Huachchina is awesome

Dune Buggy!

The excitement turned to nerves and all the girls on the buggy started to voice their concerns about what we were heading into. Again, a situation where we had all had many many warnings about the dangers from our friends at Lonely Planet. Acting as our backpacker bible and enemy. Dune buggying and sandboard was on the cards. An evening trip ending with watching the sun set over the desert in Huachchina. Who could turn that down! It was the most scary and awesome thing I have possibly ever done. We flew over the highest dunes and got air. There is no way we could get away with such a dangerous activity at home. Sandboarding was awesome too. We hit all sizes of hills. Some of which we were allowed to stand on the board (like snow boarding) and others where we lay head first on our stomachs. I have no idea how high these hills were, but you had plenty of time on the way down at speed to pass through the fear and enjoy the ride. It is kind of hard to write about all this now, as it was a few days and sleepless nights ago now. But needless to say the best thing I have probably ever done and for only S./40 (approx$20NZ) for two hours!

A great way to meet people too. Adrenalin still pumping we hit the ground running, the cervesas flowing at the hostel (as soon as we had somewhat de-sanded ourselves).  It lead to BBQ and a night out. Neededless to say Peruvians are good at teaching Salsa, pisco is DISGUSTING and there are a lot of neat people to meet.

Nursing hangovers the next stop was the famous Nasca lines. Upon recommendation from the hostel in Hauchchina, Spike, myself and an English couple, Sophie and Warren, who we had meet on the buggy trip took the three hour trip down the coast.  Turns out the hostel recommendation was fantastic. The guy meet us at the bus stop, we had private rooms, with bathrooms and hot water for the small price of S./15 each. However the lunch place recommended by our overly friendly (we are still questioning what his angle was) was terrible! The chicken was room temperature and I had a fly in my soup! Cliche much. We all lived to tell the tale and by the Nazca lines tour the next morning were having a good laugh about it. The lines were very interesting, they point to all sorts of things (such as where the sun sets in the winter solece and where there is a water fall). The figures however were less impressive. We only saw them from the hill and the tower (and also went to the museum) but they were a lot smaller than the consensus of our group (including others from the hostel in Huachchina) expected. One lady was very disappointed at her flight over the lines and said it was money well saved on our side. Had an awesome lunch, where the staff noticed we couldn’t completely understandably the daily specials on the menu so they took us into the kitchen to see them. Awesome. However I was too slow to get a photo.

That night my first good bye experience as Warren and Sophie hit their bus down the coast and we headed inland to cusco. The bus was almost an hour late leaving and took an extra hour to get to cosco (totalling a 15 journey). Within 10 minutes I discovered the EXTREMELY windy landscape we were facing for this night trip. Luckily I remembered the sea sickness braclets I had brought for this purpose before leaving home were in my day pack. SO SO grateful for those. I think about a third of the bus was vomiting. It was crazy windy for the good part of the whole 15 hours. By the end the bathroom was unhygienic and no one was keen to use it. 

Our desert Oasis

I was late starting my altitude tablets, so will have to see how the next few days go. But boy were we hungry by the time we got to the hostel.  The pathetic cold dinner and tiny breakfast we were given on the bus just didn’t come close to cutting it. BUT, on the upside there is a fantastic vegetarian place down the road and the daily special (soup and a meal with rice) is only S./5 each.  So yummy. Not so fun puffing to get back up the hill in the altitude though! There is a real Spanish feel to central Cusco and sadly the centre plazas feel like they only  exist for tourists and there is no local culture to them.