Home Again Home Again
At once again, I am home again, but a different home this time, Austin. It is nice to come back to my room and have a place for everything and DO LAUNDRY which hasn’t been done since BEFORE the Amazon. SMEEELLIEE.
After Dianne and I recouped a little bit from the Amazon, we took a 5 hour bus ride down to Ica (yes the site of the huge 8.0 August earthquake) to go sandboarding. There are so many different climate types in Peru. We’ve been in the high mountains of the Andes where they build their houses out of stone, to the cold and breezie Lake Titicaca where their houses are made from reeds and float on the river, to the desert canyons of Arequipa where their houses are made of mud, and finally to the hot and humid jungle of the Amazon where their houses are made of arid wood and grass roofs. Here in Ica however, just outside of town, there is nothing but sand and dunes. I have never in my life seens so much sand. Mojave doesn’t even compare!
We took a ride on a dune buggy and I even got to drive and we kept going up and around and over them and with each dune we crossed, we saw a dozen more all around us and there was nothing else. No towns, no houses, no people, no trees, no animals, I did see one dead scarab on the ground, other then that, just sand. It was amazing. We only had time for 5 runs each but the dunes were pretty huge and it was a lot of fun. We even tried it on our feet twice which was really hard and much slower. The stomach was more fun, super fast.
Like everything in Peru though, it was really shady the way we got our buggy. We had reserved with this one company and… well it’s kind of hard to explain, but basically this other guy said he was part of the company and screwed the company we’d reserved with cause we ended up going with him. We still got the same deal, but they were arguing when we returned. We had fun though, our driver was cool.
We got done early, so we got back to Lima around 10:30p instead of 2am which we were expecting, and got something to eat; Dianne’s last meal in Peru. At about 3:30am, I said goodbye to her as she got in the taxi, bound for the airport, then went back to bed. I got up later then I should’ve and packed up all of my stuff and brought it down to store in the utility closet of the hotel.
Then, wearing only swimshorts and a shirt, I walked down to the coast, about 20min, to go surfing. The waves down there are fantastic, sooo much better then LA. They have a far break and long run and you can ride em all the way to the shore if you want. I only got a couple of the far out ones just cause it’s been a few months since I’ve surfed and my arms were beat. But the closer ones I got over and over again, good times. Only bad part about it was it was a pebble rock beach, so getting in the water was painful and awkward, really hard to look cool while tripping over rocks and cursing.
Getting out of the water was even more difficult as the waves keep trying to push you over and as I found out, there are also sea urchins out there, nice. Luckily, I’m a light stepper and just pricked my feet.
I went back to the hotel and the man behind the desk was nicce enough to let me shower in one of the rooms, I changed, walked around the Miraflores Park looking at paintings, shopping for gifts and souvenirs. I ate dinner and soon enough it was time for me to depart as well.
Peru, what have I learned from you? Well number one, next year’s trip might be a surf safari down the wester coasts of north and South America.
2.) Going to a place with a whole other language is quite different then a place that speaks your language, especially when the majority do not know english. The culture becomes very different. Those Spanish classes definately helped and now I’m going to try to talk to as many spanish speakers in these parts as I can.
3.) I do okay at high altitude, I was at 16,078 feet (more then 4,000 ft above where I jumped out of a plane), and walked up a dirt trail to see bones and mummies in the Colca Region. I don’t know if it was the Mate, or the eating less, or the naps, or a combo of all (probably), but I didn’t have any bad affects other then loss of breath. This opens up a new realm of possibility. I think with each new trip, I’m going to try and achieve a new altitude and maybe, just maybe, one day (when I have enough money), Everest. Who knows?
4.) It’s fun to travel with friends, as long as it’s the right friends. Some people just aren’t good travelers, as I have learned, but Dianne was great and the trip was definately multiplied in funness because of her.
5.) Lastly, I think I’m getting old. Perhaps it’s because of all the traveling I’ve been doing over the last 4 years, but I’ve begun to appreciate the cooshier things in life. I’m no where near staying in 5 star hotels or beach resorts, but I’m getting to the point where I appreciate the little conveniencies of a hotel over hostel and in the Amazon, Dianne and I were both dying from the heat and a nice cool bug-free room would’ve been nice to come back to. There was a German couple there who were telling us about the Lodge in Manu, the southeastern Jungle along the Madre de Dios River. it had a ping pong table, hammocks, enclosed rooms and nice showers. We were jealous. I’m not willing to give up hostels just yet, but damn near. 
In conclusion and looking to the future, some of you may know I’m considering (in fact pretty sure), I will quite my job in February and get some sort of local desk job here in Austin. That’ll be tough for me cause I won’t get to go to LA nearly at all and it could jeopardize my yearly month long trips. It’s a tough choice, but I think for now, I’ve got to give it a shot. I’m not going anywhere with this job, and I need a change of pace. But that’s enough from me. Who wants to go on a snowboarding trip this season?