2013, So Far.

I'm back from lunch with a full stomach and super psyched to write all about 2013. My host mom made Cau Cau de Pollo, which is chicken and potatoes all chopped up and put in a special sauce, and then served with rice. It's really good, and she's a very good cook. I got back from a trip a few days ago and just realized how much I missed the food. And my family too. The house is a little emptier now, since Bili has gone back to Brazil and took Adriana with her for a few months. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to where I left off, right at the beginning of January.

After New Year's we all stayed at the beach for a while. Annalena stayed with us, which was nice. We had recently found out that we would both be going to Pucallpa, a town in the Peruvian jungle, very soon. A boy who was there would be coming to Tacna, while Annalena would go out into the wilderness for 3 months. When she gets back to Tacna, which will be pretty soon, I'll be heading out there. We hung out at the beach for a few days, and then went to go see the Dakar rally with my brother, older sister, uncle, and dad. Dakar is this huge race that goes through Peru, Chile, and Argentina every year. There are different categories, for bikes, cars, and trucks, but they all race over more or less the same terrain. People from all over the world come to compete or work in the rally. I met a team of Polish photographers, and there was a prince who was competing. It's a pretty big deal in Peru, and I had never seen anything like it before.

We had to wake up really early, which Annalena and I weren't too excited about

Carlos, on the other hand, was super excited

We woke up early, loaded all the food and beach equipment into the car, and took off for the middle of nowhere. The race went over a ton of dunes, coming from the more central part of Peru, the sierra. It came towards us at the beach, went along the coast line for a while, and finished that stage at more or less the Chilean border. There is only one road in that area, a two-lane highway that goes from Tacna up north to Ilo, passing the small summer beach towns on its way. We took that road out to where there are no towns, just giant dunes. That was where they had plotted the course, and had planted little stakes with rope tied around them in the ground to keep the drivers going the right way. They had blocked off the highway (the course cut across it) at about 5 am that morning, so there was a huge long line of cars parked on the road, waiting for the race to be over so they could keep heading towards Tacna or Ilo. I feel really bad for anyone who was traveling with seafood that day and got caught in the Dakar line. They didn't open up the highway until 8 pm that night, and we were in the middle of the desert. There was no shade at all, and the ozone layer is thinner there, so the sun is really strong. That hypothetical seafood must have been horribly smelly by the end of the day. Because they had blocked off the highway, and because a lot of people had gotten there before us, we had to go off-roading to find a place to park and watch the race. So we drove straight up the dunes. It was so much fun. There were a lot of other people doing the exact same thing, so it turned into a bit of a competition. Everyone would walk up, then the drivers would line up at the bottom of the dune and go at it one at a time. They'd usually almost make it and then have to turn around or risk getting stuck. It was so fun to watch, but I kept waiting for a car to roll while thinking that this would never have been remotely possible in the US. Things in general are a lot more easygoing in Peru. The idea is basically that if you can do it without dying, go for it. If you try, and get seriously hurt, well then you just didn't do it right. I get the feeling that there haven't been a lot of lawsuits yet, or that people just don't feel like trying to sue for stuff that goes wrong. Anyways, we finally made it up the first dune and kept going. Once you get up the first dune, it gets a lot easier. We settled in and sat back to wait for the cars.

We ended up on the hill before the hill with the flag on it, overlooking the course. All the people down below are the people who camped out to get a good spot. The darker line in the distance is the highway, before it filled up a lot. I took this at about 7:30 am. By the time Dakar was over you couldn't see the end of the line of cars.

We waited. And waited. And waited some more. The cars finally arrived at about 4 pm. It was actually really cool once they arrived, but it was a very long wait. I wish I had some pictures to put up, but what with all the sand and wind, my camera jammed and broke completely. (It's still broken, by the way. I took it to a repairman and he said there's no hope of fixing it. So now I am an exchange student without a camera - there is no purpose to my life.)

Let's pretend I took this photo... Actually I just googled dakar rally 2013. If you'd like to see more pictures you can do that too! 

After Dakar, we all headed back to Tacna. The two lane highway was complete craziness. Cars had been backing up from both directions all day long, and there were so many that they were in four lanes instead of two, all facing at each other. It took a very long time to get going, and there was a lot of shaking of fists, yelling, cutting in front of each other, and almost hitting other cars and people. That's another thing that never would have happened in the US, and it really made me thankful for how nicely everyone really drives, at least compared to South America.

I got back to Tacna and just chilled for a few days, until Zoe Bouras, one of the exchange students from Arequipa, showed up for a few days. Annalena, Zoe, and I climbed one of the giant dunes around Tacna, went out to eat cake, and went to a movie, among other things. It was really fun to hang out with her again, and climbing the dune was a nice challenge.

Oh hey, that's us! 

I returned to the beach for a few days and got to go to Ilo, the small coastal town about two hours away from Tacna. It was fun to visit, and I got to go on a tour and see lots of seals and birds, but I'm glad I'm living in Tacna.

Looking at local wildlife with Annalena and Maddie, the exchanger in Ilo

A few days later, the boy from Pucallpa arrived. Louis is French, and learned how to speak Spanish while living in the jungle. It's crazy how fast he learned! His Spanish is really good. A few days after he arrived, Annalena took off for Pucallpa. We all spent a few days together, just showing him around the city.

I started cooking and bartending classes at a local cooking school for the summer, and Louis decided to come with me. The classes were really fun and I learned how to make a lot of traditional Peruvian food, which I'm looking forward to making for everyone when I'm back in the States. I also met a great group of friends in my classes, and we spent a lovely summer together.

While it looks like Maria (the girl on the right) is trying to kill Josmara (the blonde) I swear that they're actually really great people!

We went swimming together

And went out to eat delicious hamburgers

They are some of the best friends I have made here in Peru. I will never forget these crazy chicas!

I spent the rest of February switching between Tacna and the beach. I went to my cooking classes during the week and then joined my family at the beach for the weekends. It was a really nice summer. I swam a lot, hung out with a lot of people, learned a lot, and even tanned a little bit. I hurt my knee again, stupidly, but I went to the doctor and only spent a week on the injured list, although I still managed to enjoy my summer while hurt.

I wrapped my knee up and hobbled to the front of the room to get my diploma from the cooking class.  It was great. 

Before I had hurt my knee, I was playing soccer with my team as well. We were in a tournament of "futbolito" which is soccer, but played on a small cement court. It's kind of like indoor soccer, but there aren't any walls around the field. It was really fun and I enjoyed learning how to play.

We won $200 for our team!

At about that time, Adriana and Bili headed off for Brazil. The house is a whole lot quieter without them! After finishing my cooking classes, I spent the rest of February (more or less) at the beach. Louis came with me for about a week, and we worked at Rotary's Carnaval dance and also with the poor children they run a camp for at the beach. Carnaval is basically a giant party that started in Brazil, but has spread all over South America. The Rotary Club of Tacna, which is the club I belong to, throws a giant dance the night of Carnaval, which helps raise money for the poor children who come to the beach. Louis and I helped out at the dance, carrying plates of food, helping set up, lighting candles, etc. It was a very big party, and they raised a lot of money. The next day was Carnaval at the beach. Together with a group of friends, we prepared water balloons, paint, chalk, and silly string, and went out to try to soak/paint/chalk/spray as many people as possible. Of course, everyone else is armed and trying to do the same thing. It was a huge war in the center of town, and afterwards, when we were completely soaked and covered in paint, we all ran straight into the ocean and swam around to clean off. Carnaval was so much fun, and I think it's definitely a tradition that we need to start up in the US. I'm sad I don't have pictures, but it wasn't exactly an electronic-friendly environment.

But while I was at the beach, I wasn't just tanning, swimming, and playing Carnavales. Louis and I went to Rotary's camp for kids and played with and helped care for them. Rotary runs a large camp for poor children from Tacna and the sierra, so that they can come to the beach for a week and just be kids. They're kids who live in abusive families, who work, don't go to school, have medical issues, don't eat correctly, and have never left their hometowns, never seen the ocean before. And yet they are some of the happiest kids I have ever met. They are so full of life, and are overjoyed to be at the beach, to receive a shirt, hat, swimsuit, and towel, and a little stuffed animal to call their own. They spend the entire day playing in the surf, marveling at the tiny fish they find. They fill their pockets with shells to take back every day, so that they'll never be too far away from the ocean. The kids who were at the camp for the week I worked there are poor children from Tacna. They live in poverty-stricken, sometimes abusive households, usually with just a mother or a father and several siblings. They're malnourished, and attend schools (if they go at all) that are overburdened and underfunded. They work in the cemetery in Tacna on the weekends, carrying water for the flowers. They're paid very little, and rely on tips from kindhearted mourners. Those kids really touched my heart, and I hope to go visit them all again soon. They have one week to be kids and enjoy the beach, and they enjoy it to the fullest, taking pleasure in the simplest moments. They taught me so much, in the small amount of time that I spent with them. I think they could teach us all something important.

After those weeks at the beach, I headed back to Tacna for the first week of March for a Rotary conference called RYLA. Two of the other exchange students went, a recent arrival from Australia named Alana and my good friend Kristen. RYLA was a weekend full of chats about leadership in Rotary and real life. It was mainly geared toward kids in Rotaract, which is like Rotary for people 18-30 years old. But still, it was nice to meet lots of new people and we had a lot of fun together.

After RYLA I had some down time in Tacna, just to take care of everything I had to do before I headed off on my next trip. That was last week. It was an incredible trip. I went up to Arequipa on a bus, and I got to stay for a day in Arequipa with all the exchange students there. Then, the next day, we all headed out on the trip. We drove all night from Lima to Arequipa, and arrived early in the morning. For those who don't know, it's a loooooong drive. And the bus wasn't very comfortable. We didn't sleep. At all. First up, we went to the Museo de la Nacion, and saw a lot of Incan and pre-Incan artifacts, which were very interesting. After lunch, we went out on a tour of the city, which included seeing the important plazas, the Government palace, a very old church, and getting to tour its catacombs. The catacombs were super cool. There are many layers, and they're still discovering things. It's amazing that they've withstood all the years, and the many earthquakes and other disasters that have hit Lima.

Kristen and I in the catacombs. That's my excited-about-catacombs face.

After dinner we went to El Parque de los Aguas, which is this giant park filled with fountains. There are lights and music and they put on a wonderful show. Everyone is encouraged to play in the water, and there are tunnels and mazes of water. It was so much fun and we all ran straight in. I'm the smallest out of everyone (story of my life) and so everyone else really enjoyed picking me up and pushing me into the jets of water. I got absolutely soaked, but it was so much fun.

Zoe Bouras, Kristen, and I in a water tunnel

That night we hung out with some of the exchange students from Lima, which was fun. I liked Lima, and if I ever come to Peru again I could definitely see myself living there. But I'm really glad I'm not on exchange in Lima. It's very American in a way, with large malls, lots of traffic, and lots of tourists. I like Tacna, with its small markets, crazy yet quick traffic, and people who are actually from Tacna. It's definitely better for my Spanish too - with only one other exchange student here with me, who doesn't speak English, I have to use Spanish all the time.

The next day we left for Lunahuana, where half of our group went white-water rafting, and the other half went 4-wheeling. I went rafting, which was so much fun. After rafting we ate lunch and got back on the road.

As you can see, we had a great and peaceful time.

That night we arrived in Paracas, where we went out to eat and then settled into our hotel. The next morning we went on a boat ride to the Islas Ballestas, some large islands off the coast where we saw lots of dolphins, seals, penguins, sea lions, and birds in general. Lots and lots of birds. As in a don't-look-up-with-your-mouth-open amount of birds.

This is my why-are-there-so-many-birds face.

The coolest thing I saw was towards the end of the boat ride though. A momma seal was teaching her baby how to swim. It was the cutest thing I've seen in a very long time. The baby seal would try to climb up on its mom's back, then the mom would go forward a bit, leaving it to figure out how to swim back to her. Every time it fell it would call out, complaining, and she would call back, as if saying "buck up and learn how to swim, buddy." It was ridiculously adorable, and I'm sad I don't have a video.

We had a fun time and saw lots of cool animals. And lots of bird poo, but that wasn't really the point of the tour. 

After the Islas, we got back in the bus and headed toward Ica. On the way, we visited a vineyard where they grow the grapes for some of the best wine and pisco of Peru. They explained the pisco making process to us (it takes a really long time) and then at the end we got to stomp the grapes they use.

It was very squishy and sticky.

 When we arrived in Ica we immediately headed out for the dunes in boogies. We bounced around and drove really fast, and then they took us up to the top of a very tall dune. The driver got out, handed each of us a sand board, and told us to lay on it. Then he gave us all a push, one by one, and we went speeding down the hill. It was so much fun. While I think I'll probably never become a professional sand boarder (I fell a lot) I'd love to be able to do it again. As the sun was going down we headed back to the hotel. We were staying at an oasis called Huacachina, which was beautiful.

Gorgeous. And I'm not just talking about our group :)

Although we are pretty fabulous! 

That night we arrived in Nazca. The next day we all went to the airport and boarded two tiny little planes to fly over the Nazca Lines. Ever since I saw an article on the Nazca Lines in National Geographic, I've always wanted to see the Lines. They did not disappoint. They were so cool. I'm just sad that I couldn't get any good pictures, as the only camera I had was my cell phone. But the Lines were truly awesome, especially how they've lasted for so long. I really want to know exactly what they were for, and how they were made so well.

That night we arrived in Puerto Inca, a nice seaside resort surrounded by Incan and pre-Incan ruins. It was really truly gorgeous. The next day was our last day of the trip, and we went on a walk around the ruins. It had been a pretty big village, and had included an exclusive resort just for the Inca, the emperor. You could see that it was his because it was two stories tall. There were also lots of other houses, and you could see how the city had been laid out over the entire area. After our walk we had free time to swim and enjoy the resort, and then we got back in the bus and drove back to Arequipa. I spent a few more days in Arequipa, and then came back to Tacna. Tomorrow I'll start classes at the local university. I'll be studying tourism and administration. It's only for a few weeks, until I go to Pucallpa, but I'm excited to do something new and meet some new people.

And now, that's pretty much all that 2013 has held for me so far. As more happens I'll be sure to let you guys know, assuming anyone is still reading this. If you are, thanks for sticking with me!

Chau for now,
Emily