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We arrived in Paracas, it´s tiny but has a Hilton!! We booked onto a tour of the National Reserve on which we got the perfect opportunity to practice our french with a pair of Swiss sisters (one of which had worked in the same ski resort as Anna- small world) and a French couple. However, we frequently ended up saying ´merci` to the Peruvian guide.
The setting was incredible, especially due to the fact that we were on the on Pacific coast, surrounded by sand dunes in the driest desert on earth yet wildlife flourished. While we didn`t get to see the penguins or sea lions, we caught a glimpse of flamingos and lots of pelicans!! For lunch, we went off to a local fishing village and enjoyed some freshly caught sea bass and sole.
Later that evening we took the bus to Ica and headed straight for our hostel in Huacachina. As promised we had our first pisco sours overlooking the lagoon and had an early night after a long day.
Upon waking the next morning, we were greeted with warm sunshine and the world`s biggest breakfast pancakes, stuffed full of fruit and covered in caramel sauce. We then attempted to scale one of the sand dunes, completely underestimating the sheer size of them. Looking down on the town, with the palm trees and lagoon which were surrounded by enormous dunes, bright blue skies, we felt like we were on a film set!!
That afternoon, along with some friends, we hired a small rowing boat which we unsuccessfully attempted to row around the lagoon.... Apart from our non-existant rowing skills, we also managed to break the oar hook which provided hours of entertainment, spinning around in circles in the middle of the lagoon. This seemed to be a precursor to our bad luck with modes of transport that was soon to come...
Later that afternoon, we ermbarked on our sandboarding adventure which wasn`t quite what we expected (sliding head first while lying flat on the board rather than actually boarding down..) but still good fun. We set off from the hostel in a sand buggy which was just a roll cage on wheels and proceeded up vertical sand dunes at high speed. Our overly enthusiastic driver, Lobo a.ka. Wolf managed to get us a flat tyre within 10 minutes!! We were absolutely terrified peering down over the sheer drop we were supposed to `board` down but after a small push from the guides we were on our way accompanied by screams of `OPEN LEGS!!` Hopefully, the only time we will hear this phrase from a Peruvian... We finished just in time to watch the sunset over the dunes and headed back to the hostel to pack before leaving for our night bus to Arequipa.
Or so we thought...
- comments
Margit Sounds fabulous! How wonderful that you are able to experience such beauty girls... thanks for sharing, reading the blog feels like I am there with you. oh and.. I bet the open legs went down well, Annalisa! ;-) xx