Vacaciones

Once again, sorry for the lack of updates - we've had a very busy easter holiday.

My mom arrived sunday morning, and I sent her to Urubamba because all of the volunteers were going on a Sacred Valley tour. I'd just got out of the hospital, so I was a little tired - good thing we were sitting in a bus most of the tour. We went to Chinchero and saw the ruins there, and then Ollantayambo - more ruins (basically all there is....). Had lunch in Urubamba where my mom joined for the last part of the tour, and we went to Pisac to check out more ruins and pre-inca stuff - we also saw a full rainbow, it was so pretty.

Monday Alex, and I went to Cusco to show my mom around (=shopping and Jack's!), before we met up with the others to jump on a bus to Ica. When we arrived tuesday morning we decided to go sandboarding - and that was a very, very good decision! We went on sort of a tour with a sandbuggy driving around in the desert, and by driving I mean insane driving - it was completely like a roller coaster! The driver chose some places for us to do sandboarding, an absolutely incredible experience. Either you lie down on your stomach or you try standing on the board on the way down - so cool.
The area was called Huacachina, a place with an incredible oasis in the middle of the desert, and we went back there wednesday morning before we took another two hour bumpy ride on a bus to Nazca to go see the Nazca lines. On the way there, however, we saw the outlook tower we were supposed to go to, and decided not to go back as the tower was tiny and far away....

We spend the day in Nazca just chilling on Plaza the Armas, playing cards, shopping a bit and getting an amazing banana split - and in the evening we took a night bus to Arequipa, where we were going to have another three days.

Arequipa is a great city - you can go river rafting, horseback riding, climb a volcano, do the Colca Canyon trek and lots of other stuff - wish we'd had more time there! We ended up going mountain biking down the volcano el Misty on our first day, a tour of four hours on a bike mostly downhill, but also uphill a couple of times. It was absolutely great - and, I discovered a new talent of mine - spitting stones from oranges!
We decided to do the one day Colca Canyon tour on our second day - which involves getting up at two in the morning, yay! However, it was a great experience - we saw 7 condors and met about a hundred llamas, and Becky and I even got to have an eagle sitting on our arm. Went to some thermal baths in the canyon as well, before we headed towards Arequipa again. We were so lucky as to have a bus with no heating system, and being 5000m above sea level in a could, bumpy bus is not exactly the most comfortable experience. On our way back, we had not only one tire, but two tires deciding to give up on the tough mountain roads. Only having one extra, we all had to get out of the bus and wait for a looooong time before moving on in a bus with one flat tire, feeling a bit like a cartoon figure in a bus more bumpy than ever. But yeah, we're in Peru, so what could we expect?

Becky, Alex and I went to the Point hostel in Arequipa for the night. We wanted to go out, but ended up staying at the crowded hostel seeing as it was easter week and all bars and clubs apparently were closed. We did have a good night anyway, as the Point is always stuffed with other backpackers looking for a good time.

Saturday we spent walking around in Arequipa, seeing the monastery - an entire town inside Arequipa where the nuns are still living, almost completely isolated from the rest of the world. We also went to see the only real cinema of Peru, but had to leave disappointed because the movies were all in Spanish. We ended up going to the best restaurant ever for dinner - a place called Zig Zag that had a recommendation in the Lonely Planet. We had a lot of peruvian specialties, for instance we tried the alpaca meat and the trout, but really great.

Saturday was the last day of our tour as we're having school tomorrow. I was quite tired due to my lack of sleep the last couple of days, so the 10 hour bus ride from Arequipa to Cusco was a very short ride for me - I fell asleep even before we started driving from the busstaion, and besides waking up a couple of times because of the freezing temperature of the bus, I slept till we entered the bus station.

Today the Plaza in Cusco is filled with people due to Easter break, and there are parades all over, which is quite interesting. Tomorrow we'll go back to scool - and I can't wait to see the kids again!