Blogs from Ica, Peru, South America - page 79

Sábado 1/abr/2006 Para dar inicio a las celebraciones por mis 38 añitos, mi fuí a pasar el fin de semana con Mónica a la hacienda Ocucaje en Ica. Llegamos como a las 3 de la tarde, después de 4 horas de viaje por la pista al sur que se pasaron relativamente rápido. Después de almorzar unos pallares buenazos, con pisco sour de bienvenida incluido, dimos un pequeño paseo por la hacienda para tomar algunas fotos Después descansamos un toque y nos preparamos para la cena. Un fraile al estilo gregoriano nos llevó hasta la bodega y nos instaló en una mesa larga. El estilo gregoriano fué desapareciendo para convertirse en algo así com una peñita, el grupo empezó cantando música criolla, luego música negra y acabó con canciones de la nueva ola. La comida y el ... read more

Yes it is a real activity, and it's just how it sounds, surfing on a board down a sand dune! We arrived early this afternoon at an oasis in the midde of the desert, that has turned into a small village with shops and restaurants. From here we strapped into a wicked dune buggy, which drove us recklessly over the enormous dunes like a rollercoaster ride! (it's ok it was perfectly safe Mr & Mrs Skaliotis!) Every now and then we would stop at a taller and steeper dune than the one before, so that we could make our way down it. Preferred manner of descent was on our stomachs, which means you get a face-first view as you whizz down and across the smooth white sands. After a few tummy attempts we decided to mimic ... read more

In this episode I leave Cusco and the Inca Business heading for the coast and no more high altitude - yeah, right!…I kill a dog (but in self defence), have first real prang (see prev), finally get somewhere warm, ponder the Nasca Lines ((sorry, nothing to do with NASCAR), lick stamps and end up in front of the hospital. It was time to leave having achieved both measures of overstay - eating at the same restaurant twice, and being recognised by locals on the street. It was a cold morning but I knew that before long I would be able to ditch the jacket and thermals, hopefully for the last time. Sure enough, less than 100kms of fabulous boot scraping curves, following the river down and down from the magic mountains, hang on, the river ... read more

We left Lima on Wednesday 1st March and travelled 200km south, down the Panamericana to Pisco. Travelling on a public bus for the first time was interesting; not only was the bus station in one of the poorest parts of Lima, one of the 'friendly' bus company employees tried to rip us off by telling us it cost an additional 20 soles (4 quid) each to put our luggage on the bus (having paid only 19 soles each for the entire journey!!). He even had the cheek to write us a receipt - no way Jose! No wonder the other workers were calling him a monkey! Pisco is situated in one of the many oases (oasi?) which punctuate the desert lying between the Andes and the Pacific. The main reason Gringos stop off at Pisco is ... read more

Huacachina is a small town close to Ica. It is an oasis in the middle of sand dunes, a popular place for backpackers and people usually go there for sandboarding and drives on sand buggies. And that´s what we did as well. It was amazing to see this large scale sand dunes, as there is in Huacachina, in Peru. When you think about Peru sand dunes is probably the last thing you would assume to see. We decided to go to sandboarding and sand buggy drive at the evening, so that we are able to enjoy the sunset. And what a drive we had. Our driver seems to be the most experienced one of the three and although we were going at least 80 kph we felt quite safe. We enjoyed from stomach aching downhills and ... read more

I just spent a couple of days In Huacachina, a small desert oasis where you can chile out, sand board surf the dunes and ride with the craziest dunebuggy drivers on the planet. I did it all twice. the oasis is about 5 minute out of Ica and well worth a visit. I got there just in time to sign up for the afternoon dune buggy and sandboarding trip . the dune buggy holds about 7 peopleand a bunch of boards. we drove off and straight up into the dunes . we would drive into a valley and there would be no apperent way out except the way we came in. the driver would start to go faster and faster with ut turning. I was thinking what is he going to do then we would shoot ... read more