Paracas, Huacachina & Nazca

By Jaimy de Vries

With peru-hop we went to Paracas and Huacachina, where we both stayed two nights. These places have amazing sunsets: a view above a cliff looking over the pacific ocean or a sunset in the middle of the desert. Both places have a perfect balance between adrenaline and relaxing activities. Our visit to Nazca was short, it was just a stop on our way to Arequipa.

Snelle Jelle

On an early morning we packed our stuff for our road trip to Cusco. We went with bus company Peru Hop that will also take us to other places along the way to Cusco, where we’ll stay for a couple of nights. Perfect! Close to our Airbnb we got picked up. An hour later we arrived at a place where we had breakfast and where we get to see a horse show and guinea pig race. “Haha so strange, but sounds fun!” I like weird stuff. After a nice breakfast the show began! It looked quite small. I was telling Amy if we pick a guinea pick we need to call him snelle jelle, if you say it quite fast it sounds like jellajellajella (means hurry in Hebrew). But unfortunately they had chosen a guinea pig. His name was Ramon. They made a circle with tiny shoe boxes with a number on it. Everybody got a number of one of these boxes. Then they put Ramon in a box in the middle and turned it around. Then we counted till 3 and at 3 he lifted up the box and then Ramon hurried into one of the numbered boxes. The one with the same number won a little price. Lots of people where disappointed by the show, but not me, if I could win something I can be very competitive. So I encouraged the little Ramon. But sadly he ran the other way haha. Well I thought it was quite funny and it was free…I liked it. Amy on the other hand

Ramon pss pss come here!!

was more amused by my enthusiasm than by the race itself. After that we had a little show of a guacho on a horse.

Hop to another city

After that we went back in the bus to Paracas, the actual reason we got on the bus…. It was a 2 hour drive. We arrived in a city at the pacific ocean surrounded by desert. It was a lovely little beach town. We booked a trek later the afternoon, but first we had some free time. So we check-in our hostel and grabbed lunch at the boulevard.

Later in the afternoon we headed to the meeting point, actually we thought we were walking to the meeting point but we walked outside the town. “This can’t be right? ” We said to each other. I called the agent and it turned out just to be outside our hostel. And we’ve been walking for 10 minutes away from our hostal and we had just 1 minute! We were stressing out…we can never make it. When suddenly a taxi driver appeared. For 1 euro he brought us to the meeting point and we just made it in time. Pfoe!

Paracas Natural reserve

So we were in the bus trying to calm down. We went to the natural reserve for the Golden Shadow trek. This is definitely a must thing to do here. First we drove among a big salt flat, just like the ones I’ve seen in Argentina. We heard that the sand here is 70% made of salt. That’s a lot! After our drive we climbed our way up to a mountain desert, among big cliff formations while the sun was setting down. The colors of the sand where amazing, they look different than what I’ve normally seen. That’s because the sand gets his colors due to volcanic eruptions.

And shout out to Amy! She did it again, after being in a wheelchair a couple years ago she climbed her way up a desert mountain. I’m proud of here!

The Golden Shadow trek

Enjoying the amazing views

Yeah it’s amazing!

Ballestas islands

The next day we took an early (8 a.m.) boat trip to Ballestas islands that’s located in the natural reserve. After a half hour ride on a speedboat we arrived there. Here you see lots of big schools of cormorants & boobies. It was an amazing view seeing them fly in big groups with the sunrays coming out through the peak holes of the rock cliffs. After that we saw a small group of humble penguins high on the rocks walking and keeping an eye on our boat. The humble penguin is the most Northern penguin on earth. It can survive such tropical temperatures because the seawater is very cold. The current comes from Antarctica. Later we saw a large group of sea lions that you can hear from a mile apart. What a sound they make.

Birds territory

Scuba dive

In the afternoon I went for a scuba dive trip, it was quite expensive (200 dollar) because they only offer private tours. But there is the possibility to swim with sea lions and I missed my change of doing that in Argentina and now I’m here. We saw a cave with sealions and humble penguins chilling on the rocks, unfortunate there was to much current and the water visibility was too bad. It was not safe to dive there. We found a more quiet spot, still with current, but safe to dive. We dove between kelp forest and saw many crabs and nudibirds. But unfortunate no diving with sealions. Still I found the dive really cool.

Huacachina

We arrived in Huacachina, an oasis in the middle of the desert (but actually close to Ica). Coming out of the bus I got surprised by the warm temperature, it was way hotter than in Paracas. We walked along the boulevard at the oasis lake. It looked so cute, a lake in the middle of the desert, surrounded by palm tree’s and water bikes in the middle of the lake. We arrived at our hostal and saw that we had a nice swimming pool. But unfortunately with one night and two excursions we won’t have the time to take a plunge. Amy and I looked at each other and were thinking the same. “Let’s stay here one more night just to relax at the swimming pool!?” There was such a relax vibe up here, it was a small tropical paradise. We agreed and decided to stay one more night.

Oasis of Huacachina

Buggy and sandboarding

Later in the afternoon we went on a buggy sandboarding tour in the desert. We were assigned with a nice group and our driver’s name was Mickey aka Magic Mike. The tour was not expensive at all and if I need to describe it in one word: awesome! It was so much fun and full of adrenaline with the steep descents. It’s also diverse because you’re not only going to buggy ride but you’re also going to sandboard several times. A little warning: you’re not coming back sand-free. There was sand everywhere: my socks, my bra and my panties1 At the end we got to see an amazing sunset in the middle of the desert. A big recommendation to go on this tour!! Check my video.

A day at the pool

The next day we had our chill & pool day. We laid down at a pool lounger at 10 a.m. and just sat there till 5 p.m. We had lunch of course, but next to the swimming pool. We did some writing, some reading, talking with other travelers and of course took a plunge in the pool. In the afternoon I ordered a jar of Sangria, but Amy didn’t want to drink anything. “More for me!!” I was a bit tipsy at the end of the afternoon – but soo relaxed 🙂

Relax, take it easy!

@ the swimming pool

Our hotel

Shot shot shot

We visited a pisco winery that’s a family business for many years. The guide explained how the pisco is made and we tried several drinks: sweet and dry wine and of course pisco. He was telling that Pisco is a bad drink for women. It’s called the panty dropper. Because of Pisco there is an overpopulation now in Peru. We cheered on many different Peruvian ways, but the Spanish and Inca toast are the ones to remember when you visit Peru (or Latin-America).

Nazca lines

On our way to Arequipa we made a stop at a view tower over the Nazca Lines. The Nazca lines are a series of geoglyphs drawings in the middle of the Peruvian desert. Here you’ll will find simple lines, geometric figures, animal figures, and anthropomorphic figures among others. In total, there are more than 800 straight lines, 300 geometric figures, and some 70 animal and plant drawings.

Map of all the paintings

Lots of people who are hyped to see them get quite disappointed, because they look quite shallow – they are around 5 cm deep. “Is this it?” Might a lot of people thinking. I didn’t expect a lot, and we only saw 4 Nazca drawings, but still I found them quite magical. That’s because these lines are so old and have an interesting history. There was a German woman who studied these lines. Her theory is that they were made by a community called the Nazca’s. They drew this lines to communicate with the gods. They used these grounds between the mountains because its wide and flat and the skies are always clear. This makes it easier to read for the gods. They used this place only for ceremonial purposes. There are other theories about the origin of the Nazca Lines, one of them is that they think it’s made by the aliens.

Another impressive thing about these lines is that they’re actually shallow. “How can these lines be so well preserved after more than 1500 years?” I was wondering. If I make a drawing at the beach its gone in less than 30 minutes. It turns out these lines are well preserved due to the physics in this area. The ground is full of rocks and underneath you have a layer of grey soil. There’s no wind dust and due to the minerals in the ground it stays intact. Besides it doesn’t rain here, maybe once in 20 years – and the Nazca people build a draining system for that.

What’s totally not impressive is that there were stupid people who thought it was fun to drive on the lines, you can still see those marks. The Peruvian government is very strict now. If someone walks or ride on this area they go to jail. There are security officers here 24 hours a day.