Our weekend in Ica, a city in the middle of the desert, was spectacular. We were there for less than 48 hours but we did so much. Friday night, while exploring the city with a group of other kids on the dialogue, we entered a little room off the street where some old Peruvian men were singing songs and playing the guitar and drums. They invited us in and we sang and danced with them for an hour and it was one of the most satisfying experiences of my life. Human unity, no matter the color of one's skin, the language of one's words, or the culture of one's country, is entirely possible. There was such pure happiness in that room, in the middle of the desert in Peru - one of the most genuinely happy environments I have been in in my life I believe. Friday night we went to a Karaoke club, something I had never done, and that was a blast and a half. I sang Teenage Dream by Katie Perry and Love Shack by the B-52's.
Saturday was an unbelievable day. By 12 noon, I had gone on a dune buggy ride through the sand dunes outside of Ica, climbed the sand dunes outside of Ica, front flipped off of the deserts outside of Ica, played frisbee on the sand dunes outside of Ica, sand boarded the deserts outside of Ica, and sprinted shirtless down the sand dunes outside of Ica into a beautiful oasis. There wasn't much else to do on those sand dunes by the time we left. The rest of Saturday we took a bus tour of the suburbs of Ica, watched Real Madrid beat Atletico Madrid in the Champions League Finals, then I took a three hour nap, and went to another club, this time a dancing club, with the whole group - which was again a blast.
Sunday we woke up bright and early, and drove to Paracas, a peninsula off the coast of Peru a few hours south of Lima, but north of Ica. We took a boat tour to some beautiful rocky islands off the coast where we saw seals, sea lions, penguins, star fish, crabs, and the most beautiful colored ocean water I have ever seen. Then we drove back to Miraflores, stopping for lunch along the way, got home and promptly went to bed after an exhausting, yet gratifying weekend.
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