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Published: December 20th 2007
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Oasis
The beautiful oasis in Huancachino, nothing but sand around it After a night bus through Lima and into Ica we took a short taxi to Huacachina ... literally a tiny oasis in the middle of desert. The town consisted of a tiny little lake, a bunch of restaurants and hostels and many sand boarding and dune buggy outfits. After settling at the Rocha Hostel for a night, equiped with a dirty pool, a monkey and parrots we walked around the oasis for a while. There wasn't much to see so we decided to head up into the sand. After the initial shock of burning feet, the sand dunes were amazing ... the sand just went on and on forever, it was crazy and understandable how people stuck in a desert go crazy and begin to see mirages.
Around four we headed out in a dune buggy for some sand boarding. Our dune buggy looked like a giant metal rat and our driver, Jamie, was apparently the craziest and best driver in town according to a few Canadians and Irish also on the tour. Riding in the buggy was so fun, Jamie whipped us around the dunes like a mad man, launching the buggy off lips of sand and going straight
Lost in the desert
It had to be done, the photo shoot act out down the dune, better then a roller coaster. The sand boarding was also a blast ... different then expected though. Expecting that snowboarding may help a little I was greatly surprised. After strapping my feet onto a wooden plank and waxing the bottom I headed down the dune. With no edges to carve you had two options when standing - head straight down the hill and hope not to biff or get in one awkward turn and have all the wax wear off so you no longer move. After the first attempt the more adventerous way won out - lying face first on your board and lifting up your feet so you ride down the dune like a penguin. Terrifying yet an absolute blast! We also saw the sun set in the dunes, it was maganificent and getting sand out of places sand shouldnt be didnt even matter later that night.
Nazca was next... another small town that seemed to serve a main purpose of tourism, yet much larger then Huacachina. After arriving on the bus to Nazca we were shuttled to the airport where we climbed into a tiny plane and flew close to the ground in order
The metal rat
Our dune buggy, the metal rat ... better then a roller coaster anyday to see the famous Nazca lines. It was pretty amazing to fly in such a small plane doing turns to see the lines from all sides. The Inca pictures werent as large as I expected but still amazing with a crazy history of sending messages to extra terrestrials or worlds above and the plane ride was super fun. After that we were once again shuttled along to el cementerio de Chauchilla. It was a pre Inca cemetary in the desert that was found about forty years ago after grave diggers stole most of the valuables. Some of the tombes were open and we could look in and see mummies set on display ... some still with their hair, skin and eye residue. After the cemetary we, once again being shuttled, were brought back to the bus station where we once again headed on a night bus to Arequipa.
Arequipa was by far the nicest city we have been in in Peru. With beautiful large historical building built of white volcanic rock called sillar, the plaza de armas was beautiful and the dirty dessert shanty towns seemed far away. In Arequipa we did a tour of a Monastary -Santa Catallina
Face first
Terrifying at first but totally worth the sand burn in the end Monastery - It was a beautiful little town inside the city, the walls were all blue and red and knowing that the nuns weren't allowed to leave made the fact that it was like a city make sense. We also went to a museum where we saw Juanita, the Inca Ice Princess. She is an almost perfectly preserved mummy, apparently all her organs are still intact and she still had all her hair and skin. The museum was mainly about the sacrafices that the Incas made to their gods, a young beautiful girl that they sacraficed with a swift blow to the head and then buried along with many valuable items such as ceramics and silver or gold figures. The most interesting thing found in Juanita's tomb was her umbilical cord that they buried with her in case she needed it in her next life, as the Incas believed that it carried medicinal purposes, much like stem cells today.
A day trip from Arequipa is the Canon del Colca, dont' do it in a day, take two and do a nice hike. Thinking that waking up early and catching a 4 hour bus that ended up being 6 would
Sundown
Beautiful sunset in the desert ... allow us to do the canyon in a day was a bad plan, but still worth it. Once we got to the canyon we walked for about five minutes, saw a bunch of Condors - vulture like birds- and then continued to walk around the top of the canyon for a few hours. After that we began to walk down the road back to Chivey until we flagged a bus and started another long bus back. DO THE TREK!! its worth it!
We are leaving Arequipa for Cusco, Christmas and Macchu Picchu!!!
Arequipa
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