From shittin my pants to blastin through desert dunes!! holy crap...

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So as my plane desended into Lima I began to crap my pants. The locals on the plane had confirmed that indeed this is a dangerous city... gulp

I was relieved to see the taxi pick up from my hostel with my name. Totally nice guy. So was the staff at Pirwa in the ritzy district of miraflores. Later that night I met a beautiful german girl, miriam, with bright blue eyes and blong hair. She was a second time solo traveller in south america and said she loved it!! This made me feel better. So the next day we explored the savvy district of miraflores and then moved to hard core downtown. Totally awesome plaza des armes!! We then took a hilarious 1 hour 2 dollar spanish tour, if u could call it that, of the city. first they cirlced for about 20 minutes trying to get more passengers than i thought possible to fit in that tiny bus. next we circled the same block a few times but with historical explanations. lol. next we drove up into the mountins through real neightbourhoods, adgacent to throusands of favellas (shanty towns), and up to the vista point to overlook the entire city and view the beautiful sunset. it was awesome to see all of lima like this, especially to drive through places i would not dare to venture on my own!

the next morning i popped onto a bus to ica. i fell asleep and when i woke was surprized to find myself in the middle of the desert. cool. from ica i took a 2 dollar taxi to the desert oasis of huachachina, where i am staying at the awesome hostel of severtierra. for only 5 bucks i have a private clean room and bathroom and there is a pool. like most the hostel we boarder the lagoon, a tiny paradise of water and palm trees, surrounded by desert dunes. yesterday i went sandboarding!!! so cool!!! i went on my feet like a snow board and at first i sucked but then i started flying. however you don´t slide on sand like u do on snow if you fall but rather u get immeadiately planted with your body having a strong desire to rip away either at the knees or ankles.... nonetheless, reallly cool if not scary fun!! the last dune was extreamely steep and nearly 200 m tall so to avoid suicide i, like the others, went on my stomach. u tuck your elbows in and leave your feet out to break and slow u down. u were sunglasses to protect ur eyes from the sand, but it does get EVERYWHERE else. lol. so as i started to rip down the hill i decided to lift my feet and really burn cause it was so much fun. questionable decision i know. soon i was going so fast the vibrations of the board felt like they would kill me!!! hehehe. but it was all over in 2 seconds and i would totally do it again!!

the best however were the dune buggies!!! jimmy, our driver ripped along and we FLEW up, down, and over dunes!!! many times i wondered if the buggy would flip and if I would slip through the sparse metal reinforcements. lol. excellent fun though!!! afterward i took a swim in the pool and went for beers with new friends. today i think i´ll take it easy. i may heard to a very dangerous festival in ica with friends but not sure. if so only with a big group but i´m not too keen on the idea. let´s see.

PS: i can´t believe it but i can actually speak spanish!! and understand 80 to 90 percent too!! i carry on full conversations with everybody as nobody really speaks english except people i meet at the hostels. i don´t even know where its coming from. hehehe. and man can i bargan even in spanish. only half price for me, if not better. hehehehe

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Photos

lima, from hostel
too scary to take other pics

Comments

[Oscar]

I LIKE
that oasis is the most amazing thing i've seen.