http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Peru , Ica en-us Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:24:21 +0000 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:24:21 +0000 Pour rallier Paracas cote sud de Lima il etait donc preferable de rebrousser chemin vers Lima et vu qu on voulait faire le trajet de nuit on a pris la meilleure compagnie du moins une des plus cheres a savoir Cruz del Sur. On embarquera a 23h45 apres avoir ete mis a la porte a 21h par notre charmante hote nous laisser attendre dans l hotel jusqu a 21h30 etait deja trop tard... En attendan http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Paracas/blog-461449.html After the Inca Trail we spent some more time in Cusco to recover and to see some more of the ruins which I saw the most of because it was me and Tracey on the Sacred Valley tour as Franki couldnt come due to the huge holes aka blisters in her feet and too much walking required. Me and Franki the next day for the City Tour as Tracey was feeling unwell. Truly ruined out and by the end I could have http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Nazca/Nazca-Lines/blog-459412.html My plan to get a 3pm bus from Nazca to Arequipa backfired when the bus was cancelled so I ended up with an extra ten hours in Nazca. The bus toilet had broken which is important when your journey is eight hours So to use my time in an intelligent and informative way I unpacked my bikini and went to the Nazca Lines hotel and paid to use their swimming pool for the afternoon It was rediculously http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Nazca/Nazca-Lines/blog-457828.html I have had a VERY crazy morning. I arrived in Nazca yesterday and booked a room at the Friends househostel and also booked a flight over the Nazca lines through them. This morning I waited at the hostel for my tour of the Nazca lines at 8.30am as arranged but no one turned up and there were no hostel staff around. Eventually the hostel guy turned up and was like oh yeah it isnt happening n http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-456978.html To get to Paracas I got a bus from Lima and arrived early evening. I stayed in the tiny little village overnight and spent the evening playing with kids who seemed to live at the hostel. I think that rather than paying for a room I should have been paid for babysitting as their parents dissapeared But it was really good actually as they taught me lots of Spanish including my numbers the shame o http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Paracas/blog-456975.html It is 11 am on Day 3 im in this beautiful true oasis in the middle of a sand dune desert. I little lagoon surrounded by palm trees and beautiful hotels and restaurants. This little spot used to be the gettaway of Limas rich and famous with dune buggy and sand boarding adventures leaving town constantly and little pelicans to paddle around the lagoon.It was a whirlwind couple of days. Day 1 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Huacachina/blog-452677.html Hello allTwo weekends ago I went on a great little trip to Nazca and Ica They are to the South of Lima and in a more desert climate. We started by taking a bus down to Nazca about 6 hours away. We woke up early to see the Nazca lines. We rode in this little tiny airplane that flew over some of the famous ones. It was so neat My favorite was the Condor. No one is exactly sure who made the Nazca http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Huacachina/blog-448440.html Trek over 4 days of sobriety over it was a 16 hour VIP bus to Ica. The journey was great big leather seat in the posh section only a handful of seats on the whole of the downstairs section. Had a nice meal and a few films and i arrived in Ica where i caught a taxi to Huacachina a little Oasis in the middle of the desert. Matt Claire were already there as their little trek finished earlier http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Huacachina/blog-446440.html We came to Nasca almost solely to see the Nasca lines. Originally we were to do this flight starting from Huacachina but the cost of doing so was almost double compared to flying direct from Nasca itself. The reason being that the distance from Huacachina to Nasca is not insignificant. As Nasca was on the way to our next destination it made sense to come through and spend a day or so here takin http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Nazca/Nazca/blog-446103.html To say I felt a bit iffy would be a total understatement If Id have been in that plane just 5 minutes longer I think all those poor tourists in that plane would have seen what I ate for breakfast The driver was flying all over the place taking sharp turns dips and flying into areas of turbulence for a horrid 30 minutes. My stomach definately didn like it I only just about managed to glance o http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Nazca/Nazca-Lines/blog-446081.html Seeing as the Galapagos is immensely expensive due to rise in prices in order to deter too many tourists from visiting we opted for the Ballestas Islands apparently the next best thing and significantly cheaper We took a boat ride out pretty early and toured these islands just off the coast of Paracus. They are part of the national reserve so we couldn't actually go onto the islands but we ci http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Ballestas-Islands/blog-444716.html Huacachina is definately more like a touristy holiday resort than a travelling destination but all the same it was a nice break Huacachina is a small oasis surrounded by huge sandunes. I couldn't get over how compact this place was you could walk around it within around 10 minutes. On the oasis there were little pedal boats that you could ride on it reminded me of when I was a child. Speaking http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Huacachina/blog-444704.html A boat off the Ballestas Islands 9am with a sky filled thick with birds. This is quite some place like something from an Attenborough documentary but with an accompanything smellovision that the documentaries lack. There is more guano here than you can imagine. So much so that they even export the stuff as it makes excellent fertiliser.We took a day trip up from Huacachina to be here rather http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Ballestas-Islands/blog-444431.html MotorstormThey have Motorstorm out here in the desert It actually exists Well kind of.Big beastly megahorsepower buggies fill the air with fumes and three figure decibels as they churn up the desert sand. The reason just as with the fictional Motorstorm purely for your entertainment. In this game though nobody dies or at least not any more. In years gone by these buggies were practica http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Huacachina/blog-444186.html Happy Sunday.One thing I always find hard to remember when traveling is what day of the week it is. But today is Sunday and that was probably why there was not that much traffic on the PanAmerican Highway. Dinner last night was a set menu appetizer was called la causa which if you know Spanish means the cause. It is called that because it was an easy dish to serve to the soldiers during the http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Paracas/blog-444169.html Today we are in a new destination taking a 5 hour bus from Lima we have arrived in Lilliputian Huacachina. This has got to be the tiniest village I have ever seen smaller still than the impression I had from reading about it just a few months ago. Just two or three streets at best you can walk around this place in five minutes flat it is that small. And in this case small is most certainly b http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Huacachina/blog-443567.html We arrived in the early evening and as it's such a small place we were able to wander around and look for a good room. We settled on a nice clean double room with a private bathroom for the bargain price of 30 soles around 6 pounds. We met up with our Norwegian friend Lene and an Australian couple for a few beers. It was really quiet as the main tourist season ends in August and so we were t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Huacachina/blog-440758.html The last couple of days were really full and exciting and I will do my best to describe it to you from the beginning.We left Huaraz the last location I have reported on you know where we walked the difficult trek at night and took a night bus to Lima. We had a very good journey and made it in only 7 hours instead of 8. After less than an hour wait in the bus terminal we hopped on anothe http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Huacachina/blog-439980.html We left Lima early on a lovely Cruz del Sur bus and arrived in Paracas in the late morning. We stayed in a hostel near the bus station that had stunning views out to sea and the huge sand dunes on the Paracas peninsula. It was also hot and sunny unlike Lima so it was great to relax with our books We had a wander around and marvelled at the huge houses on the seafront which we guessed were holi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Paracas/blog-439748.html Con Paolo e Fiam lungo la costa a sud di Lima...Ica e le sue bodegas di vino e piscoHuacachina con le sue dune sabbioseIslas Ballestas e le loro moltitudini di uccelli http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/blog-439415.html