My new appreciation for very large airplanes...

After a few days in my little desert oasis at Huachina, I headed off to Nazca to take the flight over the world famous Nazca Lines. The lines, built by the Nazca people around 900BC are spread over 500 sq. kilometers of desert and form a network of over 800 lines of geometric, plant and animal figures. To this day, noone knows why the Nazca people built these HUGE figures that can only be seen from the sky...


The Nazca lines are amazing...and I might have enjoyed them more if the entire time during the flight I didn´t feel like I was going to:
A. barf
B. Go crashing down to my death in the desert below

Dear Large Passenger Airplanes Like the Boeing 747,

I will never again complain about the little bit of turbelence I experience on your flights. I will even be happy to sit in a row wedged between two very large people...if only for the fact that I love that you can hold more than two people. But please, PLEASE don´t ever make me ride with your baby brother again. He is crazy. He flips around in the air and plays hop-scotch over the clouds. He tilts sideways like he is trying to pour me out and see what happens. He is obnoxiously loud. I do not like him.

Loooooooove,
Sarah

Baby Brother

Up, up, up we go in our little 4 person plane!OK. I was able to get my composure and snap a few shots....although not very good ones. But see if you can spot the Nazca Lines!

Alien man.















Spider















Big Hands (this is actually what they call this one! It was my favorite!)

Monkey! Can you spot him with his curly tail? (on the left)

After the flight we went to visit the Cuachillo Cemetery. A huge Nazca burial ground in the desert that has mummies that are perfectly preserved because of the extremely arid climate.
They were placed in the tombs in a squatting position, so that they could continue to recieve offerings in the afterlife. The strangest part, is how long their hair is!!! See it wrapping around like one big dread?!

Desert Oasis

After Pisco, a few of the other volunteers and I decided to head to the nearby desert oasis of Huacachina for some rest and relaxation!

The little oasis of Huacachina. Surrounded on all sides by huge sand dunes...After laying by the pool all day, we decided to "pool" (I know, I am such a dork) our talents and have a "circus night" by the lagoon.

Chris provided the slack line, which I could only stand on for about 5 seconds! Another girl knew Poi (a traditional fire-spinning dance). Very cool. Afterwards, we trudged our way up the side of the biggest sand dune. Which was not easy. Notice the use of all fours to climb...it was almost like for every step you took, you lost 2.


Hanging out on the sand "mountain" dune. It was Halloween while we were in Huacachina. Can you guess what this costume was??

(see below for answer)

(The ghost of Salvador Dali! I love it!)

Then next day, I went on a dune buggy/sandboarding tour.
Desert, desert as far as you could see!
The buggy! This was insane! It was like being on a roller coaster...which of course I loved! It would fly up to the top of these HUGE sand dunes and you couldn´t see over the edge, then it would go flying over the edge and down the other side! Getting ready to sandboard...er...stomach board.All ready to fly down the other side!Weeeeeeeee!A little live sandboarding action. Feel free to fill in your own "Weeeeeee" sound effect while watching!!

Sunset in the desert=amazing.

Saying goodbye to Pisco...

Some pictures from my last few days volunteering in Pisco...

How I´m Livin:

The Hands On Disaster Relief Headquarters in Pisco.Inside, where we eat meals and have nightly meetings. Across the street in the building I stayed in...Oh yeh, there she is. Top bunk in the center.My last full day of work: I was lucky to be involved in a project in conjunction with Salvation Army that started building modular homes for displaced persons in the refugee camp.

At Salvation Army camp getting organized for the day...

Resting on some huge rice sacksGuarding the refugee camp...I really had to sneak this picture!
And this one...from the window of my cab as I drove by! Ok. Let the building begin. I soon found out that while I am very good at clearing rubble, I don´t know the first thing about building... anything.
The boys, on the other hand, are apparently all born with a gene that allows them to understand the ins-and-outs of construction.


Finally, I was assigned to putting in the windows once they realized that I definately was NOT born with the "boy-construction" gene. Our little helper!Standing with a family in front of their new, almost-finished home.

Lunch break back at the Salvation Army refugee camp.Shot from inside the camp...
makeshift church


A few final shots from around the city...

People waiting in line for a free healthcare clinic.
Not everyone is lucky enough to get a modular home, many live out of tents on their old lot with their family name posted on the front

This was SO dangerous! It looked like it was about to fall at any moment!

In great news, we found a restaurant that had re-opened in Pisco that had a TV! We were able to watch the World Series!!! Woot!