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Published: August 15th 2008
Our next great place of destination was a place called Ica, although u dont stay there, thats just the city, its completely surrounded by desert and in the middle is a little oasis called Huacachina. It is absolutly in the middle of the desert and is purely for tourist to go sand boarding and relax..... or not! This place is beautiful but a shame its just touristico. So we did some sand boarding, and of course I was a natural, but you couldnt go that fast so we sat two on one and sped down the dune. I also took the time to walk all the way to the top of one of the highest dunes which took about an hour, but was worth it, as it was pure desert and amazing and nothing around!
We spent a short amount of time here as our plan was to go to a place called pisco and do some volunteering. This is only about one hour away from where we were. In 2007 there was 8.0 earthquake there and destroyed 85% of the city. People are having to live in tents and there are no sanitation units. The whole city is one
building site! So a NGO called buners without borders was set up to help the city. The name came from a festival in the nevada desert called burning man, this occurs yearly, and when hurrican Catrina hit a whole bunch of them (burners) went to volunter. So the NGO was set up to help places around the world that need it.
The volunter group is amazing, some of the most amazing people i´ve meet there that have this energy and enthusiasm that just cant be explained. Everyone works really hard building schools, sanitation units (or shitters as we like to call them) and houses. The people of the city are very hospitable and extremely appreciative!
So from monday to half day saturday we work and then sunday.... its party time, and well deserved. A lot of people go back to Huacachina because its so close and there is nothing to do in Pisco, and its a little dangerous as most disaster areas are. But if not there, the NGO and the local people make sure that activities are put on so we can have some fun. The last Sunday I was there i went crab fishing...... now i
thought i was gonna sit on a boat, put my line out and wait for a bite. Oh no! one wet suit snorkel and goggles, and u dive uner and catch them with your hands whilst holding your breath. The guys that took us can hold there breath for four minutes, i had trouble with about 30 seconds. the crabs are hidden under the rocks at the bottom of the water so u dive down and try ur best to catch one. Luckily or not so luckily i caught one, but the little bastard had a snip at my finger first.... but not to worry because he was dinner so it served him right!
There are also activity days put on for the local kids so they dont see the worry and stess of their parents. We teach them English and parties are put on during the day on the beach, where we play sport and dancing, and oi can these girls shake their ass. It must be in their latino blood.
Our first week we spent in a place called Chincha building a school, but my point was on Monday nights they have a afroperuvian dance classes.
The girls that participate are pretty young, shaking their asses and everything, so we join in and look like absolute gringos, but so much fun! Then after they take us to their local church to show us a concert that they have created. They were so hospitable and generous. we sat right at the front watching these girls shake their ass, such great people! And after we were made to stand infront of the alter or what ever its called, with my star of david showing, so everyone in the community could take pictures of it. So funny that we´re the tourist attraction!
So burners without borders was ending soon, so me and this crazy Italian - Catarina have left for columbia and the rest is x rated.
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