Pisco to Arequipa!!

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**Edited to add photos from Pisco, Peru to Uyuni, Bolivia**

Caught a bus from Lima to Pisco, and was shocked (but not as much as I would have been had I not been told the day before that Peru is 30% desert or somethig like that) to open my eyes at one point to see sand stretching out for miiiiiles.

We booked ourselves on a day tour to the Balletas Islands, commonly known as the "Poor Man´s Galapagos". It really was poor, but hilarious all the same! Loads of birds..... thousands and thousands of birds. A couple of penguins.... many sea lions.

We visited Paracas national park in the afternoon and got to see loads of pickled things in jars, and 5 flamingos way in the distance. 5 pink specs, I should say.

Relaxed in Pisco´s square after our tour, listening to live Peruvian music (a whole world of panpipes) and drinking litres of Pisco sours (when in Rome.... or, Pisco). Delicious!!

From Pisco we took a bus to Ica, and then a taxi 4km down the road to Huacachina, a tiny little tourist oasis town in the middle of the sand dunes. We were pretty depressed to see it was cloudy here too.... apparently Pisco is always sunny, but it wasn´t. As is Paracas.... but it wasn´t. Huacachina is always sunny. Apparently. It wasn´t.

Climbed up some mahoosive sand dune behind our hostel, which had a wicked view of the town and of the dunes behind it. Took forever to climb up, and got to the bottom to find sand had broken my camera. Woohoo!

Next day we headed to the dunes on a sand buggy tour, and went sandboarding for a couple of hours. The sun finally came out! Woohoo!!! Managed to stand up on the boards for a while, til I fell arse over tit and gave myself whiplash or something equally as painful by landing on my neck. I did the other slopes lying down...

Climbed the dune again with a bunch of people from the hostel, and sat at the top chatting and drinking beers and watching the sun set. We all went out to the local Israeli stoner cafe for dinner, and relaxed the night away.

Woke up the next morning with a bit of a neck ache...... we hung out by the pool in the sun ´til check out, and then caught a bus with a random Dutch guy to Nazca.

In Nazca we hooked up with an American guy called Paul who spoke fluent Spanish and booked us all onto a little trip to fly over the lines. It was pretty cool, zooming around the sky in a little 6 seater plane. Had dinner in Nazca afterwards, and wandered around the town for a few hours in the dark ´cause the power kept cutting out. Reminded me of Madagascar.... except the beer in Nazca was infinitely worse.

We left Paul, and caught an overnight bus to Arequipa, and it was possibly the most luxurious bus I´ve ever seen in my life. It was like the business class section of a plane... reclining seats, pillows, blankets.... amazing!!

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Photos

Me and K at Heathrow
(I am so brown!! Haha!!)