Thursday I had more orientation stuff at La Católica (my school), and it was fairly pointless. We had four hours to do nothing in between counseling time and a safety lecture, so I took the bus to a different part of Lima with a few friends and we bought tickets to travel to Pisco this weekend. Then we returned to school for a talk on "Living and Security in Lima". It was, essentially, an hour long presentation informing us of all the terrible things that we can expect to happen to us here. Don't do this, don't go here, don't sit there, you will get robbed, you might get raped, on and on and on. And all of this the day before we leave for our first excursion outside of Lima. Reassuring, no? So by this point I was starting to feel a little down, and the hour long combi ride home as it started to get dark around 6 pm really just did me in. By the time I got home I was feeling pretty bad and laid down for a nap that ended up lasting until 1 in the morning. It is just kind of hard not to start feeling a little depressed in a city this depressing. As much as I love my host family, my house, my new friends, my school, etc., there is no denying that Lima is a huge city in a third world country: it is very poor, dirty, loud, and kind of scary. Not to mention the sun has not shone since I arrived. And when you are still shaky on your Spanish skills on top of all of that, I reckon it's normal to want to hibernate for awhile.
Here comes the good news: my culture shock/Lima blues were totally cured by my incredible weekend! Ten other foreign exchange students and I traveled to Pisco, Parácas, and Ica this weekend. We left around 1 on Friday afternoon and took a four hour bus ride to Pisco, a city south of Lima. In all honesty, Pisco does not have that much to offer. It seems to be more of a portal to the other tourist offerings in the area. Also, Saturday happened to be the 2nd anniversary of a huge, devastating earthquake there. It was very Katrina-esque to me, as much of the town was still in shambles and it constantly came up in conversation with the locals, as if their homes and livelihoods (or lack thereof) were still defined by it so long after the quake. We were told that there would be protests and demonstrations on Saturday and it wouldn't be safe to be in Pisco. Even on Friday night there were police everywhere. This was an interesting twist we were not expecting! We ate dinner at a cute little restaurant, and as we were on the coast I got mariscos, or seafood. I still don't really know what it was that I ate, but it was fairly good. We slept in a nice hostel, and fell asleep to the sounds of people marching down the streets of Pisco with megaphones and drums.
Very early on Saturday mornings we traveled 15 minutes to Parácas to see Las Islas Ballestas, often referred to as "The Poor Man's Galapagos". We took a two hour boat tour around the islands and it was very beautiful. More birds than I have ever seen in my life. In fact, the guano (bird shit) is very valuable and is a valuable export of Peru. We were advised to wear hats because we would get pooped on, but we all came out unscathed. I have many pictures to share of all sorts of birds, penguins, and sea lions. After that we visited la Reserva Nacional de Parácas, which was just like a big national park. We got a brief museum tour (BORING!) and then drove all over to see the great views. It was GORGEOUS! We were in the middle of the desert for a lot of it, and I found it pretty incredible how small and vulnerable miles and miles of sand dunes can make one feel. Then we drove to some really beautiful views of the ocean, lookouts that reminded me a lot of New Zealand. Once I somehow acquire a way to upload pictures to my computer I assure you there will be many. It was grand. After this we ate lunch in a little fishing town and I had shrimp that was caught fresh that morning. ¡Que rico!
That all made for a very long day, then we took an hour long bus ride to Ica and after some late night navigating around the big city we obtained some rooms in a hostel that some thought was kind of gross, but it worked for me. It was very loud outside, but I can sleep through anything so I was content. This morning we slept in a little later then went on a winery tour! We visited two bodegas, where they made various wines and Piscos. (For all you out there who don't live in Peru, or haven't spent time in Peru/Chile...let me inform you. Pisco is kind of like the national drink here. It is a liquor made of special grapes and it is used in lots of special drinks, like the famous Pisco Sour (so good!) Chileans claim Pisco is from there, but we all know the truth. Come on, there is a city named after it here!) We tried 4 wines and 3 piscos at the first bodega, and I don't even remember how many different things we tried at the second. It was really fun! It was hard to do the pisco though because it is SO STRONG and the dude wanted us to sip it and enjoy the flavors and aromas. I guess we are not very good alcohol connoiseurs because we all just wanted to take it like shots. Oh well, it was entertaining. After our alcoholic morning we ate lunch in a little hole in the wall place on the way to the bus stop. I had a huge plate of fresh lomo soltado (traditional Peruvian food, kind of like a stir fry with beef and vegetables, with a very very good sauce) for less than 2 US dollars. I love Peru.
Finally I am home! I am very happy because my house in Lima already feels like home. It is like a little haven that isn't dirty and scary like our surroundings. And there is always someone to talk to, so we ate a delicious dinner and told everyone about our weekend and heard about theirs. It was a great ending to the weekend.
School starts tomorrow! This week is considered a 'shopping cart week' because we are allowed to attend any classes we want to just to see what they are like, if we can understand the professor, etc. Then next Monday we actually register. I didn't really start looking at classes until a couple hours ago, and I am still having trouble picking them, so I don't really know how this week will go. I think tomorrow I'm going to try a sociology class about Peruvians and a children's literature class. All the lectures are so long though! Two or three hours. Ay dios mio...
And finally, because this is my favorite part of my blog--
Word of the day: GARÚA This is the very light coastal mist that seems to always be falling in Lima (also in Pisco) It is not exactly rain, but sometimes you can feel it and oftentimes in the morning the stairs from my room to the kitchen are wet and slippery. Also, due to our coastal location and all this mist, it is EXTREMELY humid here. I am used to humidity equating to heat (because it's never humid in the winter in WI) but that's not the case here. It is fairly chilly, and the only reason I can tell it's humid is because nothing ever dries. I will lay my towel out flat on a rack and after 12 hours it will still be damp and smell musty. It's kind of annoying. And my friend AnnaMaria told me she looked up the humidity here and it was 94%!! Insanity. Welcome to Lima my friends!
(Title quote: After our tour of Las Islas Ballestas we sat at an outdoor cafe and had hot chocolate, and out of nowhere my friend Alison exclaimed this. There are tons of stray dogs around, and I guess one of them had wriggled under our table without us seeing and she accidently put her feet down on it and "felt something fleshy". Gross.)
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