I'll pick up where she left off, after the glorious sunset on the dunes of Huacachina. We climbed down from the dunes, showered, packed and relaxed the evening away by chatting with our Swiss roommate and other people at the hostel. The most popular question people have for us, when they discover we are from the U.S., is whether we are voting Trump or Clinton. Every single European person has asked, as always U.S. politics are all over their news as well. Believe me, I knew these questions were coming long before we left home. The topic has lead to some very interesting conversations to say the least. 

Anyway, after a bit of gabbing at the hostel we went to sleep. We woke up early the next morning (October 30th) to find out the entire town of Huacachina was out of power. This meant no electricity and no water. We are three some what spoiled girls and are not used to living with out these things, especially with no wi-fi ;-) Apparently this happens a lot in this town so we rolled with it. The staff at the hostel were still so nice and accommodating. Luckily for us the stove was gas so we still had a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, bread and coffee. 

Maria and I played cards (we played a game called Nerts, other people call is spit, dutch blitz, or pounce. It is extremely fun and I swear I could play it all day) and Andrea took a nap. Even with no water or electricity it was super relaxing and time passed easily until we left Huacachina for Ica in order to catch our bus to Nasca. We arrived at the Cruz del Sur bus station and learned the entire city of Ica was also out of power. Ica is a much larger city than Huacachina. It did not seem to effect the bus station though and we were soon checked in and waiting for the bus. It was a bit challenging to know which bus we were waiting for. We arrived early, but there were no signs and the announcements were only in Spanish. We had previous checked our bags in and we assumed it was our bus when the bus station worker moved our bags to a luggage cart  and sat it next to a particular bus. A few minutes later we heard a long announcement in Spanish and were able to pick out the word "Nasca". They checked our tickets, let us through and we found our seats. It was a double decker bus and we were on the top, AKA the cheap seats. The view was killer from the front windows and they played American movies in Spanish with English subtitles. It was a quick, comfortable and picturesque 2.5 hour bus ride to Nasca city.

Culture shocked occurred quickly when we arrived in Nasca. Full disclosure, we were actually thinking about changing our plans and wanted to skip over this town. We had heard it is boring, dumpy and there were no good places to stay. People said an afternoon is all you needed there, and to not spend the night. I believed what they said 100% our first 15 minutes of being in this town. The bus station was basically a folding table with people milling about everywhere. There seemed to be no structure or organization what so ever. We quickly grabbed our bags and bolted. We were stopped by several people trying to sell us excursions to the Nasca lines and there were no taxis in sight. Side note, due to the wi-fi being out at the previous hostel we did not have time to confirm a ride or download a map, we felt completely lost. The streets seemed crowded, filthy and stray dogs were everywhere, we had no idea what direction to go in. Then life/attitude/perspective changed 180 degrees. A kind lady saw three confused girls, loaded down with luggage and found us a taxi. We were able to tell the driver where to take us and five minutes later we were there. Our hostel is named Nasca Lodge and we were greeted by the owner and she even payed the 5 soles for our cab ride. The owners name is Maribel. She is young, kind and funny. She is extremely proud of her hostel, and no surprise why, it is so clean and comfortable. We were thrilled to have a private room with a private bathroom. We had been sharing dorm style accommodations since arrival in Peru and we were happy to have a room to ourselves. Yay to no middle of the night door slamming or walking across the court yard for the bathroom!!

After celebrating our wonderful accommodations (which in a town this small a private room was as cheap as the dorms in the bigger cities) we threw our stuff down and left to go explore the city. Maribel made us a very detailed map and we headed for the town square, to the grocery store and then a restaurant she recommended. The street the hostel is on is a mix of nice and run down buildings. It really is something to see, pictures are down below. To say this area isn't touristy is hitting the nail on the head. There are zero other hostels or restaurants in this area. It is all people's homes and local businesses. Walking down the street we noticed a nose of cow laying there with half of the teeth still in place, like...just a cow nose laying there just on the road lol. It was weird and comical. I do not want to scare our mothers with further details but this neighborhood has been an experience. A few short blocks away it opens up to the town square. This area is packed with towns people, restaurants, shops and markets. It is a beautiful town square with a church, fountain and plenty of benches to sit on. The people in Nasca are what make this town so phenomenal, people smile and say hola all the time. They wish us good day and have been the friendliest we've encountered in Peru. We ate a place called La Estacion, dinner was cheap and delicious, there are pictures down below. We went to the grocery store before to stock up snack foods and water. We did a bit more exploring and headed back before dark. On the way back we encounter an anti-halloween parade a block over from where there was a costume shop and people trying on costumes...awkward lol. We were once again greeted by Maribel and we planned our next day in Nasca. We then retreated to our nice, clean and private room. We caught up with family and friends and relaxed. We heard beautiful live music from the street and saw fireworks off in the distance. This is a big celebration weekend in Nasca and we were happy to see and hear some of the celebrations. 

The next day, is today !! It is Halloween, one of my favorite holidays, in fact it is the first time in a long time I did not have a halloween costume or go trick or treating with my little brothers. It is the first of many U.S. holidays we will be missing but we could not have spent the day a better way. We visited the Cemetery of Chauchilla, which is a sacred Nasca place where there are tombs filled with 2,000 year old mummies. The place was way out in the middle of a nowhere desert. It was a long bumpy ride, over 19 km from Nasca city to be exact, but totally worth it. We had a guide named Carlos who studied three years at college to be tour guide. Carlos knew as much to know about the ancient Nasca civilization as there is record. These people had no written language and only left behind the mysterious Nasca lines, Nasca pyramids and the tombs we visited today. There are numerous theories of how the lines and pyramids were built but nothing concrete. They were a very mysterious civilization who were extremely spiritual. The desert they called home is an extremely difficult place to live, but they considered it sacred. This civilization existed even before the Inca's and long, long, long before the Spanish arrived. Every person who died was mummified to ensure an easy transition to the after life. The ancient Nasca people usually only lived to be 35-40 years of age, they usually died of starvation, malnutrition and lack of water, desert living is tough people!! They were buried in tombs after their organs (except the brain) were removed and they were covered with salt, minerals and oils. They were wrapped in thick cotton cloth and arranged sitting up in the fetal position, always facing east toward the sun. What a history lesson lol. Their bones look so white. You can even see their skin and nails on some. The dry desert heat have kept them extremely well preserved. The weirdest part about this cemetery was the fact that grave robbers came and scattered bones everywhere!! We almost stepped on them. It was creepy. The grave robbers wanted the fancy Nasca pottery and textiles this civilization was famous for, they didn't care about the mummies, they just left them scattered. It was quite the learning experience. Edwardo also took us to see a family who created pottery the ancient way the Nasca people did. Their work is a labor of love and was really cool to see. We also saw textiles made from Llama and alpacas and jewelry made from the precious stones surrounding Nasca city. All in all it was a very educational and spooky day. It was a very fitting place to spend Halloween :) 

       We went to another local restaurant for lunch, it was delicious. For $2.50 USD we had a drink, appetizer and an entree. It's unreal how affordable this town is. I am so happy we weren't scared off. For a minute in the beginning I thought about running back to the bus lol. We are relaxing now before we catch our overnight bus to Arequipa at 10pm tonight. We should arrive early tomorrow and will be staying with Maribel's cousin Rosecia at her hostel!! We are excited to be heading to the second biggest city in Peru. It's nickname is the "White City" and other travelers we have talked to said they loved it. We found an unexpected gem in Nasca and hope for equally great things in Arequipa. Stay tuned!!!

The morning of October 28th we woke up in our hostel Pariwana. The night before we experienced an earthquake the size of a 4.9! So this morning we basically felt like we were survivors of a natural disaster and we also took full responsibility of how dramatic we sounded! We had an Uber coming to pick us up at 830AM to take us to the bus station to catch the bus to a town of Ica. We had a little bit of difficulty finding our Uber even when it said, "it had arrived." Luckily our Uber driver spotted three confused looking girls and assumed we were his next customers! We hopped into his taxi and he drove us to the bus station. The taxi was super small and the traffic super heavy. Now let me tell you about the traffic in Peru...it is CRAZY! There are traffic divider lines but literally everyone drives into each other and it some how doesn't create an accident! We all decided we would never want to try driving here. We arrived safely at this bus terminal and waited for our bus to arrive. I am surprised at how easy it is to maneuver around South America so far. I think when we were planning this trip at home, South America seemed so big and vast but being here it's much easier to navigate. (If we can do it, anyone can!) While on the five hour bus ride from Lima to Ica, I took in the sights. We went from city to sand real quick! On the bus ride, I finally started to get excited about the adventure we were on while looking out the window. To imagine the sights we had the potential to see on this trip made me feel elated!

We arrived in Ica and were quickly approached by a taxi driver who agreed to drive us into Huacachina for 10 soles ($3 USD). He was very friendly and nice. He dropped us off and we arrived at our next hostel, Bananas Adventure. The hostel itself is in such a cool setting! We are basically in a desert oasis surrounded by sand dunes and it is breathtaking! The hostel is cool too! It's small but mighty! The price was $23 a night. A little on the high end for us but it included a BBQ dinner and a sand buggy and sand boarding tour! So for us, it was worth it. (Side note: I also met a dog and named her Penny at dinner! And may or may not have given her chicken!) The hostel has a nice pool, bar and lots of seating areas. The room itself is like a "tiny house." It isliterally like a wooden box with two bunk beds, a locker, and a dresser but it works for us! 

That day we walked around Huacachina. It has restaurants and shops surrounding a lagoon that is in the middle of it all. We walked the sand dunes a bit and had an aerial view of the town. We then made our way back to the hostel and hung out until the BBQ. The food was amazing and it was all you can eat! We had chicken, bbq chicken wings, sausage, vegetables, avocado, potatoes, noodles, and fried rice! We then went to bed. The hostel itself is a bit of a party hostel and we discovered that as we laid in bed like old ladies at 930PM (LOL!). The music was blaring and people were feeling it! Jackie and I then discovered the quality of the DJ into the later hours...he played about ten seconds of a song and then went to the next. We could not stop laughing! We then fell asleep around 12AM.

This morning we woke up around 830AM and laid in bed until about 1030AM. We met our new room mate, Florian. He is from Switzerland and is attempting to travel the world for a year! He's super nice and loves to tell us about his travels and we love to listen! We then walked around the town again and I bought some post cards to snail mail back home! We had lunch at a nice little restaurant called, "Huacachina Sunset Hostel." Again, it was filled with mostly locals and then there was us. We felt pretty proud to stumble upon this gem! We all got water and a nice meal of lomo saltado, chicken and rice, and their speciality "papa a la huancaina." Each meal was $4! What a deal! And at the end of our lunch a band came in and serenaded us with their music! We then walked down by the water and met a nice local who let me pet his dog. After walking for a bit we made our way to buy our bus tickets to Nasca tomorrow morning then headed back to our hostel to await for our sand dune adventure tour!

The tour was amazing! I had low expectations and it blew me away! It was SO. MUCH. FUN! We were driven at a fast speed around the sand dunes and the views were spectacular! Sand was EVERYWHERE and it was beautiful! The driver whipped us around and took us down steep dunes. It felt like a rollercoaster. We had the opportunity to sand board, but it seemed dangerous and a little shady for me. We had fun watching everyone try it! After the tour we got back to our hostel and Jackie had the idea of walking up the sand dunes to watch the sun set. Walking up the sand dunes is hard work! We almost gave up, but in my mind "if we can't do this, how are we going to hike in Patagonia?!" So we pushed through and it was absolutely worth it! The sunset was amazing and it was a great moment to share together. We made it back to the hostel and showered and re packed our bags!

So far, I have been very happy that I took Spanish in high school (thanks dad!) because it is coming in handy on this leg of the trip! I have found if you at least attempt to speak the local language people will appreciate you more. Knowing a little bit of the basics helps because it helps us navigate around town and everything! Hopefully, by the end of our trip I'll have learned more to build on what I already know! But by the time I get Spanish down, it'll be time to move onto the next continent! Hope all is well at home with everyone! We miss you all and we are very excited to share this adventure with you! Next stop: NASCA, PERU!  XOXO

Hey guys! It's Andrea typing again!

Finally the day we had been talking about for over two years had arrived. The morning we left seemed so surreal. My mom, Jackie, Maria, and Sarah were in one car. And I was in another with my wonderful boyfriend, Patrick. The ride to the airport was filled with mixed emotions. I've never been the one to leave before so it was difficult knowing what to say to make things better. When the final good byes occurred I balled like a baby! Then we were on the plane!

This plane ride seemed different than all the ones before. I don't know if it was because I knew we weren't coming home for a while or if it really DID feel different? I kept waking up and time felt like it was moving as slow as molasses. After the fifth time of "Tarzan" playing on the TV screen we finally landed in Lima! We got our packs when I was stopped by an English girl who accused me of stealing her bag and insisted on looking through mine to be sure. I continually said to her that it was mine and it was in my Osprey cover bag. She reluctantly agreed it was mine but I could still feel her eyes on my bag as if it was hers! We passed through customs and found our driver with a sign with Jackie's name on it. We got into his car and was whisked away to our hostel "1900 Backpackers." The hostel itself was an old mansion, and it definitely felt that way as soon as you walked through their doors. We arrived so late and could tell there were people sleeping in our dorm room that we all slept in the clothes we arrived and we didn't even brush our teeth!

The next morning we awoke for breakfast. "MMM breakfast!" was my thoughts! But I was quickly put in my place that breakfast from here on out would consist of bread, butter and jelly. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for breakfast and food in my belly but I LOVEEEE American breakfast...and it is setting in fast for me that I will have to wait to enjoy that again when I get back to the states! We got ready after breakfast and  met our room mates. They were from England who just visited Mexico before landing in Lima themselves. They were super friendly and we talked with them while we re-arranged our packs. Then we headed out into Lima. Lima, what can I say about this city? It was filled with wonderful smells, smiley people, and it felt like any other city I've been to. Maybe it's just me, but I don't particularly love cities so my opinion is bias. I am much looking forward to getting out into nature soon and seeing the sights there! We ate lunch at a little restaurant in an alley. Now if someone asked me where this said restaurant is located I couldn't tell them even if there was a gun to the back of my head! But the food was good! The kitchen was the size of my bathroom at home! And I still don't know how they shelled out gourmet food from it! It was a good sign when we were the only "touristy looking" people amongst all locals. Jackie and Maria ordered Lomo Saltado and I ordered a chicken dish. It was muy bien! All three meals amounted to $9 USD! What a steal! We then made our way back to the hostel where we ordered an Uber and headed out to our next hostel. 

We arrived to Pirawana Hostel that evening. We explored by foot the streets of Mira Flores District. We found the same Super Mercado Jackie and I bought food from the last time we were here! We all bought fruit, cheese, and other snacks for dinner and we walked back to our hotel. Today, I think we walked about 7 miles all together! DANG!!!! And by the time we got back to our hostel and ate our dinner I was ready for bed...but first we showered. I used the Lush bars Jackie purchased for us prior to leaving. The Lush bar was AMAZING!!! I'm suggesting it to everyone who uses shampoo! My hair is silky and soft and it's thanks to this miracle bar! After we showered we all went to bed!

This morning (10/27) I woke up in our dorm style hostel around 6AM. I felt like I was at sleep away camp. Everyone was still asleep and all I wanted to do was use the bathroom but that required me to get down from the top bunk. So I laid there for a solid hour before making my way to the bathroom. I know, I know! I should have just gotten up right away but I'm sure if you all were in my shoes you would have done the same thing! AMIRITE?! We all then woke up around 10AM and made our way down to breakfast. Again, it was bread, butter and jelly but this time they had oatmeal and cereal! I LOVE cereal so I of course got a huge bowl of what looked to be COCO Puffs. I sat down at the table and took a bite and it was the most disgusting bowl of cereal I've ever had! I know, that sounded way dramatic, but it's the truth! Jackie then reminded me of the oatmeal they had, so we both got up and got some. Jackie ladled me some in my empty bowl and I couldn't help but make a comment about "how it feels like we are in prison!" We both laughed and sat down and ate it. The oatmeal wasn't Quacker Oats but it was a lot better than the bowl of "CoCo Puffs." We then got ready and made our way to Barranco District. 

It was a scenic walk along the Pacific Ocean about a mile and a half away from our hostel. The town was so quaint and cute! There was live music playing and we stopped by a fountain to eat our mid day snacks. We kept saying "This still doesn't seem real!" But you know what? I hope it continues to feel that way for the rest of our trip! I hope there it always feels new and exciting so I never take this for granted! But I will say that transitioning from the corporate world to an unemployed nomad was an easy situation! Too easy...which makes me question: Could I ever go back?! I guess that will be a topic we will cover post trip. Right now, we will keep focusing on the task at hand! We explored the district and stumbled upon a place to purchase bus tickets. With my choppy Spanish and the ticket holders broken English we were able to buy tickets for tomorrow's bus ride for $13 each that included lunch! SCORE!

After exploring the Barranco District, we made our way past the famous sculpture "El Beso," and took a couple of pictures. We then found a spot where locals and tourists alike were running off a cliff to paraglide! It was pretty cool to see and it got Jackie and I pumped about hang gliding in Rio De Janeiro when the time comes! We made our way back to the Super Mercado where the same man with the cheese samples from the day before showered us with more cheese and we bought dinner for the evening. We went back to our hostel to eat and  after a 9 mile day of walking we were hungry! After dinner we hung out in our hostel and re packed our bags. Tomorrow we are catching a bus at 10AM to head to Huacachina, Peru. Will update everyone tomorrow! XOXO 

Hello all! Andrea here and I am currently sitting in the Fort Lauderdale airport as I type. So far life on the road is hard! I just ate a Steak N Shake burger and now I have to wait about 5 hours to board our flight and all I want to do is take a nap! UGH. Talk about a bad day! 

Our journey today begins in Lima, Peru and it's ironic because in 2014 this is the place that changed our lives. Peru holds a special place in our hearts for multiple reasons. The first reason being is this is the place where I had an severe allergic reaction to some sort of nut and almost died. But it made me realize even more that you only get one shot at life and you better tell the people you love you love them, do things with 100%, and make each day count! This is also the place where our dream of traveling world was created. Jackie and I did a four day trek in the Andes Mountains and as we took a break sitting overlooking the scenery of the Andes Mountains while drinking our Coca tea we discussed what life would be like if we quit our jobs and could travel the world for a year. We couldn't' come up with a reason to not do it and we never felt more compelled to do something in our whole entire lives! So when people ask me "what made you want to do this?" It's hard for me to answer. It's like answering "why did you decide to have kids?" You don't have a definite answer but you feel it in your soul. Well after our Peru trip, our souls were set on fire and we were on a mission to make this dream into our reality.