We finished Nazca with a trip to a tower to see part of the Nazca lines. They were beautiful and huge, and I could see how people would be confused about where they came from. The lines were shaped perfectly. Erin (Aussie) said that people make the exact same shapes with ropes in crop circles, and that´s how a lot of historians said the natives made them. The ground was dark black, different from the rest of the desert, and I wish Daniel the geologist had been with us because he probably could´ve told us why. (He, Peter, and Tara opted for the $140 plane ride as opposed to the sol. 20 view) Remember the feast I mentioned? It was real! It´s called a Pachamanca feast where all of the food is cooked underground. The bride and the groom, in this case Lauren and Chris, sprinkle the dirt on top of the food with coca leaves and strong corn liquor in the shape of a cross. Then the rest of us help shovel the dirt away. We ate A LOT of potatoes, tamales, chicken, corn, and drank this juice made from blue corn. I wasn´t able to sleep on the night bus, but I think that was due to my sunburn more than anything else (sandboarding gave me the most embarrassing sunglass tan line ever. Veronica our tour guide bent over laughing when she saw me.)
Arequipa is beautiful. The mountains that ring the city are huge, topped with snow, and volcanic. They call Arequipa the white city because they make bricks from the ash that constantly is coming out of the active volcanoes. It´s a huge city, but lush and green and cooler than Lima. Kind of the picturesque town I´d imagined would be in Peru. Finally after a few days of being here I´m pretty comfortable going out by myself instead of constantly clinging to Gabby, my roomate. More to come later, I´ll do my best to keep you posted
-Kita
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