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Published: January 31st 2009
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Lima Hostel
Roof terrace in the sun Day 3 - Lima to Ica
Today we got the bus from Lima to the desert oasis Huacachina near Ica. We wake up early Peru time (Nearly lunchtime in the UK as Peru is 5 hours behind) after a good night sleep in our first hostel. We have bread and jam with a fruit smoothie for breakfast made by the staff. We call home using skype from our room. It is cool that we can use our laptop to call our family at home which is thousands of miles away!
We adventure out to the bus terminal by taxi to get a ticket and then have to wait a couple of hours for the bus. For lunch we have the Peruvian delicacy of beef pasty and lemon meringue pie!!!! The bus is a double decker coach with 1st class on the lower floor and 2nd class on the top deck. 2nd class is quite good as the seats recline and you have much more space than on the plane! It is a 4 ½ hour journey which follows the coast of Peru.
After leaving Lima the landscape changes to desert and cliffs by the sea, very spectacular. It
Bus to Ica
Cruz Del Sur bus is baron for many miles and then small shanty towns appear where they are growing crops and breeding livestock. There were also several mechanics garages that instead of purchasing a car lift just simply dug a pit in the tarmac on the road outside their workshop, surely people must fall down these whilst walking at night?
Finally arrive at Ica and get to El Huacachinero hotel at the desert oasis just as the sun sets. We eat next to the lagoon, having chicken for tea, Oli had chicken fried rice and Laura had grilled chicken and chips, each meal was £2.00 and really tasty!
Laura and Oli x
Day 4 Dune buggy and boarding
Today we have booked a dune buggy tour. Breakfast was by the pool and Laura had her breakfast with a parrot. It just hopped onto the table snatched her bread roll then drank my coffee! We then spend the rest of the day chilling by the pool (it was 30 degrees) until 4:30pm when we go for our dune buggy ride. This was going to be fun. We get strapped into the space framed buggy and the driver starts up
Olivers new job
Local sellers greet buses into petrol station the V8 with no silencers. It sounds awesome as we hurtle down the road towards the entrance of the dunes. The driver then collects our sand boards and we are off. It was an absolute rush, some of the dunes are at least 500 feet high and you go straight up and down the other side with them vanishing into infinity.
After about half an hour we stop at the top of a dune and our driver gets out the sand boards, gives them a good waxing and we are ready for our first go. There are only 4 in the group Laura and I plus two Argentinian women. The Argentinian women go down first on their stomachs, Laura follows and then I had a go at standing up. It was great fun 😊 We had a few goes, each time a bigger dune I found it was a lot more fun to lie down on the board and go face first.
The driver gave us a tour of the dunes including a natural oasis full of plants and fruit trees. Lastly we saw sunset over the dunes before heading back, it is the best fun we have
View from bus
Village scene of livestock had since tobogganing 6km down a mountain in Val Thorens a couple of years ago.
Tonight we ate at a restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet. A cheeky honcho greeted us as we walked past the restaurant. The food was great and we were more adventurous than we are at home, we both ate spaghetti stir-fry. Everything we ordered the waiter kept changing it slightly! For example we ordered spaghetti bolognese and we got beef and vegetables in the spaghetti, he also brought 2 glasses of red wine to go with the fried beef (we don't even drink red wine!). When ordering a chocolate pancake he insisted that it comes with fruit. So you you can imagine we were surprised when receiving the bill! We had priced it up on the menu and we thought it would be about 40 soles (£10) but it was 79 soles. It turned out that the wine was 10 soles a glass and when we asked t check the menu he sowed us a menu with no price for wine! Also he charged us for 2 pancakes, 1 with fruit and 1 with chocolate and he added extra onto the main course.
Huacachina
Lagoon at the desert oasis So when we pulled him up on this and I offered him 60 soles (£15) he agreed and lowered the bill! He obviously didn't realise I am from Yorkshire.....
Oli
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Georgiaaa
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Wow!
Sounds ace guys! Laura love the picture of you and the parrot! Also the one of you relaxing on the sand board ha! You sound and look like your having a great time! So jealous! xXx