The Spirit of Peru

We waited at our generic-looking gate waiting to board our flight back to Lima. Ten minutes before boarding time, a flight attendant wheeled a "Star Perú" sign over to the gate, and whipped out what can only be described as a tiny amp with a microphone attached. He then began making announcements through his tiny amp and eventually we boarded the flight with our tickets, which were basically receipts that we were given at check in. It has been decided that Star Peru is the Spirit Airlines of this country.

 Once everyone was settled, a flight attendant did a head count of the passengers on board (yes that's right, head count...as if we are on a school field trip) and we are ready to go. Next stop: sand dunes in Paracas.

 Our driver, Fabio, picked us up at the airport. We booked him through a travel agent and we also met him the night we arrived, as he is the one who met us at the airport and brought us all of our vouchers and tickets for our stay. He took our bags from us and lead us to his car. Normally the taxis here are large white vans, and we were surprised when he led us to his tiny blue town car. "Normally we take van but since we driving three hours this car is much better," he said. And so we believed him. We buckled up and were ready to go. He backed out of the spot, turned the corner of the airport parking lot and we heard a loud CLUNK. Followed by a quieter clunk..clunk..clunk......clunk..........clunk. Annnnd the car stops. He gets out, looks at the car and says, "get out car is broken". We get out and watch as he pushes the car into a spot. So much for this car being good for a three hour drive. He tells us we will take a taxi to his house to get his van and we will then drive to the desert. Naturally, we agree to the taxi to Fabio's house and we are on our way.

 The driving here is unbelievable. Each road is a 2 way street, however if there is no oncoming traffic, it instantly becomes a 2-lane, one way street. That is, until another car shows up and everyone squeezes back into one lane just barely avoiding numerous head on collisions within seconds. We drove for miles like this passing nothing but sand and asparagus fields (if only we could snatch those up and bring them back with us. For now I will resort to paying $5.99 a bundle. Oh well.)

 When we finally arrived, we were picked up by a van of people who were also going sand boarding. Of course, we were the only ones in the whole group, including the guide, who spoke any English. Tali asked the guide how long the tour was and he kept saying "yes...four people in a car". So much for that. We arrived at the sand dunes and indeed we were instructed to put on goggles and move to the sand buggies...four per car. It should be noted that these buggies were really just metal car frames - no walls or anything of the sort. We got in and, without direction or warning, were buckled up and took off. We drove up, down, in and around the biggest sand dunes I have ever seen. There were some points that seemed as if we were going straight down a wall of sand at a 90 degree angle and at points it felt like an actual roller coaster. I wish I could describe how beautiful it actually was (or that I could upload a picture from this tiny mobile device that I am writing from) but since I can't you will have to wait for pictures later. You know what they say about patience. #itsavirtue

The guide stopped the car on top of one of the massive dunes and told us to take our shoes off and get out. The sand was so incredibly soft and clean and was an actual pleasure to walk on. We were then given sand boards and instructed to get on and slide down. We could sit, stand or lay on our bellies. We then had to hike back up the massive mound of sand to do it over again. (Try hiking up a hill of sand next time you see one..not a very easy task. Though its been nice having regular amounts of oxygen at our disposal).

All in all it was an incredible experience and it was most definitely worth the nauseating 6 hour round trip drive. We are now back in our cozy hotel which we'll be in for the next 2 nights. It is by far the best one yet, if not only for the fact that the hot water knob actually budges. Goodnight from Peru!

Trains, planes and world wonders

Woke up at the crack of dawn this morning to catch our train. Train stations and rides here are oddly similar to airports and flights elsewhere. We arrived with our previously purchased tickets, which had assigned seats. We waited until our train was boarding and we got on the train. Turns out there are four seats facing eachother, and we became friends very quickly with John and Bob, whom we would be facing in our seats for the next three hours. The train has windows in their usual locations, as well as skylights lining the ceiling. We listened to train music, which I can only describe as glorified elevator music with a South American twist for three hours straight. Flight attendants (train attendants?) walked the aisles offering drinks to us passengers, as we twisted through fields of corn and quinoa. We took the train to the last stop to catch a bus up to Machu Pichu. The bus zig zagged up a mountain and each turn that this bus made had to have been at a 359 degree angle. While on the bus, we realized that along with our correct names and passport numbers, our travel agent had written Tali and I down as 49 and 55 year old Israeli women, respectively. We were minorly concerned when we saw security actually verifying the information on these tickets but luckily they let us slide. We met our guide, Mr. Darwin, and the morning was beautiful as we hiked up and around Machu Pichu, - quite the site. Somewhere near the exact top of the mountain, the skies opened up and it started to pour insanely. Obviously everyone else on the tour had ponchos and raincoats, but I (#yoursmartfriendrach) brought a mere sweatshirt as a substitute. Which basically did nothing. It's was all worth it in the end for the alpaca sweater I was forced to buy myself. Yes it is made of alpaca and yes it is also embroider with pictures of llamas and alpaca. If you don't think that's cool don't hang out with me when I'm back, but you'd be missing out. On the way back there was a market, which is relativity similar to the shook in Israel. We went on our own to bargain down some belongings and caught our train ride back. We are now safe back in Cuzco and are gearing up for our super early star peru flight, another adventure tomorrow.

Welcome to Peru!

After a seriously long 48 hours of travel, we finally reached Cuzco, Peru and all is well! We started off our trip with a minor incident in the airport, where security thought there was a small bomb in my right shoe. Turns out it was just the Nike/iPod chip (which I had totally forgotten about and is classically my luck) so after some clarification we were on our way. 

Next on our list of things to do was find me one of those squishy neck pillows for the plane. We searched high and low and the only one that was available was an aggressively nerdy "I heart NY" pillow, with the classic I heart NY logo imprinted all over it. Well nerdiness has never stopped me, so I bought the pillow and off we went. 

12 hours and 2 flights later, we had landed in Lima, Peru and checked in to our hotel for the evening...only to wake up four hours later to catch our plane to Cuzco. We met an American who saw my neck pillow and inquired about our travel to New York. Oh, I'm from Connecticut...I just really love my neighboring state. A lot. 

We waited at the Star Peru 

 gate (yes that is actually the name of an airline here), which was so small that we would have to walk the tarmac to get to our plane. Our plane was obviously delayed and while we waited we heard the airline announce that another flight was boarding. We watched as around 30 men lined up with life jackets in their hands. We turned to each other and said "was this flight byofd (bring your own floatation device)...?" Turns out we didn't have to bring our own life jackets and that that plane was for a specific mission. 

Finally we took off and after some seriously rough air and flying rather close to some seriously high mountains, we made it to Cuzco. 

The altitude here is 11,000 feet above sea level and as a result, walking up even a short flight of stairs leaves us huffing and puffing as if we just ran a marathon. Yes, it's rather pathetic looking. We tried some of the local coca leaves, a plant known here for curing altitude sickness, but is illegal in the US due to the fact that it can be chemically altered into a strain of cocaine, if done properly. No need to fear we just chewed on a few of them, which was both gross and ineffective. 

We met our tour guide who lead us through 6 ancient landmarks and ruins, and after an exhausting day we are finally back in what can only be described as a two-story bamboo hut, gearing up for our big Machu Pichu adventure tomorrow. Stay tuned!