Got DaMoude For Peru : Spring Break: Do's and Don'ts

I’m so sorry you haven’t been able to read all about my life the last couple of weeks, and if by reading this is how you make sure that I’m still alive, I’m sorry it’s been so long (I’m okay Grammy - I promise). I am actually more than okay because I was having the time of my life on spring break!!! At least most of the time was great. There are some things I do not recommend. So, without further ado, I give to you The Do’s and Don’ts of Spring Break.

Don’t…

…wait until the last minute to print off the bus ticket. For some reason I couldn’t get my ticket to print off on campus so I thought they could just do it quick at the bus station. Wrong. I had to get a number to be called with 45 minutes before the bus left. I was number 304 and they were on number 267. Not good. With 15 minutes left before we were supposed to board the bus and number 282 up to bat, my chances for making it to spring break were not good. Luckily a very nice man with the company led me straight to front of the line and asked the nice lady to print off my ticket as soon as possible.

…choose a random seat on the bus. There were 12 seats in first class on the bus, 10 of us (UNK girls), and 2 possible seats for strangers. What are the chances that I get to sit in a seat for an 18+ hour bus ride next to a stranger? Apparently pretty good. His name was Alexis. He taught me all about the banana plants we drove by and told me he was going to ride a horse all the way back to Lima (I’m still not quite sure I understood that part of the conversation). I did feel bad for the non UNK girls on the bus because 10 girls on a bus for 18+ hours... that can't be the best experience for someone who doesn't understand what we were laughing about. But of course, we never laughed at them. They were very nice people for putting up with us the whole way there. We weren't that bad once we got the movies started.

This kind of gives you the idea
of how some of the trip looked.
It was so scary.

…decide to get onto a bus for 18+ hours if you get bus sick easily without Dramamine. You’d think I would learn after all of the times I have gotten sick on a bus, but it’s just a really cheap way to travel and all the cool kids were doing it. At one point we were basically driving on a cliff and if I looked down, I couldn’t see any pavement. That’s how close we were to the edge. Another "great" thing about Peru is that guard rails don’t really seem to be a requirement. If we would’ve blown a tire, driving off the edge of the cliff would have been one of the possible outcomes. I’m just glad I never have to make that trip again.

Moto Taxi

…ever ride in a moto taxi. These are very dangerous and very expensive if traveling long distances. For the first 3 days of spring break we thought they were the only form of transportation. Turns out we could’ve been taking a van every day for a fraction of the price. We take full responsibility for being dumb Americans when it comes to moto taxis.

…look too long at the dogs on the street. One day we walked into town to get some groceries for the Super Bowl and to make American food and we saw a dog laying on the side of the road. I looked a little closer at the dog and was absolutely torn apart by what I saw. The dog was actual skin and bones and was the most horrific thing I have ever experienced in person. I couldn’t believe it was even living because it was so deteriorated. The closest thing I can describe this dog to are pictures from the holocaust. The way we could see the bones in this dog was so disturbing and it was everything I could do to hold myself together and not cry. A lot of the dogs here are strays and they are so skinny, but that was by far the saddest dog I have seen here yet.

…get sick on spring break. I woke up the morning we were supposed to go swim with turtles and threw up. I laid on the couch the rest of the day and got sick again. They ended up not swimming with turtles and the next day I felt fine enough to go Scuba Diving. Halleluja!

…ride on a banana boat in the ocean - ever! It was the worst tubing experience I’ve ever had. The waves were not fun to have to go over, salt water was shooting into my eyes, and I didn’t have anything to hang onto because my handle had ripped off. To make it even better, as we were going into shore we caught a huge wave and the jet ski flipped completely and we all about fell off. We got off the banana boat and looked up to see the whole beach staring at us (hundreds of people). We made such a scene and it didn’t help that we definitely looked like foreigners to them. After the banana boat, a couple of people actually came up and asked to take their picture with us. It’s so hard being famous.

Coming in real hot from that last wave. Our faces tell
the whole story. Horror, fear, excitement, fun.

…watch the Super Bowl in Spanish. It was definitely interesting but the game is just so much more fun when you can hear and understand what the announcers are saying.

Do…

…upgrade to first class on the bus. The seats almost laid completely back and we had our own personal TV’s on the seat in front of us.

…make American food. We had been missing American food for so long so we ended up making hamburgers, spaghetti, grilled cheese, lasagna, French toast, pancakes, and omelets. I realize not all of that is American food, but it tasted pretty darn good.

…go to Los Organos/Máncora for spring break. We almost had a beach completely to ourselves, the house we rented was absolutely beautiful, and we were able to do so many different things we normally wouldn’t get to do in America.

...eat the amazing sea food. I had octopus, squid, shrimp, and amazing fish that I can't even describe.

Arroz con mariscos.
Rice with sea food.

Not the board I used. I was a beginner and this
was too definitely to advanced for me.

...go surfing!!! That was one of the best experiences of my life and I think I am going to have to take it up as my job and become a pro surfer. My instructor told me I was a pro so I’m definitely taking his word for it. After 20 minutes of basically doing burpees in the sand we headed out into the water. My instructor, Jo (pronounced Yo), held onto my board and helped me paddle with the waves. He held onto the board until I stood up and then let me shred the wave. I couldn’t really control the board because it was so big so I kind of just stayed in one spot. But I was surprised that every time we caught a wave I was able to stand and go all the way to shore! Riding my Ripstik (yes I still ride my Ripstik), wakeboarding, and water skiing definitely helped with that. One time I about ran over Danielle and her instructor, but it all worked itself out and I was able to avoid them! Jo was very concerned about my safety. One time a huge wave came over us and he flipped me under the board. Unfortunately, that did not help because I still rolled with the wave, the rope around my ankle pulled me with the board, and I thought I was never going to come up for air. I would still do it all again though!

…read The Power of Now. It’s a book about enlightenment and transcending the mind and just being in the moment. I took full advantage of being in the moment when it rained us out of the beach one day. I just stood outside in the rain enjoying the fact that it was warm and calming. I prayed and let my mind rest. It’s very hard trying not to think. Clearing the mind completely is a practice that I am working on, but I'm not even close yet. I can only clear it for about 5 seconds completely with no thought.

…go scuba diving whenever the opportunity presents itself. I have been certified to dive for 4 years now and this was my second time in the ocean to dive! We went out to an oil rig and they had a course through there. The first time I went down, I was with an instructor and one other girl and we went through the course at about 60-70 feet. We saw an octopus and of course all kinds of fish and coral. The second time I went down, I went with other girls from UNK so I could film them on the GoPro. We ended up separating into two groups and although we only went down 35 feet I was very scared for them. The currents were really strong through there, visibility is not great, they had never dived (that is correct grammar... I looked it up) before, and they received a 30 minute lesson in the boat. I’m glad they got the experience, but I couldn’t believe the dive company let them go down so far without much more instruction. It was a good thing there were only two of them per instructor so he could just kind of hold their arms and take them through the course.

I would not have wanted to spend this amazing spring break with anyone other than the girls I spent it with. We bonded over card games, cooking, sickness, no wifi at times, and paradise together. Great memories were made and we were lucky the kitchen table held us all perfectly.

We ended up staying in a town called Los Organos instead of staying right in Máncora which was fine with me even though we had to take moto taxis and buses to Máncora to do some things. We got to stay in a gorgeous house with the beach a block away and hardly any people on it. Paradise!

Now we are back to school and already had a test. The vacation from the vacation is over and now we have to go visit other places for school and go do more fun stuff, like visit Machu Picchu, in a couple of weeks. Such a hard school life we have here in Peru.