Last Few Days

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Day 6 (continued)

I wanted to leave Pisco-Paracas yesterday, but the nationwide strikes forced me to stay longer than anticipated. In the meantime, I thought I might as well enjoy myself and have a drink or two! After my last update I left the internet cafe and headed to a local establishment in Pisco famous for its pisco sours (apparently they won last year´s contest for Peru´s best pisco!) Apparently, the traditional way to drink pisco is to first take a shot of pisco puro, which is straight pisco without any mixers or chasers. When you´ve finished your shot (which, in all actually ended up being more like four shots) it´s on to the jarrita, or little pitcher, of pisco sour. I also tried a national Peruvian wine called Perfecto Amor, which was horribly saccharine, and tried to politely sip on it so as to not offend my Peruvian friends. After hours of chatting and entirely too much pisco, which I think I´ll be taking a break from for a few days, it was back to Paracas to prepare for the boat trip to the Islas Ballestas in the morning.

Day 7

This morning was the first day in four or five days boats were allowed to leave the pier and head to the Islas Ballestas due to the ¨aguas muy movidas, ¨ so I hopped on a boat and went on the two hour tour. First, they take you to the Candelabro, a mysterious geoglyph much like those found in Nazca, carved on the side of a neighboring island. There are three principal theories--one, that the ancient civilizations of Paracas carved it in the form of a cactus, another that pirates drew it to signal neighboring treasure, and another that San Martin created it upon discovering the land. None of the theories seem particularly plausible, but it´s fun to speculate.

We also maneuvered through a series of caves before arriving at the Islas, where we saw sea lions, penguins, tons of guano and all sorts of beautiful birds. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my motion sickness pill before heading out so it was a rough two hours for me, and it took me much of the afternoon to fully recover from the boating expedition!

Right after the trip to the Islas, I hopped in a bus heading for Huacachina, and gracias a Dios, I (finally) made it after several days of being stuck in Pisco-Paracas! The ¨paros,¨literally meaning ¨stops,¨were kind of crazy: people came out to protest the new traffic regulations that have been instituted for not wearing seatbelts and driving wrecklessly/drunk.. Honestly they seem like important laws but people are all up in arms about them, as their violation results in a fairly steep fine. The protesters blocked all the major highways of Peru with huge rocks, fires, spiny tree branches and barbed wire, and if anyone tried to pass, the mob would throw rocks at their cars. I heard a few horror stories about these rocks shattering the glass of my friends´buses as they had tried to pass the blocked area. Fortunately, our bus driver was able to pay the protesters a little bit until they let us get through, and I was very relieved to be safely on my way through the country. Another plus is that after three solid days, the protests are over, so the rest of my travels should (hopefully) be relatively uneventful!

Huacachina is an amazing little oasis town in the middle of gigantic sand dunes, and I lucked into having a dorm room full of incredibly wonderful people, mostly from the US and England. If you know me, you know I love flying solo, but it certainly is nice to have some good company and good friends watching out for you every now and then.

After grabbing a bite by the town´s gorgeous little lagoon, I decided it was time for sandboarding and dune buggying in the desert. For about $15 per person they take a small group into the dunes by dune buggy, which turned out to be the most thrilling and death-defying experience I´ve had in quite a while. The drivers like to climb the biggest dunes they can manage and then zoom down the mountain as fast as they can. (Believe me, there was screaming enough to be heard for miles around.) After an invigorating trip around the sand dunes, we all hopped out, grabbed our boogie boards and attempted to sandboard down the side of these massive dunes. I can´t say that I was 100% successful, but I did have a blast, even though I spent more time on my butt than on my feet. We sandboarded until sunset, drove to a tall dune and watched the sun go down before heading back to the hostel.

My room buddies in El Huacachinero 208 and I went out after cleaning up and creating a sand dune of our own in our bathroom. (I felt very bad for Jorge the janitor...) It was a blast, although it was very reminiscent of an eighth grade party. We played card games, never have I ever and even attempted suck and blow. (I´d only seen it on Clueless before but it turns out I´m a quick learner!) We danced salsa until early morning, walked home under a sky that looked like a blanket of cotton with a supernova erupting through the middle of it, and dorkily did a crossword before passing out.

Day 8

Today I was in a lot of pain again, but I tried to tough it out to go on a tour of the nearby Ica wineries with my 208 buds. I think I might have gotten sick from drinking the water on top of all the rum and cokes we´d had the night before, as I felt super feverish, nauseous and faint. (All the water I´ve had has been boiled for tea, but I´m thinking maybe it wasn´t sufficiently boiled to kill all the bacteria!) The wineries were beautiful, though, and even though I had to take it easy on the tours I had a lot of fun taking in the atmosphere and the wine/pisco-making process. I´m feeling way better now and have actually found myself a travel buddy named Alex who´s on the same Peruvian path as me, so we´re planning on traveling together for the next few days until our paths go in separate directions. (I´m going to Puno and the islands and he only has time to do Cusco... He has a ¨real people¨ job that he sadly needs to return to!) I´m excited to have a change of pace in my travels, though. It will be fun to have company and someone to share all the adventures with!

Tomorrow I´m heading to Nazca to see the lines, and after that it´s an overnight bus to Arequipa to see the second deepest canyon in the world. (It puts the Grand Canyon to shame!) I´ll keep everyone posted on my travels as soon as I have internet access again.

Un beso!

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