El Huarango Ica

... I wondered what they thought of this primitive fun as the buggy left town and hit the hot soft sand. The ride quickly became bumpy but smoothed as the large, dark skinned driver put his foot to the floor. He wore clear goggles and grinned as the V8 engine roared to life.<br>Swearing silently, I gripped the roll bar with all of my might as the driver pointed the buggy to the highest dunes, quickly swinging it back down again. Repeatedly he drove to the tip of the ...

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... to admire the stars from our ceilingless toilet.<br><br>The next day after being bitten to buggery by mossy`s in the night we opted to skip the mental buggy ride after a mad american girl waltzed into a restaurant nursing a golf ball sized lump on her head, and instead hired out 2 boards to walk up the local dunes, and try a shot at sandboarding by foot. <br><br>After a lung crunching wade up to the peak of the ...

... part of Peru that most neglect in lieu of, well, activities like sandboarding, so we arranged to head to Huancavelica in the north. We knew we were on the right track when the hostel owner said we couldn´t bus there without going to Lima first. We knew however, there´s a bus to practically everywhere in Peru and we tracked down a local bus (read: old, decrepid) to take us on the overnight bus to the little town. <br> <br>Till next time, hope you all are well.<br>

... So far, I love Ica. Ate at a place called Anitá´s. Yum. Then caught a cab to Huacachina. Awesome! It is an oasis surrounded by sand dunes, with a lagoon in the middle. Our hotel is cool. Very pretty. There´s a funny loud parrot who seems to live by the pool. Looking forward to having a drink soon... Hi mom!

... engrossing--and a dubbed Taken), and did Bingo, with the winner getting a bottle of pisco (for those of you who don't know what that is, I'll explain plenty later). Ohh, and there was also Wi-Fi on the bus (this I didn't like--I'm of the belief that like in an airplane, buses should be to some extent a sanctuary from temptations to hectic communication, but I also didn't have my computer, so really, who cares?).<br><br>When we got off the bus in Ica we met up with these two ...

... like a man, and a skinny middle-aged man sporting a huge bald spot plus ponytail combo. Shocking. After enduring their incessant squawking for several hours, while I attempted to fix my camera in vain, we had showers at the shared ones downstairs, having lost our beautiful room, then checked out. We got a taxi to the Cial bus terminal; the driver was a rather amusing chap. He asked if Nicki and Claire were my sisters. When jokingly I said that no, they were my ...

... Next step, a shower and seeral hours spent trying to get the sand out of my ears.<br><br>In the morning, I am up early for my trip to the Islas Ballestas. The last few days, I have been following Perú's gringo trail to the letter adn this is the last stop before Lima. I sleep on the ride to Paracas and then duck down as the boat speeds its way to the islands. My camera has consumed too much sand in Huacacina adn is no longer working, so I try to fix it ...

... in at the deep end! He seemed keen for us to go down on our fronts. We wanted to do things properly though. I was a bit scared at the sheer size of the dune and the steep incline, but I had a go. After a fair bit of falling over, I managed to stay standing up for three or four seconds before unceremoniously landing upon my derriere once more the foot of the dune.<br><br>The driver came to collect us and we were off once more. The next two hours were spent doing ...

I wanted to have a dedicated journal entry for the sand boarding and desert adventure as it deserved it. It was that memorable. Some more memorable moments from the same day...<br><br>During the day just before we set off to climb the dune, Rowena and I stumbled into a hostel across the lake for some fresh juice (can't get enough of fresh juice mmMMM). There at the outside lounge area came to wide-eyed ...