not your MTV spring break.

While I was jealous to hear about the times friends back home had on Spring Break, I have to say, after this weekend, my jealousy went out the window.


The roomies and I decided to take a vacation to get away from the stress that is school here in Lima, so we grabbed a cab to the good old Soyuz bus station to head South.

Our cab driver was thrilled we were from the USA and wanted to know all about which Sex & the City character American women were most like. Immediately after he asked us about what we thought the cause of AIDS was. His opinion: you get AIDS when you do not eat well.

Hm.
About that...

We spent the night in Pisco, met some other people at a bar and then travelled to a night club, where I was taught the basic merengue steps by an Usher look-alike. Not bad, not bad at all.

Bright and early Saturday we jumped on some big boats in Paracas to visit the Islas Ballestas- often called the "Poor Man's Galapagos". The islands were filled with thousands of sea lions and over 700,000 assorted birds- including..wait for it...PENGUINS! The islands are rocks that are white and yellow on top- which with that many birds- you can guess why they are those colors.

Thoroughly wind-blown, we headed to Huacachina to go sandboarding. The dune buggy that took us out there were a blast- it was like a rollercoaster...

Except with no tracks. Or seat belts that fit. Really not safe at all actually.

The dune buggy rides were almost better than sandboarding itself. We were first brought to a low hill, where we were told in Spanish

"lie down. keep your arms in or else they will break, keep your head up or else your teeth will get knocked out. if you put your legs up, you'll go fast"

Great.

Good thing they told us- a girl in a group before us had the board smash her in the face and knocked her teeth out. How's that for a nice vacation?


After going down on our bellies down a much much much steeper hill, we were brought to 3 consecutive hills to go down on standing up.
And the directions this time?
There weren't any.
Of course.

Considering I have no experience snowboarding...or actually any balance whatsoever, I didn't completely embarrass myself! Success!

After enjoying the sunset over the sand dunes we buggied (and boogied-no-Peru has not made me any cooler unfortunately) back to our heavenly hostel and went night-swimming at the pool before spending the night playing drinking games with new friends from Holland.

Sunday we went back to Ica to visit Bodegas (wineries) to go wine and pisco tasting. The wine was all fantastic, although pretty sweet. The pisco on the other hand...

At the first bodega the bartender told us to sip a little first, then drink it all fast, because if you swish it around, it will burn your mouth.

Nothing like gulping rubbing alcohol, let me tell you!

Back in Ica centro we grabbed some great food and returned to Jesus Maria, with sand in more places then we cared to have it and cumulatively about 1400 pictures. Not bad, not bad at all.


So to those of you who went to PCB, or like my family to Cancun, I hope you enjoyed your tanlines and margaritas. Next year, may I highly recommend watching the sun set over the sand dunes in the south of Peru after a day cruising on the ocean with penguins and bouncing around in a dune buggy overlooking an oasis in the desert.

Just a suggestion.
Besos y Abrazos!