A Crazy Ending in Paucartambo

Monday was crazy at our new school and the teachers just wanted us to teach their class. That afternoon we had another English class but nobody showed up which was disappointing. Tuesday Marilu had arrived and went to school with Max, Sonia, and I. The director talked to us about nothing for about a half hour and then a teacher came and told me I should go to third grade. I waited to follow her and we found out that the teachers were on strike in all of Paucartambo. They were sitting in a room next door to us while all the students ran around wild. They were scheduled to strike Tuesday and Wednesday and then vacation for the students had been moved up to Thursday. We had a meeting with all the teachers and tried to schedule workshops through the week to work with the teachers and the computers. We were met with blank or angry stares. According to Marilu, with the Ministry of Education, the vacation is just for the kids and the teachers are supposed to stay and work. It was obvious that these teachers had not planned to stay and work and did not want to. We scheduled a meeting with the mayor on Wednesday to discuss our stay and what we would do for the next week. It was decided that there was not anything for us to do since nobody wanted to work and plans were made to return to Lima on Thursday. All day Thursday was spent travelling and Friday we went to the Ministry to report back to the higher ups and fill out and turn in paper work about the experience.

Max, William, and I went to a concert on Friday night by La Mente. It was an awesome concert and we stayed out all night. Max and I ‘woke up’ at 5:45 to get to the bus station and caught a bus at 7:30 to Ica. We arrived in Ica at 12 and the guy at Cruz Del Sur (the bus station) hooked us up. He took us to a hotel in Huacachina, ten minutes from Ica, where there is a little desert oasis. The place was sweet and the hotel was really nice with good pillows and hot water. We ate lunch at a small joint and then went on a dune buggy tour to go sandboarding. We sat in the front of the dune buggy and the ride was awesome. The buggy was tearing up and down the dunes and we stopped to go sandboarding on 3 different hills. We went down on our stomachs, head first. On the second hill Max and I were the champions because we went the farthest of everyone. It was an awesome experience. When we got back to the hotel we showered and put our feet in the pool. We then walked around the lake oasis and found a nice pizzeria restaurant where we had an amazing meal. Pepperoni appetizer, supreme pizza with tomato sauce (most pizzas here do not have sauce) and ice cream for desert which was massive! It was a great day and we were exhausted so we both slept well.

We got up early on Sunday to catch a two hour bus to Nazca where upon arrival we were rushed to the airport to catch our flight over the Nazca lines. We went up on a 6 passenger Cessna plane and made some crazy bank turns to see 12 of the lines from both the right and left sides of the plane. After the plane ride we ate lunch and went on a tour of aqueducts, a little hike to see some lines, and some Inca ruins. The aqueducts were built approximately 2000 years ago by the Nazca people and the Inca ruins about 500 years ago during the Inca Empire. We then took a long bus back to Lima and got in late last night. Now it’s time to try and find somewhere to volunteer this week here in Lima.