Easter Vacation

April 8th, 2007 Ica, Peru

Catch Me if You Can

Anticipating long lines for the buses back to Lima we decided to buy our bus tickets early for Sunday morning. The buses leave every six minutes and ours was to leave at 10:54 am. Our service at breakfast was a little slow and some were a little late leaving the hostel. Two of our party had boarded the bus while about six were waiting in the lobby and another four were still arriving. All of sudden, we heard the call for the 11:00 am bus and were wondering what happened to the 10:54 call. We got a call from one of our friends on the bus that they were pulling out and we saw it through the window in front of us. We all jetted out the terminal and started chasing the bus. Our friends were pleading with the driver but he refused to stop although he had a bus only at 30% occupancy. Finally, we see the bus pull over. The other 10 of us continue to sprint 3 blocks towards the bus with full baggage and all. It was quite the sight but 5 hours we arrived in Lima.

April 7th, 2007 Pisco and Paracas, Peru

The Poor Man’s Galapagos Islands

Today we headed to Pisco where the famous liquor is made. It pretty much tastes like tequila. We then headed to the coast to Paracas. Here we took a boat tour around the islands “Islas Ballestas”. We saw a hieroglyphic etched in the mountain spanning 60 feet. The main attraction was the thousands of birds who have deposited guano on these islands for centuries, which were once used to extract fertilizer for years. There were also seals, sea lions and even penguins. It interesting but I am hoping the rich man’s Galapagos Islands live up to the expectations a bit more.

We also visited some other cool sites along the coast with picturesque scenes. We then returned to Huacachina to go dune bugging.

Dune bugs and Sand boarding

We made it back in time to take the last trip in the dune bugs. We climbed the several sand dunes with these and the point is to drive crazy as if you were spinning doughnuts in a snowy parking lot. After an hour of this, the drivers would drop us off at the top of the dune and let us sand board down where they would pick us up. It was good times.

April 6th, 2007 Huacachina, Peru

Sand boarding in an Oasis

Huacachina is an oasis outside of the departmental capital of Ica. It is surrounded by enormous sand dunes which seem to span forever. We climbed to the top of the highest sand dune and watched the sunset. It must have taken us an hour to climb to the top. From here we could see the laguna and the oasis on which this little tourist town is built. We then proceeded to glide down the mountains just like we would on snow. Well, some of us glided, others tumbled. It was exhilarating, except for I still have sand in my ears from a bad wipe out.