Blogs from Pisco, Ica, Peru, South America - page 4

(note: This entry is all about run-on sentences and captions for the photos.) It was Tuesday the 15th at about 8:15 am at our regular morning organizational meeting. Forty plus volunteers are sitting in an outdoor area of a place known as Base Camp, where at least half of the volunteers have slept the previous night in two dorm rooms. The de facto leader, Jimmy, an under-30, thin-framed, scraggly-bearded mix between a hippie and a guy who used to write grant proposals for a non-profit in America, calls on Connor, a 26-year old Irish computer-science engineer who quit his job to travel South America for a year, found this random grass-roots volunteer group in Pisco, Peru back in January planned to stay with them for 2 weeks and didn't leave until 7 months later. Connor stands ... read more

After heading out from Lima, I headed south along the coast of Peru to Pisco my next stopping off point. The town of Pisco is still recovering from the massive earthquake that it had about 2 years ago. Walking along the streets there are shops open among the rubble of the earthquake. Moving around the different streets are difficult as you have to make sure that you don´t fall into the massive sinkholes right by the shops. I seems that it will take many more years before the city will recover. Heading out the next moring I took an early tour of the Ballesta Islands. Riding in our speed boat in the cold sea air was exciting but fridget and cold. Along the way to the islands we stop near the coast to see an example ... read more

Kate - After such a wonderful time in Lima with Treeve and his family we decided to head down the coast to Pisco. When we arrived it was quite sad to see how much damage the recent earthquake had caused with so many building falling down and big gaps in the street where building once existed- i didn´t even know there was an earthquake-doh!. We stayed in another really nice hostel and booked up some tours to do. We decided on a full days touring starting with a boat trip to the Isle de Ballenas and then off to the the near by National Park in Paracas. I was a little apprehensive about both trips, 1 because of the choppy boat ride we had in Uvita in Costa Rica, and 2 because we had seen a ... read more

Saturday 8th Have had the most ENORMOUS amount of sleep, so have a relaxed breakfast, then head round to the internet cafe with Shilpa and we both put in an hour. I may regret that I haven´t gone to the laundromat, but hey, internet more fun for now! We get back to the hotel, pack ready for the bus. Run into Michael, ask him how his birthday went last night, get a ´don´t ask´look, so think it must have been great, but turns out that he was robbed last night, including his passport. He was in the ´wrong´part of town, apparently, but has decided he wants to stay in Lima to sort it out, so we wave him goodbye, all nervously wondering if this is too bad a sign for South America - which does have ... read more

Project Pisco has officially come to a close. After spending 125 out of 126 days here in Pisco, I leave this dusty town behind tomorrow night (Monday January 14, 2008) and head to Arequipa in the southern part of the country. Some of you are aware that I was an exchange student in Arequipa many many years ago. I have been in this country for just over four months and haven't yet seen the host family who was so kind to me so long ago. I plan to spend a little over a week visiting with my host family and other friends in the area and basically.....RELAX! Boy do I need that....... After leaving Arequipa, I head straight to Lima and fly out on the 23rd. I will be in the New York/Boston area for only ... read more