Week 16: On The Road Again

After quitting Cusco after nearly a week there, and getting on the bus to Ica, I awoke at 6am to find myself in the middle of the desert. It was pretty surreal after all the hustle and bustle of Cusco, and I had fallen asleep while we were still in an urban area. I couldn't fall back to sleep as the girl next to me was seriously infringing on my personal space, so I contented myself with watching the eerie sunrise as it slowly revealed in all their glory every new slope, dip and peak of the surrounding barren land. Then I continued reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude, a culturally relevant book and highly recommended by me. I have read it once before and had been searching for another copy since I began my travels.

Huacachina, an oasis town

We arrived in the city of Ica at around 0830 and I shared the short taxi ride to Huacachina with a Swedish couple. On arriving in the oasis town we booked a tour to go "sandboarding" that evenin, and I booked a tour for the following day in Paracas national park.

Huacachina is pretty tiny (see left), so after ditching my rucksack at the hostel - as I was waiting for them to clean the dorm - I went to explore: it didn't take particularly long. There were absolutely no food shops - almost exclusively restaurants, hotels and hostels, tour agencies and souvenir shops.
After a relaxing swim in the pool at the hostel I went for lunch, and bought some popcorn as areserve in case I got peckish later. It was time to hit the dunes.

We took a "sand buggy" across the dunes, which was a bumpy ride but incredibly fun, stopping to take a few choice snaps along the way. The only thing sandboarding can be likened to is snowboarding., although as I don't snowboard I can't vouch for this. So instead of going down like I was o a snowboard, I, along with 90% of everyone else, lay down on our boards and plummetted face first down the dunes. It was really fun and we started off mwith easy slopes before progressing to terrifying precipices. There was only one unfortunate incident.

As we stood at the top of the last slope, peering down, a girl launched herself off, and as she zoomed down at what appeared to be quite some speed, she came closer and closer to a figure at the bottom. We all held our breath (or shouted for her to move) but breathed a sigh of relief as the potential casualty launched herself out of the way. BAM!! Someone else got hit instead. I don't think she sustained any serious injury but she was limping. I almost felt more sorry for the girl who had hit her, although both of them should have moved out of the way.

At the top of that fateful slope

Once the casualty area had been cleared, I was the next to tip myself over the edge. It was only then that it really hit home how fast the girl had been going when she floored the other one. I reckon at between 15 and 20 mph (I might be exaggerating, I'm not sure) by the time she began to slow at the bottom.

After a bit of a panic rush at the end, as we thought we were going to miss sunset, we set off again on the dune buggy and went up to the top of a large dune to see a beautiful sunset, which seemed to be more intense with every passing minute

Sunset in the desert

When we returned to the hostel the dorm still looked like a pig sty so I was upgraded for free and had my own room with bathroom. In the morning I was collected for the national park tour and we drove an hour to Paracas, where the Islas Ballestas are, commonly known as "The Poor Man's Gallapagos." First we had a boat tour, where we saw "El Candelabro" - a rock carving similar to the Nazca lines, and then went to the islands. It was more like a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean than how I imagine the Galapagos islands, but very impressive nonetheless.

Essentially, there were a lot of birds and some sea lions. It was interesting to see such a natural habitat packed so concentratedly with so many different species, and all living in harmony. We saw birds such as the blue-footed booby, the tendril, Humboldt penguins, cormorants and pelicans.

Sea lion lovin'

Playa Roja - Red Beach

Once we were ashore we headed to the national park, a peninsula. At the information centre I chose to walk around by myself. Although we had a tour guide, everybody else was a native Spanish speaker so the tour was in Spanish. My guide always explained to me separately what he had just told everyone else. We then visited a veiw point, and afterwards "playa roja" - the red beach where the sand was coloured from nearby rocks which crashed into the sea and over time the current swept their sand onto the beach. We then had lunch - I sat with Ana-Maria and her husband, they had kindly befriended me and extended an invitation to me to stay with them at their flat in Lima. I ate Ceviche, a classic Peruvian dish (which I can't remember if I have already mentioned) of raw fish marinated in lemon juice, usually served with sweet potato and sometimes onion.

Before I took my clothes off

The beach next to the restaurant was small but pretty. Unfortunately I had forgotten my bikini so I pulled my usual trick of going in in my underwear, although I thought it prudent not to include a picture of this.

After a refreshing dip I quickly went up to the (very windy) viewpoint before we went on our way back to the main road, where my guide stopped a bus for me, and I was soon on my way to Cerro Azul, a small beach town halfway between Paracas and the capital, Lima.

Although I love the freedom of travelling alone, it can have its disadvantages. Inthis case, it was the problem of finding a room. Smaller places tend not to have backpacker's hostels in the same way as other places, and therefore only have private rooms. After 45 minutes of searching I secured myself a private room for 30 soles (about £6.50). After a walk along the pier to see the sunset and the vast number of surfers, I was walking back to my room when I bumped into a group of 4 people who looked very vaguely familiar - they had been in the same hostel in Huacachina and did a different boat tour that same morning.

Gave in and bought some Peru merchandise... they love it here!

The Swedish couple, who I had already seen in Cerro Azul, had passed on the word that I was looking for some room mates, but unfortunately too late. All the same, we went together for street food and then cake. Afterward I went with Elisa, a German girl, and Simone, an Austrian girl, to sit on the beach for a few hours by a nice fire and chat.

I slept soundly in my own room that night - I was getting used to it! The next morning I met with Elisa and Simonr again so we could all find a room together - which we managed to get without too much trouble and with breakfast included. The other two - Elisabeth and Mane, also moved to our hostel.

Sunset from the pier

We spent the day on the beack, where I finishde 100 Years of Solitude and started Sense and Sensibility, as well as managing to get spectacularly sunburnt on my tummy, as it hadn't seen the sun in quite some time. In the evening we went for dinner and Simone and I shared Chicharone - a fried fish dish. That evening marked the end of the festive holiday period in Peru so the town was completely dead in the evening and we all headed to bed early. The following day after checking out we soaked up a fwe last rays at the beach before heading to Lima, which was a 3 hour bus ride.

Simone and I devour some cake

We settled into our hostel in Lima okay, although Elisa headed for another, slightly cheaper one, and was never to be seen again. The whole day everyone had ben hankering after a good pizza, so I asked the woman at reception to recommend somewhere. Big mistake. It was the worst recommendation I have ever had and the mot disappointing pizza. Best not dwell on it.

The next few days were passed easily - generally walking around the different parts of the city with Simone. We saw the beach front, which was actually a little grey and depressing, went to the central market, and - my favourite bit - visited the "Magic Circuit" of lit water fountains. In the evenings the company at the hostel varied greatly. For the first tiem in my life I disliked a Dutch person (reiterating every two minutes how you love to get so drunk you black out and sleep with loads of local girls does not make you "down with the kids," it just makes you sound like a knob, whatever your 35 year old seld might think); met a Finnish girl travelling (she told me "actually you look like you could be from Finland" and a conversation ensued to the effect that I could be from anywhere white people are from, as someone else thought I looked Australian (a first) another Swedish (not a first) and another German (I can't even count how many times). The conversation did not surprise me.); and got hit on by an Australian, who came on way too strong. Body language overload. (Apologies if you're reading this.)

Finally the day came for Simone and Mane to fly home, as Elisabeth (sister and wife respectively) was staying to travel for a few more weeks. I passed the evening catching up on some emails while the others headed for the airport. That night Elisabeth told me she was planning to travel to Oxapampa and Pozuzo, small German-Austrian colonies, and I decided to go with her.

Selfie in the fountain tunnel