Peru: Part 1 - Lima and Ica

I flew into Lima, the capitol of Peru, on Wednesday, July 14th for my long-awaited vacation. I meet my friend, Jolly, there who has been traveling in South America for almost a year. Over the next two weeks, we traveled non-stop all over the southern part of Peru and did some really crazy things. We had so many adventures that I just can't squeeze them all into one blog... I was really tired the first day so we just hung around the hostel...which was actually pretty interesting because it was a mansion turned hostel. There was huge painting and strange sculptures all over the place. The next day, we headed out to the flea market because I had to buy some warmer clothes. My DR beach wear was not going to cut it on the top of Machu Picchu. I ended up buying gloves, a hat, a jacket, and warm fuzzy pants...all for under US $20! Then on the way back to the hostel, we ran into a protest. There were a long line of people marching down the main street flanked with cops with riot equipment on. It was a peaceful protest, but we decided to get off the main street just in case, but not before getting some getting a couple of pics...








Then we grabbed our bags and headed on the bus for the main bus station. I was sitting in one seat with my huge bag when a man and woman came on. The woman sat next to me so I scooted over toward the window and the man stood next to her. He was looking at her pretty intently but I didn't think anything of it because I thought they were together. I turned my head, heard a popping sound, and turned back to the couple just in time to see him run off the bus. The guy, obviously now that they did not get on together, had pulled her necklace off her neck and taken off the bus before the door closed. It was so fast; I can't believe that I had my head turned for just a second and missed seeing him doing it! She wasn't hurt just a little embarrassed while explaining that the necklace wasn't anything "oro ni plata" gold nor silver, just an old plastic cross necklace. The guy had obviously saw her necklace and thinking it was worth something, followed her on the bus to steal it. It was a crazy thing to witness.

Sandboarding in Ica: We headed down to Ica about a five hour bus ride south of Lima. We got there that night and I tried “Salchipapa” for the first time. It is French fries, with chicken, and a green salad on top. Then they put sauces; ketchup, ranch, mayo, and a spicy sauce; all on top and mix it all together. It sounded a little gross, it looked pretty gross, but it was actually pretty damn good! I noticed during the next two weeks that Peruvians liked to mix things you wouldn’t expect to eat together a lot and it was usually surprisingly good. The next morning we headed for the desert to go on dune buggies and go sand-boarding. That’s right sand-boarding! It was really, really fun and so cool to just be in the desert.