to get off the bus at 2pm on Friday and find tanning weather. Within minutes of being at the hostal, we were all out by the pool in the 30 degree weather, staring up at the towering dunes around us.

Friday night was a pretty quiet one and we all picked what we would do for activities the next day. A group of 6 of us decided to make the 3 hour trek to Nazca to see the famous Nazca lines. They are these huge shapes drawn in the sand and they don´t know why they have been there for hundreds of years.

The next morning, we got up and got ready for the day. We discovered it was going to be an issue that we only had copies of our passports, not our real ones. The hostal manager said it would be fine and we were on our way. We asked our driver to stop for food and he said he would.. but then 3 hours past and we didn´t. We also got pulled over and he received multiple tickets.. we think. It was a rough start to the day.

When we got to the airport in Nazca, we were all very hungry but excited with all the small planes waiting outside. We grabbed something small to eat and waited..and waited..and waited. Then we had more problems with our passports and basically, they told me we would have to pay them so that we could all go on. Now, we were caught in a Peruvian bribe. We all managed to get through security though after that. We were all split in 2´s and I was with Harjot. Walking out towards the plane, we were so excited. It was a 6 person plane, including the two pilots. We were taking all sorts of pictures. Then the plane was in flight. It was an amazing view and we could see all around us. But we soon realized we were in for the worst plane ride of our lives. They were dipping and twisting and we both felt so so sick. The lines themselves were very cool but as time went on, it was hard to even look out the window. Out of the 6 of us, 2 got sick in the plane and we all were very nauseaous after. Then we had to deal with the bribe and everyone just wanted to get home after that. What a day! Some of us laugh about it now.. it does make for a good story but oh man, it was pretty awful.

The next day, we got up and got ready to dune bugee all together! Everyone was pumped and we had good reason to be.. it was so cool! I´ve never been in a desert like that before. We got some amazing pictures and we got to sandboard too, which is like laying on your stomach on a snowboard and going face first. We all got a little bruised but it was overall a very good day. We headed home that afternoon on a much nicer bus than before and made it home earlier. We then got ready for the work week!

May 23&24th

On Monday, we went to IFEJANT in the morning. It was pretty good because our translator was there again and we could ask Dora questions that we had about the project as well as the school in general. Also, we gave some feedback on how things had been so far. We got to meet the founder of IFEJANT and hear some more about their philosophy of children´s protagonism. It´s so much to learn about since it´s a different system of thought and it got us all thinking. I would definetly like to read some of his work when I get home.

Being on this trip has really allowed me to think about what I really want to do and has made me determined more than ever to make a difference and work for an NGO. I´m looking forward to doing a lot of research when I get home and hopefully making some connections and finding some opportunities in my field.

But anyways, in the afternoon, we went to work and we worked on the roof and building a portion of a door. I was pretty set to work so I seemed to have more patience with Miguel and we worked better together. The building is coming along well but we do still have quite a bit of work to do.

Today, we worked more on the roof, putting the supports up and getting the shingles on and getting the rooms squares. We got to play with the kids after too and I brought out my skipping rope, which surprisingly, the boys loved most. We are organizing a fun day for next Friday for the kids, which should be really fun and a great way to end this part of the trip.

The 5 of us who are continuing onto Cuzco have been trying to get things ready for that. We are booking our hostal this week and reading up on what to do for our 2 days there and about Machu Picchu. I am getting so excited for the trek, I think it is going to be amazing. Hard to believe there´s less than 2 weeks of work but still lots to do!

Ciao!