Holy Guanisimo!!

Wow, I don´t even know where to start. Michaelle and I have had a pretty action packed couple of days. I guess its easiest to start at the beginning. I will try to include only the most vital details, for those of you who have minute attention spans.

Lima - I guess the highlight of our short stay in Lima was the tour of the city. A friend of mine from Toronto has family in Lima and they met us at our hostel and took us on the most extensive tour we could have ever had. Ricardo and Lucy showed us everything from the central square w/ the National Palace and Cathedral, to the entire length of the city´s coast.

Pisco - Sunday afternoon we got a bus to the coastal town of Pisco 4 hours south of Lima. The drive there was really magnificent. As soon as we left Lima the landscape was littered with archeological digs that most locals didn´t seem to notice much. I didn´t realize it before, but apparently Lima is surrounded by desert. This sandy and hilly view continued most of the trip, with sand dunes on one side of the bus and cliffs down to the ocean on the other. The farther away we got the higher the sand dunes became. Our arrival in Pisco was... interesting to say the least. Our hostal in Lima had assured us that the bus we were taking was a direct bus into Pisco. Apparently the definition of "direct" was lost somewhere in translation. Rather than driving us into town (as was my impression) the bus dumped us on the side of the PanAmerican Highway and we had to hire a "taxi" (aka sketchy car with an eager driver) the remaining 5 kms into the actual town. The second you get off the train you are attacked by drivers each wanting to win your fare. Pisco is kinda a dump, not really what i was expecting. I also almost died though on a chunk of something really REALLY spicy in my Ceviche (raw fish marinated in Lemon juices w/ seasoning), a traditional food here.

Paracas - From Pisco we went to Paracas to take in the Islas de Ballestas and the Paracas National Park. The islands great. The boat ride out the the island is about a 20 minute ride through teal water like I´ve never seen before, it was gorgeous. On our way out we passed a mysterious figure etched into the sand called Candelabro (below). As we got closer to the islands we realized that the black colour a top of the islands was actually formed entirely by the birds covering the surface. Not surprisingly, this bird sanctuary produces an important export for Peru -- Guano. Yeah, you know what I´m talking about.... fertilizer and tons of it. Other than these guano producing birds, the islands were home to hundreds of penguins and even more sea lions. There were also dolphins, and flamingos in the summer season.

Huancachina - Last night we stayed in this really picturesque oasis of Huancachina (I´ll post pictures when i can, but try googling it for now). This was definately an experience. The village surrounds a lagoon which is surrounded by towering sand dunes. Not only were the dunes spectacular to look at, but we had a wild time tearing them up in our dune buggies and on our sand boards. These dune buggies are insane. They go up and down the steepest slopes and stop on a dime. Riding through them was like a natural rollercoaster ride. After a bit of driving around and playing "scare the tourists" we stopped to do some sand boarding. Basically the idea is like snowboarding but harder, my well refined snow boarding skills didn´t help me much. Its no surprise that there were a few classic wipe-outs.....haha. The hill we started on was really steep compared to anything i´ve seen skiing and they just continued to get steeper and longer. On the last hill they actually neglected to wax our boards because it was so long and steep it could definately seriously harm some over confident riders. It was a great day until our buggy died and the sun started to set. We had to push our ride down the hill on three different occations to start it up! haha. It was good fun though any way. Driving up and down the dunes was more fun in the dark. I permanently have sand in the tips of my shoes now from it entering through the material! Our dune buggy going straight down a vertical dune.

This was the longests and perhaps steepest hill we did... those are our tiny little dune buggies at the bottom.

Today I am in Nazca. The city is nice and inviting and our hostal is pretty comfortable. Tomorrow we will leave in the morning to see the Nazca lines (a collection of mysterious drawings etched into the earth that can only be seen from the sky) then we will grab another bus to Arequipa where we plan to stay a few days. I will try to get this picture uploading thing working.

Ta-ta
Laura