Day 3 and 4 of adventure

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Day 3...we left Lima on Wednesday afternoon. Before we left the city we toured a couple catherdrals in Plaza de Armas. They were beautiful!! (dad coskran...you would have loved them) We saw many school groups outside of the Presídent´s home. They were adorable. And then we saw some fancy cars drive up to the President´s home with several police men with bullet shields in front. Just an everyday thing. Apparently, there is a changing of the guards at noon everyday. While in one of the catherdrals, we visited the catacombs...eerry and amazing all at the same time. Our guide said there are 25,000 dead from the bones we saw.

It was then time to catch a taxi ride back to our hostal. That was an interesting ride through the city. Our poor taxi guy couldn´t catch a break driving. His sighs and facial expressions told us he was not the happiest. But he persevered and with a edgy, fast, somewhat unsafe ride back we made it in one piece. We grabbed our packs and got another taxi to the bus station. Now, you may be wondering what a bus station looks like in Lima, Peru. Greyhound-you come in a very distant last place compared to our Cruz de Sur. Oh my goodness!!!! And we paid for the cheaper tickets. (Gaudet and Beyman--you should really consider this bus line for student council trips). The seats are very spacious, foot rests, meals, drinks, pillow, and blankets. At this point, Patty is thinking this backpacker traveling is so easy. Bring on more!

It was about a 5 hour bust trip to Ica. We got our packs and then a taxi ride to Huacahina, a small town of about 200 people where backpackers travel to. We stayed at the Hostal el Rocha. Um, this was an eye opening experience for Patty. After getting our tour of the place, Steve gave a resounding yes with a huge grin. Up in our room, Patty did not want to take off her packs and started to tremble a bit and was not sure of the hostal. Steve reassured her and she very stiffly laid on the bed with jacket on. It was a rough sleep for Patty...Steve slept like a baby. We woke up in the morning and braved the bathroom, packed up and went out for a walk in the town. We decided to change hostals and stay another night. We checked into the Suisse hotel--the rooms made Patty smile and seeing as how it is Steve´s bday today (happy birthday Steve) we booked a room. Grabbed our bags from the Rocha and dropped them off in our new digs. We headed out and scheduled a sandboarding tour for this afternoon at 4pm. We just got back from hiking up a HUGE sand dune only to look down at Hucachina. Simply AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!! We raced down the hill, down out pounds of sand from our shoes and headed off to lunch.

We will do our sand dune tour later which will involve riding in a sand buggy, strapped in and cruising the miles of sand dunes. We will stop and attempt some sand boarding. We were told the amateurs should lie down on the board and sled down. This is going to be interesting. Later we will clean up and head out for some bday drinks. In the morning we will head out Nazca and then evetually on to Cuzco. Stayed tuned...more to come!!!

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Comments

[james]

Thanks agian
Ok...about the bones of 25,000 people...or was it 25,000 bones? Anyway 25,000 dead people would generate (206 x 25,0000) about 5.2 million bones...guess the science teacher and math teacher in me merged for a moment. Take care....be safe....James

[Beth]

Happy Bday, Steve!
A bit late with the birthday wishes, but you know, when you travel, there can be delays. Pattycakes - hope you got some sleep at the hotel. Keep having lots of fun! Love y'all! Beth