Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Mala Suerte... (Travel Diaries - Part I)

Left Arequipa Friday night on the bus company renowned for crashes. I ate a hearty meal of chicken and jello and slowly dozed off to the motors of a diesel engine.

I awoke to a loudspeaker telling me to get off the bus very quickly because we had arrived in Ica and they had to keep going to Lima. So I got off, and remembering that I was headed to the district ´Huacachina´, I called a taxi.

I spent two days in Huacachina and it was beautiful. Huacachina is a paradise in the middle of the desert. In the middle of Huacachina sits a beautiful lake filled with paddle boats during the day. Around the lake is a boardwalk with seafood restaurants and blasting tropical music. And around the entire village, there are huge mountains of golden sand (like you might see in North Africa). So, for two days, I stayed either in a shaded hammock reading, or laying out by the pool, or talking to the hostal parrots, or stuffing my face with fish. Oh yeah, I also Sandboarded (snowboarding on a sand dune) and went on several tours of wineries. Quite different than the life I was leading in Arequipa.

Then it was off to Chincha (the supposed Afro-Peruvian part of Peru). However, when I arrived, there was NOTHING Afro-Peruvian about it. Just stinky and loud. So I decided to check in to a hostel and go to the countryside. My Peru guide book told me that in the countryside, there would be an old slave plantation where you could eat yummy meals, go on horseback tours of the house and the cotton fields, and learn to dance African style. The ride out there was beautiful- fields and fields of cotton and avocado. So I get to the Hacienda (plantation) and talk to the guy at the gate. First he laughs and then asks me how far I came - I say Arequipa. He laughs some more. Then, he tells me that for two years (since the big earthquake) the Hacienda has been closed for restoration. He says ´Bad luck, there´s not much else to do in Chincha´.

I returned to my hostel, confused. What in the world just happened? And then, I look at my guidebook, turn to the first page, and see that it was published in 2004.

I slept it off, and woke up this morning refreshed, ready to head to Lima: the monster city of Peru. Dad arrives on Friday. The next four days will be packed with my trying to get to know Lima... Stay tuned.

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