currently

i type to you all from an internet spot in the city of ica. 50 cent pumps out the boombox. the desert´s tall, other-planet-like dunes mark ica´s perimeter. tali and i are actually staying in a small laguna/oasis/mini mtv spring break locale nearby called huacachina. all of the hotels and hostals in the entire pueblo are booked up with kids from all over the world--in truth, mostly from israel, and i have been asked on three separate occasions if i too am from there. they all seem to be looking for some x games travel, replete with sandboarding and dune buggies, i.e. the type that tali and i don´t really get down to. power sandals, dreds, fleeces. some dude from france asked me if i knew where he could score some weed last night at the local bar. i sad no, but we struck up a short conversation. he realized that i wasn´t fom israel and told me he liked my american accent, that it was easy to understand. i said it´s because i´m from kansas, and he replied--yeah, i´ve heard a lot of good things about kansas and colorado, i want to go there. i told him that there really wasn´t much too see in kansas west of state line, unless you enjoy 10 hours of tiny towns and wheat fields with 5 o´clock shadows. he said that that was fine, maybe he could ride through the state on a motorcycle.

today, tali and i got up late and took a taxi around to a few bodegas to check out how the local hard alcohol, pisco, is made. after two separate spots and upwards of six or seven free samples, we left a little tipsy and better informed. our kind taxista threw back two himself. one of the bodegas included this grab bag kind of an antique collection that included the following: pisco, paintings of simon bolivar, a replica of a dali painting, tiny human bones, ancient incan flip flops, and a vitrola.

i´ve got more to give and plenty of pictures to show from this current excursion. indeed, a big post awaits once i get back to lima and organize my notes. yesterday, for example, i saw penguins and the desert in the same day around the ballesta islands and a national wildlife reserve. i also saw more birds over the course of a few hours than i had seen in all of my life up until then.