Two back to back vacations = no motivation

In the past three weeks I have traveled 19 hours north to Mancora and then four hours south to Paracas. We only had three class sessions in between that time so I got really good at being on vacation and finding motivation to study for tests and to do homework has been a little challenging. But first, let me talk about these amazing places I've been to. 

So first off, Mancora. I was there for a total of 9 days and if it hadn’t have been for the sand getting everywhere and how far outside of Mancora our house was, I could've stayed there forever. So, our house wasn't actually in Mancora. We were in a gated neighborhood in a town called Organos which was about 10 kilometers away from Mancora. The house and the neighborhood was beautiful though. It had three bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor then the kitchen, living room and a fourth bedroom upstairs. There was a porch along the whole front of the house and two second level decks; one coming from the living room and the other from the upstairs bedroom. But the house wasn't my favorite part. What did it for me was the pool and beach. The sun was so intense that the pool was a perfect place to relax. I would lay out on one of the chairs and read or listen to music until I got too hot and then I would jump into the pool for a little and then go back to my chair. Literally the best system ever. We also had prime access to the ocean. Just a two minute walk to the nicest beach in the area. It was a sandy beach with free shade, no rocks and hardly any people. It was the perfect place to swim in the ocean for the first time.

The town of Mancora was pretty different but equally cool. There were vendors everywhere with jewelry, decorative sculptures, seashell boxes, clothes and little trinkets like key chains. But the majority were the kind of stores where once you've seen one, you've seen them all. The beach was a great place to hang out because there were restaurants, bars and clubs facing the beach. We could either sit inside or sit out on beach chairs under umbrellas. We just had to order a drink to sit under the umbrellas. One day while we were sitting out there, we decided to go tubing on a banana boat. So it went like this: first super excited that we were doing it, then a little uncomfortable because the salt water was just rocketing into my face and the sand and rubber tube combo was just bad, then a little scared because the waves were kind of big and I was about 50% certain that I would fall off very far away from shore, and finally laughing and having fun because I was used to it by then, it was almost over, and everyone else was going through the same disaster as me. We were brought to shore by a huge wave and had a very abrupt and apparently comical stop because everyone else was taking pictures of us and laughing. But the group that went after us didn't even make it past the first wave going out before the tube flipped upside down and dumped everyone on the sand. So it was a struggle for everyone.

At night, the same beach area turned into a huge club. There were about four or five clubs along that strip of beach all competing to have the loudest music. You usually couldn't really tell who was playing what unless you were inside one. None of them had a front door or front wall. It was very open and casual so people could just come and go through different clubs and dance outside on the beach if they wanted. This place was pretty cool but you definitely had to be on your guard. Being a taken lady and all, I just wanted to drink at the bar and … Nope that's about it. Dancing is fun and all but when everyone else pairs up with a guy, dancing by yourself is just awkward. I'm glad that I was not single when I was there because I could've had my shoulder bitten, been—the best way I can describe it is—aggressively danced on, or almost robbed like some of the other girls in my group. But because I had my don't-touch-me-don’t-dance-with-me-don’t-try-anything-with-me guard up, I avoided some rando latching onto me for the whole night. But it kind of comes with the territory when you go to a super touristy place like that.

The only other bad aspect of our trip was the fact that it rained two nights in a row. Because of this the water was cloudy so we couldn't go snorkeling with the turtles and the ground was too muddy to go zip lining. I almost went scuba diving but I'm glad that I didn't because it sounded super sketchy. When the girls who did it came back, I heard about how they had less than five minutes of training. They literally gave them two minutes of instruction right before they dove down, accompanied by an instructor of course, but still. I also heard about how Shelby put her goggles on too tightly and because of the pressure change her eyes started to swell shut. Needless to say, it could've been really, really bad. 

But overall, it was an amazing trip. I got a tan, bought some cool things and had the best churro of my life. Seriously, it was still warm and had this amazing caramel sauce inside. It’s actually depressing to talk about because I know I'll probably never have something that delicious again.

Once we returned to Lima, it was back to normal life, kind of. Like I said, we only had three normal class sessions. For our class with our professors Stephen and Barbara, we went to the US Embassy. It was pretty cool although I wish we could've looked around some more. 

That night we celebrated Shelby’s 22nd birthday in Barranco at our favorite bar El Gringo (of course). 

The next morning we were at the bus station bright and early to go to Paracas. We had the average double decker bus ride with the usual, annoying, shouting child and all. Seriously, is that like a mandatory thing? Every long bus ride in Perú must have at least one loud, small human and one parent who doesn't even attempt to keep their offspring from yelling so loud that the driver downstairs can hear them? 

Oh well, Tte bus ride was worth it though. The resort was so beautiful. The pool was in an oval shape with an island in the middle with pool chairs and bridges connecting from side to side. Drinks were ridiculously overpriced but the food was amazing. My favorite night was Saturday when my roomie Ashley and I sat at the bar with Stephen and Barbara and listened to a Peruvian 3-person band. It was so unique I loved it (I’ll post videos on my Facebook). I also went kayaking and paddle boarding. But my favorite memory from that trip was going to Isla Ballestas. On our way there we saw dolphins swimming next to our boat and the occasional swimming sea lion. But once we got there, I saw an insane amount of birds just chilling on the sides of rocks. We didn't actually get on the island, we just drove around and through it. The island is known for its arches and the sea lions that sit under them. There were so many. We saw hundreds and hundreds of males, females and in the maternity area there were tiny baby sea lions. We also saw a total of three South American penguins just hanging out with the other birds. It was an amazing two hours.

Sunday afternoon it was back to real life as we got back on the bus and returned to Lima. So like I said before, all of that excitement and time off makes it hard to get back into my rhythm of normal Peruvian school life. But it's alright, I could use a weekend of no traveling. AND in two weeks Tyler will be here and can share this amazing country with him. I'm really excited to show him some of the places and things that I've done and seen but to also explore new places with him.

Well, I think that's all for now. As usual, thanks for reading and I'll talk to you again soon! 😘

So, it's been a while. I know, I know, I've been slacking but now that the shock of everything is wearing off, I can actually focus and write about my life here in Peru.

In the past four weeks that I've been here in Lima, I have seen a lot. I've adventured the district of Surco, hiked a mountain to a waterfall (Catarata de Antakallo) and taken a bus tour of the historical section of Lima.

Surco is where my house is and where I spend most of my time. I'm usually either at my house, on campus at UPC (Universidad Peruano de Ciencias Aplicadas), or walking around most likely in a shopping mall. Speaking of shopping, for anyone who knows about my “problem” you will be proud to hear that I've done very well and have only bought like 5 articles of clothing.
Surco is.. Not what I'm used to. I’m a farm girl, and as I first walked out of the airport and had my first look, it hit me that not only would I be adapting to a Spanish speaking country but also to the largest city I've ever been in. Lima has a population of roughly 8.5 million people and for the past two years I've been living in a city of about 32,000. Talk about culture shock. And with the big city, comes the usual big city problems. We'll start with traffic (God help me). It's a nightmare. Even if I could drive here, I wouldn't dream of doing it. So you know the dotted lines in the road that tell us where to drive? In the states we call those lanes and try our best to stay inside of them. Well here in Peru, they’re more like suggestions. My first night here during the ride back from the airport I seriously just accepted my fate and the fact that we were going to get hit. I mean, 80% of the cars that I saw on the road had at least one dent in them. But come to think of it, I haven't seen one accident, not even a close call. Another thing that is common for drivers is to just honk at everything. Back home, when you get honked at, it means that you did something wrong and ticked another driver off. But here, honking is much more casual and friendly. Also, it's not just other drivers that get honked at, which brings me to my next point. Just the fact that I'm American means that I stick out like a sore thumb. I dress differently, I look differently and every time I open my mouth it's painfully obvious that I'm not from around here. Very often will I be walking down the street and I get honked at, whistled at or shouted at. Taxi drivers just assume that I don't know where I'm going and that I probably need a ride. They will pull over on the street, wave at me and ask if I want a taxi. Also, anytime I've worn a nice outfit, a random man will tell me that I’m very pretty as I walk by.  Some may take it as a compliment but it really bothered me at first so I’ve started to walk around with headphones every time I'm alone. I've gotten very good at ignoring people while walking down the street simply for self preservation.

The area itself is really beautiful. There are trees everywhere and the architecture is so unique. I thought I died and went to heaven when I toured the historical section of Lima because I love seeing old buildings like that. The most notable thing we saw was the St. Francis cathedral. First off, the outside is so big and magnificent and then you want in.. I don't even know how to describe it other than amazing. I was in awe for the entire tour. There was a rose garden in the center and a relic room. We went through the catacombs and saw the library with thousands of ancient books. Ahnika and I were the adventurous ones and we wandered off more than one time while our group was resting or waiting to go into a room. Needless to say, I will be going back there before I leave to see even more.

I've also experienced some of the night life here in Peru. Our first weekend we went to the highly praised Pizza Street. It’s nothing I've ever seen. All of the restaurants hosts stand at their own entrance and practically jump on you trying to get you to go inside their restaurant. I'll just say that being sheep-dogged into a restaurant is not how I like to choose where I'm going to eat. But it must work for them because they just keep doing it. As the night went on, we walked by a man offering us free pisco sours if we drank at the club he worked at. We got him to three piscos, went inside and had the drinks out of miniature sized glasses. After we finished the first one, we discovered that they would only give us one free round and that everyone who had one had to pay for a second drink. So I
definitely learned my lesson that nothing on pizza street is really free. Needless to say, I wasn't that impressed and the pizza wasn't even that great. Right across from pizza street is Kennedy Park or as we like to call it, the cat park. (There's at least 50 cats there at all times). But in this park there are a lot of unique vendors that only come out at night and they sell little Peruvian trinkets like bracelets and key chains.

We've also gone to another district called Barranco which is right along the ocean. We walked down to the beach and took off our shoes to stand in the water. While we were standing there, Shelby made a little friend. A girl came up to her and started talking to her and giving her shells and sea weed. When someone else in our group asked for a shell she said she couldn't have one because she was ugly. The little girl then proceeded to point at each of us and say if we were either pretty, ugly, or China (that was for Yurina.) I love that my first memory of going to the ocean involves a little Peruvian girl calling me ugly.

So in general, I'm really enjoying my trip. There are some cons of course like being away from the ones I love. However, Tyler is planning to come visit me in March so that will be a huge help. I'm starting to make a list of all the things I want to show him and the places I want to take him. Lima is my home for the next 3 months and I can't wait to share my home with him. It turns out, I'm not that great with communicating with my parents. I've been scolded a couple times for taking too long to email them back. But, I'm not used to emailing them once or twice a week. I'm used to calling them up and talking for a little while or just texting them. But like everything in my life right now, it's an adjustment.

Well, my next adventure has already begun, on the north west coast of Peru in Mancora. I've been tanning on the beach, reading and swimming for a week now and I will return to Lima tomorrow. So that means that my next post will soon follow and I'll have plenty to share with you!

Thanks for reading!

Yurina and I with our crepes from the mall

The St. Francis cathedral

Abby and I enjoying sangria

 Chocolate volcano cake I shared with my host mom