Desert and demasiado dessert

I realize that it has been forever and a day since I posted and now it is NOVEMBER!  How did that happen?  After tomorrow I only have three weeks of class left in my semester.  I am not sure how that is possible, but I guess time just flies!  Anyhow, last weekend (Oct. 23-25) I went on a trip with 5 of my friends south of Lima.  On Friday we left by bus late afternoon and arrived several hours later in Pisco, a town which suffered a horrible earthquake in 2007 and is still recovering from the damage.  The purpose of going to Pisco was actually more related to some islands off the coast called Las Islas Ballestas, which are known as the "poor man's galapagos."  Basically they are two big islands completely covered with birds (pelicans, penguins, boobys, cormorants, etc.) and sea lions.  We took a boat tour of the islands, which I really enjoyed because it reminded me of when my family used to go boating in Florida.  The sea lions were very cute, and it was exciting to see penguins, since I thought they only existed in extremely cold climates.  I was rather afraid that I was going to get pooped on with so many bird flying overhead and having been pooped on twice before by seagulls, but I managed to stay dry. :-) On the tour we also saw a geoglyph (I think that's what it's called) which is sort of like the Nazca figures but smaller.  It is a figure on the side of a big sand dune, so I was surprised that it does not get swept away, but the guide told us that the wind blows toward the other side of the hill and sea spray has helped it become hardened in the dune.  After the boat tour, we took a bus tour of the national reserve of Paracas.  When I think of a reserve I generally think of trees and animals, like a forest preserve or the llama reserve we went to in Cusco, but this reserve was basically just desert and not really too exciting except for a few nice views of the ocean.  Being with my friends, we still managed to have fun, and we saw some flamingos which was a bonus.  Late afternoon Saturday we took a bus to Ica and from there to Huacachina, which is desert oasis that has a pretty lagoon.  After a nice typical Peruvian dinner (I ate lomo saltado), we hit up the youth hostel for some milkshakes/ice cream sundaes.  I drank my milkshake way too fast and thus felt slightly sick for awhile, but we had fun playing a word game that involved spouting out the first thing that came to your head.  Jenna, Sydney and I shared a room that night in the hostel and we did not sleep particularly well due to mosquitos making their high-pitched buzzing noise in our ears.  Still, Sunday's events were well worth the lack of sleep.  We got up Sunday morning to take a dune buggy and go sand-boarding.  Initially, I thought the dune buggy was just a way to travel across the sand in order to reach the spot for sandboarding, but this was quite far from reality.  Dune buggies are AMAZING!  It was like going on a rollercoaster through the desert - such a blast!  Sandboarding was pretty awesome as well.  Having never been snowboarding before, I felt pretty successful going down a couple sand dunes on my feet, even though I fell on my butt a couple times.  Hot and covered with sand, we decided to jump in the lagoon before heading out to catch our bus back to Lima.  Overall, a fabulous weekend - I am definitely glad I went!

Sea Lions!

Laura, Megan, Jenna, Sydney, me, Sarah

Paracas Reserve

Laura, me, Sydney

Megan, Sarah, Jenna

We love dune buggy!

Huacachina - desert oasis!

My mom arrived in Lima last week on Wednesday night to visit me!  My host parents drove me to the airport to pick her up and it was very exciting to see her!  Here is the summary of our week in Lima:

Thursday I had class, so we went to Plaza San Miguel (a big mall near my school) in the morning to get Starbucks and then I walked to the university while mom stayed at the mall to explore.  After class, Jazmin came with me to the mall and the three of us got a snack together and then mom and I headed home for lunch.  During my afternoon class, mom just hung out at my campus, taking pictures of the deer and reading a book in one of the cafés.  In the evening we went to my friend Sydney's house for an anticuchada that her host mom was throwing.  Anticuchos are grilled heart and are pretty tasty.  Mom got to meet all my friends and it was a fun time.

Friday my host mom drove us to Chosica, a town just a couple hours outisde Lima, where we were planning to stay the night.  Upon arriving at the hotel, we checked in and sat by the pool for a couple hours soaking in the sun and then ventured out to the center of the town for some lunch.  After walking around for awhile looking for a place to eat, we ended up at a restaurant with a huge outdoor patio, which was great since we both love being outside.  Then we tried to find a desert called leche asada, which I was supposed to try for my spanish class, though it proved difficult to find, so we just tried some other deserts.  After wandering around awhile longer, we headed back to the hotel because we were tired and did not know what else there was to do in Chosica.  At the hotel, we realized that it was still much too early to go to bed but we did not really have anything to do, so we headed back to Lima instead of staying for the night.  On the micro ride back to the city, a random guy started talking to me and asked me for my phone number, but I told him that I did not have a cell phone and that I could not remember my house number (both outright lies).  I did agree to give him an old email address since he was so insistent and sure enough he emailed me that very night asking me if I would want to go out this week and leaving me 3 phone numbers to reach him. Clearly, I will not actually be contacting him because I know nothing about him.  This is a prime example of the obnoxious amount of attention I receive in Lima, but at least in this situation I was able to practice my spanish.  :-)  Friday night we went to see Julie and Julia in Miraflores.  Mom slept through most of the movie, and I was definitely tired enough to fall asleep too but I managed to watch it all and really enjoyed it!

Saturday morning we awoke and went to Ovalo Gutierrez to Crepes & Waffles, a restaurant I have been to a couple times before.  Apparently at breakfast time they don't usually serve crepes with fruits and such but they let us order dessert crepes anyhow, which were delicious.  From there we walked to my friend Laura's house and then on to Parque Kennedy.  Hopping on a micro in the park, we soon arrived at Larco Mar, a super upscale mall that overlooks the ocean (I went there on one of my very first nights in Lima).  For lunch we went to my host grandma's to eat chicharrones.  When I translated this term it came out as crackling - not sure what that means, but basically it was some form of pork served with potato and onions.  I like it except that it is really fatty - Peruvians do not seem to mind eating fat... I just cut it off.  In the afternoon, Mom and I went to the artisan markets on La Marina (a busy road that goes by Plaza San Miguel) to purchase gifts.  In the middle of our shopping we had to hop a bus to the mall to take out some more soles and the mall was a zoo!  There were so many little kids running around in their halloween costumes and asking for candy in the stores.  Interesting fact: when Peruvian children ask for halloween candy, they say halloween halloween instead of trick or treat.  Mom really like this phrase and used it frequently. :-)  In the evening we decided to go to a Mexican restaurant in San Isidro called Como Aguas Para Chocolate.  I had been there once before with my friends and enjoyed it and since we both love mexican food we thought it would be a good spot for some din (I often refer to dinner as just din due to influence from my friend Keri at Hope).

Sunday morning we went to the center of Lima, which is the more historical part.  My friend Mary came with us to guide us around, since I am not very familiar with the center.  Our first stop was "chinatown" or as it is known is Spanish the "barrio chino," which basically consists of one street called Calle Capón.  From there we walked to the Plaza de Armas to see the peruvian "white house" and the big cathedral.  We also walked along the Rimac river which is apparently the dirtiest river in all of Peru, notable from its nasty brown color.  After that we took a micro to Polvos Azules, a shopping center that is something you have to see to understand.  I seriously have never seen so many shoes in my life, though shoes is only one of the never-ending list of things being sold there.  My host family felt that it was necessary for mom to try some Peruvian seafood, so we went to Tumbes Mar for lunch to try ceviche and jalea.  Thankfully my family ordered a dish without fish for me, though I did eat some of the jalea which was basically assorted fried seafood and fish. Sunday evening we went to Parque de las Aguas to see all the fountains lit up and from there we decided to get some coffee from Café Café near Parque Kennedy.  A delightful evening for sure.

Monday our adventures took us to Parque de las Leyendas, which is the zoo in Lima.  Walking around that zoo, I felt like I was in Florida instead of Lima because it was hot, the sun was shining, the grass looks like the grass in Florida and there were more plants than I'm used to seeing in Lima.  It was fun seeing all the animals; they were much more entertaining than the animals at the zoos in Chicago - playing with each other and running around.  The zoo animals at Lincoln Park Zoo always look kinda bored.  :-)  In the afternoon we went to Larco Mar again where we discovered there was another Café Café (where we had coffee the night before) so we had a coffee there overlooking the ocean.  For dinner we had pollo a la brasa at Timbó, a popular restaurant on Bolívar that I walk past all the time on my way to school.  Before going to bed we made some fudge for my host family since the like the fudge that mom had brought from home so much.

Tuesday I had class from 10-2, so I left mom at the starbucks in Plaza San Miguel again and she walked to the artisan markets to make a couple more purchases.  In the afternoon, we went to my university to check out the bookstore and have a mini tour of the campus (basically just the buildings I have class in).  Then we tried to make pumpkin bread for my family but we had to use sweet potato instead of pumpkin because we searched many a store for pumpkin and it is not very common in Lima.  Soon it was time to take mom to the airport and send her back home.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time with her and I am so glad I got to share where I've been and what I've been up to in Lima with her!

My pics from Machu Picchu and my weekend in Pisco/Ica are on facebook.  Here are the public links:
Machu Picchu
Pisco/Ica

Also, to explain the title of this posting, demasiado means to much and mom and I really did have too many desserts while she was here :-)