Full Breaths!

Ahhhh we have been at high altitude for 2 and a half weeks until today. We descended into Nazca, a small town that is only at 500m of altitude. I FEEL LIKE SUPERWOMAN! Full breaths of air, not getting winded on stairs, etc. To make things even better, Nazca was warm enough for a t-shirt - something else we had yet to experience on our trip so far.

So, Nazca. To sum it up: We saw some lines and the water was hot.

We really only spent half a day in Nazca, but it made it on our itinerary because Marcia really wanted to see the Nazca lines. We arrived off our night but at 7am, plopped our bags off in a hostel, and found a reasonably priced company to take us in a flight over Nazca to see the infamous lines. How those lines were created will probably continued to baffle scientists for centuries to come, and it was very interesting to see them in real life. What are your theories?

We found a surprisingly good chinese restaurant for lunch and then returned to our hostel for a quick nap and a hot shower - I repeat: hot shower (!!!!). I had 2 days of Rio Chilli in my hair which had solidified into one giant dread, of which I found a stick in today. Oh dear... I need to get check myself in check before I come back to the States. Later in the afternoon we hopped on a 3 hour bus ride to Ica where they played the Tom Cruise movie Jack Reacher during the ride. Oh man it was so dumb and predictable but still so good! We had to get off the bus in the last 5 minutes of the movie - poor planning, Cruz del Sur. So yep, that was Nazca in a nutshell.

We're spending the night in Huacachina which is a cute town where more sand buggies are on the road than cars. The whole place is surrounded by the biggest dunes I've ever seen in my life! Marcia and I are signed up for sand boarding and a sand buggie ride (basically a roller coaster ride without the tracks and South American seatbelts) tomorrow morning. Wish us luck! In the afternoon we're going to explore the dunes some more and the oasis in the middle of town before we hit the road to Lima. 

Tomorrow is my last full day in South America for the foreseeable future. Wow. I have so mixed emotions about it, but mostly I just want to stay traveling for a bit longer (maybe the rest of my life? haha). Over 3 months ago I set foot in Peru for the first time in my life bumbling with trepidation and eagerness. It's fun to look back on the places I've ended up and the people I've met along the way, some even of whom I'll be meeting up with again in the next few months. I met a 26 year old from Michigan tonight at the hostel who is only week into his multi-month trip. I got so so so excited for him and his open book he will fill with incredible stories as well. Sigh. Enough writing for now - time to take in my last dose of the southern hemisphere! Bottoms up!