The plan was to leave Lima and travel using public transportation and van to Paracas for the weekend, go paragliding and visit a nature reserve park. Now in all honesty, I was only playfully considering the paragliding but totally in favor of a weekend trip. Saturday morning arrived and our guide cancelled! No worries. Our in country host along with our program director helped us find a driver and in a few hours, we were off! Four women, teachers, from 4 different states in the US with a Peruvian driver who spoke little English to parts unknown. Now that I think about it, that was pretty risky, some would even say not so smart...but we did it anyway. The landscape on the drive was incredible. We left the high rises buildings in Lima and journeyed through miles of desert, chicken farms, more desert, then trees, and factories, The first stop on our adventure, Chincha. According to one of my traveling mates, Chicha was a community of Afro-Peruvians, descendants of slaves. A quick visit to the town square and market revealed the African influence as the 'Mammy Doll' in black face and red and white dress was for sale in several shops along with beautifully woven pieces. Honestly, I was put off by this display but I captured a few images because experience is experience. Right? But does cause one to ask why that representation of Africans and why did the imagery stick? Of course we had to eat and the food was delicious but I'm going to do an entire post on nothing but FOOD so stay tuned.
After Chincha we headed due south to Paracas and arrived about 7 in the evening. To a lovely sleeping seaside community. It's winter here so the pier was relatively quiet with only a few shops and restaurants hawking for a few customers to part-take in their offerings. After a full day's drive, we visited the Arena Hospedaje Cafe for a quick bite to eat and then settled into our rooms at the Arena Hospedaje Hotel next door. Look for my next post on a day in Paracas!!
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Photos used under Creative Commons from manoftaste.de, # Jorge Brazilian #