First Week of Peru Complete

Yay! The first week is complete!

The first week was kind of overwhelming.

• We had activities every night
• I had to do everything for my business
• Massive Pockets lost one employee the week prior, so I needed to do this work as well

By the end of the week, I felt extremely stressed.

I stayed up late Sunday night, Monday night, and Tuesday night. This means that the following day after each late night, my brain wasn’t working properly and my critical thinking ability was decreased.

When Wednesday hit, I felt like absolute shit. I still got work done.

Thursday I still felt like shit. I still got work done.

Friday I felt clear-minded again and had loads of work to complete plus several clients asking for tasks to be completed “ASAP.”

Friday I worked from 7 am-7 pm with the most minimal breaks to grab food and water.

Water Problems

First of all, you can’t drink tap water here since it’s got bacteria in it we aren’t used to.

Unfortunately, I continually seem to make mistakes with my water choices. I grabbed a huge bottle of water that must’ve been like 3-4 gallons. I brought it up to the co-working space and opened it up. It WREAKED of Chlorine, but I took some sips anyway. Then I realized my hands got some water on them and were smelling like Chlorine. Then the other people in the co-working space said they could smell it. So one by one, they came over to smell the water and were like “Woah, yeah that smells like chemicals.”

I went to get this water bottle in the first place since I was thirsty AF. I got back into work mode for another couple of hours but my thirst was in high gear. So around 5 pm, I left the coworking space to go to the store and buy a 6 pack of water. I get back to my apartment to continue working, open one of the bottles, and it sprays everywhere… I didn’t realize I bought Agua con gas (or water with carbonation). I’ll let you in on a little secret – I’ve never been a fan of carbonated water.

Oh well… I was thirsty so I drank the water and continued working for another couple of hours.

At 7 pm I packed my bags for a weekend trip and then got ready for the night. At 8 pm our Remote Year family got into ubers and went to a traditional Peruvian dance show. It was enjoyable to see some dances, but it lasted until midnight and I again was tired AF.

The First Weekend

The Oasis

The first weekend is when we did this trip called Huacachina Reloaded. It was a trip to Huacachina to ride Dune Buggies and Board on the sand dunes, with extra cool stuff thrown in.

On Saturday we took a bus ride to Paracas, which was a super small town on the beach. Overall this was an amazing day. Unfortunately, I can’t share some of it since it was a secret. Though one thing I can share is that I learned how to Paddle Board (standing) in an Oasis in the middle of a desert in Peru. The Oasis had the nicest water I have ever felt. It was so calm and I felt so relaxed knowing there was (probably) nothing in the water to be afraid of. Also, it was beautiful to see the lake with greenery around it, surrounded by sand dunes.

This was another late night with a huge party at the hostel in Paracas. The hostel was called Kokopelli and it was an absolutely amazing time! It was extremely crowded most of the night with great music and dancing!

Paracas & Ballesta Islands

Waking up this morning was a bit rough. Some tossing and turning were involved. I was in a room with the other males in our group (8 guys). Apparently, one of the guys fell out of the top bunk above me during the night and was screaming “fuck” constantly. Everyone heard it, even some of the girls in a nearby room. Apparently, the only person who didn’t hear it was me. Slept like a baby that night. I groggily got up at 8 am to shower and pack up my things before we hopped on a boat tour at 9 am.

I was hungry and wanted some caffeine so I walked to a coffee shop called Fruzion. I ordered an iced coffee and a simple breakfast. I wanted from 8:45 am to 9:00 pm and the food wasn’t ready yet so I took my coffee and went back to the Hostel – where everyone was out front waiting for me 🤦‍♂️

We stood out there for 5 minutes before walking to another area and waiting for about 10 minutes. I’m standing there thinking, “I definitely could’ve waited for my food…”

So I hurried up and ran a block to get my food, which was sitting on the counter 🙂

Then I ran back to the group who was still waiting and ate my breakfast before hopping on the boat.

My favorite part of the boat ride was all the Peruvian boobies we got to see. You can click that to see what Peruvian boobies look like. I promise it’s safe 🙂

Nah, but really my favorite part was seeing all the Sea Lions

• The HUGE male Sea Lions
  • they are so huge because they store tons of fat in their neck
  • The fat in their neck lasts about 3 months
  • The purpose of storing the fat is so that they can make it through the mating season without having to leave (if they left another male would come in)
  • Each male will help produce over 100 babies (he gets jiggy with 100+ of the ladies)
  • Jealousy ensued of over 80% of the human male population
• The baby Sea Lions
• The sleepy Sea Lions
• The swimming Sea Lions

And the Penguins we got to see! Apparently, there are penguins that live on that island year-round, adapting to the climate.

Don Pancho Winery

Afterward we went to a Don Pancho Winery.

We had a huge meal. So many flavors! It had several different kinds of potatoes in the dish.

Potatoes are a big thing in Peru – since they have over 4,000 different variations of potatoes.

After the big meal, we got to try out a bunch of their wines.

First, let me start with the most interesting fact I learned. Pisco is made from Grapes & Pisco itself is the national alcohol of Peru.

I had no idea that such strong alcohol (40%) could be made from grapes.

We got to try most of the wines that Don Pancho made.

They have a wine called Cachina, which is a wine made when the grapes (same ones used in making Pisco) are really young. To make Pisco the same wine will go through a distillation process.

I was so excited that I have bought a bottle of Cachina and Pisco and will make a YouTube video trying both of them and speaking about them.

Huacachina

The Dune Buggy rides were awesome.

Huacachina itself is an Oasis in Peru. Over the years the water has lowered. Since a town was built around the Oasis, it’s now mandatory that the water stays. Because of this, Huacachina is no longer considered a natural oasis, since its water supply comes from elsewhere now.

All the dune buggy drivers were saying our driver was the craziest. And whew yeah he definitely drove like he was crazy. But it was SOOO MUCH FUN! At one point we were driving sideways on a giant sand dune. And were constantly going down extremely steep dunes and jumping off of some. Just thinking about it brings me so much joy. Such an adrenaline rush!

P.S. I’m doing my best not to take my phone out all the time so I may not have pics for everything. Also, a lot of people in our group are taking photos so I may get some from them and stick in here later.