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Published: March 5th 2007
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Isla Ballestas
Josh excited about our boat trip Alright then - on to Huachachina it was. Now this is just a small little oasis where pretty much noone lives, but 1000´s of tourists flock to each year just to say that they have been in an oasis. That, and it is also the base for some super extreme sports.
We caught an overnight bus there from Arequipa, on which Josh got off about 2 hours before me (at the ungodly hour of 5am) to go fly over the Nasca Lines. Now this wasn´t for me, as it involves sitting in a 4 seater plane for around 45 mins whilst ducking and weaving and dipping all over the place to give everyone in the plane (the 2 other people) a good look at the patterns etched into the ground by who knows what and god knows when. It would be an amazing experience, and Josh loved it, but for me i wasn´t up for vomiting for around 30 mins during the flight and 30 mins after, which is what i´m sure would have happened. So i stayed asleep on the bus, got off 2 hours later, and chilled out by the pool in our hostel.
Josh arrived in
Huacachina
In the buggy at about midday, and as we were on abit of a tight time-line, we decided to book a sandboarding/dunebuggying trip for that afternoon. We left at about 4pm, not really knowing what to expect. Which is probably a good thing as there is a good chance that i wouldn´t have gone if i´d known i´d come back with a black eye, bloody nose, scratched calves, and a bruised thigh. But that´s the lie of the land i guess when you are an extreme sportsman.
It was great fun nonetheless, with Josh being very talented at standing up on the damn things (they are like a snowboard but with no rails - i couldnt do it for the life of me), whilst myself and the rest of the posse just slid down the dunes, which are bloody ginormous by the way, on our bellies, going down at a million miles an hour. Am i painting a picture here? On one such run, i managed to hit the lip of another sand-dune (our instructor had told us this was the way to go) and ended up getting some serious air-time. I ended up winding down the windows as i was in
Huacachina
Our hostel in the dunes the air, and stacked it big-time, coming up with a face full of sand and blood. Disasterous, but a good story in the end.
After this, we cruised around on the dune buggy´s for 30 mins or so which was a good laugh, finishing up with a sunset over the sand-dunes. It really was a top afternoon, and we met some good people on the tour which we subsequently spent suckling some beers with around the pool and BBQ that night.
The next day we headed to Pisco, which was around 2 hours away, home of the ´delicious´liquor Pisco, and the Ballestas Islands, aptly named ´The Poor Man´s Galapagos´. As we are both poor men, and both wanted to see the Galapagos, we decided it was worth a visit. After being lied to by several shady tour touts (this one was the best of all time. He conned me into thinking we could get a hotel room in a nice place for 6 aussie each a night, then when we got to the hotel in question, he went and hid in the bathroom whilst the friendly man on the desk informed us that it was actually alot more.
Huacachina
My feeble attempt at kicking the sun Then he had the nerve to come out and ask us to book a tour with him. The phrase ´Get f@cked´was pulled out from memory, and he subsequently scarpered off to find another sucker tourist to lie to), we eventually booked a tour and were off the next day.
The Islands were great - not a long tour by any stretch of the imagination but we just cruised around for about 90 mins in a boat watching the sea-lions, penguins, and millions of birds, all of whom were trying their hardest to aim their shit right at you as they flew overhead. We were back in by about 11am, and then hit up the bus to Lima, which was around 4 hours or so. Once there, we checked into the Point Hostel, where Josh and I had to share a double bed (the honeymoon continues!), but it was all good as we went out on the town to avoid any awkwardness later on that night!!
From there, it was onto Mancora, where we still are now. Will keep you posted from our beach side hotel room shortly!
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baby d
non-member comment
good shit
hey boys, baby here, just wanted to say your travels sound epic and are one of two things keeping me sane at uni, 1 is the surf and the new cyclone swells that have just hit and the other is living vicarioulsy through you pinche puto's! have fun, stay safe and hook in laads! love BABY!