Last night’s dinner was a blast with Antonio, Raul, Monica, and her friend from France, Carolina. Such a welcoming crowd, lots of laughs, lots of delicious Peruvian food, and some sad goodbyes. It has been such a pleasure getting to know people along this trip. Looking forward to having people to contact when bringing back friends and family. The Pisco Sours here are on another level and we need this in America for sure. As well, the Ceviche. Monica, who is Colombian, also informed me that Fontibon, the area I stayed in Bogota, is actually relatively unsafe. I really just threw myself into this trip without even realizing it. It was also fun to hear Monica and Raul banter back and forth about Peru vs. Colombia and which has better everything.
I woke up very grudgingly this morning, packed up, and walked to a nearby hostel for pickup. I was the last one on the bus and was greeted by Danna, the Peru Hop tour guide who has literally helped me with everything. I did not plan any places to stay, tours, or anything, and she has helped me book everything on the bus rides to the destinations. The group is mainly all tourists, which is much different than I have been used to this trip. It will be a fun change to make some friends and socialize more.
The first stop on the way to Paracas (small town) was for breakfast and to watch a horse dancing show. We also got to see how they raise guinea pigs to eat. Yes, they eat guinea pigs. One of the oddest things was a game we played called Tombola which featured a circle of cut-outs and a guinea pig in the middle. Once the guinea pig (Ramon was our guinea pig) was released, he would run run to a hole assigned to a person. If Ramon chose your hole, you won. On the last round, Ramon chose me:) and I got a short free ride on the dancing horse as my reward.
There are some Spanish speakers in this group too. But, for example, Ana is a woman from Spain and she uses another form of grammar that is not used as much in the States or Latin America. Sergio, another friend I met, also uses different vocab. It is cool and also complex the way Spanish changes from country to country and how words can have VASTLY different meanings. Sergio actually studied Aerospace as well and interviewed for a PhD program with some of the professors who taught me at CU. Such a small world. Jolijn, another friend I met, is from the Netherlands, Katarina from Greece, and Joseph from Puerto Rico.
We got to Paracas and got to our hostel dorm room. The room had 6 beds and an attached bath. Jolijn and I found a cool lunch place by the beach and the dish I ordered included an entire crab, no joke.
From there, we hoped on a bus that took us into the Paracas National reserve to trek up a few of the dunes and see some incredible views. The reserve is super neat as millions of years ago, it went from a jungle, to an ocean, to a desert. To this day, under the top layer of sand, there are tons and tons of salt deposits. Peru actually exports this salt to the US and Canada to melt snowy roads. We had multiple photo ops, some very close to steep cliffs. A New Yorker named Jess thankfully joined me next to the edge for one of the photos to hold my hand. There was one lady who showed up in 2-inch wedges and made it through the whole thing when others couldn’t even make it down some of the steep parts. What a trooper.
Being in a tiny town in a hostel with a large group of people is such a change from the old pace of this trip, but a welcome one. People come from all walks of life, all nationalities, and all interests to experience the same things together.
You look so pretty on your pony 🙂
Paracas National Reserve is one of my favorite spots I’ve been!! So glad you got to go. Love the pics!
Those sunset picts look amazing!! And the more desert terrain reminds me of Utah. Dancing horse? That’s a first!