Hello. Wow. It has been a long time since our last entry. There is so much to tell. Bear with us. Could be a long one. We promise you though that you will not be disappointed.

We must first start by discussing the rest of our stay in Lima. Downtown Lima is full of beautiful buildings, interesting squares, a large number of catholic churches and numerous people. The surrounding areas, to be blunt, are poor and thus danergous for gringos to walk in. We have actually been stopped by Peruvians and told not to continue further down the street. In Lima, there are about 7.5 million people. We are told that over half of these people live in shanty towns. (A shanty town is a community characterized by dirt roads, one or two room homes often with dirt floors, no electricity or running water, and little to no policing). Looking out over the river from the government buildings, there is a bridge which seems to separate the downtown from the poverty on the hill on the other side. Talking with security guards, we found that the current mayor has done a lot for Lima´s disadvantaged citizens. Numerous hospitals have been built (some out of long lines of old buses), parks have been created, and sports centers have been established. Talking with a local (who tricked us into buying him a coke) we found out that the average salary for a labourer in Lima (he is a painter) is about 25 soles (8 dollars) a day. Enough to afford food and water, but not much else. (Hence the ongoing shanty towns).

In Lima we also had a chance to visit the Museo Larco containing a private collection of Peruvian artifacts. For the most part, the museum is average in every way. Two very interesting items were found though. The first was a piece of fabric that has 398 threads per square inch - a world record. The second was a fully intact mummy wrapped in a sitting position. The funniest part of our musuem trip was the large collection of ancient Peruvian erotic art (all in the form of pottery and small statues). To be modest, things haven´t changed that much over the last 2000 years. The ancient Peruvians were just as explicit as Hollywood is today.

We left Lima for Pisco on Saturday because we wanted to see the famous offshore islands (nicknamed the Poor Man´s Gallapagos). These we saw on Sunday morning. We left the small port town of Paracus at 7:30am. Fortunate to have an English speaking tour guide, the first thing he pointed out to us were the salt mills which export salt to be used on the roads in Canada in the winter. Soon after, we saw a huge candlestick carved onto the side of a cliff with different minerals from 2000 years ago. At some point in Peruvian history, people carved massive objects into the sand. This is most famous in the town of Nazca where you can see a hummingbird and a monkey among other things. However, these objects in Nazca can only been seen and understood from the air as they are so big and done on flat ground (and not a cliff like the one we saw). This begs the questions, why did a civilization that existed 2000 years ago build huge carvings (over 100 meters by 100 meters) that can only be seen from the sky? (We are not going to bother going to Nazca beause we can not afford the airplane ride needed to see the lines). After this, we went to the islands naer Paracus to see 100´s of sea lions, humboldt penguins, boobies, cormorants, and other species (two dolphins).

After the boat ride (we were thoroughly drenched), we cleaned up and caught a bus to Ica, a town of 250,000 an hour south. Likely on of the worst buses we have ever been on, these rickety buses that run between Pisco and Ica llok like they should of been retired a long time ago. Driftwood floors hold the baggage above the ground. Only half of the seatbelts work (but they ask you to put them over your shoulder anyway in case there is an inspection). They were built before the invention of mufflers.

From Ica, we caught a cab to the nearby oasis of Huacachino which is a small town surrounded by enormous sand dunes. The town was once a place/getaway for the rich and elite of Peru. Now, it is swarmed by backpackers who come to ride the dunes on sandboards. Found a hostel with a swimming pool for only 15 soles a night (5 dollars) and spent the rest of the eveing reading by the pool. Here, we met up with a group of volunteers from Pisco who were vacationing for the weekend. We questioned them endlessly for a half hour while they encouraged us to come join them and their organization Burners Without Borders. Having only a few minutes to make a decision (we had to rush to Ica to change our bus tickets to Arequipa we had had purchased for the next day if we were to join them) we decided to join them the next day.

In the morning, Braden woke early and had the good idea of trying to climb the sand dune behind the hostel (which is about 150 meters high). He thought this would be a good time because the sun was just rising and thus the sand would not be that hot. However, going proved to be very slow. After 40 minutes, Braden was only half way up the dune and thoroughly exhausted. (The dune was so steep and the sand so plentiful that with every step Braden slid down a half step.) In an effort to beat this, Braden tried running. After about 20 paces, Braden collapsed on the sand and proceeded to throw up (puke) from his efforts. Disgraced from how out of shape travelling has made him, Braden gave up the hill climb and headed to the hostel to clean up.

Again, too tried to keep writing. Leaving Pisco tomorrow for Ica to catch an overnight bus to Arequipa. WIll update our adventure again from there.

Love to you all.