Semana Santa Festivities (and Fiascos)

For Semana Santa (Holy Week), Peace Corps gives us four days of vacation. Chabu pointed out that I shouldn’t need vacation because I don’t do anything anyway, and although she’s mostly right, I didn’t need to hear that. To me, that was more reason why I do need vacation. There is nothing as rejuvenating as getting together with fellow volunteers who understand exactly what you’re going through on a daily basis. So on that note, a group of 14 of us took off for Ica, a department just south of Lima to relax and enjoy a break from our sites.

Most of the group was coming on Thursday, April 5th because that’s when our vacation days officially started, but I went a day early with three friends since we were already in Lima. By the time we ran errands in Lima and ate a gourmet lunch at Pizza Hut, we didn’t get on the bus to Ica until 3:30 pm. It’s a five hour bus ride so we didn’t get in until 8:30 pm. The trip started off on a bad note when my friend Rachel realized her backpack had been stolen sometime during the trip. She had put it up above us with my market bag that had magazines and groceries. Neither of us ever put anything up above us so who knows what possessed us to do it that day, but unfortunately Rachel had to pay the price for it. My bag wasn’t stolen because it’s big and bulky and would have been more obvious, but somehow someone managed to walk off the bus with her backpack (that was behind my bag and a TV) without any of the four of us realizing it. Of course we all felt terrible for her because it had her journal, digital camera, passport, medicine, glasses, toiletries, etc. in it. The worst thing to lose is your journal because it’s the one thing you can’t replace, and the first thing the thief is going to throw away. Rachel and Mike went with the police to file a denuncia and Cheridyn and I went to the hostel to wait for them.

Our hostel had a cool restaurant and bar so we tried to cheer Rachel up by having a few drinks and smoking hooka (flavored tobacco), but understandably, she was still pretty sad. Rachel and I had never smoked hooka before so we didn’t get what the big deal was. I tried it, but wasn’t that impressed. Rachel and I hung around for a while, but then we went up to bed in “Aushowitz” as Rachel called it - haha (don’t worry, she’s not prejudice, it was just a joke because we were staying in the dorm rooms, which was a huge room full of bunk beds for about 40 people, very stark and plain).

We were staying in a town called Huacachina that was about five minutes outside of the city of Ica. It’s known as a desert oasis because it has a central lagoon surrounded by huge sand dunes. It was absolutely beautiful! In the morning we got up and walked around the lagoon and had some breakfast. We found out about this tour agency called Desert Nights that offers many different tours around the area. Turns out the woman who owns it, Christy, is from Bennington, VT (only about 30 minutes from where I grew up)! She has been coming to Peru for about five years and moved down here about a year a half ago because she got married to a Peruvian. Now they own this hostel/restaurant/tour agency and have a six month old baby. We really liked them so ended up doing all of our tours through them. The first day, Christy organized a tour for us to visit two wineries and a chocolate factory because Ica is the heart of wine country in Peru and is also known for its good chocolates! The wineries were really interesting, but much more rustic (for lack of a better word) from the ones I’ve been to in the States. Oh and by the way, the wine is GROSS. It all tastes like Dimetap! We knew this before going, but we figured since we were there, we had to visit the wineries. However, I couldn’t stomach too many samples so I ended up dumping most of mine on the floor! Haha.

The chocolate factory was a little disappointing because it turned out to just be a store where you can look through a window and see the people making chocolate. However, since it was Semana Santa, no one was making chocolates so we just got to peak at the machinery through the window. We each bought one piece of chocolate because it was all we could afford. I thought the chocolate was really good, but we were reading through the comment book and someone had written, “delicious, but gives me gas”! Oh man, I love this country!

Our friends arrived shortly after we got back from the winery tour. It was so fun seeing everyone again since I hadn’t seen some of them since Thanksgiving. Although it doesn’t feel like it, it’s amazing how fast time goes here (when I think of it in terms of seeing my friends). We all decided to go to Desert Nights for happy hour and dinner since they had guacamole with Doritos (the real thing) and actual green asparagus! I love asparagus so I was really excited to find out it’s Peru’s number one export. What I didn’t realize was that this meant they export almost all of it so it’s nearly impossible to find here. I was thrilled to see it in the grocery store in Lima and then on the menu of many places in Huacachina! Oh the little things that make you happy…

Friday was spent hanging out by the pool and lounging in the hammock reading my book. Rough life, I know. I actually started to feel sick that afternoon though and wasn’t able to eat a meal until the next night at dinner. We were supposed to go sand-boarding that evening at sunset, but a half an hour after we were supposed to have left, Christy informed us that the dune buggies (that drive you around the dunes) weren’t working. Our only option was to go the next evening at the same time after returning from a full day tour, but it was better than nothing. She promised to give us an extra half an hour so we agreed. Since we were all dressed to go sand-boarding, we decided to go to the top of the dunes anyway. Some people rented boards, but Julia, Rachel, and I decided not to because we were afraid to injure ourselves while we were practicing for the next night. Climbing up to the top of the dune at sunset was awesome. All you could see were sand dunes and more sand dunes for miles and miles, with the city of Ica in the distance. It was so cool! I have never seen anything like that before. All I could think about was what an amazingly diverse country this is and how different this all was from where I live in the sierra. We didn’t think our plan through very well about walking to the top of the dune without a sand-board (like a snowboard) so there we were stuck at the top, watching Mike and Brent attempt to sand-board down. Julia suggested we run down, but Rachel and I were scared because it was so steep. I thought we’d start running and I’d either 1) fall and tumble all the way to the bottom, or 2) I wouldn’t be able to stop once I got to the bottom and crash right into the pool at our hostel. I was neglecting the fact that this was sand, not ice, so my feet would sink into the ground and I’d actually be able to balance myself. It turned out to be a blast and if it wasn’t so darn steep and hard to climb back up, I would have done it all over again!

We got up on Saturday morning at 5:00 am to go to a town called Paracas, an hour north of Ica, to tour the Islas Ballestas a.k.a. “the poor man’s Galapagos”. Like most things for Semana Santa, you had to pay full price for half the time so our boat ride that was supposed to be two and a half hours was cut an hour short, but it was still fun. We drove in a motor boat (made for about 30 people) around the islands and saw tons of birds (you can imagine how excited I was about that…), sea lions, and even a special type of penguins! We also got to see this geoglyph that is etched into the ground in the shape of a candelabra. It’s really cool because it looks like it could just blow away, but it dates back possibly to pre-Incan times (it’s up for debate). It’s huge too – over 150 meters tall and 50 meters wide! After the boat ride we had some time to hang out in the little town at the docks and check out all of the tourist stuff. Apparently we’ve been living in this country for too long because we couldn’t believe how expensive all of the souvenirs were even though by American standards, they were incredibly cheap. That afternoon we headed to the Reserva Nacional de Paracas (a national park) where we drove to a clifftop lookout and saw some beautiful rock formations. We also saw the evidence of some fault lines we were standing over where the ground has literally separated. They took us to a private beach, but the water was freezing so I didn’t go in.

We were supposed to get back to Ica around 5 pm so we’d be able to go sand-boarding at 5:30 and watch the sunset. Of course we didn’t get back until 6 so we decided we’d all go straight to sand-boarding regardless of what we were wearing or what we had with us. Apparently two of our friends didn’t get that memo because they went back to the hostel first and we had to leave without them (luckily they were able to go at 7 the next morning before we left). Sand-boarding was AMAZING!!! It was such a rush! There were 12 of us who went – eight in one car and four in the other. The four smallest people had to go in the one with four so I ended up there. It was like the best roller coaster ride ever! They strap you in and then drive you up and down sand dunes. Your stomach goes to your throat and at times you fly out of your seat! Of course we were screaming like little girls the whole time!

After driving us around a bit, they drove us to the top of a dune and said we’d go down one at a time. They waxed up our boards and told us we could either go down standing or lying down. I was scared either way because the hill was SO STEEP! I was sure I was going to pee my pants, either out of excitement or fear. Cheridyn took one for the team and went down first – on her stomach. She screamed the whole way down, but survived and said it was a blast so it convinced me to go on my stomach. After watching the guys attempt to do it standing the day before, that looked way harder and more prone for disaster so I opted to go lying down. Oh man it was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. It was such a rush! After we all finished the first hill, we did and second and third hill and they each got progressively steeper. You’d think your fear would go away, but every time I was so scared and screamed the whole way down. Then I’d just laugh when I finished because it was so fun! It was funny because the sun had already set so it was pitch black and we couldn’t see who was coming down. For the girls we were able to guess who was coming based on the scream – haha. The only bad thing was going over the tire tracks at the bottom of the second hill – at such a high speed, that really hurts. I had bruises on my pelvis the next day! Battle wounds I guess you could call them.

Since Saturday was our last night together, we tried to enjoy our last night together by having drinks and s’mores by the pool. The problem was that we were all exhausted from getting up at 5 am so some people fell asleep on the lawn chairs and the rest of us were all really mellow. The s’mores kind of back fired too since we forgot that we’d need wood and a way to start a fire in addition to the cookies, chocolate, and marshmallow. We ate raw s’mores, but it wasn’t the same. It was still fun to just sit around and shoot the shit together since we don’t get to see each other very often. We were all falling sleep, but no one wanted to go to bed because it meant vacation would be over.

The next morning we had one last breakfast of banana chocolate crepes, fruit salad, veggie omelets (with green asparagus!) and fresh juice – mango maracuyá is a match made in heaven by the way. Of course I was ready about two hours before we had to leave for the bus, but rather than spending those last couple of hours relaxed in the hammock with my book, I was running around helping my friends pack their stuff and pay for the hostel. Kevin and Lindsay had bought our bus tickets to go back to Lima the day before so they were waiting for us at the bus station and freaking out when I didn’t arrive until 10:51 – three minutes before the bus was supposed to leave! We sent two of our friends ahead to tell the bus driver to wait for us while we counted heads and made sure the last taxi full of our friends arrived. When we went to the door to board the bus, they informed us it had already left. What do you mean it left? It’s 10:55 right now and we’re in Peru where nothing ever leaves on time. Of course our bus is the one bus in the history of public transportation in Peru that left on time and we missed it. As we’re trying to decide what to do, Cheridyn calls me and tells me they convinced the driver to pull over two blocks down the street and he’s only going to wait three minutes for us. I scream to everyone, “Go outside, turn right, and RUN”! I must admit, I’m sure we were a hilarious site – this herd of gringos running down the street with all of our backpacks, suitcases, etc. in skirts and flip-flops. Hahaha. Somehow we all made it and the bus drove away two seconds later. Hahahaha. What an end to a great trip!

Or so I thought that was the end. I figured once we made it back to Lima safely, we were good to go. What a silly assumption that turned out to be. We got into town around 4:30 that afternoon and decided to get something to eat before our 7 pm bus back to Cajamarca. Lindsay, Kevin, and I went to a restaurant called Café Café that overlooks the water in Lima. We wanted to enjoy our last opportunity to have some good, fresh American food. We ate a leisurely dinner and headed to the grocery to buy some water before the bus. Somehow we managed to cut this one close too and had to pay the taxi driver to speed so we’d make it in time to the bus. Lindsay and I got to the bus station at 6:58 and it was deserted. I asked the security guard outside if the bus had already left for Cajamarca. He looked at me dumbfounded and didn’t answer. The guy next to him asked again where we were traveling and when I said Cajamarca, he said it hadn’t left yet. I told Lindsay so hurry and get out of the taxi because we hadn’t missed it. Then the security guard asked me two more times where I was traveling. He asked if we already had our tickets and when I said yes, he asked to see them. We thought he was acting really strange, but I told Lindsay just to get them out and show him. When she took them out of her purse, she started laughing hysterically and then said, “Umm Kristen……the bus left at 4:30 this afternoon!” Are you kidding me? Did we really just miss our SECOND bus in ONE DAY?!?! We both burst out laughing because what else can you do? We had never even looked at the tickets to see what time the bus left because they all leave Cajamarca at 7 pm to go to Lima and the only other time we’ve traveled from Lima to Cajamarca, it left at 7 pm so we just assumed that’s when it left. Well we learned that lesson pretty quickly. It was pretty hilarious until we realized we couldn’t just change our tickets – we’d already lost those and had to buy new ones!

The extra night in Lima ended up being really fun because most of our friends were staying the night anyway. It would have been better if I didn’t have to pay all that extra money, but hey, you live and learn. My friends bought me ice cream to cheer me up and we stayed up late talking. I had a great time with them in Lima the next day, but you can imagine, I was very happy to finally get on that bus back to Cajamarca – at 4:30 pm, not 7.