Arriving in Huancavelica

After Paracas, Mike and I made the slightly sketchy and long journey to Huancavelica. We arrived at our hostal at 3AM and were a little worried when we saw the entrance (It was very cluttered and slightly messy.) Then we were lead up to a gargantuan but very cold room. I don't know about Mike but I fell asleep worrying about whether we had made the right choice visiting Huancavelica. However, we woke up to a spectacular panoramic view of green mountains! Our room was still super cold though and I did not want to take off the many blankets I had on top of me. Mike, oh so sweetly, brought me breakfast in bed. Our breakfast of fruit, and bread was amazing. A lady right outside out hostal was selling the most delicious bread I've had in awhile. She had sesame seed bread, whole grain, and the best cheesy bread I have ever eaten! We then went out and explored the many churches, cobblestone roads, and the plaza de armas.

40 soles a night room with spectacular views

Nice break from the coast

Bought some legwarmers here

One of the many beautiful Churches

Interesting fountain on the climb to the springs

The beautiful Plaza de Armas in Huancavelica

Isla Ballestas

After Nazca we visited Paracas where we went on a small boat tour of the Isla Ballestas, a group of small islands famous for their guano. The islands are covered in ~600,000 birds like the blue-footed booby, humboldt penguins, terns, pelicans etc. We arrived at the docks super early in the morning along with tons of other tourists and were then herded onto our respective boats. We raced off to see El Candelabro a geoglyph famous for looking like a candlestick. The boats then raced off to the guano islands. (I use the word raced again because the boats literally raced eachother.) Before the tour, we were warned to wear hats because of all the birds flying above us but I definitely did not think about how badly the islands were going to smell. It was really cool seeing all the different animals. There were thousands and thousands of birds on the cliffs. Within the swarms of birds there were a few penguins hidden. On top of this, there were hundreds of seals and sea lions on the beaches. While it was cool seeing all the different animals, I couldn't help but feel guilty for bothering the animals. All of the boat tours got really close to the islands and the seals/sea lions sounded like they were screaming as they ran away from the shore. Our boat was pretty good about not getting too close except when we were at the maternity beach (which was pretty much the worst area our boat could get close.) While the tour left me feeling a little sad, we met the sweetest abuelita (grandmother) during the tour. She wanted to know all about what we were doing here and invited us to dinner in Lima! This ended up being another trip highlight.

El Candelabro

How they move the guano

Some sleepy seals and sea lions

The beautiful islands

I really love this photo even though the colors turned out weird

some interesting little caves

Penguins!

This seal is kissing this rock!!

Really cool looking bird

Even cuter penguin

Some fighting birds

I LOVE this photo

Adorable sea lion

Penguins

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Sea lions just hanging out

Pretty adorable sea lion

Gives you an idea of how many seals/sea lions there are

Some adorable babies

adorable pose

 

Catching a snooze

Us and the abuelita!

Nazca Lines

In Nazca, we met an English speaking Peruvian astronomer named Edgar. Edgar owns a small planetarium which shows a short movie on the Nazca lines and offers some awesome stargazing! During the movie, the walls of the planetarium switched between showing stars and the Nazca lines. The show explained Maria Reiche's work with the lines and the various theories behind the lines. So for those of you who don't know what the lines are, they are petroglyphs in the desert. Basically, they are shallow designs made in the ground by removing the desert's red rocks and uncovering the white/gray ground below. The lines have remained intact because it doesn't rain enough in the desert to ruin the lines. There are HUNDREDS of simple lines and geometric shapes, over 70 design of animals, birds, fish, llamas, jaguars, monkeys, and humans + other designs like trees and flowers. My personal favorite is Hands. To sum up the interpretations, the lines could indicate flow of water, match up with star formations, be fertility symbols, and or may be part of a calendar. After the show, Edgar took us outside to look at the sky through his extremely powerful telescope. He showed us the rings of Jupiter and the moon. The show was super informative and I highly suggest that people go to his show before seeing the Nazca lines. After the show, we walked to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner and along the way stopped at a little artesanel stall. The man offered Mike and I "friendship rocks." I also posted a few photos of the lines.

The rotating lines/stars

An example of how the lines match up with star formations

The moon!

Our friendship rocks

Trapezoids

Ballena-Whale

Astronaut

Mono-Monkey (Look top middle, the lines are part of it too though)

Perro-Dog or Zorro-Fox

Picaflor-Hummingbird

Spider

Hands- My favorite!!!

Nazca's Biggest Aqueduct

Last week Mike and I took our first real vacation! We visited 4 cities in 8 days. It was a little hectic but definitely an amazing experience. Our first stop was Nazca where we met up with 3 other Peace Corps volunteers, the Nazca Peace Corps Volunteer, and a Peruvian archaeologist named Jackson. Much to our luck, Jackson is a friend of the Nazca volunteer, speaks English, really likes meeting Peace Corps Volunteers, and really knows his stuff (the mummy Jackson discovered was featured in National Geographic!)  After a quick chat, Jackson offered to give us a free tour of Nazca's largest aqueduct.  The 2000 year old aqueduct was incredible!  It was so beautiful and yet not many people go out to see it because it is fairly unknown. We only had to spend 2 dollars round trip on transportation and it was definitely a trip highlight.

The walk down to the aqueduct

The water was spectacularly clear

Mike and I, both representing the Bay Area

Taylor exploring the tree limbs

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The whole group-Jackson

EIST! (Early In Service Training)

After out PDM (project design and management) workshop we spent the next half of the week completing our "early in service training." On our last day of EIST, we hiked up a "small hill" to San Bartolome, a previous volunteer's site. We spent the day helping the tree nursery workers to clean up the area and plant some new trees! Similar to the loma in Chancay, this area was super green because of recent rainfall. While our APCD (boss) told us it was a short little hike, I just about died hiking up the hill! I have never felt so out of shape in my life. There were tons of scorpions and giant black spiders (possibly black widows) BUT it was a really cool seeing yet another unique ecosystem in Perú. Stay tuned for Mike and I's vacation photos!

Feeling good at the beginning of our hike..

This is where I really started to give up and hate this hike

Brian Vs. Wild

The hike was totally worth it, it was SO beautiful

All of us cleaning up/planting trees

A wonderful day at the Loma with Mike