So as the title of this post implies, the past week in Peru has had quite an interesting mix of activities and sights. I've done everything ranging from sand-boarding down 100ft sand dunes and toured local wineries, to coming within feet of penguins and sea lions on the Peruvian coast.
It all started after I left my breathtaking adventures in the mountains of Huaraz and headed south to Lima, the sprawling metropolis that is the capital of Peru. Now I was excited to visit Lima for a number of reasons ranging from the incredible cuisine to the bumping night life. However, probably the most important reason for my excitement was that it was here that I was to meet up with my first intrepid traveling companion, Elizabeth! As you have probably discerned from reading my blog thus far, traveling alone is an incredibly rewarding experience and one that allows you to push yourself far outside your comfort zone. That being said, it does at times get a tad lonely so I was really looking forward to having someone to share this great experience with!
Thankfully there wasn't an issue to be had with picking Elizabeth up from airport and we lost no time exploring the many sites of Lima. We toured many beautiful sites including the Palacio de Gobierno (aka the Peruvian White House), the old historic colonial district lined with gorgeous architecture, and visted the trendy, upscale Miraflores section of the city that is located on cliffs right along the pacific ocean, awe-inspiring to say the least. One of the most memorable items from Lima from a completely selfish perspective was that we celebrated my birthday here on the 28th! Needless to say, I got a proper taste of what all the talk about the Lima Night life was about, and I have to say that it lived up to its reputation and then some.
El Palacio del Gobierno (aka the Peruvian White house)
To see all of my Pictures from this past week click here!
After forcing ourselves to get up at the god-awful hour of 9am after my birthday (i know, i know i lead quite the difficult life), we caught a 2 hour bus down the pacific coast to our next destination, Paracas, where it was rumored that beautiful coastal vistas and intriguing animals awaited us in the natural wildlife reserves located there. Paracas is a very small coastal fishing village that in of of itself isn't that impressive, but the main attraction is actually a small set of islands, the Ballesta Islands, off its coast that a whole host of animals call home.
The next morning, Elizabeth and I hopped in a small boat with some other travelers to take a look at these islands for ourselves. It was incredibly impressive with colonies of sea lions, birds, and even penguins abounding. There was also a plethora of birds flying around, ranging from Pelicans to Black Footed Boobies (come on now, get your heads out of the gutter).
Penguins in Las Islas Ballestras!
After returning safe and sound to Paracas, we then headed out to national park located right on the coast that contained some absolutely gorgeous vistas.
Elizabeth and I with the national park in the backround
While I absolutely loved the beautiful views and animals, it should come to no surprise to those who know me that I was ready to do move on to something a tad more exciting. To that end, we set out the next day for Huacachina, an oasis town in the middle of the Peruvian desert surrounded by mountain high sand dunes. It was here that I read I could get my adrenaline fix by flying over the dunes in dune buggies and even trying our hands at sand-boarding (think snowboarding but with sand dunes).
When we arrived in Huacachina I was absolutely blown away. Surrounding this picture perfect lagoon were huge sand dunes the likes of which I had never before seen. The word dune doesn't quite do justice to what I saw, the dunes where better described as small mountains that seemed to be on the verge of swallowing the oasis. After taking in the sights of the oasis, we signed up for a dune buggy to take us on a thrilling ride through the dunes where we would be able to try our hands at sand boarding.
Now I'm a big fan of activities that get the heart racing, but racing through the desert on the dune buggy was pretty intense even for me. We flew over sand dunes at breakneck speed and came precariously close to tipping over one too many occasions. The more the people in the buggy screamed in fright, the faster and crazier the driver of the dune buggy seemed to get. Never mind you that the driver evidently thought seatbelts were unnecessary and was jamming out to his Ipod the entire time. Probably the best way to describe it was like a rollercoaster without the safety features.
After having the bones in my hand almost broken from Elizabeth squeezing my hand in fright, we finally arrived to the site where we were going to try sand boarding. Sand boarding was an absolute blast. After getting the hang of things on the "bunny hill" of sorts, we progressively tried bigger and bigger dunes. Now just like in any sport or activity, it takes a while to get the hang of it. Thus, I took my fair number of spills as I "learned" how to sand board and proceeded to get sand in probably every nook and cranny of my body (I know what a pleasant thought).
After finally getting the hang of it (after falling about 100 times, thankfully sand's soft!), we finally arrived at the last dune, more aptly referred to as a mountain, which was easily 100ft high. I waxed up the sand board and best I could and let it rip. I flew down the dune, and came precariously close on a number of occasions to absolutely tanking it. My heart racing, I made it to the bottom of the "sand mountain" without incident. After another hair raising ride in the dune buggy, we finally made it back to Huacachina, but we thankfully slowed down just enough to watch a beautiful sunset over the desert.
After the adrenline pumping adventures of the dune buggy and sandboarding, we decided the next day to relax a little bit and enjoy some of the finer things in life, namely wine. Unbenounced to most of the world, Peru actually has a great wine industry and Elizabeth and I thought it would be cool to visit some of the local wineries to see what all the fuss was about. We toured a number of small, local wineries and I have to say that the wine was excellent. We also got to try home grown Pisco, the national drink of Peru, which is similar to a very smooth vodka. What's more though, at one of the small, family owned winery we even got to stomp the grapes!
After filling ourselves full of delicious Peruvian wine and Pisco, we set off for our next destination, Cuzco, where we're set to hike to the famous ruins of Machu Picchu!
When we arrived in Huacachina I was absolutely blown away. Surrounding this picture perfect lagoon were huge sand dunes the likes of which I had never before seen. The word dune doesn't quite do justice to what I saw, the dunes where better described as small mountains that seemed to be on the verge of swallowing the oasis. After taking in the sights of the oasis, we signed up for a dune buggy to take us on a thrilling ride through the dunes where we would be able to try our hands at sand boarding.
The oasis of Huacachina
Our fearless dune buggy
After having the bones in my hand almost broken from Elizabeth squeezing my hand in fright, we finally arrived to the site where we were going to try sand boarding. Sand boarding was an absolute blast. After getting the hang of things on the "bunny hill" of sorts, we progressively tried bigger and bigger dunes. Now just like in any sport or activity, it takes a while to get the hang of it. Thus, I took my fair number of spills as I "learned" how to sand board and proceeded to get sand in probably every nook and cranny of my body (I know what a pleasant thought).
Me attempting to sand-board (don't miss the spill at the end)
After finally getting the hang of it (after falling about 100 times, thankfully sand's soft!), we finally arrived at the last dune, more aptly referred to as a mountain, which was easily 100ft high. I waxed up the sand board and best I could and let it rip. I flew down the dune, and came precariously close on a number of occasions to absolutely tanking it. My heart racing, I made it to the bottom of the "sand mountain" without incident. After another hair raising ride in the dune buggy, we finally made it back to Huacachina, but we thankfully slowed down just enough to watch a beautiful sunset over the desert.
Sunset over the desert
After the adrenline pumping adventures of the dune buggy and sandboarding, we decided the next day to relax a little bit and enjoy some of the finer things in life, namely wine. Unbenounced to most of the world, Peru actually has a great wine industry and Elizabeth and I thought it would be cool to visit some of the local wineries to see what all the fuss was about. We toured a number of small, local wineries and I have to say that the wine was excellent. We also got to try home grown Pisco, the national drink of Peru, which is similar to a very smooth vodka. What's more though, at one of the small, family owned winery we even got to stomp the grapes!
Doing my part for the Peruvian wine industry by stomping grapes!
After filling ourselves full of delicious Peruvian wine and Pisco, we set off for our next destination, Cuzco, where we're set to hike to the famous ruins of Machu Picchu!
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