A Mango a Day...

Greetings again friends! This time from Cuenca, Equador.

We are doing quite well but had another little bought of missing home and all of you wonderful ones. To help stave off the 'missing you' feeling we have turned to a steady intake of one mango a day and ample beach volleyball followed by dunks in the Pacific. Pretty nice life but we definitely miss the normalcy of responsibility and the daily satisfaction of having things required of us (other than just getting on the right bus and finding good food that is not saturated in grease). I have also turned to memorizing some scripture. Seeking an understanding of Gods nature led me to Proverbs chapters 2 and 3, through which I was urged to memorize. It has been exciting and it is amazing what purpose God gives for every day even through the simple task.

Linda parted ways with us about a week ago, and our time with her was incredible. We went to Nazca to see the Nazca lines (pretty rad, Google them) but were too cheap to dish out the cash for a plane trip over them. Instead we climbed a lookout tower about twenty kilometers out of town to see the tree and hands designs. We expected them to be bigger than they were, but they were interesting to see none the less. We also got the "sky high birds eye view" when we went to a planetarium show in the evening. The first two thirds of the presentation was quite informative and then the last third was a not-so-tactfull repetition of what was already said (but going was definitely worth it).

After our day in Nazca we took a bus to Huacachina, which is a little oasis town in the desert surrounded by huge sand dunes. To really experience the dunes we took a dune buggy tour (that was wild and felt like a roller coaster) and sand-boarded. We started on less steep dunes and were able to make it down the dunes as if we were snowboarding, but as they got steeper we changed tactics. We ended up doing a few steep and long dunes on our boards lying on our bellies head first! This was truly the most fun way to "sand-board". The second last dune we were to ride was extremely steep and absurdly long. When standing on the top the others at the bottom looked like ants. This is where things got complicated... One girl did not clear the bottom of the dune fast enough and-or another was urged to slide too early and there was a collision. It resulted in a goose egg for one girl and a possibly broken ankle for the other and the realization by the rest of us that safety is not top priority! The guides did not even have a first aid kit in the dune buggy! After this the adventure was called short and we all headed back to town (in fast moving dune buggies). Despite the accident, we did really like sand-boarding and the town in general. We ended up making another great friend here. His name is Tom and he is working at a restaurant there for a little bit. He encouraged (and subsequently led) us to climb the largest surrounding dune to watch the sun set over the desert. It was such a great experience and it was completed in a dramatic decent full if laughter down the dune. We walked down the very steep dune (to climb up we walked along the ridge of the dune so it wasn't too steep) and could not bridle our giggles because it was like moon walking or something. Such a unique feeling. The view of the town was also quite something from up there, just a little lagoon surrounded by palm trees and some buildings. Our last day with Linda was spent sitting by the pool in one of the towns fancier hotels and playing cribbage. Great end to a great time with Linda!

After just passing through Lima, Nathan and I spent some time on the coast of Peru. First we stayed in a town called Huanchaco, which is totally packed with surfers. It was a hopping town because of it being Semana Santa (Holy Week) and so many people had escaped there from Lima. There were all sorts of festivities, and one that we really enjoyed despite it being completely irrelevant to Easter was a surfing competition. We loved sitting on the beach, eating sweets that people sold out of baskets as they walked, and watching the surfers. It was great fun. The downside of our time here was our hostel, which was owned by an older Scottish man who sold and used cocaine. The hostel felt very safe but not very peaceful, always with some sort of illicit activity underfoot.

We moved up the coast to another beach town called Mancora. Here we played volleyball, read our books, enjoyed the pool, swam in the ocean, and ran on the beach. As you would say in Spanish, muis tranquilo! At night it was definitely quite thriving too, with parties often going until the sun came up. Nathan and I never quite were able to stay awake that long (and we also didn't really feel the need too... being much more interested in the activities of the day)!

Now, as mentioned, we have moved North into Equador. We spent the day enjoying the beautiful city of Cuenca, exploring plazas, markets, and churches. We are charmed, but will move on to another city called Banos tomorrow. Our goal is to make it to the largest craft/food market in South America which happens in Otavalo on Saturday.

Big love!
Chloe (and Nathan)