First let's talk about Ica--Paracas. We left Lima for Ica on Sunday morning. Ica is around four hours South of Lima so we took a double decker luxury bus ride to Ica. It was surprisingly comfortable. I think anything would have been comfortable after the night of LITERALLY no sleep the night before!
**TIME OUT**
Let me explain why I didn't get any sleep! My uncle Mancho was throwing a birthday party for himself at my grandma's house so my family and I got dressed up very nice and went over to my grandma's house for the party. It started around 8pm and I did not get back to our apartment until 5:30am and I had to be at the bus station to leave for Ica by 7am and it took around 40 minutes to get to the bus station...so I had not slept! But it was so fun, and definitely worth it! I really enjoy the times I get to spend with my extended family! They are all SO incredibly kind and helpful with my Spanish...even when I can't function at 4am!
**TIME IN**
We got to Ica around noon and I was cranky from not sleeping too much but overall I was very excited to just be out of Lima for a few days! We didn't have a whole lot planned for this trip, and for that I was kind of grateful. It was very nice to be able to just relax for a few days while still being able to see some really cool sites! Sunday evening we were able to go sand boarding in the desert as well as visit a vineyard where they make Peruvian pisco! It was interesting to learn about but I wish it would have been light out so we could see everything a little better! I did buy some really good wine to bring back though! Sand boarding was INCREDIBLE. At first I was terrified because I am not necessarily a daredevil but I always want to do cool things so after I let 5 people go ahead of me, I finally sucked it up and boarded down. It was AWESOME. Very sandy but so worth it!! The dune buggie ride out to the dunes was so much fun, and equally terrifying. I only saw my life flash before my eyes three times. Naturally we didn't start on the bunny slopes, we started on the black diamond of sand dunes which is a grand part of why I was terrified. Our boarding guides were very fun guys, they were crazy drivers but definitely made sure we were safe going down the dunes.
Monday we woke up very early and drove around an hour to Paracas where we got on a boat to ride out to the Ballestas Islands. They were so incredible! I absolutely LOVED the lobos marinos. I would like one as a pet. A baby one. NOW. We were taken around the islands for a couple of hours before we headed back to land and from there to Ica. After we got back to our resort we cleaned up a bit and decided to head into town to grab some dinner. After dinner we played some cards games and called it a night! The morning we had free until around 3pm when the bus came to pick us up to head back to Lima! The weekend overall was very fun...but our adventures weren't over yet...we planned to leave for the Jungle two days after our return!
LA SELVA!!! (The Jungle)
Let me just preface this section with: It was freaking HOT. Even though it was rainy season in the jungle, we somehow experienced a heat like never before. I would sweat every time I took a breath. It was disgusting. But being able to give myself a little slap on the cheek to remind myself that I was in the Amazon, erased any uncomfortable sweaty feelings I was having. The first day we met our guide, Ashuko. Ashuko took us to our boat we would be riding out to our camp, and after an hour ride más o menos we arrived to our camp and settled in. That afternoon we headed straight for the jungle and hiked for a bit and learned about a bunch of different types of trees and frogs and animals and even saw him dig a tarantula out of its hole in the ground! That evening we gathered up our flashlights and wandered out into the jungle to, what I was sure would be our death by snakes or jaguars, and managed to find a ton of spiders and one snake. I didn't necessarily enjoy that part of the trip, but looking back I'm glad I went.
One important part I forgot to mention...things we take for granted in the US...electricity. We only had electricity for TWO HOURS a day. 7pm-9pm, other than that we were completely lit up by flashlights. It was an interesting experience, and kind of nice to be away from everything.
Saturday morning had planned to go piranha fishing and bird watching, but when we woke up it was raining so we ate breakfast and took a nap in the hammocks while we waited for the rain to clear, and even changed around our itinerary to going to MONKEY ISLAND (eeeeek!!!) and the other things the next day.
There was a room full of hammocks where we spent a lot of our break/down time. I took approximately 5 naps in a hammock in the Amazon jungle. Have you? No, you haven't. It was incredible.
We got to monkey island, and out of the jungle walked the CUTEST monkeys I have ever seen. They were so friendly, but still wild...obvio...they live in the Amazon jungle...anyways, they jumped all over us and played with my hair because it was in a bun and apparently looked like too much fun for them to pass up. There was also a SLOTH!!! I got to hold him and watch him smile at me and I just know he wanted to be my friend, but I don't think I could get a sloth through customs. After the monkey island and lunch we went to go looking for pink dolphins. Everyone but me saw the damn dolphins, I'm still a little bitter about it pardon my french. Then some crazies from our group (everyone but Haley and I) swam in the river. It was brown and surely full of bugs and only heaven knows what else, but they all had fun!
The next morning we woke up early and went out to go fishing, and only Haley was successful...but she didn't catch a piranha, she caught a catfish! After fishing for an hour or so we were "bird watching" which we did a majority of the time anyways, there were some really cool birds but it's hard to get pictures of birds because they fly right by you!
A group of us had to be to the airport Sunday by around 5:30 for our flight home to Lima so we hopped on our boat back to Iquitos after lunch and it was a 3 hour boat ride against the current so we made the best of it and stacked some suitcases for a makeshift table to play cards on. It worked out pretty well!
Everything was going well until we boarded the plane an hour late and sat on the plane for another hour before we were told we had to get off of the plane because the window wouldn't seal. THEN we found out our flight had just been canceled all together. After waiting in line for a few hours we were finally put up into a hotel in town by the airport and were given ticket for a 2pm flight the next day. We were all tired sweaty and cranky so it didn't help any when we hadn't eaten dinner and it was 2am AND our sink in our bathroom probably had more water pressure than our shower head did. It was an interesting experience.
The trip to the jungle was a once in a lifetime experience and I am so glad I got to experience it with the people I did. Bug bites and all, I enjoyed the jungle.
NOW: We are off to Cusco/Machu Picchu in t-minus 6 hours so I need to get at least a little bit of sleep!!
Until next week mis amigos! Un beso :) ¡Ciao!
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