I must admit its getting better, getting better all the time

Where to start?? I guess I last left you with a pretty miserable blog and a pretty miserable me. But things have gotten better. MUCH better.

After spending a few days recovering in Huaraz we headed for the big city of Lima. I really loved Lima. Though its overwhelming at first, it is full of incredible architecture, great museums and coffee shops (my favorite), and an abundance of things to do. We spent most of our time wandering through the city, looking in book stores and sitting at the only starbucks in South America. I had a mocha latte. Oh my.

After choosing from a number of museums in the area we decided our first should be one that is most well known for having the best collection of pottery in South America. The collection itself is one of the most impressive things Ive ever seen. Not only are the ceramics extremely advanced for their time but our guide was excellent and was passionate about every single piece. Let me talk about the restaraunt, though. You can imagine that after sleeping in a storage shed and eating rice, vegetables, and soup for two weeks anywhere would seem like paradise. But this really was. The restaraunt had an outdoor patio with ivy falling down from the ceiling sitting in a garden bursting with beautiful flowers. I have been so happy. I ate well that day and smile for about three days afterwards. My favorite part of the museum, though, was a room full of ancient textiles. It houses everything from the world record holder for the most threads per square centimeter to tapestries woven entirely from colored feathers. It was my dream world. Next to the textiles was a room of ancient jewelry- everything from large nose rings to full head dresses made of beaten copper. (lyndsey I took about 20 pictures for you- I know youll be inspired!)

We visited a number of other museums in Lima and a beautiful cathedral with a series of catacombs that has over thirty thousand bodies buried in it. Its pretty creepy down there, actually.

Our next stop was a small seaside town called Paracas. It was a lovely town, though we only stayed for a night. Right as we arrived, though, the owner of the hostel took a bunch of us out to play soccer and with in about twenty minutes of play we had another six people ready to face us. I hate to admit it but we lost horribly and owed the other team a six pack. The following day we took a boat tour of the Ballestos islands. The entire island is full of sea lions, penguins, and blue footed boobies (the coolest birds in the world).

Next up is Nazca, known for its the mysterious lines that can only be seen from the sky. We stayed in a lovely hostel with a pool and the next day took a ride in a five seater airplane to view the lines. Can I tell you how sick I was? Thank god it only lasted half an hour.

Ill have to fill you in later on with the details on this next story but let me just give you a quick recap of that night. Long story short, some people got angry with us in a restaraunt Richard was head butted in the face, John jumped off the balcony to catch the guy and in turn was stopped by the waiter. I had to hold John off while Richard ran back to the hostal to stop his nose bleed and I had to file a police report. In spanish!

Anywho, next up is a twenty four hour busy journey that I dont really need to fill you in on except to say that I got quite attached to our cab driver who took us across the border into Chile (his name was Raul) and tipped him quite well.

At the moment I am in Chile, though in about twelve hours were headed into Bolivia. The last few days have been excellent, I watched the sun set from the Lunar valley and toured the area. Yesterday I spent about eight hours on a bike and sandboarded out in the dunes. So much fun but i got a mouth full of sand and a tiny sunburn. Today we got up at 3am to meet a tour bus outside our hostal to take us to a famous field of geysers and some thermal pools. It was an amazing day, but driving up into the mountians of Chile the temperature drops by about thirty degrees and I had on jeans and a thin sweater. The geysers were incredible, though, and seeing them at sunrise was almost ethereal.

Anyway, as I said tomorrow we head into Bolivia and we start out three day jeep journey across the salt flats. I hope all is well. I love you all.

xoxox

Betty