this is going to be a very special update today. for some reason blogger is in English in this hostel. so i might be able to use spell check. this is a photo of one of the Nazca line drawings called "the hands". the panamerican highway cuts right through the nazca plateau where all the drawing are, and at one point there was an observation tower you could climb up in order to see some of the drawing from the air. most tourists view the nazca lines from hired prop planes because they are too large to view from the ground. not much is known about the nazca line drawings. they are huge geoglyphs created by the Nazca culture between 200 BCE and 700 CE., the largest of which is nearly 900 feet.

i've been riding through the middle of nowhere lately. it's super desolate and i've ended up doing a bit of camping. the winds have also been totally insane. they come off the ocean from the south west, blowing sand into my ears, eyes, nose and mouth. at one point i rounded a corner and sand dunes where literally blowing onto the highway, such that one side of the highway was completely covered with sand. because the wind has been so strong, it's taken me all day to go 60 miles on mostly flat terrain. i'll start cycling around 6.00am and not finish until 5.30 or 6.00 at night. the other night when i looked at my face in the hotel mirror, the side facing the wind was completely covered with sand. because this part of Peru is so sparsely populated, the beaches are pristine sandy shores with crystal, clear, turquoise water. at one point i looked down and saw a giant grey fish. at first i thought it was a huge shark, but when i stopped pedaling to get a closer look, i realized it was a dolphin. there was about 7 of them, and they were so close to shore. i think they were doing dolphin surfing because they would ride the waves in until it got to the point where the sand was getting all churned up with the surf, and then swim out to deeper waters. they did this over and over. it was so cool to watch. i've never seen dolphins so close up before.
january 27th was my birthday. i am now 26 years old. it's funny because the night before i ended up camping between these two abandoned mud huts on a bluff over looking the ocean. as i woke up on my birthday i laughed because waking up alone in the Peruvian desert is such an unusual start to a birthday. i left my campsite and started biking as the sun was rising, and around 7.00am came across a small settlement with a seafood restaurant where i stopped to eat breakfast. i started talking to these two truck drivers and we all ended up eating breakfast together. when i told them it was my birthday they were so excited and went back into their truck to get a jug of Peruvian wine from chincha alta region. it wasn't a totally confidence inspiring thought to imagine these two truckers driving all night and then starting off the day with a jug wine, but i figured they'd be ahead of me on the highway from that point on. these guys were so, so nice, and bought my breakfast, and gave me a bottle of water, and a paperback version of the bible as birthday presents.
today i am taking a zero day in Arequipa, Peru's second largest city. Arequipa is known as "the white city" because many of the buildings in the historic center are made from sillar, a white volcanic rock from the nearby volcanoes. in 2000 UNESCO declared Arequipa a world heritage sight due to it's combination of christian and indigenous architectural design. the ornate pillars on this building interweave Incan symbols of royalty, such as the two headed eagle, with more traditional christian symbols such as saints and angels. today i think I'm going to go check out some museums and convents and then get my bike worked on a bit. they breaks aren't working that great. oh, also, i am riding inland now away from all the wind. Arequipa is up at 7,000 feet, and my next big city Puno, along lake Titicaca, is at 12,000 feet. so i have a lot of climbing to do. i've decided to bike through Bolivia for a little bit before heading to Argentina. ok, hope everyone is good! love,
-jessie