Author Archives: roxanne

A city in Peru that is access way to Ballesteros Island otherwise known as poor man’s Galapagos. 

There I took this beautiful late afternoon hike through the National Reserves.  It was beautiful.

They call the tour the Golden shadows hike.  Indeed it was that… the sunset was magnificent. The land turned golden with the sunset. 

Went again during the day. Some say the terrain looks like Mars and I was blown away.  If I ever get to Mars I will love it.

Ballesteros Island did not disappoint with sea lions and birds.  Can wait for Galapagos!

Huacachino

Huacachino , a desert oasis. 
Right smack dab in the middle of the sand dunes lies this oasis where you and sandboard and dune buggy. 

Went for a wild dune buggy ride. Just like a roller coaster.

Went sand boarding. Somewhat scary and tried not to fall off…

We rode off some more then watched the sunset…

Nazca

Everyone has heard of the Nazca lines.  Those geometric lines found that some say were made by aliens.  Who knows, but some here think the ancient civilization made the forms to point the way to water.  This ancient civilization is pre – Inca and dates over 2000 years ago.

You can see the shapes from the tower, but you can also fly in a small plane for the best view.

I saw the lines from the air. But my stomach was alittle queasy so didn’t manage to get good pictures.

Water was essential and they found a way to retrieve it by building aqueducts by hand… they are spiral holes that find their way to water.  They found 46 aqueducts in the area and 20 still used today.

Cahuachi overlooks the Nazca Lines and is thought to have been a ceremonial site. The site is believed to have been built over 2000 years ago. They had a 20 year drought that is thought to have lead to the abandonment about 500 years later. They have found mummies and other artifacts. They are still excavating there.

Among these ancient civilizations, the Chavin Tiwanaku and Wari had 3 figures they revered… the snake, representing land and under, the puma, representing strength, abaptability and power and the Condor representing soaring to the stars…

Water was of utmost importance to them. They could not live without it. They worshiped things of nature including the sun, stars and the moon.

Most believe that the Nazca Lines have to do with pointing where water could be found or pleasing the gods with water figures.

Whatever, we can only look in awe and wonder on how they could have done such feats. What is it that makes us think the ancient civilizations could not have possibly done these things on their own? Is it our own arrogance or lack of faith.

Volunteered to deliver supplies to a Shanty Town in Miraflores.   There were 4 of us, 2 Americans and 2 Germans, along with a guide and driver. 
We packed up the van and then made a stop at one of the richest neighborhoods in Miraflores to pick up donations.  This man is a descendent of Kaiser (royalty in Gerrmany) whose great grandfather relocated to Peru.  He and his wife regularly donate items. Then we were off to the poorest neighborhood.

It is up in the mountains. The road was dirt and since it had been raining it was muddy.  Our car could not make it up.

We had to take out the supplies and carry them up to the houses.  Lots of steps and rocky pathways… and I thought Koko Head stairs were hard.  This was not quite as long, but just as steep. 

Once at the top the community leader came out.  A nice looking young lady with a big smile.  One thing I have to say is that all the people there were clean and looked well kept.  Many homes do not have water nor electricity so not easy to maintain appearances. They must bring all their supplies up the steps daily or weekly.  With no refrigeration they need supplies frequently.  

She invited us in and served us coffee and crackers.  Her 5 year old had a birthday last week so the decorations were still up.  One of the German volunteers made balloon animals and did some magic tricks.  It brought smiles to the kids.  The house was small, but well kept.  I made sure to tell her that her house was beautiful.

We caught our waiting car and went to the very colorful market. 
There we bought supplies for five families in extreme poverty.  Extreme poverty means living with one parent or no parents
I bought for 2 of the families and the organization bought for the rest. We spent 70 Soles ($18) for each family. Our guide was very careful to shop at a single mom’s stand and made sure to only purchase essentials. He said it would last them 2 to 3 weeks.
Later that day the mothers went down to pick up their supplies.

Haku Tours is the organization that does this.   They donate a portion of all their tours to support these communities. I heard about it after my Historic Lima walking tour.  The guide told me they were doing this the next day and asked if I would like to help.   Of course I jumped at the opportunity.   Just didn’t realize how humbling the experience would be.  70% of Peruvians live in some kind of poverty.  When we come as tourists were don’t see that.  It makes me sad, but also makes me appreciate all the comforts that I do have. 

The communities that do live like this work together because that is the only way they can survive.  That’s what we can learn from them.

Another hotel guest from India said in India they are so many different cultures and that it is the differsity that makes them unified.  I said that America is not there yet… we have a long ways to go for that.  We are diverse but not unified. 

Old historic Lima has various styled buildings that all tell a story. From slave trade to Catholic domination and Inca resurgence.

We walked the streets of old Lima and visited the San Francisco de Asis Convent. The oldest catacombs in South America. Under the church there are vaults that hold the bones of more than 25000 people. It is a beautiful convent and has a library that has more than 25000 books of theology, history, literature and other artistic works.

The church is beautiful.

Next the catacombs…

The impressive library…

Follow me on to Lima, Peru for my first stop on this new adventure. Found Toshi from Netflix Street Food Peru. He has an awesome combinado plate featuring fresh local seafood. The ceviche, fried squid and fried rice with seafood did not disappoint and he was so nice.

Elephant Human Relations Aid.
My final volunteer experience. Working in the Namibian desert building walls and dams for the elephants. There is a build week followed by a patrol week. Meeting up with the group of 13 other people was great. Coming from all different countries but with the common bond of wanting to help the elephants was inspiring to say the least.

The building week was tough. Collecting rocks of various sizes, shoveling sand and mixing cement. I have never made cement before. Then building a rock wall. The project this week was to finish the wall started the week before.

Looked like quite a daunting task… but we did it. It felt good to have a accomplished it. During the build week we were pleasantly surprised to be invited to a wedding. We quit building early to get ready for the wedding. Went over in great anticipation. Meeting the villagers was fun as we all learned the appropriate greeting, “Ohshilee nowa”. The ladies put on dances for us and we socialized with the locals and them with us.

We watched the groom’s family come in and do the tradition paying of the money. We met the bride and groom.

Little did we realize that no wedding would take place that day. It was the giving of the money and cow and partying. Later that night the groom would go to see his bride and the next day they would have a ceremony.

The party would go on for 3 days. We had to finish the wall so we didn’t go the next day, but could hear them partying all night and into the next day. We were privileged to see what we did though. With the wall done, we went back to base camp and got ready for patrol week.
Patrol week consisted of tracking the elephants.

We saw many elephants and camped in awesome places… each unique and different.

The weekend brought us back to Swakopmund. I went quad biking, camel riding, desert exploring and visited sandwich harbor.

Next 2 week session with ehra. I was somewhat apprehensive because it was such hard work and I did enjoy the last groups camaraderie. Unsure of what the next session would be, I was pleasantly surprised by the end of the session. It is so interesting meeting people from all over the world.

Volunteers were from France, Germany, England, Holland and USA. All are passionate about wildlife, preservation and exploring the world.
This week our build was to reinforce a reservoir which was leaking.

Being a water source we had a couple of unexpected but exciting close encounters with elephants.

We finished the build right on time and the land rover club came to thank us with cold beer and champagne.
Patrol week was next as we searched the area for elephants and other wild game.

We traveled far to 2 different river banks and camped at yet more awesome places. Every night it seemed like we were on the surface of a different planet. The terrain was soo varied and beautiful.

Now my time volunteering is over. Going to Johannesburg for 6 days before I head home. I am looking forwards to my retirement. Where I will go next and what i will do could be anything. I will leave my options open. Exciting to find out what it will be.