Huacachina, Pisco, Paracas, Lima

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Finally we were in Huacachina. This is a desert playground complete with sand buggies and a nice lake oasis in the desert. The area is very popular with locals and tourists alike. Since it was a Peruvian holiday, marking the day of independence from the Spanish everyone was away, meaning Huacachina was rammed. We were sharing our dorm room with a load of girls from Lima, on holiday there.

Once out of Ica we headed to Huacachina, this desert oasis has crazy loud 4x4 type sand buggy rides and sand boarding down hills, the sunsets are pretty spectacular as well. We then headed to Pisco to check out the islas ballestas, described as the poor man's Galapagos, here you saw the candelabra, seals and many birds but I did feel may be calling it the poor man's Galapagos is a bit too nice for the area. We also checked out the Paracas national park, although it is mostly sand. Unfortunately our tour Aprotur implied they spoke 6 languages including Hebrew but when we actually got on the Paracas part of the tour the lady, from another tour group only spoke Spanish and had to get a shy Peruvian girl to translate!! Our hostel however was cool, seemed to be a converted Monastery, complete with a painting of Thomas Aquinas on our door, I'm sure he loved to Swedish metal and German rock bands we were playing in there ?

Finally it was off to Lima. We had been warned this city doesn't warrant more than a couple of days in it. Interestingly it wasn't too bad. We booked into a nice apartment on the 21st floor, in Miraflores,since it was Sarah's birthday. We took a city walking tour which met outside Parque Kennedy, which is full of stray cats, a bit surprising considering the rest of South America if full of stray dogs. The first bit of the tour was through their bus rapid transit system to the city. A neat idea and a very cheap way of making sustainable transport by taking a lane each off the highway and making it exclusively for buses. Dar es Salaam were currently building one as we were there in May, courtesy of Chinese money. Central Lima is very nice, complete with the president's house, mayor's house and cathedral, sadly built over the place there was an inca temple. Peru had just had elections for a new president. President's can only run for one term before taking a break for 5 years then they can run again if they want, interesting concept. We sampled some Pisco Sours a traditional Peruvian drink, according to Peru, although I've heard Chile believe it is their drink as well. Then headed to lunch, to a place recommended on our tour. Oddly though the waiters had an argument in front of us over who will serve us, we quickly left and found a much better place outside the main square.

The next day was spent walking around Miraflores, we went for some ace food in a posh restaurant to celebrate Sarah's birthday before getting ready to say goodbye Peru and hello Ecuador.



Flying into Ecuador was interesting as we ended up having two landings due to turbulence. We almost hit the runway then took off again. Quito is built 2800m above sea level on many hills so at first you think we are close to the runway then suddenly there is a massive valley you pass and you're miles from the ground. It didn't look the easiest airport to fly into. Fortunately for us we will be there another 3 times what with the Galapagos then our flights home!
We were greeted by a boy of about 7 and were hoping he wasn't going to be our taxi driver. Honestly you begin not to be surprised by anything when travelling, kids running shops in Bolivia, a kid jumping into the drivers seat to move our sand buggy at Huacachina and unintentional kid translators in Paracas, so honestly a child taxi driver.... quite possibly!! Fortunately he wasn't our driver but his mum, relief!!

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