From Lima to Cusco... The Peruvian Coast !!

We departed Lima around noon on January 8 (after Dawne had a chance to do some last minute shopping at the nearby department store of course, which was ok with me as I had one last opportunity to visit the McDonald’s across the street… First time since the Miami airport, not bad… But it kinda makes you wonder how McD’s does it?  No matter where in the world you are, it tastes exactly the same).  Anyways, we took a bus (yet again) to the town of Pisco, near La Parque de Nacional Paracas.  It was supposed to take 4 hours, but it took us an extra 2 hours just getting out of Lima because of a flipped over SUV blocking the road.  We had planned to carry on to Paracas, but decided to stay in Pisco because of the delay.  Pisco didn’t really have much to offer thanks to a violent earthquake 4 years ago which flattened the city. 

The city is being rebuilt, but clearly things are moving very slowly.  What Pisco did have to offer was a gut-turning smell of rotting fish (sardines) coming from the numerous fishmeal processing plants just south of town along the coast.  The north blowing wind made for a rather unpleasant night.   We hit the road to Paracas early in the morning and jumped aboard a tour boat to visit Isla Ballesta, which is known as the poor man’s Galapagos.  During the 2 hour trip we saw plenty of Sea Lions, Seals, BOOBIES, Penguins and a variety of other birds( for those of who may not know “Boobies” are a bird famous to South America).  Not quite the Galapagos, but it was still fun to see the the animals !

Once the tour was complete we jumped aboard another bus to Huacachina, a desert oasis 2 hours south of Pisco.  This place was really mind boggling.  When I said this place was an oasis, I was serious.  Picture a giant lagoon surrounded by palm trees and lush green vegetation, with  hundred meter high sand dunes as the backdrop in every direction; that is Haucachina.  We checked into one of the several hostels near the lagoon and lounged by the pool enjoying the hot desert sun.  After about 10 minutes I started to get antsy and had to find something for us to do for the rest of the day. After all, it was only 2pm… The day was still young!!  Lucky for me there was a sandboarding  / dunebuggy tour offered from our hostel.  I signed us up for the 4:30pm sunset tour and soon we were off. 

Our driver pulled up in his jacked up 9 seater dune-buggy, a real class act !!  Sunglasses on, smoke hanging out of his mouth as the tires screeched on the pavement.  The only thing missing was a beer in hand !!  We jumped in, strapped up our fighter jet style seatbelts and soon realized what we had done.  This wasn’t your casual Sunday drive to the dunes, but instead the most death defying wild ride one could imagine.  The driver, still smoke hanging out of his mouth, one hand on the wheel flashed us all a casual grin seconds before pinning it.  He would head up extremely steep hills and cut a sharp corner near the top before heading straight back down, much the same way snowmobilers due when “High Marking”… How we didn’t roll is a miracle !!

We finally got to take a break from the wild ride and boarded down some sand dunes.  The first few we did were rather small, but it gave us a feel for riding the board.  One would think it would be much like snowboarding, but it really isn’t at all.  We both found out the hard way (with a couple nasty sand filled falls) that it’s nearly impossible to cut at all, and you really need to just let it go and head straight down.  We just got the hang of it before heading to the top of a super high dune, which was a bit intimidating to head straight down.  We eventually went for it and made our way down to the bottom without any serious injuries. 

Once we finished up a few more rides it was time to watch the sunset over the desert hills.  It was amazing to see the sun fall behind the infinitely barren landscape.  Finally we jumped back into the dune buggy for one last wild ride.  We did a few more hills and some crazy corners, and just before heading into town we hit a jump and were airborne for a good 3 seconds before landing back on the tires!  Thank goodness for that great floating suspension!!  We were glad to be back at the hostel safe and sound and finished off the night with dinner near the lagoon.



Hummingbird Figure

The next morning it was on the road again as we boarded a bus to Nazca, to check out the "Nazca Lines",which are ginat geoglyphs etched into the sunbaked desert.  However, the geoglyphs are so big, that they are really only discernable from the air !!  We went directlyfrom the bus drop off to the airport to try to book a flight.  Most of the agencies were full, butwe we're lucky enough to find one company who was willing to take us up over the lines that afternoon.  Neither Dawne nor I have ever flown in a small plane, so we were a bit anxious about embarking on our first Cessna journey, especially over the Peruvian desert !! 

Turns out Dawne was a bit more anxious than I (it was easy to tell from the small panic attack she was having in the waiting room only minutes before the flight!).  After getting a couple of extra bottles of water, we were ready to go!  We climbed into the back of the plane, which was even smalled than I had originally anticipated would be.  The extremely large American fellow, who was very excited that he had to pay for 2 seats on the plane, boarded in front of us.  We were just hoping that he would sit in the middle and not move, afraid that any shift in his wieght would surely bring the plane down.  Shortly after take-off, we found out what is different about small planes.  For the majority of the flight, we were fairly certain that it would be our last as the plane bounced around in the sky, being pushed around by the turbulent warm air and winds over the desert!  If only I had taken some video or picture of Dawne !!  Wow !!  The flight lasted 35 minutes and we saw several of the figures that the ancient Nazca people had imprinted on the desert ground below.  It was really amazing to see, but incredicbly rough on the stomach !! 

 We were both glad to be back on the ground after the flight and needed the rest of the day to allow our bodies to recover from the rough ride !  We borrowed some space at a really fancy hotels pool for the afternoon, and waited for our night bus south to Arequipa for an altitude adjustment !  Arequipa was a relaxing place and we didn't really get up to much for the 3 days we were there.  Just outside of town is "Colca Canyon", which is 3 times deeper than the grand canyon.  We decided not to go on the tour to see it, and just took it easy instead, taking in some of the views in and around the city.  Next we're off to Cusco to meet up with our English friends and make our way to Machu Picchu !!