The drive to Lima

Hey everyone!

All I really have to talk about today is the drive to Lima from Huanchaco (since that is all we really did). Once again I was amazed at how lovely some of the scenes passing by our windows were... none of these pictures are mine (still trying to find a nice digital camera here) and are stolen from the net, but i chose them because they are really what it looked like along the way. The top one was one of the prettiest, but harder to come across scenes. Most of the time the sand dunes were found between hardened sand mountains that you can see in the distance in the second picture.

I was unable to find a picture of my favourite scene which took place in the last few hours of the drive. This picture below is the closest I could find.

My favourite scene was where the sand dunes met the ocean...after seeing seemingly endless sand for a while, it was a relief to see a break of blue in the distance. Then even better was when a dusty brown mountain or cliff would jut out of the sand and be confronted with the bustling water. About 4:00pm here seems to be the best time in the afternoon to catch the sun on the water. It looked like the tips of the waves were threaded with magic silver beads. Stunning. Simply Stunning.

There are also a lot of Hawks and Vultures in the area. They are amazing creatures that fly with such grace.

The real shame of the desert, however, is the amount of garbage that is discarded everywhere. All of us are shocked at the amount of garbage by the Pan American Highway. I swear, it looks like we are literally driving through a garbage dump. But what makes it worse is seeing people sifting through it, or worse, living in it. Clearly it is a systemic problem that arises from poverty, so I do not blame the Peruvian people who have nothing and this is probably one of the last things they are concerned with. But I do blame the government who really doesn´t do much to help the condition of the people.

Actually, it is quite striking how much worse off the average Peruvian is compared to the average Ecuadorian. So far, we have seen more houses made out of garbage and plastic bags in Peru than Ecuador. In Ecuador at least most of the houses were in better condition...the common thought amongst many people while driving through the desert of Peru is one of raw sadness for these people.

Change of subject: In the next few days we are going to do some camping out in a national park where they found lines that were drawn in the sand thousands of years ago, but no one really knows how they havent blown away! I just found this picture of one of the drawings, and thought I would post it while I have access to relatively fast internet! I am really excited about the Nazca lines too...but more on those after I see them!