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Published: August 30th 2011
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Starfish!
Crazy looking starfish at Punta Hermosa. They were all over the place. It's been awhile, but I've had a busy couple of weeks in Peru! First of all, signing up for classes was a pretty big hassle. The enrollment day was Monday the 22nd, the 2nd week of classes and signups started at 9 with a first come, first serve policy so we had to get there early. Oh yeah, and it was only international students signing up so most of the classes were already full with only a couple of extra spots. I got to school an hour before signups and was feeling pretty good about it, but I got my number and saw I was the 130th person to arrive that morning!! WHAT? So I was a little nervous about getting the classes I wanted. It took forever, but finally at NOON I was able to enroll in classes and luckily got everything I wanted so I didn't have to worry about figuring out a new schedule yay! I'm taking Literature, Anthropology, and Linguistics, it's 12 credits and the bare minimum, but the classes seem pretty difficult so that's ok with me!
The day before enrollment Monday, Sunday, August 21st, a couple of us Americans decided we wanted to get out
Cloudy Mountain
We drove up through the clouds at some points in our trip of Lima, so a couple of us went to Punta Hermosa which is a popular surfing location during the summer (keep in mind that's January through Marchish). It's about an hour and a half south of Lima by bus, so I was hoping for some sun but didn't know what to expect. When arrived there was no sun 😞, but the air was fresh and the ocean was beautiful! The town was pretty much deserted and we had the whole beach to ourselves for the most part. I would love to see the town during the summer it looked pretty awesome, there are tons of little restaurants and beach houses lining the shore. We walked the beach and on some rocks that were lining the shore and we saw lots of crabs and some starfish! The water was pretty cold though, I went in barefoot and my feet got numb pretty quickly. It was a nice relaxing day though and good to get out of Lima!
This past weekend our goal was to go somewhere to get a little sunshine. Our week was stressful though with signing up for classes and figuring out how to print textbooks and catch up
Coconut man
His machete could have turned deadly at any moment, but we wanted some coconuts! on reading that was neglected the week before. So someone made a last minute decision to go to Máncora, and I tagged along for the ride. We have the day off of school Tuesday the 30th so some people were able to skip Monday's classes and stay through Tuesday. I, unfortunately, had to come back in time to take a quiz Monday... But Máncora was totally worth the trip!! Although the bus ride was about 19 hours, the little beach town was so beautiful and the sun uplifted my spirits immensely! The ride wasn´t too bad because I love looking out the window on trips and Peru had tons of different scenery than WI cornfields.
We arrived and found a hostal that was 30 soles per night (about $12), and it wasn't too shabby! We instantly put on our swimsuits and went to the beach where it was warm and the water was warm enough to swim in! Friday was spent at the beach then walking around town looking at the things the vendors had for sale. A couple of the girls got burnt, but I was pretty vigilant with my sunscreen and didn't let that happen to me. Saturday
Villages
Some of the sad houses I was talking about... 4 of us went on a day trip that left at 7:30 in the morning with Ursula, our guide. It consisted of driving 2 hours to see some mangroves, I kayaked for the first time through them and I really enjoyed it! There were crabs on the shore, I saw an iguana in a tree, and tons of birds, I even got to go to the bathroom by a tree so I really was one with nature that day. We ate a quick lunch then continued on to drive to the ocean to visit an island completely inhabited by tons and tons of birds, then go to a crocodile "sanctuary" which actually made me kind of sad because the crocs are never released to the wild, the sanctuary doesn't have enough funding to move them so they spend their entire lives in these small caged areas 😞. After the crocodiles our last stop was at a natural hot spring before returning home. It was crazy the water was so warm and the minerals dissolved in the water are supposed to be healing.
Ursula was an awesome guide and on the ride home she told us about a 6 kilometer swim
Kayak
My first kayaking trip! Katie and I started out race that was going on Sunday morning and she asked if we were interested in kayaking alongside the swimmers to make sure they were okay, and of course we said yes! So bright and early Sunday we went to the pier and loaded up the kayaks (this was my second time kayaking ever so I was a little nervous). I was paired with Javier, a seasoned kayaker so I was feeling confident. But after we got in the water (by the way the swim race was in the ocean) Javier told me he wanted to swim the last half of the race, and the plan was for him to switch out with one of the swimmers that started the race. I obviously had to agree, and at the time the water was calm so it couldn't be that bad right?... But anyways the race got off to a start, there were about 40 swimmers whom I am very jealous of because I can't imagine being in shape enough to swim 6km in the ocean! I was feeling great in the kayak, and around the halfway point Javier and I were unable to find his replacement in the kayak and he
Mangroves
Katie and I relaxing in the canoe (notice how little my paddle is I was pretending to row with it, it had no effect) told me I was "conditioned" enough to do it alone so out went Javier in the ocean leaving me alone in a 2 person kayak. The wind started to pick up and the waves continually got bigger. And I must say I was doing pretty well on my own, and I proably did about a mile when finally I found the swimmer that replaced Javier. I was very grateful to have somebody helping me again, we had a pretty not so graceful crash landing which was probably pretty funny to watch. Kayaking in the ocean for that race may be on my list of top favorite things I have ever done, and also one of the hardest. Sadly, a few of us had to leave that same day, although I would have absolutely loved another day or two in beautiful Máncora.
Not meaning to end this blog on an unhappy note, but I didn't know where else to stick this, I have a list of a couple of things that broke my heart this weekend:
1) When we were driving to our day trip to the mangroves, there were tons of shrimp "pools" that looked like ponds where it is
Birds
Watch out for poo! But in Peru it's actually considered lucky to get pooped on. BRING IT ON! big business to raise shrimp in for exportation. Sadly, tons of mangrove and tropical environments are being destroyed for these shrimp pools and can never be regrown again.
2) During the kayak race tons of people were freaking out because there was a big sea lion by the shore, cool huh!? No...apparently it was dying because it was poisoned by fishermen in the ocean who don't want the sea lions eating the fish they want to catch. That's not fair is it?
3) Driving through some really really poor towns where houses are made of wooden planks just made me tear up. I feel grateful for what I have everyday, but also feel guilty when I'm taking these awesome trips and know that some people don't even have that option.
Be thankful for what you have and think about how your actions can affect others 😊
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olivia
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Love the blogs posts nads..MISS YA