"Hey yaaalll, welcome to NAAAZCA!"

Naaaaazca, Naaaasty NAAAAZCA was so awesome. It was a great get away from the cloudy weather in Lima! Every day in Nazca the weather was hot and sunny :) On our looong bus ride to Nazca I watched the sun set over a desert and it reminded me of the Lion King. I don't think I have ever appreciated a sunset like that before because I have been deprived every since we came to Lima! The resort we stayed in was AMAZING. There were 2 pools, multiple patios, a huge yard with soccer fields, tennis courts, gardens, animals, EVERYTHING! There was a strange llama who lives at the resort and we named her Fredrica. She was so scary and would like lunge at you and growl...funniest llama I have ever seen.

Some cool things that we did in NAYZZCA, lets see...

SANDBOARDING: We went sandboarding and dunebuggying down some HUGE sand dunes! It was ridiculously fun even though I was pretty much terrified after my scary skiing experience in January. I am SO happy I went and did it though because it was one of the funnest things we have done on this trip! First we drove in this huge and kind of sketchy dunebuggy through different ruins and up/down big dunes! Literally we would get to the top and not be able to see the hill because it was so steep! Ahhhh so fun I want to go again! Sandboarding was also so steep...it was like sledding times 10000000, I went down on my stomach to gain maximum speed. It was pretty sweet. We made some friends along the way with 3,000 year old ancient skulls and also had some fun peeing in the woods...this is becoming a regular habit on this trip. I am no longer afraid to pee in the woods, go me!

CERAMICS: Another cool thing we did was visit this awesome little ceramics shop and actually got to make and paint our own pottery! I made an earring holder for myself and some stuff for other people! At first I SUCKED at making the pottery, it was actually pretty hilarious. Sarah laughed out loud at my earring holder at first, but over time I perfected it and it looked pretty awesome if I do say so myself. I did not have time to paint my last item, so the guy who makes the ceramics at the shop painted this siiiccckkk design on it! I am SO HAPPY that I was being OCD on my earring holder and didnt have enough time to paint it :)

PACHA MANCA: So in ancient Peru, Pacha Mama was worshiped as "mother earth." A lot of the traditions are still carried out today and one of those traditions is a Pacha Manca lunch. This is where they literally stick all of the food in the ground and let it cook under there all day! It is really cool, but also tastes gross in my opinion. Other than the fact that its nasty, it is realy cool and I appreciate these lunches because they do it as a ceremony for our group! While we were eating our lunch that insane llama was trying to steal it the whole time! Soooo funny, but there is a limit to how funny I can think a llama is. Really Fredrica, get away. Anyway, about the only thing I ate from the lunch was this big corn called "choclo" (i think that is how you spell it anyway) 

CHICKEN FIGHT: Ahhh what an experience. Not a great one, but not an awful one either. Don't get me wrong...I do not agree with the actual fighting of the chickens. It is horrible and scary and sad! I really liked having the cultural experience though. First of all...no gringos usually come to these things (gringo = hispanic word for americans), so when we walked in rolling 40 deep we got quite a few stares. Not only stares, they ANNOUNCED US AFTER EVERY FIGHT AND PEOPLE CLAPPED! It was hillariousssss. The guys in front of us asked us if we knew Michael Jordan since he went to UNC. So funny! He also had chickens fighting that night, so when it was his turn to fight it was not so hard to watch. First, they put the chickens together to peck at each other and make each other mad. Then, they tie razor blades on the chickens and let them go at it! It is really very scary to watch. I enjoyed the fact that everyone was staring at us....some people even took videos, I enjoyed the huge 5 sole beer that we bought (sorry mom and dad, but it was like not even two dollars and it is legal here:) ), and I enjoyed talking in Spanish with the guys in front of us. So overall, I am glad I went, but not sure if I ever want to go again!

The trip to Nazca made me think of Cuzco and all of the fun adventures that we had there together as a group! I feel like we all bonded on this little vacation, especially on Sunday! It was the PERFECT day! Perfect weather for us, a huge pool, and fun stuff to do all day. At dinner Carlos and I made a pact that we can only speak in Spanish to eachother for the rest of the trip, so we spoke in Spanish for like an hour. It was sooo awesome and great practice. I loved Nazca, nooot as much as Cuzco, but I still loved it a lot! :) Now its back to Lima, but I am going to make the best of it with the last two weeks of the trip! I will update again soon, mucho amor! 

 Also, I wanna give a shot out to my Great Grandma and Pop-pop Anders! Thank you for reading my blog all of the time and thinking of me while I am here in Peru! I am thinking of you guys, love you :-)